Neil Hanson's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-inn-at-the-top"
Big Lunch
Had a fine Literary Lunch this week, courtesy of the Yorkshire Post, and as well as tooting my own trumpet to promote The Inn at the Top (in a modest and unassuming way, naturally...) I really enjoyed listening to the two other speakers. Mary Sheepshanks was the daughter of an Eton housemaster and a member of the Windsor Castle Girl Guide group that included the Queen and Princess Margaret. She only took up writing at the age of 60 and since then has produced half a dozen novels, five volumes of poetry, and has now written her autobiography. She's definitely the poshest person I've ever shared a platform with, but she's also witty and self-deprecating, has a stock of good anecdotes and definitely has a way with words. Her book's called Wild Writing Granny, if you want to seek it out.
The other speaker, Hilary Heilbron, was equally impressive. She's a QC in her own right, but she's also the daughter of Rose Heilbron, not only the first woman ever to become a Queen's Counsel in Britain, but also the first woman ever to be made a judge, in the process blazing a trail for other women, including her daughter, to follow. Hilary has now repaid the compliment, if you like, by writing her mother's biography.
All that and a free lunch as well - what's not to like!
The other speaker, Hilary Heilbron, was equally impressive. She's a QC in her own right, but she's also the daughter of Rose Heilbron, not only the first woman ever to become a Queen's Counsel in Britain, but also the first woman ever to be made a judge, in the process blazing a trail for other women, including her daughter, to follow. Hilary has now repaid the compliment, if you like, by writing her mother's biography.
All that and a free lunch as well - what's not to like!
Back on Top
After not visiting The Inn at the Top for getting on for 28 years, I've now been back there twice in two weeks, this time to drop off some copies of my just-published, eponymous new book. What was most touching about the visit - and I've had similar experiences at every promotional event that I've done for the new book was meeting people who'd made a special journey to meet me, purely because of their own treasured memories about the inn. When I arrived there the other day, an old gentleman was waiting for me. He'd been alerted to my book (The Inn at the Top - did I mention that?!) by an article in the Daily Express and when he contacted the inn, the landlady told him that I'd be there on Friday afternoon. He then drove all the way up there from Preston - a round trip of some 150 miles - just to buy a couple of copies of the book one for himself and one for his best friend - and tell me his tales of the inn.
He'd first gone up there as a boy in 1947, riding his rattletrap bike up the steep, endless-seeming hills to the inn. He'd been back many times since then, but after he got too old to ride his bike there, he stopped going and, like me just recently, it was his first return visit in many years. We chatted for a while - not long enough - but I had to be back in Richmond (the North Yorkshire one) for an event that night, and then, after a last lingering look at the spectacular landscape that surrounds the inn, he set off to drive home before the light began to fade. It was humbling to meet him, as it has been to meet many people as I've travelled around these last few weeks, and it was another reminder that The Inn at the Top isn't just any old pub; to many people it's avery special place and they cherish their memories of it - as I do - for the rest of their lives.
The old gentleman had picked a perfect day to make his pilgrimage up there, for it was one of the handful of days in any year when the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing - not even the slightest breeze - and the views went on for ever, almost to the sea.
If I needed proof that my feelings about the inn are shared by many others, the attendances for the events would provide it. We've had near-capacity audiences for all but one of the events we've done so far (I know, another toot on the world's smallest trumpet...) and two of the ones next week are also sold out, but don't despair! If you're within range of Yorkshire, you can still catch us ("us" because my wife and sometime writing partner, Lynn Russell, is doing them with me) at some of the ones below including a couple that are even in pubs - and if you've got a good story of your own about the Inn at theTop, I might even buy you a drink!
The Inn at the Top Events
Thursday 3 October, 7.30pm, Herbert’s Bar, 30 Cross Church Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2PT, (Details: Waterstones 01484 430701 / Herberts 01484 434888)
Tuesday 8 October, 7.30pm, Morley Literature Festival, Gildersome Conservative Club, Street Lane, Gildersome, Morley, Leeds, LS27 7HX, SOLD OUT
Wednesday 9 October, 12 noon-2pm, Waterstone’s, 102 High Street, Northallerton, DL7 8PP (Details: 0843 2908515)
Wednesday 9 October, 7.30pm, Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms, Ilkley. SOLD OUT
Thursday 10 October, 7.30pm, Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms, Ilkley, including two course supper and tea or coffee”. (Tickets £29.95 from Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms, Ilkley, 01943 608029)
Saturday 12 October, 11am-2pm, Waterstones, 98 Westborough, Scarborough, YO11 1UQ, (Details: 01723 500414)
Saturday 19 October, 10.30am, Ryedale Book Festival, The Milton Rooms Studio, Market Square, Malton, YO17 7LX (Tickets/details: www.ryedalebookfestival.com)
Thursday 14 November, 7pm, The Flying Duck, 16 Church Street, Ilkley LS29 9DS, (Tickets/details: 01943 609335)
He'd first gone up there as a boy in 1947, riding his rattletrap bike up the steep, endless-seeming hills to the inn. He'd been back many times since then, but after he got too old to ride his bike there, he stopped going and, like me just recently, it was his first return visit in many years. We chatted for a while - not long enough - but I had to be back in Richmond (the North Yorkshire one) for an event that night, and then, after a last lingering look at the spectacular landscape that surrounds the inn, he set off to drive home before the light began to fade. It was humbling to meet him, as it has been to meet many people as I've travelled around these last few weeks, and it was another reminder that The Inn at the Top isn't just any old pub; to many people it's avery special place and they cherish their memories of it - as I do - for the rest of their lives.
The old gentleman had picked a perfect day to make his pilgrimage up there, for it was one of the handful of days in any year when the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing - not even the slightest breeze - and the views went on for ever, almost to the sea.
If I needed proof that my feelings about the inn are shared by many others, the attendances for the events would provide it. We've had near-capacity audiences for all but one of the events we've done so far (I know, another toot on the world's smallest trumpet...) and two of the ones next week are also sold out, but don't despair! If you're within range of Yorkshire, you can still catch us ("us" because my wife and sometime writing partner, Lynn Russell, is doing them with me) at some of the ones below including a couple that are even in pubs - and if you've got a good story of your own about the Inn at theTop, I might even buy you a drink!
The Inn at the Top Events
Thursday 3 October, 7.30pm, Herbert’s Bar, 30 Cross Church Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2PT, (Details: Waterstones 01484 430701 / Herberts 01484 434888)
Tuesday 8 October, 7.30pm, Morley Literature Festival, Gildersome Conservative Club, Street Lane, Gildersome, Morley, Leeds, LS27 7HX, SOLD OUT
Wednesday 9 October, 12 noon-2pm, Waterstone’s, 102 High Street, Northallerton, DL7 8PP (Details: 0843 2908515)
Wednesday 9 October, 7.30pm, Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms, Ilkley. SOLD OUT
Thursday 10 October, 7.30pm, Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms, Ilkley, including two course supper and tea or coffee”. (Tickets £29.95 from Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms, Ilkley, 01943 608029)
Saturday 12 October, 11am-2pm, Waterstones, 98 Westborough, Scarborough, YO11 1UQ, (Details: 01723 500414)
Saturday 19 October, 10.30am, Ryedale Book Festival, The Milton Rooms Studio, Market Square, Malton, YO17 7LX (Tickets/details: www.ryedalebookfestival.com)
Thursday 14 November, 7pm, The Flying Duck, 16 Church Street, Ilkley LS29 9DS, (Tickets/details: 01943 609335)
Inn on Top
Manuscript finally delivered, stress frown turned upside down, I’m back in the game!
For those who’ve read The Inn at the Top - and with apologies to those who haven’t - I wanted to take a moment to answer a couple of queries raised by some of the many Amazon reviewers there have been.
The first is why the book is called “The Inn At The Top” and is never given its real name in the book, when anyone who knows the Yorkshire Dales or, indeed has read any of the reviews or articles about it, will know at once that the inn is Tan Hill, the highest inn in Britain at 1732 feet above sea level, on top of the Pennines to the north of Swaledale.
The reason is that, at the time I was writing the book, my Baldrick-style cunning plan was not to identify the inn in the hope of generating a bit of “buzz” among readers speculating about its identity and wondering if their favourite Dales pub could be the one featured. This still seems to me to have been a reasonable plan and indeed, The Dalesman reported a bit of exactly that sort of buzz from readers, when the serialisation began in that magazine.
However, my publishers, Michael O’Mara Books, felt there was greater publicity mileage to be gained from identifying it as Tan Hill, and since they were paying the piper, it seemed only fair to let them call the tune. So that’s what we did and the sales figures suggest they may well been right, but by then the book had already been printed, so The Inn At The Top it stayed.
The second often-voiced query or complaint is why - present company excepted - none of the characters in the book are identified by their real names. Quite a few people have suggested that I did it to dodge potential libel writs but, while that’s always a potential concern among nervous writers, my principal reason was to protect the privacy of those I was writing about. Many are now dead, of course - the book is about the inn in the late 1970s - but many others are still living and even those who have died often have children still living in the area. It did not seem fair to me to subject them to potential intrusions into their lives by well-meaning but not necessarily welcome outsiders. If they recognise themselves and want to identify themselves, they can of course do so, but that will be by their choice, not mine.
For similar reasons, none of the locations are identified by name either. It doesn’t take a genius to work out the name of the small Cumbrian town with an annual horse fair, but once you start naming names, they lead on to others, and some of the places are so small, that to name the village would render pointless any attempt to disguise the identity of the individuals who live there.
Whether I’ll continue the same policy in the follow-up, provisionally titled - spoiler alert! - “Return To The Top” which I’m working on at the moment, remains to be seen but you know what they say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
For those who’ve read The Inn at the Top - and with apologies to those who haven’t - I wanted to take a moment to answer a couple of queries raised by some of the many Amazon reviewers there have been.
The first is why the book is called “The Inn At The Top” and is never given its real name in the book, when anyone who knows the Yorkshire Dales or, indeed has read any of the reviews or articles about it, will know at once that the inn is Tan Hill, the highest inn in Britain at 1732 feet above sea level, on top of the Pennines to the north of Swaledale.
The reason is that, at the time I was writing the book, my Baldrick-style cunning plan was not to identify the inn in the hope of generating a bit of “buzz” among readers speculating about its identity and wondering if their favourite Dales pub could be the one featured. This still seems to me to have been a reasonable plan and indeed, The Dalesman reported a bit of exactly that sort of buzz from readers, when the serialisation began in that magazine.
However, my publishers, Michael O’Mara Books, felt there was greater publicity mileage to be gained from identifying it as Tan Hill, and since they were paying the piper, it seemed only fair to let them call the tune. So that’s what we did and the sales figures suggest they may well been right, but by then the book had already been printed, so The Inn At The Top it stayed.
The second often-voiced query or complaint is why - present company excepted - none of the characters in the book are identified by their real names. Quite a few people have suggested that I did it to dodge potential libel writs but, while that’s always a potential concern among nervous writers, my principal reason was to protect the privacy of those I was writing about. Many are now dead, of course - the book is about the inn in the late 1970s - but many others are still living and even those who have died often have children still living in the area. It did not seem fair to me to subject them to potential intrusions into their lives by well-meaning but not necessarily welcome outsiders. If they recognise themselves and want to identify themselves, they can of course do so, but that will be by their choice, not mine.
For similar reasons, none of the locations are identified by name either. It doesn’t take a genius to work out the name of the small Cumbrian town with an annual horse fair, but once you start naming names, they lead on to others, and some of the places are so small, that to name the village would render pointless any attempt to disguise the identity of the individuals who live there.
Whether I’ll continue the same policy in the follow-up, provisionally titled - spoiler alert! - “Return To The Top” which I’m working on at the moment, remains to be seen but you know what they say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Kindle Mk. II
In the unlikely event that there is anyone out there who, for some unaccountable reason, has yet to purchase a copy of The Inn At The Top, March could be the month to do so, particularly if you are the proud possessor of a Kindle. Supermarket giant Sainsbury's are trying to boost their ebook sales and among other bargains, have The Inn at the Top on discount for the month at the bargain price of 99p (UK£0.99). Amazon.co.uk, as is their wont, have come close to matching that promotion, by offering it at £1.49. Feel free to fill your boots!
Doing A Turn
I’m “doing a turn” at the Dales Festival of Food and Drink - http://www.dalesfestivaloffood.org - in Leyburn, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales on Saturday, promoting The Inn at the Top. I’ve done a few similar country shows before and they’re always an interesting experience. The first issue is a sartorial one. I normally try to cut a bit of a sartorial dash - slick jacket, white shirt, silver cufflinks, etc, but a tweed jacket - with or without the Dales farmer ‘s traditional baler twine accessories - seems to be pretty much de rigeur and the temperature in Yorkshire in very early May probably makes it a very sensible choice.
Footwear is more tricky. To use the horse-racing terminology, the going at country shows at any time of year and especially in Spring can vary from “good to soft” all the way through to “bottomless” and the passage of hundreds of pairs of feet does nothing to improve it. If you wear your country footwear of choice - brogues, estate agent boots, or whatever - you may find yourself floundering calf-deep in the mire, and then having to make a mud-encrusted, slipping and slithering grand entrance into the marquee where the “Speaker’s Corner” podium is sited. On the other hand, a pair of wellies, while eminently practical, doesn’t really set off a sharp suit the same way...
The size of audience is always weather-dependent. The perfect weather from the speaker’s point of view would be a beautiful, sun-drenched morning to draw as many people as possible to the show. That should be followed by a sudden, savage thunderstorm about ten minutes before I’m due to go on, to drive everyone into the shelter of the marquee, followed by a continuing downpour to keep them trapped there while I do my “turn” and sign a few books afterwards.
There’s a Q&A at the end too, so I’m confidently expecting to have my “townie’s” lack of knowledge of farming and sheep breeds mercilessly exposed by a succession of local experts.
The marquee is known as “The Richard Whiteley Pavilion” in memory of the former Yorkshire Television and “Countdown” presenter. My fondest memory of Richard is a dinner party at his house where after the meal, he suggested we play that silly parlour game where everyone writes the name of a celebrity on a Post-It note and sticks it on their neighbour’s forehead. You then take turns at guessing who you are supposed to be. I made my choice and stuck the name on my neighbour’s forehead and as I looked around the table, I discovered that we had all made the identical choice: all eight people, including Richard Whiteley himself, were sitting there with “Richard Whiteley” on their forehead!
Footwear is more tricky. To use the horse-racing terminology, the going at country shows at any time of year and especially in Spring can vary from “good to soft” all the way through to “bottomless” and the passage of hundreds of pairs of feet does nothing to improve it. If you wear your country footwear of choice - brogues, estate agent boots, or whatever - you may find yourself floundering calf-deep in the mire, and then having to make a mud-encrusted, slipping and slithering grand entrance into the marquee where the “Speaker’s Corner” podium is sited. On the other hand, a pair of wellies, while eminently practical, doesn’t really set off a sharp suit the same way...
The size of audience is always weather-dependent. The perfect weather from the speaker’s point of view would be a beautiful, sun-drenched morning to draw as many people as possible to the show. That should be followed by a sudden, savage thunderstorm about ten minutes before I’m due to go on, to drive everyone into the shelter of the marquee, followed by a continuing downpour to keep them trapped there while I do my “turn” and sign a few books afterwards.
There’s a Q&A at the end too, so I’m confidently expecting to have my “townie’s” lack of knowledge of farming and sheep breeds mercilessly exposed by a succession of local experts.
The marquee is known as “The Richard Whiteley Pavilion” in memory of the former Yorkshire Television and “Countdown” presenter. My fondest memory of Richard is a dinner party at his house where after the meal, he suggested we play that silly parlour game where everyone writes the name of a celebrity on a Post-It note and sticks it on their neighbour’s forehead. You then take turns at guessing who you are supposed to be. I made my choice and stuck the name on my neighbour’s forehead and as I looked around the table, I discovered that we had all made the identical choice: all eight people, including Richard Whiteley himself, were sitting there with “Richard Whiteley” on their forehead!
Secret Britain
Spoiler alert: I watched a programme called Secret Britain on BBC TV the other night, mainly because it included a segment on The Inn at the Top, aka the Tan Hill Inn (http://www.tanhillinn.com/). However, the programme was one of the most excruciating “hours of my life I’ll never get back” that I’ve ever experienced. There were all the usual tropes of programme making 21st-century-style: say everything six times, use the same clips over and over, talk down to your audience, never hold any shot or topic for a more than a few seconds in case your low attention span audiences switches channels, convey breathless excitement at even the least exciting things, and, of course, have your presenters “amusingly” try their hands at all sorts of things because just showing us something without a hyper-active presenter in the foreground would be too dull to be true.
There were two presenters, one blonde, one redhead, one male, one female, and they can’t possibly be as dumb as they appeared to be in this program. Quite apart from the irritating way they…
kept finishing…
each other’s…
sentences… as if auditioning for the Whicker’s Island sketch on Monty Python, the script was so infantile that it would have embarrassed an eight year-old. As one of my customers in the Dales remarked to me the next day ‘I used to watch Blue Peter when I was young, and they had more respect for the intelligence of their audience than Secret Britain’.
The USP of the programme is that it is showing Secret Britain: things we never knew about our country. To emphasise this, the presenters had clearly been instructed to use the word “secret” every thirty seconds and everything was presented as a secret and a mystery to be solved even when it self-evidently was not.
The absolute nadir was reached when they arrived at the Tan Hill Inn. The blonde presenter told us that a clue to the secret of Tan Hill was hanging on the wall of the inn. It was a map of the old coal mines that used to surround the inn. After switching to another storyline for a few minutes - see previous comments about the perceived attention span of their audience - the blonde presenter went outside to investigate and - you’re not going to believe this - discovered that there actually used to be coal mines around Tan Hill!!!! Amazing!!!! as both presenters seems to say about everything, evidently not being articulate enough to think of another word. Sorry to spoil the secret for you.
After chewing the cushions, hiding behind the sofa and hurling abuse at the TV for forty minutes, I’d had enough and switched it off and I won’t be going back no matter how many “secrets” they promise to reveal. Lord Reith must be spinning so fast in his grave by now that he’s probably drilled his way down to Australia by now. If you don’t believe how awful Secret Britain is, and you’ve got some spare time you’ve no further use for, here’s the link: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...)
There were two presenters, one blonde, one redhead, one male, one female, and they can’t possibly be as dumb as they appeared to be in this program. Quite apart from the irritating way they…
kept finishing…
each other’s…
sentences… as if auditioning for the Whicker’s Island sketch on Monty Python, the script was so infantile that it would have embarrassed an eight year-old. As one of my customers in the Dales remarked to me the next day ‘I used to watch Blue Peter when I was young, and they had more respect for the intelligence of their audience than Secret Britain’.
The USP of the programme is that it is showing Secret Britain: things we never knew about our country. To emphasise this, the presenters had clearly been instructed to use the word “secret” every thirty seconds and everything was presented as a secret and a mystery to be solved even when it self-evidently was not.
The absolute nadir was reached when they arrived at the Tan Hill Inn. The blonde presenter told us that a clue to the secret of Tan Hill was hanging on the wall of the inn. It was a map of the old coal mines that used to surround the inn. After switching to another storyline for a few minutes - see previous comments about the perceived attention span of their audience - the blonde presenter went outside to investigate and - you’re not going to believe this - discovered that there actually used to be coal mines around Tan Hill!!!! Amazing!!!! as both presenters seems to say about everything, evidently not being articulate enough to think of another word. Sorry to spoil the secret for you.
After chewing the cushions, hiding behind the sofa and hurling abuse at the TV for forty minutes, I’d had enough and switched it off and I won’t be going back no matter how many “secrets” they promise to reveal. Lord Reith must be spinning so fast in his grave by now that he’s probably drilled his way down to Australia by now. If you don’t believe how awful Secret Britain is, and you’ve got some spare time you’ve no further use for, here’s the link: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...)
Pigs Might Fly
Gearing up for the launch of my new book Pigs Might Fly on Monday, the first self-published one I've been involved in, after more than fifty titles put out by the big trade publishers. It's been a steepish learning curve and has involved a lot of man-hours that may or may not pay off - only time and what's left of the book trade will tell... As any small- or self-publisher will tell you, distribution is always a major issue. Some feel they can distribute their books themselves and that does work if you don't mind doing some serious legwork and your book is specific to a particular region - "Inns of the Yorkshire Dales" or whatever. But if you're hoping for a national sale, you really do need a national distributor and you'll have to give up 60% or more of your cover price plus another 3% or so for wastage - lost or damaged copies in their warehouse. You'll also have to pay to deliver the books to that warehouse and pay for collection or destruction of any returns or overstocks, and they'll only pay you at least 30 days after they actually ship and invoice the books to retailers, so you might be waiting two or three months - or more - before you see any cold hard cash. However if you're a tiny publisher and you want to sell to Waterstones https://www.waterstones.com/, say, you'll have to do it through a distributor because, though shop managers have some discretion to buy local books, Waterstones nationally will only deal with major publishers and distributors and if you're tiny, that aint you. The choice is yours: there's Gardners www.gardners.com/, Bertrams https://www.bertrams.com/, and a score of others who will handle anything from straight distribution, through to sale and fulfilment including invoicing... but all of it comes at a price. Which you choose and how much of your potential workload you want to hive off to them is up to you, but - obviously - the more they do for you, the less of each book's sale price will find its way to your pocket. I've given my book to Gardners to distribute through the book trade, with a separate wholesaler supplying the gift trade, other than the network of small, non-book trade outlets around the Dales that I've built up myself over the past two years since The Inn at the Top was published. These tourist attractions, gift shops, Post Offices, cafes, pubs, B&Bs, camp-sites, etc, etc, stock signed copies of The Inn at the Top and Now Pigs Might Fly and sell pleasingly large numbers of them... only commercial confidentiality prevents me from telling you how many! Best of all, I get to spend a couple of days every month wandering round the Dales doing my delivery runs, and catching up with old friends from the days when I was running the famous (or should that be infamous?) inn there - what's not to like?
Look North
A really nice piece on "Pigs Might Fly" and the real life "Inn at the Top" (aka Tan Hill), filmed by Philip Chapman , was broadcast on BBC TV's Look North (the North-East and Cumbria version) last night. If you're quick you can catch it here till 7pm today (Thursday13th August)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
It contains a few clips from a documentary made back in the 1980s when I owned the inn, and the frighteningly young-looking protagonist brought back memories of the daily struggle to start the generator and dropping down through a hole in a snow drift considerably taller than my six foot four inches, in search of the water pump. Happy days?!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
It contains a few clips from a documentary made back in the 1980s when I owned the inn, and the frighteningly young-looking protagonist brought back memories of the daily struggle to start the generator and dropping down through a hole in a snow drift considerably taller than my six foot four inches, in search of the water pump. Happy days?!
Flying Pigs Airborne
If you're out and about in Yorkshire over the next few weeks and want to know more about Pigs Might Fly or The Inn At The Top, you'll find me at the following venues, on the following dates.
PIGS MIGHT FLY EVENTS:
Monday 17 August, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Knaresborough feva, Knaresborough Library, Market Place, Knaresborough, HG5 8AG, Tickets £5 from Knaresborough Tourist Information Centre or www.feva.info
Saturday 5 September, 11am-1pm. Book signing. White Rose Book Cafe, 79-81 Market Place, Thirsk, YO7 1ET. Tel: 01845 524353
Wednesday 9 September, 12.30pm-2pm. Book signing. Waterstones, 102 High Street, Northallerton, DL7 8PP. Tel: 01609 761987
Thursday 10 September, 2.30pm-4.30pm. Book signing., J R Nicholls Bookseller & Publisher, 347b Wakefield Road, Denby Dale, HD8 8RT. Tel: 01484 866413
Saturday 12 September, 11am-2pm. Book signing. The Guisborough Bookshop Ltd, 4 Chaloner Street, Guisborough, TS14 6QD. Tel:01287 610179 books@guisboroughbookshop.com
Tuesday 15 September, 7.00pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Waterstone’s, 15 Coney Street, York YO1 9QL. Tel: 01904 620784. Tickets £2 available in store
Friday 18 September, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Ripon Spa Hotel, Park Street, Ripon, HG4 2BU. Ripon International Festival event in association with the Little Ripon Bookshop. Tickets £8 (students £5) www.riponinternationalfestival.com Tel: 01765 603994
Saturday 19 September, 12 noon-2pm. Book signing. Castlegate Books, 13 Market Place, Knaresborough, HG5 8AL. info@castlegatebooks.com Tel: 01423 862222
Friday 25 September, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Richmond School Sixth Form Centre, Darlington Road, Richmond, N Yorks, DL10 7BQ. Richmond Walking and Book Festival event. Bar and Bookstall. Tickets £8 from Castle Hill Bookshop. Tel: 01748 824243 or www.booksandboots.org/book.html
Saturday 26 September, 11am-1pm. Book signing. Philip Howard Books Ltd, 47 Street Lane, Leeds, LS8 1AP. Tel: 0113 2259797
Sunday 11 October, 7.00pm. “The Yorkshire Shepherdess and Flying Pigs” (joint event with Amanda Owen). Ryedale Book Festival, Milton Rooms, Market Place, Malton, YO17 7LX. Tickets £10 from http://ryedalebookfestival.com/whats-...
Wednesday 14 October, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A, signing, Betty’s Café Tea Rooms, 32 The Grove, Ilkley, LS29 9EE (Ilkley Literature Festival Event).Tickets £35, including a two- course set meal and tea/coffee, from Bettys Café Tea Rooms. Tel: Ilkley 01943 608029
Friday 13th November, 7pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Wheatley Arms, Ben Rhydding, Ilkley, LS29 8PP. Tel: 01943 816496. In association with the Grove Bookshop.
Friday May 20th 2016, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Dales Countryside Museum Station Yard Hawes DL8 3NT. Tickets/details: 01969 666210 hawes@yorkshiredales.org.uk dcm@yorkshiredales.org.uk
PIGS MIGHT FLY EVENTS:
Monday 17 August, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Knaresborough feva, Knaresborough Library, Market Place, Knaresborough, HG5 8AG, Tickets £5 from Knaresborough Tourist Information Centre or www.feva.info
Saturday 5 September, 11am-1pm. Book signing. White Rose Book Cafe, 79-81 Market Place, Thirsk, YO7 1ET. Tel: 01845 524353
Wednesday 9 September, 12.30pm-2pm. Book signing. Waterstones, 102 High Street, Northallerton, DL7 8PP. Tel: 01609 761987
Thursday 10 September, 2.30pm-4.30pm. Book signing., J R Nicholls Bookseller & Publisher, 347b Wakefield Road, Denby Dale, HD8 8RT. Tel: 01484 866413
Saturday 12 September, 11am-2pm. Book signing. The Guisborough Bookshop Ltd, 4 Chaloner Street, Guisborough, TS14 6QD. Tel:01287 610179 books@guisboroughbookshop.com
Tuesday 15 September, 7.00pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Waterstone’s, 15 Coney Street, York YO1 9QL. Tel: 01904 620784. Tickets £2 available in store
Friday 18 September, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Ripon Spa Hotel, Park Street, Ripon, HG4 2BU. Ripon International Festival event in association with the Little Ripon Bookshop. Tickets £8 (students £5) www.riponinternationalfestival.com Tel: 01765 603994
Saturday 19 September, 12 noon-2pm. Book signing. Castlegate Books, 13 Market Place, Knaresborough, HG5 8AL. info@castlegatebooks.com Tel: 01423 862222
Friday 25 September, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Richmond School Sixth Form Centre, Darlington Road, Richmond, N Yorks, DL10 7BQ. Richmond Walking and Book Festival event. Bar and Bookstall. Tickets £8 from Castle Hill Bookshop. Tel: 01748 824243 or www.booksandboots.org/book.html
Saturday 26 September, 11am-1pm. Book signing. Philip Howard Books Ltd, 47 Street Lane, Leeds, LS8 1AP. Tel: 0113 2259797
Sunday 11 October, 7.00pm. “The Yorkshire Shepherdess and Flying Pigs” (joint event with Amanda Owen). Ryedale Book Festival, Milton Rooms, Market Place, Malton, YO17 7LX. Tickets £10 from http://ryedalebookfestival.com/whats-...
Wednesday 14 October, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A, signing, Betty’s Café Tea Rooms, 32 The Grove, Ilkley, LS29 9EE (Ilkley Literature Festival Event).Tickets £35, including a two- course set meal and tea/coffee, from Bettys Café Tea Rooms. Tel: Ilkley 01943 608029
Friday 13th November, 7pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Wheatley Arms, Ben Rhydding, Ilkley, LS29 8PP. Tel: 01943 816496. In association with the Grove Bookshop.
Friday May 20th 2016, 7.30pm. Talk, Q&A and book signing. Dales Countryside Museum Station Yard Hawes DL8 3NT. Tickets/details: 01969 666210 hawes@yorkshiredales.org.uk dcm@yorkshiredales.org.uk
