Friday 23rd September
| Taunton Literary Festival 2011 |
Tim Kevan, Law & Peace
Friday 23rd September 11.30 am
Queens College (QCC), tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
Chronicling the hilarious and sometimes almost unbelievable absurdities of the modern bar, and peopled
by a cast of unforgettable characters, Law and Peace is a funny, fast-paced Machiavellian romp through
the legal world. Tim Kevan is a barrister and writer. His first novel Law and Disorder (Bloomsbury)
(originally called Baby Barista and the Art of War) was described by broadcaster Jeremy Vine as “a
wonderful, racing read - well-drawn, smartly plotted and laugh out loud” and by The Times as “a cross
between The Talented Mr Ripley, Rumpole and Bridget Jones’s Diary”. It is based on the BabyBarista
Blog which he writes for The Guardian.
Friday 23rd September 11.30 am
Queens College (QCC), tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
Chronicling the hilarious and sometimes almost unbelievable absurdities of the modern bar, and peopled
by a cast of unforgettable characters, Law and Peace is a funny, fast-paced Machiavellian romp through
the legal world. Tim Kevan is a barrister and writer. His first novel Law and Disorder (Bloomsbury)
(originally called Baby Barista and the Art of War) was described by broadcaster Jeremy Vine as “a
wonderful, racing read - well-drawn, smartly plotted and laugh out loud” and by The Times as “a cross
between The Talented Mr Ripley, Rumpole and Bridget Jones’s Diary”. It is based on the BabyBarista
Blog which he writes for The Guardian.
Elizabeth Chadwick, Lady of the English
Friday 23rd September 2.30pm
Queen’s College (QCC), tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
Two very different women are linked by destiny and the struggle for the English crown. Matilda,
daughter of Henry I, is determined to win back her crown from Stephen, the usurper king. Adeliza,
Henry’s widowed queen and Matilda’s stepmother, is now married to William D’Albini, a warrior of the
opposition. Both women are strong and prepared to stand firm for what they know is right. But in a
world where a man’s word is law, how can Adeliza obey her husband while supporting Matilda, the
rightful queen? And for Matilda pride comes before a fall ...What price for a crown? What does it cost
to be ‘Lady of the English’? Elizabeth Chadwick’s sixteenth novel, The Scarlet Lion, was nominated by
Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Society, as one of the top ten historical novels of the last
decade.
Friday 23rd September 2.30pm
Queen’s College (QCC), tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
Two very different women are linked by destiny and the struggle for the English crown. Matilda,
daughter of Henry I, is determined to win back her crown from Stephen, the usurper king. Adeliza,
Henry’s widowed queen and Matilda’s stepmother, is now married to William D’Albini, a warrior of the
opposition. Both women are strong and prepared to stand firm for what they know is right. But in a
world where a man’s word is law, how can Adeliza obey her husband while supporting Matilda, the
rightful queen? And for Matilda pride comes before a fall ...What price for a crown? What does it cost
to be ‘Lady of the English’? Elizabeth Chadwick’s sixteenth novel, The Scarlet Lion, was nominated by
Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Society, as one of the top ten historical novels of the last
decade.
Fiona Mountain, Cavalier Queen
Friday 23rd September 4.00 pm
Queen's College (QCC), tickets £6.50 (or £5 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
Sold into marriage to a man she has never met, whose language she does not speak, whose country she
has never visited – Princess Henrietta Maria of France marries Charles I and becomes Queen of
England. But it is an England on the brink of cataclysm, a country about to plunge into civil war.Against
all odds, the marriage of Charles and Henrietta Maria becomes one of the greatest love matches in
history. But in the wings is another man who will lay siege to her heart......
Fiona's first novel, Isabella, was short-listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2000, the
first debut novel to reach the shortlist. It was followed with Pale as the Dead and Bloodline, which
combine history with mystery and feature 'ancestor detective', Natasha Blake. Bloodline is the winner of
the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award.
Friday 23rd September 4.00 pm
Queen's College (QCC), tickets £6.50 (or £5 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
Sold into marriage to a man she has never met, whose language she does not speak, whose country she
has never visited – Princess Henrietta Maria of France marries Charles I and becomes Queen of
England. But it is an England on the brink of cataclysm, a country about to plunge into civil war.Against
all odds, the marriage of Charles and Henrietta Maria becomes one of the greatest love matches in
history. But in the wings is another man who will lay siege to her heart......
Fiona's first novel, Isabella, was short-listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2000, the
first debut novel to reach the shortlist. It was followed with Pale as the Dead and Bloodline, which
combine history with mystery and feature 'ancestor detective', Natasha Blake. Bloodline is the winner of
the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award.
Andrew Simms, Eminent Corporations
Friday 23rd September 7.30pm
Somerset College, tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
How much do you know about the big-name brands we live by? Virgin, BP, Land Rover, Barclays,
Cadbury's, BBC and M&S. In our times the PLCs have been seen as giants, the backbone of commerce
and society. Yet seen through a historical perspective they are vulnerable creatures, flowering only
briefly. The only corporate biographies you find are celebratory, promotional portraits with the warts
left out. This book spills the beans by telling the real life stories of some of the biggest corporate names,
and finds them as dramatic, flawed and revealing as any human biography.
'This book is the essential guide to what went wrong with British business. From BP to Cadbury and
Virgin - oil and chocolate to almost anything - these tragi-comic tales reveal how our own fates have
become linked to the rise and fall of massive corporations.' --Larry Elliott, Economics Editor, The
Guardian. Andrew Simms was until recently Policy Director of the New Economic Foundation.
Friday 23rd September 7.30pm
Somerset College, tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
How much do you know about the big-name brands we live by? Virgin, BP, Land Rover, Barclays,
Cadbury's, BBC and M&S. In our times the PLCs have been seen as giants, the backbone of commerce
and society. Yet seen through a historical perspective they are vulnerable creatures, flowering only
briefly. The only corporate biographies you find are celebratory, promotional portraits with the warts
left out. This book spills the beans by telling the real life stories of some of the biggest corporate names,
and finds them as dramatic, flawed and revealing as any human biography.
'This book is the essential guide to what went wrong with British business. From BP to Cadbury and
Virgin - oil and chocolate to almost anything - these tragi-comic tales reveal how our own fates have
become linked to the rise and fall of massive corporations.' --Larry Elliott, Economics Editor, The
Guardian. Andrew Simms was until recently Policy Director of the New Economic Foundation.
Margaret Willes, The Making of the English Gardener
Friday 23rd September 6.00 pm
Somerset College, tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
In the century between the accession of Elizabeth I and the restoration of Charles II, a horticultural
revolution took place in England. Ideas were exchanged across networks of gardeners, botanists,
scholars, and courtiers, and the burgeoning vernacular book trade spread this new knowledge still
further - reaching the growing number of gardeners furnishing their more modest plots across the
nation and its young colonies in the Americas. Margaret Willes introduces a plethora of garden
enthusiasts, from the renowned to the legions of anonymous workers who created and tended the
great estates. Margaret Willes has spent a career in book publishing, initially at Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
then Sphere Books and Sidgwick & Jackson, before becoming the publisher at the National Trust. Her
first book was 'Reading Matters: Five Centuries of Discovering Books' (Yale, 2008), followed by 'Pick
of the Bunch: The Story of Twelve Treasured Flowers'.
Friday 23rd September 6.00 pm
Somerset College, tickets £6.50 (or £5.00 if 3 or more tickets bought for separate events)
In the century between the accession of Elizabeth I and the restoration of Charles II, a horticultural
revolution took place in England. Ideas were exchanged across networks of gardeners, botanists,
scholars, and courtiers, and the burgeoning vernacular book trade spread this new knowledge still
further - reaching the growing number of gardeners furnishing their more modest plots across the
nation and its young colonies in the Americas. Margaret Willes introduces a plethora of garden
enthusiasts, from the renowned to the legions of anonymous workers who created and tended the
great estates. Margaret Willes has spent a career in book publishing, initially at Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
then Sphere Books and Sidgwick & Jackson, before becoming the publisher at the National Trust. Her
first book was 'Reading Matters: Five Centuries of Discovering Books' (Yale, 2008), followed by 'Pick
of the Bunch: The Story of Twelve Treasured Flowers'.
| To purchase tickets: Visit Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER. Tel. 01823 337742 email: brendonbooks@gmail.com or click here to order online (Please note there is a £1.00 charge for posting out tickets) |
| To purchase tickets: Visit Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER. Tel. 01823 337742 email: brendonbooks@gmail.com or click here to order online (Please note there is a £1.00 charge for posting out tickets) |