To register for the course and to embark on a journey for your wellbeing please click here and for further information please email bibliotherapyforme@outlook.com.

Would you like to discover the link between reading and wellbeing and how this can enhance your everyday life?

“Literature offers us a powerful language that can help us understand ourselves and others and gives us the words and perspectives that can help us talk about difficult experiences.” Dr Jane Davis, Founder of The Reader

“One sheds one’s sicknesses in books – repeats and presents again one’s emotions, to be master of them.” DH Lawrence, The Letters of DH Lawrence

Bibliotherapy dates back to ancient times when libraries were seen as sacred places where answers and healing could be found. My course explores reading as an active strategy to help cope with life’s challenges, looking at the wider and deeper ways in which fiction and non-fiction can 'find' people, emotionally and imaginatively, helping develop self- esteem, emotional granularity and interpersonal relationships. Participants will be introduced to the neurological benefits of reading “for pleasure” and to a wellbeing model to help us tailor our book choices in order to thrive.

Course Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, participants will gain:

1. An understanding of the key principles of bibliotherapy and how to apply them, including choosing books ‘on prescription’ and making use of a practical, interactive approach

2. A powerful tool to foster group cohesion

3. The experience of using literature as a form of remedy and healing within our daily lives

The course does not require any prior reading ability or experience and absolutely everyone is welcome!

Fortnightly course schedule – Autumn 2025 Classes run at Books on the Hill on the Fridays listed below, from 10.15am-12pm

CLASS ONE - Friday 12th September

What is Bibliotherapy?

· A potted history of Bibliotherapy and its origins

· Differences approaches to bibliotherapy and what they mean

· The neurological processes behind reading and how they help us flourish.

CLASS TWO - Friday 26th September

Options:

Travel from St. Albans or meet directly in the lobby of the British Library, 96 Euston Road, (times TBC)

The Library

· The role of libraries as memory keepers for societies and as a ‘house of healing’ for the soul · The role of librarianship, libraries as ‘safe spaces’/warm hubs and the libraries of the future Activity: Journey through The British Library, Euston Road, London with your instructor as guide The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s largest libraries. Its collections include more than 150 million items, in over 400 languages including books, magazines, manuscripts, maps, music scores, newspapers, patents, databases, philatelic items, prints and drawings and sound recordings. The activity includes access to the Library “Treasures section” as a springboard for using literature as remedy

CLASS THREE – Friday 10th October

Poetry therapy and the benefits of therapeutic writing

· Poetry Therapy and the qualities that make poems particularly helpful as a wellbeing tool

· The link between reading poetry and therapeutic writing.

· How to apply an interactive approach to poetry

CLASS FOUR – Friday 31st October

Excursion to Spitalfields and its Bookstores

Options: Travel from St Albans or meet directly in London, Liverpool Street, for a guided tour of the Spitalfields area and its independent bookstores

Guided visit to this historically rich and diverse area, including visits to Libreria and the Brick Lane Bookshop, to consider the changing face of the bookstore, its relationship with its local community and to our wellbeing.

• Optional tea and cake in a café (not included in the course fee).

CLASS FIVE – Friday 21st November

Putting bibliotherapy into practice

· Adopting a practical approach to bibliotherapy as an art therapy for ourselves and others

· How to set boundaries, create a safe environment and help select appropriate reading choices

· Incorporating reading for wellbeing into our daily routine · Wrap up and farewell

What is included in the course fee of £145?

Qualified, experienced and evaluated Bibliotherapy instructor

Venue for classes in central St Albans at Books on the Hill, 1 Holywell Hill, St Albans, AL1 1ER

Instructor as guide to two excursions to London: The British Library and the bookstores of Piccadilly

Reading materials, articles and online contact with the instructor throughout the course

10% discount at “Books on the Hill” in St Albans to spend on a book of your choice

NOT included-

Travel to, from and around London on excursions

Afternoon tea and cake at The Wolseley or other (optional)

Places are limited – first come, first served!

www.bibliotherapyforme.com

Once you have entered your email at the checkout, the option for ‘store collection’ will appear. This will prevent you from being charged any fees when purchasing event tickets. If you are purchasing a book with your ticket, postage is only required if you wish to have it delivered.

To book your place please click here.

‘Bird School is a feast for mind and soul, a treasure trove of insights into the enigmatic and enchanting world of the birds we share our lives with but barely notice. I have learnt so much. Every page is a thrill. Bird School has opened my eyes.’ Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

Step into the hide for the evening in The Apple House, with bestselling and award-winning nature writer Adam Nicolson and bestselling author and esteemed horticulturist Sarah Raven for a glorious encounter with the wild to mark the publication of Adam’s brilliant new book: Bird School.

Over the last two or three years Adam and Sarah have embarked on getting to know the birds they have found around them at Perch Hill, their home in Sussex, engaging with a layer of life they had previously almost taken for granted.

Close to Perch Hill, there is a forgotten field overrun by bracken and thicketed by brambles. It is the haunt of deer and many birds–nightingales, the occasional cuckoo, ravens, robins, owls and in summer the sweet-singing warblers that come north from Africa to breed in English woods.

Adam Nicolson wanted to look and listen, to return to ‘bird school’ and see what it might teach him. He built a small shed amongst the trees with nesting boxes and bird feeders. Cocooned inside, season after season, he got to know the birds: where they nest, how they sing, how they mate and fight, what preys on them, what they are like as living things.

At the same time Sarah embarked on a long and careful study of how to make the garden more bird-rich, providing food, shelter and diversity for the birds, while coming to understand just how much a garden benefits from its birds.

The natural world is under siege. This event will illustrate that knowing and understanding more about the birds that surround you, is one way of doing something about it.

Hosted in The Apple House eco-barn, in an old orchard, guests can explore Tom Stuart-Smith’s Plant Library of over 2000 herbaceous perennials and bulbs ahead of the talk and enjoy a drink while they do so.

The event will host a pop-up plant sale from 4pm–6pm including plants propagated by gardeners Millie Souter and Emma Youngman of The Plant Library and Sunnyside Rural Trust’s Orchard Nursery.

It will also be followed by a book signing with books provided by our local independent bookshop, Books On The Hill, St Albans.

We are delighted to announce our next poetry afternoon with lecturer Michael King will explore poet Sylvia Plath.

Tea and coffee with be provide throughout the event.

To book your place, please click here.

Once you have entered your email at the checkout, the option for ‘store collection’ will appear. This will prevent you from being charged any fees when purchasing event tickets. If you are purchasing a book with your ticket, postage is only required if you wish to have it delivered.

About the book -

The response of one writer to the work of another can be doubly illuminating. In this series, a poet selects and introduces another poet whom they have particularly admired. Ted Hughes's classic selection of Sylvia Plath's poetry provides the perfect introduction to a major body of work in twentieth-century poetry.

Hughes draws upon the collections Ariel, The Colossus, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees, and from Sylvia Plath's Pulitzer Prize-winning Collected Poems.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning.

This event is charged and is suitable for 18+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

Once you have entered your email at the checkout, the option for ‘store collection’ will appear. This will prevent you from being charged any fees when purchasing event tickets. If you are purchasing a book with your ticket, postage is only required if you wish to have it delivered.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

Classics can be intimidating. They have a reputation of being too highbrow and incomprehensible for us mere mortals. We at Books on the Hill, however, think that is just not true. Classics speak of a universal theme we all have first hand experience of: love, loss, friendship, hope. They are for all of us. To tackle this, come along to our Book Club focusing on "The Classics" from recent and not so recent history.

For August, we have chosen Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin as our Classics Book Club book.

To book your place please click here, or to purchase a year long subscription to our Classics Book Club, please click here.

Once you have entered your email at the checkout, the option for ‘store collection’ will appear. This will prevent you from being charged any fees when purchasing event tickets. If you are purchasing a book with your ticket, postage is only required if you wish to have it delivered.

This Book Club will be held on the last Thursday of the month, and is suitable for ages 18+. Tea and coffee will be provided, as well as glasses should you chose to bring your own tipple.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here or to purchase a year long subscription to our afterhours book club, please click here.

Once you have entered your email at the checkout, the option for ‘store collection’ will appear. This will prevent you from being charged any fees when purchasing event tickets. If you are purchasing a book with your ticket, postage is only required if you wish to have it delivered.

We are delighted to announce our next text lecture with Michael King will explore The Garden Party and other short stories by Katherine Mansfield.

To book your place, please click here.

Tea and coffee with be provided.

About the book -

Fifteen exquisite tales from one of the world'd greatest writers of the short storyInnovative, startlingly perceptive and aglow with colour, these stories were written towards the end of Katherine Mansfield's tragically short life. Many are set in the author's native New Zealand, others in England and the French Riviera. All are revelations of the unspoken, half-understood emotions that make up everyday experience - from the blackly comic 'The Daughters of the Late Colonel', and the short, sharp sketch 'Miss Brill', in which a lonely woman's precarious sense of self is brutally destroyed, to the vivid impressionistic evocation of family life in 'At the Bay'.

'All that I write,' Mansfield said, 'all that I am - is on the borders of the sea. It is a kind of playing.'

The Safekeep is a tender story of desire and obsession set in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 and won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025.

The book club will be held upstairs in our reading rooms and are suitable for ages 18+ years.

To book your place, please click here.

About the book -

An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes, and the unexpected shape of revenge - for readers of Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Waters and Ian McEwan's Atonement. It is fifteen years after the Second World War, and Isabel has built herself a solitary life of discipline and strict routine in her late mother's country home, with not a fork or a word out of place. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel's doorstep - as a guest, there to stay for the season…In the sweltering heat of summer, Isabel's desperate need for control reaches boiling point.

What happens between the two women leads to a revelation which threatens to unravel all she has ever known.

We are delighted to announce our next poetry afternoon with lecturer Michael King will explore poet John Clare.

Tea and coffee with be provide throughout the event.

To book your place, please click here.

About the book -

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to the most important poets in our literature. The birds are gone to bed; the cows are still,And sheep lie panting on each old mole hill,And underneath the willow's grey-green bough --Like toil a resting -- lies the fallow plough.

-- Hares at Play

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning.

This event is charged and is suitable for 18+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

Classics can be intimidating. They have a reputation of being too highbrow and incomprehensible for us mere mortals. We at Books on the Hill, however, think that is just not true. Classics speak of a universal theme we all have first hand experience of: love, loss, friendship, hope. They are for all of us. To tackle this, come along to our Book Club focusing on "The Classics" from recent and not so recent history.

For July, along the theme of Nostalgia, we have chosen The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro as our Classics Book Club book.

To book your place please click here, or to purchase a year long subscription to our Classics Book Club, please click here.

This Book Club will be held on the last Thursday of the month, and is suitable for ages 18+. Tea and coffee will be provided, as well as glasses should you chose to bring your own tipple.

About the book -

A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House. In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here or to purchase a year long subscription to our afterhours book club, please click here.

This month, we have chosen the theme of nostalgia. The Gentleman from Peru is a beautiful story of a lone traveller’s recollections on a life of love and regrets. A warm and touching summer read.

To book your place, please click here.

The book club will be held upstairs in our reading rooms and are suitable for ages 18+ years.

About the book -

We spend more time than we know trying to go back. We call it fantasising, we call it dreaming. . .

but we're all crawling back, each in his or her own way. A group of college friends find themselves marooned at a luxurious hotel on the Amalfi Coast in Italy.

While their boat is being repaired, they can't help but observe the daily routine of a fellow hotel guest - a mysterious, white-bearded stranger who sits on the veranda each night and smokes one cigarette, sometimes two. When the group decides to invite the elegant traveller to lunch with them, they cannot begin to imagine the miraculous abilities, strange wisdom, and a life-changing story he is about to impart to one of the friends in particular. . .

Deeply atmospheric and sensual, The Gentleman From Peru weaves achingly poignant insight into a story of regret, fate and epic love.

We are delighted to announce our next text lecture with Michael King will explore Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf.

To book your place, please click here.

Tea and coffee with be provided.

About the book -

Between the Acts is Virginia Woolf's last novel, and in her own opinion it was `more quintessential' than any of her others. Set in the summer of 1939 on the day of the annual village pageant at Pointz Hall, the book weaves together the musings of several disparate characters and their reactions to the imminence of a war which is to change the pattern of history. Before the book was published in the spring of 1941, Virginia Woolf had taken her own life.

Please note, this event is not held in-store at the bookshop, but rather in the The Apple House eco-barn at The Serge Hill Project.

To visit the Serge Hill Project website and to book your place onto the event, please click here.

About the event -

Join us for an inspirational evening in The Apple House with Charles Dowding, the leading proponent of no dig gardening, as he shares his advice from more than 40 years of vegetable growing and no dig experiments, to allow everyone to grow more food for less effort.

He will also introduce key insights from his new book Compost: Transform Waste Into New Life, exploring how to reduce waste, nourish your soil, and enhance your plants with homemade compost.

Since starting his vegetable-growing journey in 1981, Charles has gardened in four different locations and grown hundreds of thousands of crops. His decades of experience have led to the development of the highly effective no dig system, which focuses on supporting the web of organisms in the soil to promote healthy, weed-free crops.

In this session, Charles will offer practical tips and advice on all aspects of no dig vegetable growing, with a focus on compost including:

• What to compost and how to do it

• How to achieve the ideal balance of compost materials

• A seasonal timeline for successful composting

• Debunking common composting myths, such as:
  How to add weeds to your compost
  Why heat in your compost bin is not essential
  Why worms are not vital to the composting process
  Why no dig gardening doesn’t require more compost than traditional methods

Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this evening will provide invaluable insights to help you grow vegetables and transform your compost with ease and efficiency.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning.

This event is charged and is suitable for 18+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

Please note, this event is not held in-store at the bookshop, but rather in the The Apple House eco-barn at The Serge Hill Project.

To visit the Serge Hill Project website and to book your place onto the event, please click here.

About the event -

‘Why do I like bogs so much? I think it is because I feel very at home with them, I think this has something to do with my queerness and their queer nature as a space.’–Alys Fowler

The value of peat bogs as a natural resource and haven of biodiversity is undisputed, yet few of us have been lucky enough to experience their beauty and richness.

Sink deep into the dark, black earths of these rugged places and take a close look at the birds, animals, plants and insects that live within them, with award-winning journalist, author, gardener and presenter Alys Fowler as she launches her compelling new book Peatlands.

Blending memoir with environmental insight, she charts her experiences across places like the Border Mire and the Flow Country, uncovering the rich biodiversity and singular character of these wild spaces.

This is a book about connection—to land, to history, and to the delicate balance of nature. As peat continues to be harvested for horticultural use, Fowler urges us to reconsider what we’re sacrificing—and what it truly means to care for such rare, irreplaceable places.

Alys will reflect on the nature of peat, its cultural and environmental significance and the urgent need to change how we value and care for it.

Hosted in The Apple House eco-barn, in an old orchard, guests can explore Tom Stuart-Smith’s Plant Library of over 1500 herbaceous perennials and bulbs ahead of the talk and enjoy a drink (included in the ticket price) while they do so.

We are delighted to announce our next poetry afternoon with lecturer Michael King will explore Selected Poems by D H Lawrence.

To book your place, please click here.

Tea and coffee with be provide throughout the event.

About the book -

From early, rhyming works in Love Poems and Others (1913) to the ground-breaking exploration of free verse in Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923) the poems of D. H. Lawrence challenged convention and inspired later poets. This volume includes extensive selections from these and other editions, and contains some his most famous poems, such as 'Piano', a nostalgic reflection on lost youth and love for his mother; 'Snake', exploring human fear of the natural world; the short, cutting comment on sexual politics of 'Can't Be Borne'; and the quiet philosophical resignation of 'Basta!'. Using the revised poems, but in the order in which they appeared in their original collections, this selection offers a fresh perspective that reveals an innovative poet who gave voice to his most intense emotions

Join us at the Cathedral with Diarmaid MacCulloch as he explores how three thousand years of constant change have shaped our attitudes towards sexuality and families.

Religion and sex are inextricably tangled in politics across our contemporary world, often in toxic ways, and the long history of that tangle in the Christian world has frequently been fatally simplified and misunderstood. Diarmaid MacCulloch, drawing on his recent book Lower than the Angels, seeks to set up ways of understanding the past that may help us calm present-day fears.  He shows how three thousand years of constant change in Judaism, Christianity and Islam have shaped the ways in which we look at sexuality and families in our own age: part of the extraordinarily varied saga of Christian attitudes to sex over the centuries.

Diarmaid MacCulloch is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church, and Fellow of St Cross College and of Campion Hall, Oxford University.  His History of Christianity: the first three thousand years won the 2010 Cundill Prize for History and was accompanied by a BBC TV series; he was knighted in 2012.  His latest book (2024) is Lower than the Angels: a History of Sex and Christianity.

Please note, this event is being held at the Cathedral, not in-store. Tickets can be purchased on the Cathedral website, or by clicking here.

Classics can be intimidating. They have a reputation of being too highbrow and incomprehensible for us mere mortals. We at Books on the Hill, however, think that is just not true. Classics speak of a universal theme we all have first hand experience of: love, loss, friendship, hope. They are for all of us. To tackle this, come along to our Book Club focusing on "The Classics" from recent and not so recent history.

For June, along the theme of Humour, we have chosen A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kenney Toole as our Classics Book Club book.

To book your place please click here, or to purchase a year long subscription to our Classics Book Club, please click here.

This Book Club will be held on the last Thursday of the month, and is suitable for ages 18+. Tea and coffee will be provided, as well as glasses should you chose to bring your own tipple.

About the book -

A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces.

The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job.

Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission - and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with...

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here or to purchase a year long subscription to our afterhours book club, please click here.

Please note this event is 18+.

SOLD OUT

We are delighted to be hosting award winning broadcaster, comedian and author Robin Ince in-store for a discussion about his latest book, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity.

Robin Ince is a comedian, actor and writer. With Professor Brian Cox, he created and presents the award-winning BBC Radio 4 show The Infinite Monkey Cage, which ranks among the most popular science podcasts worldwide. 

What if being a bit weird is actually entirely normal? What if sharing our internal struggles wasn’t a sign of weakness, but strength?

For over thirty years, award-winning broadcaster and comedian Robin Ince has entertained thousands in person and on air. But underneath the surface, a whirlwind was at play — a struggle with sadness, concentration, self-doubt and near-constant anxiety. After his ADHD diagnosis at the age of fifty-two, it all started to make sense.

In Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, Robin uses his own experiences to explore the fascinating world of neurodivergence and to ask what normal really is – and whether it even exists. Packed with personal insights, intimate anecdotes and interviews with therapists, neuroscientists and celebrities, this is a quirky and witty dive into the world of neuroscience and human behaviour.

A powerful, personal exploration of anxiety, ADHD and self-acceptance, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal reminds us all - no matter how weird we feel - that it’s okay to be a little different. 

Following the dicussion, there will be time for an audience Q+A, as well as a book signing with Robin.

Please note this event is 18+.

Tea and coffee will be provided. Feel free to bring your own tipple.

We are delighted to announce our next text lecture with Michael King will explore The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith.

To book your place, please click here.

Tea and coffee with be provided.

About the book -

Channelling a razor-sharp satire through the everyday mishaps of the immortal comic character Mr Pooter, George and Weedon Grossmith's The Diary of a Nobody is edited with an introduction and notes by Ed Glinert in Penguin Classics. Mr Pooter is a man of modest ambitions, content with his ordinary life. Yet he always seems to be troubled by disagreeable tradesmen, impertinent young office clerks and wayward friends, not to mention his devil-may-care son Lupin with his unsuitable choice of bride.

In the bumbling, absurd, yet ultimately endearing character of Pooter, the Grossmith brothers created a wonderful portrait of the class system and the inherent snobbishness of the suburban middle-class suburbia - one which sends up the late Victorian crazes for Aestheticism, spiritualism and bicycling, as well as the fashion for publishing diaries by anybody and everybody. This edition contains the original illustrations by Weedon Grossmith and an introduction by Ed Glinert, author of The London Compendium, discussing the novel's serialisation in Punch, the growth of the suburbs and the figure of Mrs Pooter. George Grossmith (1847-1912) initially worked as a journalist, reporting Police Court proceedings for The Times.

In 1870 he began his career as a singer and entertainer, creating some of the most memorable characters in Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas. Weedon Grossmith (1854-1919) brother of George, was educated at the Slade and the Royal Academy with a view to following a career as a painter, and exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Royal Academy. Joining a theatre company in 1885, he toured the provinces and America.

For June, our booksellers were set the task of choosing a book with the theme of humour. After considering a wide range of fantastic titles, we have decided on the newly published and debut English translation Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann.

To book your place, please click here.

The book club will be held upstairs in our reading rooms and are suitable for ages 18+ years.

About the book-

On a hillside near the quaint Irish village of Glennkill, the flock gathers around the dead body of their shepherd, George, who lies pinned to the ground with a spade. George cared deeply for the sheep, reading to them daily, and as a result they are far smarter than your average flock. Led by Miss Maple, the sharpest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world), they set out to find George's killer.

With an assortment of woolly investigators on the case, there are furtive missions into the village and a collection of two-legged suspects to chew over. Dazzingly original, Three Bags Full introduces a band of detectives who are a breed apart.

We are delighted to return to the Serge Hill Project for what promises to be an inspiring evening with Marian Boswall and her latest book The Kindest Garden.

To visit the Serge Hill Project website and to book your place onto the event, please click here.

Please note, this event is not held in-store at the bookshop, but rather in the The Apple House eco-barn at The Serge Hill Project.

About the event:

Change the world from your back garden.

Leading landscape designer Marian Boswall has worked on some of the UK’s most ambitious and innovative regenerative landscape projects. Join Marian in conversation with the Serge Hill Project Director and bestselling author Sue Stuart-Smith in the Apple House for a trail-blazing conversation drawing on, and celebrating the publication of, Marian’s new book The Kindest Garden: A Practical Guide to Regenerative Gardening, published this Spring.

A step-up from sustainable gardening, which focuses on minimising our impact on the earth, regenerative gardening is about making an active contribution to the health of the planet: nurturing and replenishing biodiversity and ourselves through our gardens. Whether you have a shady patio, a large plot of land or a windowsill–you can make an impact.

Drawing on lessons from forward-thinking farmers, foresters, re-wilders and nature itself, The Kindest Garden will show you how to make a garden that is both a beautiful sanctuary and a place where nature can thrive. Come to understand the key elements of a garden (soil, water, ecosystems, materials, energy and planting) on a deeper level and discover how to work with each one to co-create a garden that helps makes positive change. Apply in-depth practical knowledge to your projects and plan your planting to nourish the soil, yourself and others.

With practical takeaways, and drawing on a wealth of real-life projects, this evening will be perfect and full of inspiration for eco-conscious gardeners and designers who want to make a real difference.

Hosted in The Apple House eco-barn, in an old orchard, guests can explore Tom Stuart-Smith’s Plant Library of over 1500 herbaceous perennials and bulbs ahead of the talk and enjoy a drink while they do so.

We are delighted to announce our next poetry afternoon with lecturer Michael King will explore Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989 - 2014 by Simon Armitage.

To book your place, please click here.

Tea and coffee with be provide throughout the event.

About the book -

When Simon Armitage burst on to the poetry scene in 1989 with his spectacular debut Zoom!, readers were introduced to an exceptional new talent who would reshape the landscape of contemporary poetry in the years to come. Now, Armitage's reputation as one of the nation's most original, most respected and most influential poets seems secure. Paper Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014 is the author's own choice of work from across a quarter-century of publishing.

Drawing upon all of his award-winning poetry collections, including Kid, Book of Matches, The Universal Home Doctor, Seeing Stars and The Unaccompanied, as well as his medieval translations and verse dramas, Paper Aeroplane represents a generous and thrilling gathering of work from one of contemporary poetry's most essential voices.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning.

This event is charged and is suitable for 18+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

Classics can be intimidating. They have a reputation of being too highbrow and incomprehensible for us mere mortals. We at Books on the Hill, however, think that is just not true. Classics speak of a universal theme we all have first hand experience of: love, loss, friendship, hope. They are for all of us. To tackle this, come along to our Book Club focusing on "The Classics" from recent and not so recent history.

For May, along the theme of Travel, we have chosen Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne as our Classics Book Club book.

To book your place please click here, or to purchase a year long subscription to our Classics Book Club, please click here.

This Book Club will be held on the last Thursday of the month, and is suitable for ages 18+. Tea and coffee will be provided, as well as glasses should you chose to bring your own tipple.

About the book -

Jules Verne's most famous adventure. One night in the reform club, Phileas Fogg bets his companions that he can travel across the globe in just eighty days. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, he immediately sets off for Dover with his astonished valet Passepartout. Passing through exotic lands and dangerous locations, they seize whatever transportation is at hand - whether train or elephant - overcoming set-backs and always racing against the clock.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here or to purchase a year long subscription to our afterhours book club, please click here.

Please note this event is 18+.

We are delighted to announce our next lecture will explore the taut masterpiece The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark.

To book your place, please click here.

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

About the book~

Described as 'a metaphysical shocker' at the time of its release, Muriel Sparks' The Driver's Seat is a taut psychological thriller, published with an introduction by John Lanchester in Penguin Modern Classics. Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly-dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime.

But her search for adventure, sex and new experiences takes on a far darker significance as she heads on a journey of self-destruction. Infinity and eternity attend Lise's last terrible day in an unnamed southern city, as she meets her fate. One of six novels to be nominated for a 'Lost Man Booker Prize', The Driver's Seat was adapted into a 1974 film, Identikit, starring Elizabeth Taylor.

Muriel Spark (1918 - 2006) wrote poetry, stories, and biographies as well as a remarkable series of novels, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Mandelbaum Gate (1965) which received the James Tait Black Prize, and The Public Image (1968) and Loitering with Intent (1981), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Spark was awarded the T.S. Eliot Award for poetry in 1992, and the David Cohen Prize for literature in 1997.