Village Books

Join Village Books & Alleyn’s Schools Enterprises for an evening with bestselling and multi-award-winning author, Meera Sodha. Dinner: 120 vegan and vegetarian recipes for the most important meal of the day is the new book from the Guardian columnist, and is a fresh and joyful celebration of the power of a good meal. Discover vibrant, easy-to-make vegetarian and vegan main dishes bursting with flavour, including baked butter paneer, kimchi and tomato spaghetti and aubergines roasted in satay sauce. There are also ludicrously delicious desserts, such as coconut and cardamom dream cake and bubble tea ice cream, and versatile and surprising side dishes, including salt and vinegar potato salad and asparagus and cashew thoran. From quick-cook recipes to one-pan wonders, Dinner is the essential companion for the most important meal of the day. Meera Sodha is a cook and a food writer, renowned for her Asian-inspired, meat-free recipes. She writes the Guardian’s weekly ‘The New Vegan’ column, and is the author of three best-selling cookbooks: Made in India, Fresh India and East. She cooks, writes and lives in London with her husband and daughter. Tickets: Standard ticket: £12 Book & ticket £37 (includes a copy of Dinner, book RRP £27) Concession ticket (under 18s): £10 Book tickets HERE

Village Books and Alleyn’s Schools Enterprises are delighted to host an evening with three-Michelin starred chef Pierre Koffmann celebrating a new edition of his award-winning cookbook Memories of Gascony With recipes and reminiscences from his grandparents’ home in rural Gascony, this is an intimate account of school holidays spent on the farm helping his grandfather to harvest and hunt, and learning to treasure seasonality, simplicity and the best ingredients at his grandmother’s side. The recipes stand the test of time and speak to the food tastes and trends of today. While you read the charming stories of everyday life on the farm, you’ll devour the cuisine as you go along. “If you do not own a copy of Pierre Koffmann’s glorious Memories of Gascony your cookbook collection is not complete. Brilliant to read; even better to cook from.” Jay Rayner Pierre Koffmann has been at the heart of fine cuisine in Britain for nearly fifty years. After working as a young chef in France, Koffmann arrived in London in 1970 to work under Michel and Albert Roux at Le Gavroche and then the Waterside Inn. Within six years of opening, La Tante Claire had its third Michelin star. Between them Koffmann’s protégés now boast over twenty Michelin stars in their own right. Tickets: Standard ticket: £12 Book & ticket: £35 (includes a copy of Memories of Gascony, book RRP £35) Concession ticket: £10 Book tickets HERE

Outside In: A Year of Growing & Displaying is the first book from celebrated garden designer, popular Instagrammer and advocate of English cottage style, Sean A Pritchard, showing how to plan your garden so you can display flowers and foliage in your home through the year. From the cheery joy of early spring daffodils to the velvety richness of late-summer dahlias, the deep glow of golden autumn leaves to the optimism of latewinter catkins, Sean explains how to grow, harvest, and arrange an abundance of nature’s treasure – no matter the size of your plot or your level of horticultural experience. ‘I devoured this sumptuously British step-by-gorgeous-step guide to when to seed, plant and pluck in a single sitting.’ – Richard E. Grant ‘As soon as I opened this book, I couldn’t stop racing through the exquisite photos and words which invite and transport you into the author’s beautiful home, another world with details and ideas that you want to bring back with you. There’s a touch of magic on every page… this book is utterly beautiful and totally inspirational, written in a way that fills the reader with confidence at the same time as enchanting them.’ – Jo Thompson Sean A Pritchard has designed two show gardens for Macmillan Cancer Support, including the Macmillan Legacy Garden at the prestigious RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival in 2022. He divides his time between London and Somerset – where he lives in a 300-year-old farm labourer’s cottage on the Mendip Hills, overlooking the Somerset Levels. He applies much of his garden design philosophy to the decoration ofthe cottage, which he shares on his popular Instagram account, @sean_anthony_pritchard Tickets: Standard ticket: £12 (includes a glass of wine/soft drink) Book tickets HERE

Clare Chambers, award-winning author of Small Pleasures is back with a new novel exploring love, family, and the joy of freedom. Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with Gil: a charismatic, married doctor. One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen’s home. A thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, with a beard down to his waist, has been discovered along with his elderly aunt. It is clear he has been shut up in the house for decades, but when it emerges that William is a talented artist, Helen is determined to discover his story. Shy Creatures is a life-affirming novel about all the different ways we can be confined, how ordinary lives are built of delicate layers of experience, the joy of freedom and the transformative power of kindness. Clare Chambers’s first job after university was working for Diana Athill at André Deutsch. Her first novel Uncertain Terms was published in 1992 and she is the author of eight other novels. Small Pleasures, her first work of fiction in ten years, became a word-of-mouth hit on publication, was selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers book club and for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. It also won Pageturner of the Year Award at the British Book Awards 2022 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021. Tickets: Standard ticket: £12 Book & ticket: £30 (includes a copy of Shy Creatures, book RRP £22) Concession ticket (Under 18s): £10 Book tickets HERE

Robert Harris is back with a new masterpiece… Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history. Seamlessly weaving fact and fiction in a way that no writer does better, Precipice is the thrilling new novel from Robert Harris. Robert Harris is the author of fifteen bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy – Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator – Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, The Fear Index, An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2 and Act of Oblivion. His work has been translated into forty languages and nine of his books have been adapted for cinema and television. Tickets: Standard ticket: £12 Book & ticket: £32 (includes a copy of Precipice, book RRP £22) Concession ticket (Under 18) : £10 Book tickets HERE

Meet multi-million-copy selling, award-winning author (and former Children’s Laureate) Cressida Cowell, creator of the How to Train Your Dragon (also a DreamWorks film and TV franchise) series. Cressida will be signing her latest bestselling book, Which Way Round The Galazy, and her other books, too. Bring along your own sketchbook for Cressida to see, and get a free sticker sheet with each book of Which Way Round The Galaxy. No tickets required!

Come and celebrate the 25th birthday of the Gruffalo with a special day of events! The Gruffalo will be touring the country and will be at our bookshop on Sunday 19th May from 2pm to 5pm. Meet the Gruffalo and get your photo taken! Our brilliant face-painter will be here doing free face painting from 1.30om and we’ll have fabulous free helium balloons. There will also be 15% off children’s books all day. Plus, we’ll have a special birthday cake to wish the Gruffalo a very Happy Birthday! No tickets required!

The fantastically funny and relatable Lottie Brooks series, written and illustrated by number one children’s bestseller Katie Kirby, is filled with first experiences, friendship fails, embarrassing moments and plenty of laughs. And so is this event! Can Lottie get through term without leaving chaos in her wake, and with her BFFs intact? Join Katie to find out – and don’t forget your notebook and pens as there will be draw-along fun for all! Tickets: £8 (including Eventbrite fee) Book tickets HERE A Village Books and Dulwich Festival event

Join us for an evening with bestselling author and entrepreneur, Ella Mills. Ella is a champion of plant-based living. She started the popular recipe website, deliciouslyella.com, before releasing a #1 app and writing the fastest selling debut cookbook in the UK, Deliciously Ella, which was named Amazon’s biggest-selling book in the year of publication and was a New York Times bestseller. She has since released a further five bestselling books and built a social media audience of approximately 4 million people. In 2015 Ella started working with her husband, Matthew Mills, and together they have launched over 100 plant-based food products into 10,000+ stores across the UK and globally, with customers including Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons, Waitrose, Holland and Barrett, Boots, Sainsburys and more. With a team of almost 50 people, they’re running one of the fastest growing food brands in the UK. They have also opened a London restaurant, Plants, dedicated to showing the breath of plant-based cooking. Ella will be chatting to journalist Hannah MacInnes. Tickets: £15 (plus Eventbrite fee) Book tickets HERE A Village Books and Dulwich Festival event

What’s the connection between Shakespeare and maths? A lot, as it turns out! Shakespeare grew up in a time of remarkable mathematical innovation. From astronomy to probability, music to multiplication, new mathematical ideas were taking off – and much of this was reflected in his work. In this highly engaging book, award-winning author Rob Eastaway explores the surprising and entertaining ways that maths and numbers crop up in Shakespeare’s plays. Find out how Tudors multiplied, why Shakespeare never ended a line with the word orange, and why dice-playing was a serious hazard for the unwary. With historical asides about games, optics, astronomy, music and magic, you will never think about maths, history or Shakespeare the same way again. Tickets: £12 (Plus Eventbrite fee) Book tickets HERE A Village Books and Dulwich Festival event

From the popular tech journalist and Movers and Shakers podcaster, also known across the world for documenting his journey with rescue dog #SophiefromRomania, comes a moving memoir in search of the truth behind his isolated childhood and absent father. Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees. But until his mother died and he found a file labelled ‘For Rory’ he had no idea of the extent of their relationship, and why his unconventional childhood had so tested the bond between him and his mother. ‘For Rory,’ his mother had written on the file, ‘in the hope that it will help him understand how it really was …’ Tickets: £12 (including Eventbrite fee) Book tickets HERE A Village Books and Dulwich Festival event

Join us for an evening of murder and mystery as local crime writers Abigail Dean, Christie Watson and Susan Allott talk about how they keep the reader guessing. Three best-selling writers explore how secrets and lies from the past drive dilemmas and betrayal in the future. Abigail Dean is the author of bestselling Girl A; her new novel is Day One which follows the after-effects of a tragic shooting in a small community. Christie Watson, is the author of The Language of Kindness and was a nurse in the NHS for 20 years. Moral Injuries is her debut crime novel. Susan Allott is author of The House on Rye Lane, a taut thriller following the lives of three different inhabitants of a house in Peckham. Tickets: £12 (plus Eventbrite fee) Book tickets HERE A Village Books and Dulwich Festival event

2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. The empire’s influence upon the quarter of the planet it occupied, and its gravitational influence upon the world outside it, has been profound: from the spread of Christianity by missionaries to nearly 1 in 3 driving on the left side of the road, and even shaping the origins of international law. Yet Britain’s idea of its imperial history and the world’s experience of it are two very different things. ­­ In Empireworld, award-winning author and journalist, Sathnam Sanghera extends his examination of British imperial legacies beyond Britain. Travelling the globe to trace its international legacies – from Barbados and Mauritius to India and Nigeria and beyond – Sanghera demonstrates just how deeply British imperialism is baked into our world. And why it’s time Britain was finally honest with itself about empire. ‘A remarkable and important work – one that is finely judged, beautifully written and not just a welcome corrective but a book for our times. This is essential reading. – Peter Frankopan Tickets: £12 (plus Eventbrite fee) Buy tickets HERE A Village Books and Dulwich Festival event

Two days after his eighteenth birthday, Kenny Imafidon was charged with the murder of a seventeen-year-old boy in south-east London. The middle child of a single mother with ambitions for her children, Kenny grew up near an estate in Peckham where deprivation and hopelessness were rife, and gang culture flourished in his community. Kenny faced a minimum of thirty years behind bars – longer than the life he had lived. When the case against Kenny collapsed, he quickly realised that his name was still inextricably linked with a horrific crime he hadn’t committed. He decided to rewrite his story. It began with The Kenny Report, which he delivered to the House of Commons and which detailed the experiences of marginalised young people who drift into gangs, and has led to extensive work with charities, communities and policy-makers that is helping to change the narratives of other young people just like Kenny. A candid and unfiltered take on some of the most challenging topics that define our times, That Peckham Boy is a personal manifesto exploring what it means to be young, Black and poor in the city. It is shaped by Kenny’s difficult childhood, his transformative time in prison, and the people and conversations that took him from being on trial for murder into the company of some of the most successful people in the world. Tickets: £12 (plus Eventbrite fee) Book tickets HERE A Village Books and Dulwich Festival event

Award-winning and bestselling cook Anna Jones is back with a new book – Easy Wins: 12 flavour hits, 125 delicious recipes, 365 days of good eating. In Easy Wins, Anna gives her golden rules for Easy Wins in the kitchen with super-simple recipes that are bursting with flavour and kind to both the planet and busy schedules. Anna will be chatting to journalist and author Felicity Cloake about the 12 hero ingredients that are guaranteed to make your food taste great: lemons, olive oil, onions, peanut butter, mustard, tahini and more. In Easy Wins, Anna distils over 20 years of experience on how to layer flavour and texture. There’s also practical advice on how to season plus plenty of ideas for invaluable vegetarian swaps as well as how to reduce waste and use less energy when cooking. Easy Wins will soon become your go-to for the most flavourful dishes that come together quickly and prom­ise daily moments of triumph. Anna Jones is a cook, writer, the voice of modern vegetarian cooking and the author of the bestselling One: Pot, Pan, Planet, A Modern Way to Eat, A Modern Way to Cook and The Modern Cook’s Year. “A peek into Anna’s kitchen cupboards—and her best-kept secrets. For when it’s 8pm, you’re starving, and you want a Tuesday night triumph. An easy, honest, delicious win.” Yotam Ottolenghi Tickets: Standard ticket: £12 Book & ticket: £37 (includes a copy of Easy Wins by Anna Jones, book RRP £28). Buy tickets

Spend an afternoon with ‘National Treasure’ Michael Rosen to celebrate the publication of Getting Better in paperback. Chosen by the Guardian and the BBC as one of their ‘Books of 2023’, Getter Better is an essential companion for anyone who has loved and lost, or struggled and survived. Michael Rosen has grieved the loss of a child, lived with debilitating chronic illness, and faced death itself when seriously unwell in hospital. In spite of this he has survived and has even learned to find joy in life in the aftermath of tragedy. In Getting Better, he shares his story and the lessons he has learned along the way. Exploring the roles that trauma and grief have played in his own life, Michael investigates the road to recovery, asking how we can find it within ourselves to live well again after – or even during – the darkest times of our lives. ‘If I could prescribe Getting Better to the entire nation, I would…It’s a book that inspires hope, courage and belief in humanity. Basically, it reminds you how to live. I loved every single word.’ Dr Rachel Clarke Please note, this event is suitable for ages 15+ Tickets: One ticket and one book: £20 (includes one copy of Getting Better by Michael Rosen, book RRP £10.99) Two tickets and one book £30 (includes one copy of Getting Better by Michael Rosen, book RRP £10.99) Book tickets HERE

The Dulwich Village Christmas Stocking Event is back! Come along and support some brilliant independent businesses and get your Christmas shopping started. There will be festive music in the village from 12pm, including the PopChoir singing at 2pm outside Harold George. There's also a Nutty’s Children’s Disco from 2-4pm at St Barnabas Parish Hall. Mystery Stocking Hunt for children throughout the village - details to follow! Plus festive fun, food and drinks at many of our Dulwich Village businesses. A FREE EVENT brought to you in partnership with The Dulwich Estate, Southwark Council and Dulwich Village Traders.

From the popular tech journalist and Movers and Shakers podcaster, also known across the world for documenting his journey with rescue dog #SophiefromRomania, comes a moving memoir in search of the truth behind his isolated childhood and absent father. Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees. But until his mother died and he found a file labelled ‘For Rory’ he had no idea of the extent of their relationship, and why his unconventional childhood had so tested the bond between him and his mother. ‘For Rory,’ his mother had written on the file, ‘in the hope that it will help him understand how it really was …’ Rory Cellan-Jones was the BBC’s principal technology correspondent until 2021. He now writes an influential Substack column on medical innovation and tech. Through this and his 320k+ twitter followers @ruskin147 he spreads awareness of technological developments in the fields of medicine, health care and – more specifically – Parkinson’s. Together with Jeremy Paxman and several others he has begun a new podcast on Parkinson’s called Movers and Shakers. Tickets: Book & Ticket: £30 (includes a copy of Ruskin Park, Book RRP £16.99) Standard ticket: £15 Under 18s ticket: £12 Book tickets HERE

Explore some craft gin and enjoy an evening of tasting with award winning writer and gin expert Anthony Gladman. Anthony will guide you through the tasting notes of each gin and advise on picking the perfect gin and garnish combination, whilst sampling four different gins from craft distilleries including Hayman’s London Dry Gin and Jensen’s Old Tom Gin. Anthony’s new book, Gin A Tasting Course, is a flavour-first guide to one of the world’s favourite spirits. This highly illustrated book puts you on the pathway to developing your palate and writing your own tasting notes with a selection of classic cocktails plus the iconic gin and tonic. The book also explores gin’s history, distillation and ingredients and features tasting notes for over 100 of the world’s most exciting classic, floral, citrus, herbal, fruity, spiced, and savoury gins. Anthony Gladman was named the Guild of Food Writers drinks writer of the year in 2022. He believes the key to everyday happiness lies in drinking better, not more, and he helps readers pursue this through a focus on flavour deepened by an understanding of the liquid in your glass. If you see him at the bar he’ll have a dry martini. Tickets: £15 Book tickets HERE

We’re delighted to present an evening with Rory Stewart, former MP and Cabinet Minister, and co-host, with Alastair Campbell, of the hugely popular podcast, The Rest is Politics. Rory will be discussing his latest book Politics on the Edge: A Memoir from Within which has become an instant bestseller. Politics on the Edge details Rory’s time from being a political outsider to standing against Boris Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership contest in 2019, and being sacked from the party in the same year. Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow and inadequate our democracy and government had become. Rory Stewart served in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development, and before that as Prisons Minister, Minister for Africa, Minister for Development, Environment Minister and Chair of the Defence Committee. Stewart is now the president of the non-profit organisation GiveDirectly, and a visiting fellow at Yale’s Jackson School. He tweets at @RoryStewartUK. Tickets: £30 (includes a copy of Politics on the Edge, book RRP £22) Book tickets HERE Please note: Each ticket includes a copy of Politics on the Edge (£22). Rory is doing a very limited number of events to promote his book and we’re honoured he’s chosen Village Books and Alleyn’s School to be one of them. We are always mindful of the cost of our events but have to balance the requirements of publishers for events they allow us to host, which was to include a copy of the book with each ticket. Photo credit: Tom Campbell

Published to coincide with a major new V&A exhibition, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie contains never-seen-before images from the Chanel archives and recently discovered portraits of Coco Chanel. Justine Picardie has spent over twenty years exploring the truth about the mystery that was Coco Chanel. In this revised, updated version of her bestselling biography, Picardie shares more details and previously unseen images of the woman who has had such a profound influence on the modern world. Coco Chanel was the most extraordinary creative. The inventor of the Little Black Dress (LBD), the bob haircut, trousers for women, contemporary chic, a globally bestselling perfume and founder of the most successful fashion brand of all time, she was also an enigma, fashioning the myth of her own life with the same attention to detail as her couture. Justine Picardie is the author of six books, including her bestselling memoir If the Spirit Moves You and Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture. She is a contributing editor to Harper’s Bazaar, having previously been its editor-in-chief. She was formerly an investigative journalist for the Sunday Times, a columnist for the Telegraph, editor of the Observer Magazine, editor of Town & Country and features director of Vogue. Tickets: Standard ticket: £15 Concession ticket £12 *Early bird offer* Book & ticket: £40 (includes a copy of Coco Chanel by Justine Picardie, RRP £35) – This offer is valid until midnight on Sunday 23rd October. From Monday 24th October: Book & ticket £45 (includes a copy of Coco Chanel by Justine Picardie, RRP £35) Book tickets

Join Village Books for a wine tasting evening with Oz Clarke, one of the world’s leading wine experts. There will be four wines to taste: a sparkling wine, two white wines, and one red wine, all chosen by Oz. Revised and updated by Oz, the latest edition of Oz Clarke’s History of Wine brings the story of wine to the present day. Join Oz on a journey through the ages as he explores the places, the people and the bottles that have shaped the captivating history of wine. Oz explores the flavours, the labels, the vineyards and the people who have influenced wine through the centuries from the medieval Cistercian monks of Burgundy, to scientists like Pasteur and Peynaud, who improved key technical aspects of winemaking and 20th-century giants like Robert Mondavi and Robert Parker Jr. He also writes about famous vintages and discusses the impact of changing climate on winemaking around the world. Tickets: Book & ticket: £55 (includes a signed copy of Oz Clarke’s Story of Wine, book RRP £30) Standard ticket: £30 Book tickets

When a young American academic Talissa Adam offers to carry another woman’s child, she has no idea of the life-changing consequences. Behind the doors of the Parn Institute, a billionaire entrepreneur plans to stretch the boundaries of ethics as never before. Through a series of IVF treatments, which they hope to keep secret, they propose an experiment that will upend the human race as we know it. Seth, the baby, is delivered to hopeful parents Mary and Alaric, but when his differences start to mark him out from his peers, he begins to attract unwanted attention. The Seventh Son is a spectacular examination of what it is to be human. It asks the question: just because you can do something, does it mean you should? This is an extraordinary novel about unrequited love and unearned power. Tickets: Book & Ticket : £35 (includes a copy of The Seventh Son, book RRP £22) Standard ticket: £15 Under 18s: £12 Book tickets HERE A Village Books and Alleyn's School Enterprises event.

The nation’s favourite gardener, Monty Don, is coming to Dulwich! Monty will be visiting us on Monday 6th November at James Allen’s Girls School on Monday 6th November to discuss his new book The Gardening Book. ‘Think of your garden like a meal. When you select a recipe, you’re choosing it based on inclination, experience and circumstance. Making a garden, big or small, uses exactly the same process.’ With Monty Don’s new book as a guide you will discover just how joyful and rewarding gardening can be. Whether you want to grow your own veg, create a child-friendly garden, connect with nature, or make the most of houseplants, Monty will help you unlock your space’s potential, showing you what, where and when to plant. The Gardening Book gives you the basics to grow over 100 popular flowers, foods, shrubs, houseplants and more – each one has a clear, concise, format: what you need, timing, method, and step-by-step photos, all on one spread. It’s a refreshingly accessible approach that will help you build a garden which best serves your needs and enhances your lifestyle. Please note: Each ticket includes a signed copy of The Gardening Book (RRP £28). Monty is doing a very limited number of events to promote his book and we’re honoured he’s chosen Village Books and James Allen’s Girls’ School to be one of them. We are always mindful of the cost of our events but have to balance the requirements of publishers for events they allow us to host, which was to include a copy of the book with each ticket. Monty will be taking part in a book signing after the event. Tickets: £35. This ticket includes a signed copy of The Gardening Book by Monty Don (book RRP £28) Ticket link: https://www.trybooking.co.uk/CQQV

M. G. Leonard, the award-winning bestselling author of the Adventures on Trains series and Twitch, dazzles in The Ice Children, a future classic with a powerful message at its core. At the stroke of midnight on the dawn of December, five-year-old Finn Albedo is found frozen in the city park standing on a pedestal of ice. His heart is beating, he is smiling serenely, but no one can wake him. Finn’s big sister, Bianca, suspects that the beautiful sparkling book Finn got from the library has something to do with it, but the book has vanished. Does the tall mysterious stranger who first discovered Finn know more than they will admit? Each day, more children are found frozen and Bianca realizes she’s running out of time. Her quest to discover the truth and rescue her little brother hurls her into a fantastical winter wonderland, full of beauty and danger, w here all is not as it seems. Can Bianca save her brother and the other Ice Children before they are forever lost? M.G.Leonard will be at Village Books signing copies of The Ice Children. No tickets required!