Max Porter and LANNY

In this special event, Max Porter, winner of the 2016 Dylan Thomas Prize for his internationally-acclaimed ‘Grief is the Thing with Feathers’, joins Francesca Rhydderch to discuss and read from his globally anticipated, Booker longlisted novel, Lanny.

Followed by Q&A and book signing.

‘In came the sound of a song, warm on his creaturely breath.
My singing child,
bringing me gifts.
A second or two before I realise it’s not him. Lanny?’

‘It’s hard to express how much I loved Lanny. Books this good don’t come along very often. It’s a novel like no other, an exhilarating, disquieting, joyous read. It will reach into your chest and take hold of your heart. It’s a novel to press into the hands of everyone you know and say, read this.’
MAGGIE O’FARRELL

Max Porter’s first novel, ‘Grief Is the Thing with Feathers’, won the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Sunday Times/Peters, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year, the Europese Literatuurprijs and the BAMB Readers’ Award, and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. It has been translated into twenty-seven languages. His second novel ‘Lanny’ (Faber, 2019) has been longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. Max lives in Bath with his family.

In partnership with Cultural Institute – Swansea University

 

https://www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk/en/performances.php?id=58372

Bernard Hedges Glamorgan Cricket Swansea Book Launch

Come and join Stephen Hedges for the launch of his biography of his father: Bernard Hedges. Bernard played rugby for Pontypridd and Swansea, represented Great Britain at football, and was a widely respected cricketer with Glamorgan between 1950 and 1967.

‘Bernard was a true sportsman’ Don Shepherd
Truly, he was a hero’ Neil Kinnock
‘When it was my turn to face the bowlers, I often chose to be Bernard Hedges’ Sir Gareth Edwards

Bernard lived in Newton, Mumbles for the last 25 years of his life.

Stephen will be chatting and signing copies. Free!

Kitty Sewell: The Fault. Book Launch

Come and join international best-selling author Kitty Sewell for the Swansea launch of her new thriller – The Fault.

Saturday 28th September. In-store. 2PM.

Kitty Sewell was born in Sweden, but has joint British and Canadian nationality. She spent her adolescence in Spain and returned to live in Andalucia in 2003, keeping a foot each in Wales and Canada, and a hand in Sweden.

She has a background in psychotherapy, and alongside this career wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column on mental health, personal development and relationship issues. Looking to exercise her vivid imagination stimulated an interest in writing fiction. Her first novel ICE TRAP (2006) was the dissertation for an MA in Creative Writing, and was subsequently published to critical acclaim and translated into 14 languages.

Kitty’s novels hover around the genre of psychological suspense but don’t feature a lot of blood and gore (nor detective inspectors, forensic scientists or investigative journalists). Her interest lie in the sphere of hidden human frailties, sins, vices and weaknesses, and the webs from which their victims strive for solutions or escape. Her novels are set in locations that she find fascinating, and which often to come alive as characters in themselves.

Kitty’s novels have been shortlisted and longlisted for the Hay Festival Welsh Book of the Year

Shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger award

Won the BBC Radio Wales “The People’s Choice”

Selected as Bertelsmann’s Media International Book of the Month

Literary Guild Main Selection (USA)

Kitty will be signing and chatting from 2PM.

Stephen Hedges and Alan Wilkins. Cricket Book Launch and Signing.

Come and join Stephen Hedges for the launch of his biography of his father: Bernard Hedges. Bernard played rugby for Pontypridd and Swansea, represented Great Britain at football, and was a widely respected cricketer with Glamorgan between 1950 and 1967.

‘Bernard was a true sportsman’ Don Shepherd
Truly, he was a hero’ Neil Kinnock
‘When it was my turn to face the bowlers, I often chose to be Bernard Hedges’ Sir Gareth Edwards

Bernard lived in Newton, Mumbles for the last 25 years of his life.

Stephen will be joined by broadcaster, commentator and ex-Glamorgan and Gloucestershire cricketer, Alan Wilkins.

Stephen and Alan will be chatting and signing copies of their respective books.

An Evening With Warren Gatland

 

Cover To Cover presents: An evening with Warren Gatland.

Come and join the three-time Grand Slam-winning coach for the launch of his much-anticipated autobiography.

As he leaves his post as Head Coach of Wales at the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Gatland’s definitive autobiography provides a colourful and vivid chronicle of an extraordinary three decades at rugby’s dynamic coal-face.

His personal journey has been rewarding and challenging in equal measure, spanning many of the sport’s most passionate heartlands such as New Zealand, Ireland, England and Wales.

Gatland reflects in characteristically forthright and intelligent fashion on a lifetime spent playing and coaching the sport which has been his passion since as a young boy he first picked up an oval ball on New Zealand’s North Island, dreaming of joining the ranks of the mighty All Blacks.

Along the way we encounter the greatest matches, players and rivalries the sport has to offer. We are introduced to a stunning cast of unforgettable characters who grace the story with their humour and humanity, and emerge with a striking appreciation of how rugby has managed to retain its appeal for millions around the globe.

‘Gatland is the master’ Sir Ian McGeechan, Sunday Telegraph
‘Gatland is a coaching star’ Sir Clive Woodward, Mail on Sunday
‘Gats is one of the all-time great coaches’ Sam Warburton, The Sunday Times

Warren will be in conversation with rugby expert and broadcaster Phil Steele.

Tickets £25.00 include a pre-signed copy of the book (RRP £20.00) which can be collected on arrival.

The interview and audience Q&A will end at 8.30pm, after which Warren will have a limited time (1 hour max) to personally dedicate books for those who wish. He will not be signing any other books or merchandise.

Taliesin Arts Centre. Swansea University. Singleton Campus. Wednesday 20th November. 7.30PM

Tickets here or from shop –

sales@cover-to-cover.co.uk
01792 366363
www.cover-to-cover.co.uk

America, Aeronwy, And Me. Peter Thabit Jones. Dylan Thomas Tribute Tour.

We’re really pleased to announce the UK launch of Peter’s latest book – America, Aeronwy, And Me.

In April 2008, Swansea poet Peter Thabit Jones and Aeronwy Thomas, the daughter of Dylan Thomas, crossed America, from New York to California, on the Dylan Thomas Tribute Tour of America. The tour was organised by Stanley H. Barkan, their American publisher and a poet, in conjunction with Vince Clemente, American poet and critic. As a result of one of their events in Manhattan, Catrin Brace of the Welsh Government in New York commissioned them to write the first-ever Dylan Thomas Walking Tour of Greenwich Village, New York.

Peter Thabit Jones has authored fourteen books. He has participated in festivals and conferences in America and Europe and is an annual writer-in-residence in Big Sur, California. A recipient of many awards, including the Eric Gregory Award for Poetry (The Society of Authors, London) and the Homer: European Medal of Poetry and Art, two of his dramas for the stage have premiered in America. His opera libretti for Luxembourg composer Albena Petrovic Vratchanska have premiered at the Philarmonie Luxembourg and the National Opera House Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. Love and Jealousy, a full opera, will premiere at the Theatre National Du Luxembourg in December.

Tickets £4.00 available from shop.

Colin R Parsons Wizard’s Exile Book Launch

Come and join shop favourite Colin R Parsons, for the launch of his latest fantasy adventure: Wizard’s Exile.

The sky city of Valusha is now ruled by an evil overlord called Jenta-Lor. The former ruler and wizard, Obsidian has gone into exile, and has not been seen for many years.

There’s a weird band of misfits – a boy, an engineer and a wizard who have all been locked away in Skytraz Prison. No one has ever escaped from there – well it is thousands of feet above the earth. All seems hopeless.

But the wizard prisoner Rebus knows the layout of Skytraz Prison, so there just might be a chance to break out and get away. If so, can they find Obsidian, and what dangers are ahead?

Buckle up; there’s Magic, Sky Ships and Dragons in this roller coaster adventure ride.

Colin will be chatting and signing copies on the day.

Independent Bookshop Week. Children’s Author Tracey Corderoy. Free!

Come and join bestselling, award-winning, Neath-born author Tracey Corderoy as part of Independent Bookshop Week. Author of the hugely popular Shifty McGifty series, Tracey is launching book 2 in her Seaview Stables series: The Mystery at Stormy Point.

Author of over 45 books, Tracey was born and grew up in industrial South Wales and now lives in a hidden valley in Gloucestershire with her husband, two children and an ever-increasing menagerie of devilishly-cute-but-sometimes-rather-naughty pets. A trained teacher, Tracey has always had a passion for wonderful literature and began writing for children in 2006. Her head is happily crammed with countless ideas and stories and she’s loving the adventures that her characters insist they share . . .

Free! Crafts. Quiz. Activities. Fun!

Ages 5-11

Clare Mackintosh. Lunchtime Book Launch and Talk.

Come and join the award-winning, bestselling Clare Mackintosh for the launch of her latest book: After The End.

Clare’s first book I Let You Go was partly set in Gower (the fictional village of Penfach) and was a Sunday Times bestseller, also the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It was selected for both the Richard and Judy Book Club, and was the winning title of the readers’ vote for the summer 2015 selection, and ITV’s Loose Women’s Loose Books. Her second novel, I See You, is a number 1 Sunday Times bestseller, and a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Clare’s books are translated into more than 30 languages.

Clare Mackintosh spent twelve years in the police force, including time on CID, and as a public order commander. She left the police in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant now writes full time. She lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children

Tickets £5.00 including discount against book.

Tickets available from shop and here

Mike Jenkins & Alan Perry. Book Launch and Exhibition

Join Mike Jenkins and Alan Perry for an exhibition of illustrations from their collaboration – From Aberfan t Grenfell.

Mike is the former editor of ‘Poetry Wales’ and was co-editor of ‘Red Poets’ magazine for 25 years. He’s the winner of several awards including : Eric Gregory, John Tripp Prize for Spoken Poetry & Wales Book of the Year for ‘Wanting to Belong’, a collection of stories set in a Valleys town.

Swansea artist Alan Perry is a poet, painter and short story writer. His writing has appeared in The Sunday Times, Poetry Wales, The New Welsh Review, Planet, Poetry London/Apple Magazine, Cambrensis, Roundyhouse, and many others.
It has been broadcast on both TV and radio, and in 1998 He was one of the subjects of a BBC2 documentary called “Sea Views”, and has been exhibited regularly in Swansea and Cardiff.

From Aberfan t Grenfell is a book of Mike’s poetry illustrated by Alan. Hand-coloured illustrations will be on display and Mike will read.

Free!