Blog

History That Hurts with Todd Gray

03 Jun 2025

As our winter/spring Afternoon Author series drew to a close, we were privileged to welcome Dr Todd Gray MBE to The Bookery for a thought-provoking session on Writing Challenging History in Devon. Known for his meticulous research and dedication—working twelve-hour days, six days a week—Dr Gray has published over fifty books that explore lesser-known aspects of Devon’s history. Guests were … Read more

A Magical Morning with Julia Donaldson!

30 May 2025

Hosting the UK’s bestselling author at The Bookery? Wow. Just wow. We had the absolute honour of welcoming Julia Donaldson CBE last weekend, and what an action-packed morning it was— book signings, photos, and a whole lot of happy readers! The excitement was palpable as children eagerly exchanged their Gozzle tokens for a copy of Julia’s latest book before lining … Read more

A Full House, Wild Words, and the Future of the Land

27 May 2025

On a delightful spring evening at The Bookery, a packed house gathered to welcome conservationist, author, editor, and columnist Patrick Galbraith for a rich and vibrant conversation about land, access, and identity in the British countryside. Just 24 hours earlier, the High Court had ruled in favour of restoring the right to wild camp on Dartmoor — a landmark decision … Read more

Folklore, Cake And Conversation

19 May 2025

We were delighted to welcome a full house once again for a truly spellbinding evening of folklore and storytelling, embellished by an amazing of themed cake that Alexandra had baked for us to all enjoy! This special event celebrated the rich folkloric traditions of Devon, led by Crediton’s own Mark Norman, author of The Folklore of Devon, in conversation with … Read more

Who Knew Crime Could Be So Fun?!

02 May 2025

A Thursday night, a full house in The Bookery with three Crime authors and the only incident to report being an abundance of laughter! Perhaps not be the plot design for a typical police procedural, but we had a fabulous evening with Orlando Murrin, Diane Jeffrey and Tina Orr Munro who each provided us with a crime fiction masterclass. Kicking … Read more

Sarah Easter Collins Breaks Into The Bookery

29 Apr 2025

For our latest Afternoon Author event and after a couple of false starts we were thrilled to finally welcome Sarah Easter Collins to The Bookery who was joined in conversation by our very own expert interviewer Alison Sweatman. On a lovely sunny afternoon, we were so happy to have several of our wonderful supporters join us for a really special … Read more

‘Honesty’ Is The Best Policy (with Lucy Brazier)

28 Apr 2025

The Bookery was delighted to welcome author and freelance writer Lucy Brazier for our most recent author event. We had hoped that Lucy was to be joined in conversation by her good friend, novelist, TV scriptwriter and journalist Veronica Henry but she (understandably) had to withdraw due to her son having an operation on his ankle that afternoon. We all, … Read more

Walking The Shetland Way (With Marianne Brown!)

01 Apr 2025

Five years on from the start of the pandemic, The Bookery marked this somewhat melancholy anniversary by welcoming author and environmental journalist Marianne Brown, who’s recently launched book The Shetland Way was conceived in the first months of lockdown. Marianne arrived in Voe, Shetland with her partner and daughter in February 2020 to attend her father’s funeral having packed only … Read more

Poetry at The Bookery with Michael Hartland

27 Mar 2025

For the first session of our Spring sessions of Afternoon Author events we were delighted to welcome local poet and friend of The Bookery Michael Hartland, who opened his talk inviting the audience to recall a memorable experience from the natural world and to think of a word or phrase to describe this experience. Before proceeding to read extracts from … Read more