Fiona Sampson, acclaimed poet and biographer of Mary Shelley, will be in conversation with Manderley Press Publisher Rebeka Russell to discuss a new collection of Mary Shelley’s work - all of which was written during, and inspired by, the short yet influential time she spent living in Bath.

Mary Shelley in Bath is a celebration of Mary's journals and letters from this period - collated together for the very first time. It also includes the chapter of Frankenstein penned during her stay in Bath, and three short stories inspired by her time in our historic literary city.

This portion of her life and work has been largely unexamined until now, and yet this short four-month stay in Bath was probably the most important of Mary's life. It was a time of significant personal upheaval combined with vital literary development.

Does this electrifying combination of personal and professional factors suggest that Frankenstein was set in Bath itself? By investigating how a place can shape a writer's life and work, this talk will shed fresh light on Mary's life and legacy.

Tickets: £10/9

Please join us for a very special Christmas celebration of the new Manderley Press edition of China Court - the vintage novel by Rumer Godden, introduced by Linda Grant, and hosted at the beautiful National Trust Lamb House, Rye - where the author once lived.

We are delighted that the New York Times best-selling author Jean Hanff Korelitz will join the team at Lutyens & Rubinstein bookshop in London on May 11th for a daylight event. Jean will discuss her cousin Helene Hanff, and the brand-new Manderley Press edition of her book ‘Letter from New York’ with bookshop manager Claire Harris. Book your tickets here!

Join us at Golden Hare on Thursday 10th of November 2022 for a special book group discussing Jerrard Tickell's novel, Appointment with Venus. We're so pleased that we'll be joined by Rosa Rankin-Gee, who wrote the introduction for this new edition, so it will be an evening not to miss!

If you're after an evening of lively discussion, this may be the event for you. By purchasing the book you reserve your space in our book group, which will take place at 6.30pm in our shop in Stockbridge. Any questions? We're happy to help, just get in touch via email!

It is 1940. The world is at war, and all that stands between England and Nazi-occupied Europe is the tiny (fictitious) Channel Island of Armorel - controlled by German soldiers but still home to loyal villagers, a pacifist painter ... and a pedigree Guernsey cow named Venus.

A plot is hatched by the War Office in London to liberate Venus - and so this intrepid adventure begins, combining romantic young love and patriotic heroism with submarine missions, enemy action, wartime tragedy and cow-napping.

Jerrard Tickell (author of Odette - a memoir of the celebrated SOE agent) wrote Appointment with Venus in 1951 while lodging in Le Manoir on Sark - a grand old house that was once home to the island's feudal Seigneurs, and which also served as German HQ during the Occupation.

Tickell was inspired by Sark's real-life recent history after hearing about the evacuation of cattle from the Channel Islands during the Second World War. His story went on to be enormously successful, both as this bestselling novel and as the acclaimed film of the same name, starring David Niven and Glynis Johns.

The Hastings Bookshop and Manderley Press are delighted to present an evening with Rosa Rankin-Gee.

Join us to chat all things Appointment with Venus – the new book introduced by Rosa.

Rosa Rankin-Gee was 23 when she left university and spent the summer on Sark, working as a private cook. The Last Kings of Sark, the novella she wrote set on the island, went on to win Shakespeare & Company’s international Paris Literary Prize, and was published by Virago in 2013 and Scribner in 2022. Her writing has been described as “a cross between Françoise Sagan and Nell Dunn” (Marie Claire) and “Enthralling… Blazing bright” (The Guardian); her work has appeared in The Guardian, Esquire, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. Rosa lives between London and the Kentish seaside.
www.rosarankingee.com

About the book

It is 1940. The world is at war, and all that stands between England and Nazi-occupied Europe is the tiny (fictitious) Channel Island of Armorel – controlled by German soldiers but home to loyal villagers, a pacifist painter … and a pedigree Guernsey cow named Venus.

A plot is hatched by the War Office in London to liberate Venus – and so this intrepid adventure begins, combining romantic young love and patriotic heroism with submarine missions, enemy action, wartime tragedy and cow-napping.

Jerrard Tickell penned this book while lodging in Le Manoir on Sark – a grand old house that was once home to the island’s feudal Seigneurs, and which also served as German Headquarters during the occupation.

Appointment with Venus was thus inspired by Sark’s real-life history; after hearing about the evacuation of cattle from the Channel Islands during the Second World War, Tickell’s re-telling of the story was enormously successful, both as this bestselling novel and as the acclaimed film of the same name, starring David Niven and Glynis Johns.

Join us at the Edinburgh Bookshop on November 13th 2021 to celebrate the launch of the very first Manderley Press title - Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson.