Event Type : Fete's & Festivals

An excellent opportunity to see and hear leading British solicitor Nazir Afzal discussing his book, The Prosecutor. Nazir Afzal knows about justice. As a Chief Prosecutor, it was his job to make sure the most complex, violent and harrowing crimes made it to court, and that their perpetrators were convicted. Nazir was at the forefront of the British legal system for decades. Bu his story begins in Birmingham, in the sixties, as a young boy facing racist violence and the tragic death of a young family member – and it’s this that sets him on the path to his groundbreaking career, and which enables him to help communities that the conventional justice system ignores, giving a voice to the voiceless. A memoir of struggle and survival, as well as crime and punishment, The Prosecutor is both a searing insight into the justice system and a powerful story of one man’s pursuit of the truth.

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/the-prosecutor-with-nazir-afzal/

An amazing opportunity to hear Rick Stein discussing his book, Rick Stein At Home. Rick has spent his life travelling the world in search of cooking perfection and inspiring millions of food lovers with the results. In his new book, he takes stock of his remarkable life and takes us into the rhythms and rituals of his home cooking.

For Rick cooking at home is not all about dinner parties, it’s about nights in with your family, knocking a meal up from what’s in the fridge. It’s about having friends over for a bite to eat, making spectacular takeaway food, and simple joys.

In his first book to celebrate his all-time favourite home-cooked meals, Rick shares over 100 very special recipes – from family classics that evoke childhood memories, his Mum’s risotto and her favourite Apple Charlotte, along with stories that celebrate his favourite ingredients, food memories, family cooking moments and more.

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/rick-stein-at-home/

James O’Brien has made his name interrogating the opinions of his callers live on air. People are used to being asked ‘what’ their views are, but when James asks ‘why’ they think what they do, he is often met with surprising results.

In How Not To Be Wrong, James puts himself under the microscope, laying open his personal beliefs and opinions on everything from racial prejudice to showing emotions as he digs up the reasons – often irrational or unconscious – behind them.

James airs the toxic masculinity and traditional “stiff upper lip” attitude that coloured his childhood, and the therapy and personal growth that led him to question his views and continually explore new perspectives. How Not to Be Wrong also includes thought-provoking exchanges on unconscious bias, privilege and the right to be wrong, with some of his most popular interview guests, such as Akala and Malcolm Gladwell.

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/how-not-to-be-wrong-with-james-obrien/

We’re delighted to be welcoming back veteran foreign correspondent John Simpson, who’ll be talking about his new novel Our Friends in Beijing.

OLD FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES

Jon Swift is in trouble again. His journalism career is in freefall. He is too old to be part of the new world order and he has never learned to suck up to those in charge. But experience has taught him to trust his instincts.

When, for the first time in years, Jon runs into Lin Lifeng in a café in Oxford he wonders if the meeting is a coincidence. When Lin asks him to pass on a coded message, he knows it’s not. Once a radical student who helped Jon broadcast the atrocities of Tiananmen Square, Lin is now a well-dressed party official with his own agenda.

Travelling to Beijing, Jon finds himself under the watchful eyes of an international network of spies, double-agents and politicians, all with a ruthless desire for power.

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/our-friends-in-beijing-with-john-simpson/

We’re thrilled to welcome back acclaimed historian Alison Weir to Chorleywood, where she’ll be talking about her short story collection In the Shadow of Queens.

Behind every great king stands a queen. And behind every queen, the whole court watches on…

Over the years of his reign, six different women took their place beside King Henry VIII of England as his wife and queen.

But the real stories of the six Tudor queens belong to those who lived among them. Played out in glittering palaces and whispering courts, these are tales of the people who loved and served these women, and those who lied and betrayed them.

Collected together for the first time,

In the Shadow of Queens reveals thirteen startling stories from the Tudor court, told by those at the very heart of that world.

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/in-the-shadow-of-queens-alison-weir/

An excellent opportunity to see and hear leading historian and biographer Simon Heffer - discussing his new book, Henry 'Chips' Channon, The Diaries (vol 2).

This second volume of the bestselling diaries of Henry ‘Chips’ Channon takes us from the heady aftermath of the Munich agreement, when the Prime Minister Chips so admired was credited with having averted a general European conflagration, through the rapid unravelling of appeasement, and on to the tribulations of the early years of the Second World War. It closes with a moment of hope, as Channon, in recording the fall of Mussolini in July 1943, reflects: ‘The war must be more than half over.’

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/an-evening-with-simon-heffer/

Join the irrepressible Gyles Brandreth as he talks about his long-awaited autobiography Odd Boy Out.

In Odd Boy Out Gyles Brandreth provides an extraordinarily revealing account of growing up and coming of age in an apparently well-to-do but always strapped-for-cash middle-class English family.

It is a story about the ordinary things – family life, happiness, ambition, and love, but it is also about adventures – meeting princes and presidents, visiting Death Row in America.

By turns hilarious and moving, and chock full of unforgettable stories, Odd Boy Out is the unexpected and candid autobiography of one of the country’s most unlikely personalities. Yet at root it is a powerful and passionate exploration of childhood – how our heritage, our parents and our upbringing make us who we are.

Buy tickets here:

https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/an-evening-with-gyles-brandreth/

A wonderful opportunity to see and hear fashion writer and biographer Justine Picardie, discussing her new book, Miss Dior.

Miss Dior is a story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal, and how the polished surface of fashion conceals hidden depths.

It paints a portrait of the enigmatic woman behind the designer Christian Dior: his beloved younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. Picardie’s journey takes her to Occupied Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbrück.

With unparalleled access to the Dior family homes and archives, Picardie’s research into Catherine’s courageous life reveals how Christian's ‘New Look’ emerged out of the shadows of his sister’s suffering.

Buy tickets: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/miss-dior-with-justine-picardie/

In collaboration with The Windsor and Eton Society we are delighted to bring you an evening in with Marc Morris.

Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Grand cities and luxurious villas were deserted and left to crumble, and civil society collapsed into chaos. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters.

The Anglo-Saxons traces the turbulent history of these people across the next six centuries. Drawing on a vast range of original evidence – chronicles, letters, archaeology and artefacts – renowned historian Marc Morris illuminates a period of history that is only dimly understood, separates the truth from the legend, and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid.

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/marc-morris-live-stream-event/

We can’t wait to welcome back expert Cheesemonger Ned Palmer, to celebrate the publication of his brand new book.

A Cheesemonger’s Compendium introduces 150 of the finest cheeses from across the British Isles. It is a perfect companion for all of us hooked by Ned Palmer’s acclaimed Cheesemonger’s History.

Each cheese on Palmer’s cheeseboard is accompanied by a morsel of history or a dash of folklore, a description of its flavours, and an enticing illustration. Palmer peppers his book with stories of eccentric and colourful cheesemakers and celebrates both traditional farmhouse and modern artisanal cheeses – fresh, mould-ripened, washed-rind, blue and hard.

He explains how to buy your cheese like a monger, how to cut and store it, and how best to match it with drinks.

There will be samples of cheese to taste on the night, with the opportunity to also buy a glass of wine.

Buy tickets: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/a-cheesemongers-compendium-with-ned-palmer/

Comedian Robin Ince quickly abandoned science at school, bored by a fog of dull lessons and intimidated by the barrage of equations. But, twenty years later, he fell in love and he now presents one of the world’s most popular science podcasts. Every year he meets hundreds of the world’s greatest thinkers.

In this erudite and witty book, Robin reveals why scientific wonder isn’t just for the professionals. Filled with interviews featuring astronauts, comedians, teachers, quantum physicists, neuroscientists and more – as well as charting Robin’s own journey with science – The Importance of Being Interested explores why many wrongly think of the discipline as distant and difficult. From the glorious appeal of the stars above to why scientific curiosity can encourage intellectual humility, this profound book will leave you filled with a thirst for intellectual adventure.

Buy tickets here: https://chilternbookshops.co.uk/event/the-importance-of-being-interested-with-robin-ince/