Posts by Dominique Shead

Dear Festival Friends HERE WE GO! Stroud Book Festival 2023 is here! We are thrilled with all your support for this year’s programme, and are much looking forward to welcoming Festival goers to all our events over the next week. The Festival gets under way in style this evening with another sold-out Stroud Short Stories…

Dear Festival Friends With just over a week to go before our first 2023 Stroud Book Festival event (the now sold out Stroud Short Stories on Sunday 5th November), it’s time to buy your tickets if you haven’t done so already. Several more of our events are close to selling out, so please do book…

Dear Festival Friends Each year at Stroud Book Festival we take pride in featuring a host of Gloucestershire authors in our programme and this year is no exception. Read on for a selection of events starring writers from close to home…why not join us in supporting them by booking a local ticket or two?  …

Ten years ago this month, an utter delight called “Love, Nina”, by a first-time author from Leicestershire landed on my desk. Writing in my preview for November 2013, I described it as “Adrian Mole meets Mary Poppins, mashed-up in literary North London”. Acclaim, awards, four novels and a BBC TV adaptation of “Love, Nina” by…

Dear Festival Friends We hope by now you’ve been able to browse through our 2023 Stroud Book Festival brochure either in printed form or at stroudbookfestival.org.uk, and are looking forward to being part of our annual celebration of stories, ideas and community in a little over three weeks’ time. If you’re still deciding which events…

Dear Festival Friends In a little over 4 weeks, Stroud Book Festival 2023 will get under way. Our first event is “Love is Strange” – the 26th event from the brilliant Stroud Short Stories, on Sunday 5thNovember. Tickets go on sale on Friday 13th October from the Cotswold Playhouse website but you’ll need to be…

Dear Festival Friends We’re delighted to announce that our 2023 Stroud Book Festival printed brochure is out now. Containing full details of all this year’s events taking place from 8th – 12th November, and with a striking cover design by our 2023 illustrator, Hannah Dyson, it is available to pick up from Stroud Bookshop, Stroud…

A “Wild Swans” for Ukraine is how I’ve come to think of “The Rooster House: A Ukrainian Family Memoir” by Victoria Belim. An enthralling, richly-layered story, told across four generations, it’s a major 2023 title for Virago, was one of the most talked-about books at London Book Fair 2022, and is set to be published…

At the tender age of five, we learn in the opening chapters of his book, “Everything is Everything: A Memoir of Love, Hate and Hope”, the BBC’s Clive Myrie was so terrified on his first day at St Michael’s Church of England School in Bolton, that he threw up in the classroom. Almost 55 years…

Today we’re thrilled to launch our official illustration for Stroud Book Festival 2023, specially commissioned from local artist and illustrator, Hannah Dyson. The launch of our original Festival design each year is always a hugely exciting moment for us. Committed as we are to supporting creators here in the Five Valleys, each year we commission…