Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here.

Please note this event is 18+.

We are delighted to announce our next lecture will explore Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place, please click here.

About the book~

'Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.' George and his large, simple-minded friend Lennie are drifters, following wherever work leads them.

Arriving in California's Salinas Valley, they get work on a ranch. If they can just stay out of trouble, George promises Lennie, then one day they might be able to get some land of their own and settle down some place. But kind-hearted, childlike Lennie is a victim of his own strength.

Seen by others as a threat, he finds it impossible to control his emotions. And one day not even George will be able to save him from trouble. Of Mice and Men is a tragic and moving story of friendship, loneliness and the dispossessed, with a stunning new cover by renowned artist Bijou Karman.

For November, our booksellers were set the task of choosing a book with the theme of tradition. After considering a wide range of fantastic titles, we have decided on the debut novel The Muslim Cowboy by Bruce Omar Yates.

To book your place, please click here.

The book club will be held upstairs in our reading rooms and are suitable for ages 18+ years.

About the book-

In the aftermath of the Iraq war, an odd Iraqi man entranced by Americana and old Western movies dresses in double denim and roams a lawless landscape in search of his own Western story. Amidst the disorder he meets a young girl, and together they set out across the tank strewn desert on his trusty camel to find safety. Written with a simplicity of direction that captivates like a film, The Muslim Cowboy is an extraordinary and mesmerising literary debut about the search for identity, the struggle to reconcile conflicting values, and sacrifice as that great virtue we all must embrace in order to find meaning and purpose in a world of chaos.

Winter Reads - An Evening with Elizabeth Macneal

Join bestselling author of The Doll Factory, Circus of Wonders  and The Burial Plot  for an in-depth interview and there will be opportunities for you to ask your own questions. Find out what it takes to create bestselling characters and make it as a professional full time author.

Thursday 7 November

7.30pm

Tickets £7. To purchase a ticket, please click here.

Please note, this event is being held at St Albans Library, Level 2 The Maltings, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3JQ and not at the bookshop.

“There’s not a day in the year that something can’t be propagated.”–Anya Lautenbach

Spend the evening in The Apple House with bestselling author Zia Allaway and Instagram’s propagation queen Anya Lautenbach, to celebrate the launch of Anya’s brilliant new book The Money-Saving Garden Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Great Garden that Costs Less.

With a new gardening year ahead, Anya will be in conversation with gardening writer, author, editor and long-standing Plant Library volunteer, Zia Allaway, about her best advice on what to do in the garden each month, while keeping budget in mind, to get the most out of your plot all year round. During the talk Anya will offer practical advice on everything from when to plant seedlings to the best time to propagate different plants, as well as demonstrating some easy propagation techniques. Afterwards, Anya will be signing copies of her new book, which will be for sale at the event by local independent bookseller Books On The Hill. The ideal gift for your Christmas list.

To purchase a ticket, please click here.

About the book:

In her new book, Anya Lautenbach has done all the planning so you don’t have to. With planting lists, clear practical advice, and a comprehensive propagation chart for easy reference, Anya helps readers find true joy in being outside in nature–along with all the benefits it brings. An advocate for the positive impact gardening can have on wellbeing, Anya hopes to help more people access this mood-boosting activity by showing what you can achieve even on the smallest of budgets.

Alongside beautiful photography, Anya explains what to sow, plant and prune when, as well as monthly maintenance tips. Throughout, she encourages readers to embrace every season with timely projects, garden highlights, and notes on how to find happiness in the garden, even in the depths of winter. Her clear, practical, yet mindful approach will help anyone grow a glorious garden.

Please note, this event is being held at The Apple House, Serge Hill Lane, Bedmond, WD5 0RZ, and not at the bookshop.

We are delighted to announce our next Poetry Lecture Workshop will explore Selected Poems by Thomas Hardy, revised and edited by Tom Paulin.

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place, please click here.

About the book~

A selection of the writer's greatest nature poetry, selected by Tom Paulin, published in a beautiful new edition by Faber. At once a voice arose among The bleak twigs overheadIn a full-hearted evensong Of joy illimited;An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, In blast-beruffled plume,Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom . .

. -The Darkling Thrush

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning. This event is charged and is suitable for 18+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

SOLD OUT - To join the waiting list please call on 01727807248

Classics can be intimidating. They have a reputation of being too highbrow and incomprehensible for us mere mortals. We at Books on the Hill, however, think that is just not true. Classics speak of a universal theme we all have first hand experience of: love, loss, friendship, hope. They are for all of us. To tackle this, we are starting a new Book Club focusing on "The Classics" from recent and not so recent history and what classics could be more appropriate for this spooky season than Dracula by Bram Stoker.

This Book Club will be held on the last Thursday of the month, and is suitable for ages 18+. Tea and coffee will be provided, as well as glasses should you chose to bring your own tipple.

To book your place please visit us in-store, call us on 01727807248 or click here.

About the book -

A chilling masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also illuminated dark corners of Victorian sexuality. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to advise Count Dracula on a London home, he makes a horrifying discovery. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the arrival of his 'Master', while a determined group of adversaries prepares to face the terrifying Count.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here.

Please note this event is 18+.

For October, our booksellers were set the task of choosing a book with the theme of thriller. This was a tricky task and we debated many amazing fiction and non-fiction titles but have decided on the newly released Mother Naked by Glen James Brown.

To book your place, please click here.

These book clubs will be held upstairs in our reading rooms and are suitable for ages 18+ years.

About the book-

The City of Durham, 1434. Out of a storm, an aging minstrel arrives at the cathedral to entertain the city’s most powerful men. Mother Naked is his name, and the story he’s come to tell is the Legend of the Fell Wraith: the gruesome ‘walking ghost’ some say slaughtered the nearby village of Segerston forty years earlier.

But is this monster only a myth, born from the dim minds of toiling peasants? Or does the Wraith – and do the murders – have roots in real events suffered by those fated to a lifetime of labour? As Mother Naked weaves the strands of the mystery – of class, religion, art, and ale – it starts to seem as though the chilling truth might be closer to his privileged audience than they could ever imagine. Taking its inspiration from a single payment entered into Durham’s Cathedral rolls, ‘Modyr Nakett’ was lowest-paid performer in over 200 years of records. Set against the traumatic shadow of the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt, Mother Naked speaks back from the margins in a fury of imaginative recuperation.

We are delighted to announce our next lecture will explore Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place, please click here.

About the book~

One morning, ordinary salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant cockroach. Metamorphosis, Kafka's masterpiece of unease and black humour, is one of the twentieth century's most influential works of fiction, and is accompanied here by two more classic stories.

We are really looking forward to welcoming Yael Inokai to discuss her new book A Simple Intervention, and the wonderful Peirene translator Marielle Sutherland.

To join us for what promises to be a wonderful eventing, please book your place here.

A Simple Intervention - A ground-breaking surgical intervention promises to free people from psychological disorders. The procedure is painless, the risks are minimal, and patients are calmer and more compliant after healing. The doctor promises them a new and productive life, free from suffering - can it be so simple? Meret is a nurse on the surgical ward.

The hospital is her home, and her uniform is her identity. She supports her patients through their interventions and is proud to be a part of the solution. But when she falls in love with another nurse, she crosses an invisible boundary and her certainty in the system begins to crumble.

With echoes of Kazuo Ishiguro and Margaret Atwood, this is the story of a world of rigid hierarchies and a love with its own rules.

Yael Inokai was born in 1989 in Basel. She studied philosophy there, and then screenwriting and dramaturgy in Berlin. Her debut novel, Storchenbiss, was published in 2012. She won the 2018 Swiss Literature Prize for her second novel, Mahlstrom. She is a staffer at the magazine PS: Politisch Schreiben and lives in Berlin.

Marielle Sutherland was born in 1976 in Hartlepool. She has a PhD in German and is a translator at the German Historical Institute London. Her publications include the selected poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (co-translated with Susan Ranson) and Rulantica: Hidden Island, by Michaela Hanauer. Marielle Sutherland was awarded the Peirene Stevns Translation Prize in 2023.

Please note, this event is 18+.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning. This event is charged and is suitable for 18+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

Would you like to discover the link between reading and wellbeing and how this can enhance your everyday life?

“Literature offers us a powerful language that can help us understand ourselves and others and gives us the words and perspectives that can help us talk about difficult experiences.” Dr Jane Davis, Founder of The Reader

“One sheds one’s sicknesses in books – repeats and presents again one’s emotions, to be master of them.” DH Lawrence, The Letters of DH Lawrence

Bibliotherapy dates back to ancient times when libraries were seen as sacred places where answers and healing could be found. My course explores reading as an active strategy to help cope with life’s challenges, looking at the wider and deeper ways in which fiction and non-fiction can 'find' people, emotionally and imaginatively, helping develop self- esteem, emotional granularity and interpersonal relationships. Participants will be introduced to the neurological benefits of reading “for pleasure” and to a wellbeing model to help us tailor our book choices in order to thrive.

Course Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, participants will gain:

1. An understanding of the key principles of bibliotherapy and how to apply them, including choosing books ‘on prescription’ and making use of a practical, interactive approach

2. A powerful tool to foster group cohesion

3. The experience of using literature as a form of remedy and healing within our daily lives

The course does not require any prior reading ability or experience and absolutely everyone is welcome!

Fortnightly course schedule – Autumn 2024 Classes run at Books on the Hill on the Fridays listed below, from 10.15am-12pm.

CLASS ONE - Friday 4th October

What is Bibliotherapy?

· A potted history of Bibliotherapy and its origins

· Differences approaches to bibliotherapy and what they mean

· The neurological processes behind reading and how they help us flourish.

CLASS TWO - Friday 18th October

Options:

Travel from St. Albans or meet directly in the lobby of the British Library, 96 Euston Road, (times TBC)

The Library

· The role of libraries as memory keepers for societies and as a ‘house of healing’ for the soul · The role of librarianship, libraries as ‘safe spaces’/warm hubs and the libraries of the future Activity: Journey through The British Library, Euston Road, London with your instructor as guide The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s largest libraries. Its collections include more than 150 million items, in over 400 languages including books, magazines, manuscripts, maps, music scores, newspapers, patents, databases, philatelic items, prints and drawings and sound recordings. The activity includes access to the Library “Treasures section” as a springboard for using literature as remedy

CLASS THREE – Friday 1st November

Poetry therapy and the benefits of therapeutic writing

· Poetry Therapy and the qualities that make poems particularly helpful as a wellbeing tool

· The link between reading poetry and therapeutic writing.

· How to apply an interactive approach to poetry

CLASS FOUR – Friday 15th November

Activity: Excursion to Spitalfields and its Bookstores

Options: Travel from St Albans or meet directly in London, Liverpool Street, for a guided tour of the Spitalfields area and its independent bookstores

Guided visit to this historically rich and diverse area, including visits to Libreria and the Brick Lane Bookshop, to consider the changing face of the bookstore, its relationship with its local community and to our wellbeing.

• Optional tea and cake in a café (not included in the course fee).

CLASS FIVE – Friday 29th November

Putting bibliotherapy into practice

· Adopting a practical approach to bibliotherapy as an art therapy for ourselves and others

· How to set boundaries, create a safe environment and help select appropriate reading choices

· Incorporating reading for wellbeing into our daily routine · Wrap up and farewell

What is included in the course fee of £130?

Qualified, experienced and evaluated Bibliotherapy instructor

Venue for classes in central St Albans at Books on the Hill, 1 Holywell Hill, St Albans, AL1 1ER

Instructor as guide to two excursions to London: The British Library and the bookstores of Spitalfields

Reading materials, articles and online contact with the instructor throughout the course

10% discount at “Books on the Hill” in St Albans to spend on a book of your choice

NOT included-

Travel to, from and around London on excursions

Tea and cake in a café in London on 15 November (optional)

To register for the course and to embark on a journey for your wellbeing please click here and for further information please email bibliotherapyforme@outlook.com.

Places are limited – first come, first served!

www.bibliotherapyforme.com

We are delighted to announce our next Poetry Lecture Workshop will explore Selected Poems by W. H. Auden, revised and edited by Edward Mendleson.

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place, please click here.

About the book~

Edward Mendelson has significantly expanded his authoritative, chronological ordered edition of Auden's Selected Poems (first published in 1979), adding twenty items to the hundred in the original edition, and broadening the focus to reflect the wealth of forms, the rhetorical and tonal range, and the variousness of content in Auden's poetry, in the confines of one volume. In particular, there are newly included examples of Auden's mastery of light verse: the self-descriptive sequence of haiku called 'Profiles', the barbed wartime quatrains of 'Leap Before You Look', or 'Funeral Blues' itself. Also included are brief notes explaining references that may have become obscure, and a revised introduction drawing on recent additions to Auden scholarship.

***SOLD OUT***

Classics can be intimidating. They have a reputation of being too highbrow and incomprehensible for us mere mortals. We at Books on the Hill, however, think that is just not true. Classics speak of a universal theme we all have first hand experience of: love, loss, friendship, hope. They are for all of us. To tackle this, we are starting a new Book Club focusing on "The Classics" from recent and not so recent history. Beginning in September, we thought it appropriate to go with an academic theme and so have chosen "Stoner" by John Williams as our first text. We are excited. Come join us.

To book you place please call us on 01727807248, visit us in-store or click here.

This Book Club will be held on the last Thursday of the month, and is suitable for ages 18+. Tea and coffee will be provided, as well as glasses should you chose to bring your own tipple.

About the book -

This is the story of a quiet man, destined to be a farmer but who becomes an academic. It is book in which nothing and everything happens and is possibly the greatest novel you've never read. William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher.

He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death, his colleagues remember him rarely. Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value - of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history - and in doing so reclaims the significance of an individual life.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here.

• Tagged: book club, Reading Rooms

We are delighted to announce our next lecture will explore Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place please click here.

About the book~

When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another.

Orwell's chilling 'fairy story' is a timeless and devastating satire of idealism betrayed by power and corruption.

For September our booksellers were set the task of choosing a book with the theme of science. This was a tricky task and we debated many amazing fiction and non-fiction titles but have decided on Mountains of Fire by Clive Oppenheimer.

These book clubs will be held in the shop and are suitable for ages 16+ years.

To book your place, please visit in-store or click here.

About the book-

We are made of the same stuff as the breath and cinders of volcanoes. No matter where we live on the planet, they have shaped our history and might one day decide our destiny. World-famous volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer has worked at the crater's edge in the wildest places on Earth, close enough to feel the heat of the lava. In Mountains of Fire we join him on hair-singeing adventures from Italy to Antarctica to learn how deeply our stories are intertwined with volcanoes.

We are delighted to announce our next Poetry Lecture Workshop will explore Stevie Smith: A Selection : edited by Hermione Lee, by Stevie Smith

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place please click here.

About the book~

This comprehensive and welcoming edition draws on the whole of Stevie Smith's output in poetry, prose and drawings from Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) to Scorpion and Other Poems (1972). Hermione Lee's introduction and arrangement bring out the connections between Stevie Smith's different writings, and show us what an extraordinary and original writer she was. The selection is complemented by biographical and textual notes, and forms an attractive introduction to the work of an idiosyncratic English genius.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning. This event is charged and is suitable for 16+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

• Tagged: Reading Rooms

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here.

• Tagged: book club, Reading Rooms

We are delighted to announce our next lecture will explore The Machine Stops and Other Stories by E. M. Forster

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place please click here.

About the book~

A new selection of E. M. Forster's exquisite short stories, now in the beautifully designed Penguin English Library Series'We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now.

It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralyzed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it.'Like his much-loved novels, E. M. Forster's short stories are rich in irony and alive with sharp observations on the surprises life holds.

Telling tales of violent events, discomforting coincidences, and other disruptive happenings, his sharp and vivid prose has the ability to throw the characters', and reader's, perceptions and beliefs off balance. Selected to appeal to a new generation of readers around the world, this new selection of short stories in the Penguin English Library series celebrates E. M. Forster's unparalleled skill for storytelling, beginning with his masterful work of science fiction, The Machine Stops.

For August our booksellers were set the task of choosing a book with the theme of Women in Translation. We have chosen to read Not a River by Selva Almada, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024.

These book clubs will be held in the shop and are suitable for ages 16+ years.

Book your place here

About the book-

Three men go out fishing, returning to a favourite spot on the river despite their memories of a terrible accident there years earlier. As a long, sultry day passes, they drink and cook and talk and dance, and try to overcome the ghosts of their past. But they are outsiders, and this intimate, peculiar moment also puts them at odds with the inhabitants of this watery universe, both human and otherwise.

The forest presses close, and violence seems inevitable, but can another tragedy be avoided?Rippling across time like the river that runs through it, Selva Almada’s latest novel is the finest expression yet of her compelling style and singular vision of rural Argentina.

We are delighted to announce our next Poetry Lecture Workshop will explore Philip Larkin Poems : Selected by Martin Amis

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place please click here.

About the book~

For the first time, Faber have published a selection from the poetry of Philip Larkin. Drawing on Larkin's four collections and on his uncollected poems, these poems have been selected by Martin Amis.

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together over breakfast to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 10 am in store for a fun-filled morning. This event is charged and is suitable for 18+ years.

Book here for your individual book club ticket or click here to purchase a one-year ticket.

During the event, the team may ask if we can take pictures of the event to promote future events held in store. By purchasing a ticket you are consenting to the team using these pictures for our social media channels but you are able to withdraw your consent at any time during the event.

• Tagged: Reading Rooms

Here at Books On The Hill, we love all things books so thought it would be great to get people together to have a chat about books. Discussions will be around books you love or books you are currently reading and how you are finding them. So if you love to talk about books, but don't have the time to read a set text, join us at 7pm in store for a fun-filled evening.

Tea & coffee will be available for free on the night or if you prefer please feel free to bring your own alcoholic drinks with you (glasses will be provided).

To reserve your space please click here.

For June our booksellers were set the task of choosing a book with the theme of History. So this month we have decided to read August Blue by Deborah Levy

These book clubs will be held in the shop and are suitable for ages 16+ years.

Book your place here.

About the book-

At the height of her career, concert pianist Elsa M. Anderson - former child prodigy, now in her thirties - walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching as another young woman, a stranger but uncannily familiar - almost her double - purchases a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market.

Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins a journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who bought the dancing horses.

A dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis, August Blue uncovers the ways in which we seek to lose an old story, find ourselves in others and create ourselves anew.

We are delighted to announce our next lecture will explore Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

Tea and coffee will be provided throughout the session.

To book your place please click here.

About the book~

What could be better during the golden age of boating on the Thames than a relaxing row up the river? So think J., George and Harris - not forgetting Montmorency the dog - but little do they suspect the mishaps, the scrapes and the japes that lie along the way. From becoming impossibly lost in the maze at Hampton Court to battles with tins of pineapple chunks, all the while attempting to limit the destruction wrought by the mischievous Montmorency, Jerome K. Jerome's classic novel of humorous misadventures and comedic authorial digressions is a paean to the banalities of everyday life and has entertained readers for more than a century.