Events
Scroll through below and keep checking back or via our social media feeds for updates and new things. You could also sign up for our mailing list and we will mail you (not too often) with updates and news.
We have other New Writers events and shopping evenings planned so do follow us on social media so you don't miss anything.
See all events on Eventbrite
Our Upcoming Events
DECEMBER 2023
Book Club - Christmas Social - Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
5th December @ 19:00 in The Arts Bar, Milton Rooms, Malton
When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly-named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last twenty years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves to take each of the family in hand.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
A Christmas Carol - Be Amazing Arts Production
5th - 24th December @ 19:00
This immersive promenade performance from Be Amazing Arts returns for another year and your experience begins in our bookshop.
JANUARY 2024
Book Club - The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
2nd & 4th January @ 19:00
What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of metal, glass and plastic, fashioned into a sleek, shiny, precious object. At once, a gateway to other worlds - and a treacherous weapon in the hands of the unwary, the unwitting, the inept. With John Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter-skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. To err is maybe to be human but to really foul things up you only need a phone with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Tickets are £5. If you wish to avoid online booking fees, please book in the shop.
Cooking The Books - Dirt by Bill Buford
11th January @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and (with his wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France.
But what was meant to be six months in a new city turns into a wild five-year odyssey. As Buford apprentices at Lyon's best boulangerie, studies at a legendary culinary school and cooks at a storied Michelin-starred restaurant, he discovers the true grit, precision and passion of the French kitchen.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
FEBRUARY 2024
Book Club - The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz
6th and 8th February @ 19:00
Lena has her life mapped out. She isn't going to let being a girl stop her from becoming one of Poland's first female doctors. But the world has other plans for Lena. Instead of university she finds herself a reluctant army wife, lonely and unmoored by the emotions of motherhood. And as she tries to accept a different future from the one she wanted, the threat of global war becomes reality. Lena must face just how unpredictable life can be.
Tender, brutal and passionate, The Snow Hare is about living with impossible choices and our incredible ability to cultivate hope in the darkest places.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Tickets are £5 plus a booking fee. If you wish to avoid online booking fees, please book in the shop.
Persephone Books - An Introduction by Francesca Beauman
Saturday 10th February @ 19:30
2024 will be the 25th anniversary of this iconic publisher and we are delighted that Francesca Beauman from Persephone Books will be joining us for the evening.
Described by the Observer as ‘The nearest thing British publishing has to a cult’. Persephone Books has been reprinting neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women writers and mostly dating from the mid-twentieth century, since 1999.
How do they choose which books to bring back into the light? And why are all the covers of their books grey and what’s the significance of the patterned endpapers? And why do some writers get forgotten and others don’t?
There will also be a discussion of the theme that unites every Persephone title: domestic feminism.
Tickets are £7.50 in store or online (online booking fee applies)
Cooking The Books - The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helen Attlee
15th February @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
A delightful book about Italy's unexpected history, told through its citrus fruits. The story of citrus runs through the history of Italy like a golden thread, and by combining travel writing with history, recipes, horticulture and art, Helena Attlee takes the reader on a unique and rich journey through Italy's cultural, moral, culinary and political past.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
MARCH 2024
Book Club - Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
5th and 7th March @ 19:00
White Lies. Dark Humour. Deadly Consequences. Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Tickets are £5 plus a booking fee. If you wish to avoid online booking fees, please book in the shop.
Cooking The Books - Good Taste by Caroline Scott
14th March @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
England, 1932, and the country is in the grip of the Great Depression. To lift the spirits of the nation, Stella Douglas is tasked with writing a history of food in England. It’s to be quintessentially English and will remind English housewives of the old ways, and English men of the glory of their country. The only problem is –much of English food is really from, well, elsewhere . . .
So, Stella sets about unearthing recipes from all corners of the country, but what she discovers is rissoles, gravy, stewed prunes and lots of oatcakes. Longing for something more thrilling, she heads off to speak to the nation’s housewives.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
APRIL 2024
Book Club - Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
2nd and 4th April @ 19:00
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho's gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson brings together a glittering cast of characters in a truly mesmeric novel that captures the uncertainty and mutability of life; of a world in which nothing is quite as it seems.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Tickets are £5 plus a booking fee. If you wish to avoid online booking fees, please book in the shop.
Cooking The Books - Fowl Play by Sally Coulthard
11th April @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
The humble chicken has conquered the world - this unlikely descendant of Tyrannosaurus Rex is now so ubiquitous there are more than 20 billion chickens pecking, strutting and scratching around the planet at any one time.
Sally Coulthard charts the chicken's fascinating journey from dinosaur to domestication, exploring every aspect of the history of Gallus gallus domesticus. As informative as it is entertaining, Fowl Play tells a remarkable tale of evolutionary change, epic global travel and ruthless exploitation - as well as of companionship, ingenuity and the folly of human nature. Longing for something more thrilling, she heads off to speak to the nation’s housewives.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
MAY 2024
Book Club - A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
7th and 9th May @ 19:00
Widely recognized as one of the finest novels of the twentieth century, A Room with a View begins in Florence, Italy, where Miss Lucy Honeychurch, who is chaperoned by her spinster cousin Miss Charlotte Bartlett, arrives at the Pensione Bertolini to find that instead of rooms with a view of the Arno, as promised, theirs face a drab courtyard. Another guest spontaneously offers to swap the rooms that he and his son have to remedy their distress.
Thus ensues an unlikely series of unforeseen events that upend the lives of the eccentric cast of characters who vividly animate this enduring and delightful tale.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Tickets are £5 plus a booking fee. If you wish to avoid online booking fees, please book in the shop.
Cooking The Books - The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
16th May @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the father-daughter duo have started advertising their services as 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are capable of recreating a dish from their customers' pasts – dishes that may well hold the keys to unlocking forgotten memories and future happiness.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
JUNE 2024
Book Club - The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer
4th and 6th June @ 19:00
WINNER OF THE 2023 JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING
The Flow is a book about water that meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, rocky Welsh canyons, the salmon highways of Scotland and the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Amy-Jane follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history, cyclicity and transformation. Threading together places and voices from across Britain, The Flow is a profound, immersive exploration of our personal and ecological place in nature.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Tickets are £5 plus a booking fee. If you wish to avoid online booking fees, please book in the shop.
Cooking The Books - Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry
13th June @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
Rabia Chaudry was raised with a lot of love. And that love looked like food.
Delicious Pakistani dishes-fresh roti, chaat, pakoras, and shorba-and also Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, and an abundance of American processed foods, as her family discovered its adopted country through its (fast) food. In Fatty Fatty Boom Boom, Chaudry chronicles the dozens of times she tried and failed to achieve what she was told was her ideal weight. The truth is, she always loved food too much to hold a grudge against it.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
JULY 2024
Book Club - Essex Dogs by Dan Jones
2nd and 4th July @ 19:00
July 1346. The Hundred Years' War has begun, and King Edward and his lords are on the march through France. But this war belongs to the men on the ground:
Pismire, small enough to infiltrate enemy camps. Scotsman, strong enough to tear down a wall. Millstone, a stonemason who'll do anything to protect his men. Father, a priest turned devilish by the horrors of war. Romford, a talented young archer on the run from his past. And Loveday FitzTalbot, their battle-scarred captain, who just wants to get his boys home safe.
Some men fight for glory. Others fight for coin. The Essex Dogs? They fight for each other.
Do you love books? Want to get out of your reading rut and be introduced to new and exciting authors? Fancy meeting up with like-minded souls to talk about books for a couple of hours?
Then come along to our friendly local Book Group and meet others who share your passion for all things literary. We're a relaxed lot, so it doesn't matter whether you devoured the book in one sitting or gave up after two pages
Just come and tell us what you thought, and hear what others made of it too. All opinions welcome - we start with the book, but the discussion can end up anywhere.
Tickets are £5 plus a booking fee. If you wish to avoid online booking fees, please book in the shop.
Cooking The Books - The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken
11th July @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
Welcome to The Hills, Oslo's most esteemed restaurant, an institution stewed in tradition and clinging to the faded grandeur of old Europe.
A neurotic waiter tends to the desires of his clientele. Aristocrats and artistes, wealthy widows and roguish entrepreneurs, he observes all their dramas with a wit as sharp as a filleting knife.
At table ten sits the impeccable Mr Graham, impatiently awaiting a special guest. When at last she arrives - young, beautiful, mysterious - she will prove to be a challenging new flavour, threatening both our waiter's nerves, and the delicately balanced ingredients of the room.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
AUGUST 2024
Cooking The Books - Eating Up Italy by Matthew Fort
15th August @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
Italy’s tumultuous history can be traced through its food. In an epic scooter trip from the Ionian Sea to the far north, distinguished food writer Matthew Fort explores the local gastronomy and culinary culture of a country where regional differences are vibrantly alive. His plan is a simple one: to travel by scooter from Melito di Porto Salvo – the southernmost town in Italy and where Garibaldi landed in 1860 to begin his conquest of Naples – to Turin in the north, eating, drinking, talking and noting as he goes.
SEPTEMBER 2024
Cooking The Books - World Travel by Antony Bourdain
12th September @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to the stunning desert solitude of Oman's Empty Quarter - and many places beyond.
In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places - in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
OCTOBER 2024
Cooking The Books - Love and Saffron by Kim Fay
10th October @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
Young Joan is just discovering herself as a food writer in bustling Los Angeles, while experienced magazine columnist Imogen is settled in her decades-long marriage on Camano Island outside Seattle. When Joan sends a fan letter to Imogen, their journey of culinary exploration and life-changing friendship begins.
A long-lost flavour unearths buried memories, a quest to make carne asada opens the doors of a sheltered life, and the two women build a closeness that sustains them through the unexpected changes in their own worlds.
Alison Weir - Ghosts and Gruesome Tales of the Tower
17th October @ 19:30 at The Milton Rooms, Malton
Given all the bloody deeds, violent death and intrigues that the Tower of London has witnessed in its 900-year history, there is little wonder that it has the reputation of being one of the most haunted places in Britain. Royal and high-ranking prisoners have been beheaded on Tower Green, there have been hundreds of executions on Tower Hill, and many parts of the fortress have served as prisons, places of misery and suffering for those who fell foul of the law. If any place could lay claim to a host of tortured souls and ghosts, it would be the Tower. Alison Weir talks about some of the grim events it has witnessed, and the ghosts that reputedly haunt it.
We are thrilled to welcome back Alison Weir – the UK’s most popular and bestselling female historian to Malton to talk about tell us some ghostly tales from The Tower. Perfect for this time of year - why not come for a ghostly evening.
After the performance Alison will take your questions and sign copies of her books.
“I'm delighted to be speaking in Malton, a town that holds happy family memories for me.” Alison Weir
NOTE: THEMES AND IMAGES MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR UNDER 15s
BUY TICKETS
NOVEMBER 2024
Cooking The Books - Risotto with Nettles by Anna del Conte
14th November @ 19:00 at The Cook's Place, Malton
Born in Milan, Anna del Conte grew up in Italy in a gentler time, but when war came to Italy everything changed. Her story is informed and enlivened by the food and memories of her native land - from lemon granita to wartime risotto with nettles, from vitello tonnato to horsemeat roll, from pastas to porcini.
Anna arrived in England in 1949 to a culinary wasteland. She married an Englishman and wrote books which inspired a new generation of cooks. This is a memoir of a life seen through food - each chapter rounded off with mouthwatering recipes.
We have teamed up with Malton's celebrated cookery school, The Cook's Place to give you a monthly book club with a difference! Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion, Gilly Robinson, owner and head tutor here at The Cooks Place, will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.
Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book! A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.
DECEMBER 2024