Forthcoming Events

“What I Would Do With Letchworth”
- free discussion evening.
Six speakers with contrasting areas of interest and expertise, including Geoff Steeley, Roz Allwood, Chris Cheffings and William Armitage, will give alternative visions for the First Garden City’s future, followed by audience questions and debate.

Letchworth occupies a unique position as the world’s first Garden City and was the testing ground for many innovations of design and local government. It also experiences challenges common to most towns of a similar size in South East England.

What would you do with Letchworth today?
Tuesday 27th February, 7.30pm in the bookshop – admission free, please reserve your seat.


History of Islam
Author talk & book signing
Barnaby Rogerson, Author of The Prophet Muhammad, Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad, Meetings With Remarkable Muslims (ed.)
Wednesday, February 28th, 7.30pm
Admission free—please reserve your seat

Barnaby Rogerson:
After two jobs in publishing he worked for the Afghanistan Support Committee, as a tutor on a Greek island, as a barman and in the restoration of grottoes and the construction of garden temples. He is an experienced travel writer particularly on North Africa and the lands of the old Ottoman Empire. With John Hatt and Rose Baring, Barnaby owns and runs Eland Books, which specialises in travel literature, biography, fiction and oral history.


“The Changing Face of Newspapers”
Local & National

Expert debate from speakers including:
Darren Isted—Editor of the Comet newspaper
Tony Lloyd—Associate Chief Production Journalist, Daily Telegraph
David Walker—former Executive Editor, Financial Times
followed by audience questions and discussion.

The speakers:
Tony Lloyd started in newspapers on leaving school at the age of 18. His first job was as a trainee reporter on The South Yorkshire Times in Mexborough. Subsequently he worked for the Sheffield Star as a reporter, then sub-editor, the Daily Mail as a sub-editor and the short-lived London Daily News. For the past 20 years he has worked for the Daily Telegraph in a variety of roles including Chief Sub, Northern Editor, Associate Night Editor and now Associate Chief Production Journalist.
He is 53 and lives in Hinxworth with his wife Patricia. They have two grown up children.

David Walker was with the Financial Times for 35 years, and an Assistant Editor of the paper for over 25 years. He was successively Features Editor, News Editor, Managing Editor and most recently Executive Editor.
That meant working with the Editor in passing leaders and features for publication, taking final decisions on the day’s main news stories, being responsible for the accuracy and literacy of the overall content, and seeing the paper through the successive UK and international editions each night as news broke.
He retired in mid-2005. His journalistic career began in Letchworth 38 years ago on the Herts Pictorial, predecessor to the Comet.
He is one of the judges for the UK Press Awards, and also edits a magazine for a London East End heritage group.
He is chairman of David’s Bookshops, chairman of Letchworth Arts Centre and a governor of the Garden City Heritage Foundation.
Both his sons are in the media industry.

Wednesday 7th March at 7.30pm
Admission free—please reserve your seat
Part of the North
Hertfordshire Book Festival


North Hertfordshire History Through Old Maps
Explore local history with 2 expert speakers

LLinos Thomas
County Local Studies Librarian for Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Brian Quinn
Co-founder of Timeline Maps (now Cassini Publishing), publishers of Old Series Historical maps – reproductions of OS’s 19th-century Old Series maps, but enlarged and re-formatted to match the present-day Landrangers – as well as an ever-increasing range of other historical mapping titles. Brian will talk about his publishing ventures.

A fascinating insight into maps and mapping!
Wednesday 28th March at 7.30pm
Tickets £2, (refundable when you purchase a Cassini Map)


Murder Ancient & Modern
Edward Marston and Judith Cutler compare techniques for writing about crime in the past and in the present. They have appeared at festivals, bookshops and writers' groups in the UK and in America.
Edward is the author of forty crime novels, set in four distinct periods of history: Domesday Books explore the crimes and misdemeanours surrounding the compilation of Domesday in the late 11th century; Nicholas Bracewell series features an Elizabethan theatre company; Christopher Redmayne mysteries look at the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666 and Inspector Robert Colbeck series deals with major crimes committed on Victorian railways.
Judith is the author of ten books in the series featuring amateur sleuth, Sophie Rivers and six novels starring Detective Sergeant Kate Power. All the novels are set in the present day
Thursday 19th April, 7.30pm – please reserve your free seat.