On 26th June bestselling author, Gervase Phinn had a sell out audience of 400 at the Castle Hall, Hertford in stitches with his heart-warming, wry tales of his life as a schools inspector in Yorkshire featured in his latest autobiographical memoir...

On Tuesday 5th June we were incredibly lucky to get the UK’s best known, bestselling and most hilarious travel writer BILL BRYSON to visit at Broxbourne Civic Hall in one of only two UK personal appearances to celebrate the paperback publication of his autobiography: The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid.

At Broxbourne Civic Hall On Wednesday 25th April Britain’s most accurate and respected medium GORDON SMITH gave a fascinating and uplifting talk to 350 people about his book Through My Eyes in which he discusses the ways in which grief affects us all and how it can be managed and turned from a potentially harmful emotion into something more positive.

For our first event with John Warner School, Charlie Higson, one of the UK’s top children’s authors and star of TV’s Fast Show, hosted a fun James Bond Quiz to marks the publication of his new book about the young spy Double or Die.

At our third sell out event in a row one of our most popular actresses and comediennes Maureen Lipman gave a bravura performance at Broxbourne Civic Hall. The audience was entertained by hilarious anecdotes about her marriage to TV writer Jack Rosenthal plus readings from her collection of humorous poems: The Gibbon’s in Decline but the Horse is Stable which she wrote to raise money for the Myeloma UK – the national charity which support those suffering from the cancer that killed her husband. We made a contribution from ticket sales and took a collection at the door which together raised £1000 for Myeloma UK.

Once again we filled Broxbourne Civic Hall to full capacity for an extremely enjoyable and amusing evening where 560 people were entertained by nostalgic anecdotes, poems and even a bit of singing from the incredibly talented Alan Titchmarsh promoting his new memoir Nobbut a Lad. A lively question & answer session with the audience was followed by a two hour book signing marathon at the end of the evening.

For our first event in Ware we had another sell out evening featuring the inimitable John Mortimer talking at the Ware Priory about his latest tale of legal misdemeanors: Rumpole and the Reign of Terror. Within minutes of getting on stage the incredibly successful playwright, author, dramatist and barrister had the audience of 100 in stitches of laughter as he regaled them with stories of the genesis of his Rumpole series and hilarious recollections of highlights from his 40 year legal career.

A full colour photo of john appeared on the front page of all four editions of The Mercury’s What’s On magazine with the tag line: Mortimer Promotes New Reign of Terror with a half page feature interview with the man himself inside.

Another new venue for us – the Castle Hall in Hertford – was the location for a fascinating and illuminating analysis of the institution of monarchy by one of our most incisive political interviewers: Jeremy Paxman. With enormous wit the arch inquisitor spoke with fluency and coherence without any notes for nearly an hour about his new book On Monarchy to an audience of over 300, and then enjoyed a sparky and combative question session of more than half an hour in the second half of the evening.   

After featuring prominently on the front cover of The Mercury’s What’s On season preview back in September, there was a two thirds page exclusive interview with Jeremy in the What’s On on 3rd November, plus a half page preview in The Herald entitled Paxo’s Royal Visit on 2nd November.

This unique event featuring a mix of speakers, experts and organizations specializing in family and local history attracted over 150 people to Broxbourne Civic Hall for the second event we’ve run in partnership with Hoddesdon Library. Our guest celebrity speaker was Antony Adolph, author of a new book Tracing Your Home’s History who also signed copies of the new title at the event.

We ran a competition in The Mercury in advance of the event with a signed copy of Anthony’s book as the prize – which was won by local history enthusiast Ann Wood. Axis magazine also ran a preview feature on the event in their October issue.

William Boyd gave a fascinating talk about the historical background to his new novel Restless to an audience of around 180 in The Atlee Room at Haileybury in our first joint event with the local College. There were plenty of searching questions about the writer’s career and his personal approach to writing from a large number of students who attended the evening.

On 6th April, at our MEET THE AUTHOR event featuring Melvyn Bragg, we launched our innovative new grassroots loyalty campaign to persuade consumers of the many advantages of buying books from their local bookshop instead of shopping for them at supermarkets, chains or online.

Even with an additional 80 reserve seats being made available all 560 tickets for our first event in 2006 presented in partnership with Hoddesdon Library and featuring Jacqueline Wilson sold out two weeks in advance.

At another packed event last autumn, again co-produced with Broxbourne Arts, nearly 450 people listened with great interest to Kate Adie, one of our best known and most respected journalists.

At our inaugural event co-produced with Broxbourne Arts, Author of the Year, Sheila Hancock, entertained a full house of more than 470 people with anecdotes and recollections from a long, varied and successful career in film, television and theatre.