Spring Blogger Evening

A Night Out at Books and the City

Any invitation to Books and the City is always received with glee, so it was a very excited Mary - that after getting her hubby to curl her hair for her! - set off for London for the much anticipated Spring Blogger Evening 2016.

Curly Mary!

 I drove to the O2 arena to park and jump on the tube, but when I arrived I realised Adele was playing and that all non-booked parking was £31. I managed to charm my way into a car park on a normal ticket after convincing the car park attendant that I wasn't an Adele fan and was getting the tube. I walked across to the North Greenwich Underground and began my journey to Chancery Lane. There were very jolly Underground staff on that night, which made the journey a lot easier. I reached Chancery Lane and after a short walk down Grays Inn Road I reached Books and the City. 
Fellow blogger Rachel Gilbey was already in reception so we began chatting about books - what else?! More and more excited ladies arrived including my friends Natalie Ross, Vicki Bowles, Emma Crees and Maureen Stapleton who along with me are all graduates of the Creative Writing Masterclass held at BATC.
We all made our way upstairs to be greeted by the gorgeous Sara-Jade Virtue and the equally gorgeous Dawn Burnett. SJ gave us our name badges and we moved into another room for soft drinks and nibbles.

Name badge

Next we were shown into the neighbouring room to take our seats for the main event! SJ introduced us to the authors who were:

Penny Parkes Out of Practice 

Paige Toon The One We Fell In Love With

Holly Hepburn Summer at the Star and Sixpence

Juliet Ashton These Days of Ours

The panel of authors L to R: Georgia Clarke, Penny Parkes, Paige Toon, Holly Hepburn & Juliet Ashton

 Clare Hey began by giving us a brief piece of information about each book and then each author read a sample aloud to us. I didn't want that bit to end as they all sounded fabulous. After the readings Clare put some questions to the panel about love and friendship. A late arrival author of The Regulars Georgia Clarke then joined the panel fresh off the plane from Spain. Her book was revealed to us in an exclusive chapter sample.
The readings and questions finished we retired to the other room for a glass of prosecco and amazing cupcakes

Cupcakes!!!!!

 There were more surprises to come in the form of the famous BATC goody bag. This one was A-MA-ZING!! It contained little treats of nail polish, lip balm, post it notes, pencil, book of quotes, love heart sweeties, but best of all proofs of all the authors books which we could get signed!!!!!

Proof copies of the books

Exclusive chapter sample

Penny Parkes

Georgia Clarke

Holly Hepburn

Paige Toon

Juliet Ashton

 Of course as you can see I got all my books signed and it was a chance to speak to all of the ladies who were all lovely. Juliet Ashton remembered my review and particularly liked my use of the word "devour". 
After a brief catch up with SJ - she is a very busy lady - and a quick chat with Isabelle Broom about her upcoming book My Map of You it was time for me to leave to try and beat the Adele traffic exiting the O2 (which I managed to do).

It was another fantastic evening and I'd like to say a huge thank you to SJ for the invite and for organising everything. Thank you also to the authors and the staff at BATC for making the evening a great success.

L to R Vicki Bowles, Maureen Stapleton, Isabelle Broom & Natalie Ross

L to R Me, Natalie Ross & Vicki Bowles

Looking forward to next year!!

Books and the City - Simon and Schuster is home to Romantic Novelist Association award winners Iona Grey Letters to the Lost & Milly Johnson Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Cafe
Other authors include Heidi Swain, Andy Jones, Jane Costello & the late, great Jackie Collins.