For lovers of good books and creative expression
Welcome to the Sherborne Literary Society website. We hope you enjoy your visit. You can now access all Society and Event information in one place, as well as purchase/renew your Membership and read the latest Book Reviews.
We exist to:
Raise the profile of reading
Provide a forum for the local area's aspiring writers and give access to established ones.
Raise the profile of writing
Create an interest in books among young audiences and continue to inspire older ones.
Meet and share new ideas
Bring together national and local authors to discuss their writing and share inspiration.
Encourage creative expression
Demonstrate the fun and creativity associated with the written word in all forms.
NEWS:
Our Current Programme of Events
Our programme is now almost complete through until the end of the year and can be seen by clicking the button below.
For the past three years the Society has not run a festival concentrated into a few days but instead has spread "Festival" events through the year to ensure that it provided authors with the opportunity to promote their latest work at the nearest convenient date to publication. Our activities were of course interrupted by the pandemic so that the Society effectively relaunched in the late Summer of 2021. With some new blood on our committee and a more optimistic outlook for the holding of events in 2022 and beyond, the Society presents an interesting, entertaining and diverse range of speakers and subjects..
• Dame Kelly Holmes - Cancellation •
Dame Kelly Holmes was originally booked to talk to us in 2020 but the event was postponed because of the pandemic. We have tried to reschedule and, although Dame Kelly still intends to fulfil the commitment, it seems unlikely now that it will be this year.
So, unfortunately, we have decided to return ticket money to those people still holding on. If we do eventually put a date in the diary our members and subscribers will hear first and have the opportunity to rebook. Our apologies to all who did buy tickets and thank you for your patience.
Eventbrite: If you booked through Eventbrite, we have automatically refunded to the account you paid with.
Winstone’s: If you booked at Winstone’s you should return your tickets there for a cash refund or you can send them to: Sherborne Literary Society c/o Abbots Fee, Greenhill, Sherborne DT9 4EP, enclosing either your bank account details for a bank transfer or a self addressed envelope (no need for a stamp) for a cheque refund. Please ensure you also enclose your email address so that we can easily contact you if there is a query. We cannot refund you without the return of the original tickets.
Eventbrite e-ticket via Tourist Information Office: If you booked at the (now demised) Sherborne Tourist Information Office please contact us at info@sherborneliterarysociety.com. We will endeavour to contact ticket holders but, in some cases, we only have a name and no contact details. We cannot process an automatic refund. We will need bank details to make a bank transfer or we can send a cheque as detailed above.
OUR NEXT EVENT:
A.K.Blakemore
The Manningtree Witches
Weds 14 Sept
At The Old School House, Sherborne School
Wolf Hall meets The Favourite in this beguiling debut novel that brilliantly brings to life the residents of a small English town in the grip of the seventeenth-century witch trials and the young woman tasked with saving them all from themselves.
England, 1643. Puritanical fervor has gripped the nation. And in Manningtree, a town depleted of men since the wars began, the hot terror of damnation burns in the hearts of women left to their own devices.
Rebecca West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only occasionally by her infatuation with the handsome young clerk John Edes. But then a newcomer, Matthew Hopkins, arrives. A mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, he takes over the Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about what the women on the margins of this diminished community are up to. Dangerous rumors of covens, pacts, and bodily wants have begun to hang over women like Rebecca--and the future is as frightening as it is thrilling.
Brimming with contemporary energy and resonance, The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust, and betrayal run amok as a nation's arrogant male institutions start to realize that the very people they've suppressed for so long may be about to rise up and claim their freedom.