Essex Library Service are once again running a Winter Reading Challenge for children, and the theme for 2026 is The Pawfessionals!

Children will join six friendly animal mascots as they explore their dream jobs around Essex. The Pawfessionals will guide children through the challenge, helping them discover new stories and opportunities.

Children will be asked to complete six challenges from a choice of twelve, which include reading and creative activities.

They earn a sticker for each challenge they complete, plus a certificate if they manage to complete six! Completers will also have the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win exciting prizes, including Kindles, book tokens, and toys!

The challenge starts on Saturday 10 January and runs until Sunday 22 February, and children can join at any point during that time.

For more information and to meet the Pawfessionals visit libraries.essex.gov.uk.

The post Essex Libraries: Winter Reading Challenge appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Thursday 18 June, 7.00pm
Rayleigh Library, 132/4 High Street, Rayleigh, SS6 7BX

Celebrate the joy of reclaiming our stories with best-selling author, journalist and broadcaster Sally Magnusson. The Shapeshifter’s Daughter is a spellbinding feminist retelling of the Norse myth of Hel, the Goddess of the Underworld, set in the magical landscape of Orkney.

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.

Sally Magnusson

Photo of Sally Magnusson © Derek Prescott

Bestselling author, journalist and broadcaster Sally Magnusson has written several books for adults and children, most recently her Sunday Times bestseller Where Memories Go (2014) about her mother’s dementia, The Sealwoman’s Gift (2018), her acclaimed debut novel, The Ninth Child (2020) and Music in the Dark (2022). Sally lives outside Glasgow.

The Shapeshifter’s Daughter

Selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club Autumn Season 2025.

The spellbinding feminist retelling of the Norse myth of Hel, the Goddess of the Underworld, set in the magical landscape of Orkney, from the Sunday Times bestselling author Sally Magnusson.

Nothing, on earth or below it, freezes faster than the worthless heart.

Before she was a hideous monster, the queen of the underworld was simply Hel. But cast as a girl out of lofty Asgard, realm of the gods, by Odin the Allfather, Hel’s fate as the terrible goddess of death is sealed. Half beauty, half crone, she has reigned for aeons in the starless darkness of Niflheim, grimly welcoming the most pitiful of death’s travellers to her ice-locked prison. Until one day a memory shifts, and she is forced to seek out the sun in Midgard, where humans have made their home.

Faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Helen Firth makes the impulsive decision to return to Orkney after forty years to make peace with her past. Under the wintering solstice sun, she reconnects with the ungainly but affable Thorfinn Coffin, who helps her address the real reason she has returned to the islands to die.

As Helen draws closer to death and ever closer to Thorfinn, Hel in turn is intrigued by Helen. She, too, has a past to confront and a lesson to learn: that perhaps who she thinks she is isn’t who she is really meant to be.

A powerful reimagining of the Norse myth of Hel, The Shapeshifter’s Daughter celebrates the joy of reclaiming our stories.

Order a hardback copy of the book from bookshop.org.

Pre-order a paperback copy of the book from bookshop.org – released 04 June 2026.

The post The Shapeshifter’s Daughter appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Wednesday 17 June, 7.00pm
Manningtree Library, High Street, Manningtree, Essex, CO11 1AD

Room 706 is a heart-stopping, deeply suspenseful, original debut novel about an ordinary woman caught somewhere she shouldn’t be when the worst happens. One that will linger long after you’ve turned the final page.

‘Poignant, immersive, and utterly human, I adored Room 706’ – Sarah Jessica Parker

Tickets: £10 / £8 (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.

Tony Fisher

Tony Fisher spent four decades behind the microphone, keeping listeners company across the UK as a broadcaster and producer. From the BBC to commercial radio, his voice has been heard in the North East, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, Yorkshire and Worcestershire, the latter also providing the backdrop for his debut novel, Good Gone Bad.

An Honorary Doctor of the University of Essex and trustee of the Essex Book Festival, Tony is also a self-confessed book addict, devouring close to a hundred titles a year. He shares his passion through weekly book reviews on social media, shining a light on authors from around the world and across every genre imaginable.

His debut novel, Good Gone Bad, introduces podcaster Danny Wade and the seemingly decent people who, as Tony puts it, have “done something bad.” It’s the first in what promises to be an addictive new thriller series.

https://tonyfisherbooks.com/

The post Room 706 appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

To register your interest in attending the next Local Writers Showcase complete the online submission form here.

The post Local Writers Showcase – register your interest by 22 October appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Thursday 04 June, 7.00pm
South Woodham Ferrers Library, Trinity Square, South Woodham Ferrers, CM3 5JU

The Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon B. A. Paris joins us to talk about writing twisty and nail-biting thrillers, including her latest chilling and unsettling book, When I Kill You.

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.

B. A. Paris – The multi-million copy bestselling author

Photo of BA Paris © Philippe Matsas

B. A. Paris is the New York Times and Sunday Times international bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors, The Breakdown, Bring Me Back, The Dilemma, The Therapist, The Prisoner, and The Guest. Having lived in France for many years, she and her husband now live in the UK.

When I Kill You

The Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon B. A. Paris returns with a chilling and unsettling new suspense thriller.

Nell Masters is certain someone is following her. The hairs on the back of her neck rise when she travels to and from work, there are silent calls to her office, and a huge bouquet of flowers arrives without a card. And Nell has a reason to be looking over her shoulder, because she has a secret that
she’s hiding from everyone in her life, including her new partner, Alex. But Alex also has secrets of his own.

Fourteen years earlier, when Nell went by the name Elle Nugent, she witnessed a student, Bryony Sanders, getting into a stranger’s car. When Bryony was found murdered, Elle became obsessed with finding the person responsible. She was convinced she knew who it was and her fixation with Brett Parker, the man she accused, led her down a dangerous path …

Now, Nell tries to convince herself that this unnerving feeling of being watched is all in her mind. Has someone from her past discovered her new identity? Has the stalker become the stalked? Or is there something even more deadly at play?

Buy a copy of the book from bookshop.org.

Praise for B.A. Paris:

A mesmeric, tense and twisting nightmare. Suffocating, controlled and hugely entertaining’
– Chris Whitaker

‘A rollercoaster ride, with plenty of twists’
– Observer

‘B.A. Paris is a mistress at weaving family with fear, suspense and subterfuge’
– Jane Corry

‘A powerful, beautifully crafted story that ratchets up the tension with every page and packs a huge emotional punch’
– TM Logan

‘Expertly plotted and compellingly told … I raced through it’
– Harriet Tyce

‘Packed with tension and nail-bitingly real, I couldn’t put it down!’
– Lauren North

The post When I Kill You appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Wednesday 03 June, 7.00pm
Waltham Abbey Library, 37 Sun Street, Waltham Abbey, EN9 1EL

Author and geopolitics expert Tim Marshall will lead a fascinating, interactive session on his recently updated phenomenal international bestseller, Prisoners of Geography: Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics. Don’t miss this chance to experience Tim’s clarity, wit and razor-sharp analysis of the changing global geopolitical landscape.

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Our bookseller will have copies of the books available to purchase on the night.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.

Tim Marshall

Photo of Tim Marshall © Nick Gregan

Tim Marshall is a leading authority on foreign affairs with more than 30 years of reporting experience. He was diplomatic editor at Sky News, and before that was working for the BBC and LBC/IRN radio. He has reported from 40 countries and covered conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. He is the author of the No. 1 Sunday Times bestsellers Prisoners of Geography, The Power of Geography and The Future of Geography; the illustrated edition of Prisoners of Geography, shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year; as well as Divided; Worth Dying For; and Shadowplay.

X: @itwitius

Prisoners of Geography: Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics

The iconic bestseller Prisoners of Geography, now fully updated 10 years on with brand new content to reflect the changing global geopolitical landscape.

The phenomenal international bestseller – 3 million copies sold.

Prisoners of Geography is the book people need to understand what’s happening in our fast-changing world, from China’s ambitions to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Bestselling author and geopolitics expert Tim Marshall looks at the past, present and future to offer crucial insights into one of the major factors that determines world history – because if you don’t know geography, you’ll never have the full picture.

Originally published in 2015, Prisoners of Geography has sold over 850,000 copies in the UK and has been translated into 40 languages, selling over 3 million copies worldwide. Readers love Tim’s clarity, wit and razor-sharp analysis, and much that he wrote of in 2015 has come to pass. Now, this gripping new edition gives all readers – those who already love the book, and those yet to discover it – everything they need to understand our world for the next ten years and beyond.

Over 30,000 words of new material, including:
👉 the Russia–Ukraine war and Moscow’s alliances with authoritarian states
👉 the conflicts in the Middle East
👉 China’s growing military and strategic power, and its stance on Taiwan
👉 American global power and pivot to the Pacific
👉 Europe’s leaning towards more extreme politics, increased defence spending, and the new ‘Iron Curtain’
👉 great power play in Africa
👉 Japan’s remilitarisation and increasing power
👉 the growth of Indian economic and military strength

Praise for Prisoners of Geography

‘One of the best books about geopolitics you could imagine.’
– Evening Standard

‘Sharp insights into the way geography shapes the choices of world leaders.’
– Financial Times

‘Marshall is not afraid to ask tough questions and provide sharp answers.’
– Newsweek

The post Prisoners of Geography appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Thursday 25 June 2026, 7.00pm
Witham Library, 18 Newland Street, Witham, Essex, CM8 2AQ

This year’s DLS Lecture marks the 50th anniversary of the Dorothy L Sayers Society.

Best-selling author Sophie Hannah will discuss the ever-popular murder mystery as a genre with reference to Sayers’ first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, Whose Body? and will also talk about her latest book Work Experience, a new collection of maverick poems plus two murder mystery plays, The Mystery of Mr. E and Work Experience.

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.
📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.

Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times, New York Times and Amazon Kindle UK No. 1 bestselling writer of crime fiction and poetry, published in forty-nine languages and fifty-one territories. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her murder mystery musical, The Mystery of Mr E, was released as a feature film in 2023, directed by Martyn Tott. In 2023, Sophie won the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger in the Library Award for her body of work, and in 2013 her thriller The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the National Book Awards. Sophie’s poetry has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A Level and degree level across the UK.

In 2018, she created the How to Hold a Grudge podcast, based on her self-help book of the same name. More recently, she has published two other self-help books: Happiness: A Mystery, and her latest, The Double Best Method, which was an Amazon UK Top Ten best-seller and is a guide to making the best possible decisions.

Sophie is the founder and coach at Dream Author Coaching, a coaching programme for writers and anyone who wants to write. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.

Work Experience: New Poems and Two Plays

Bestselling author Sophie Hannah’s new collection combines maverick, irreverent poems that rhyme and scan and will make you laugh aloud, together with the librettos of her two musicals whose rebellious protagonist is every bit as mischievous and independent-minded as his creator.

Pre-order a copy of the book from bookshop.org – released 27 May 2026

The post DLS Lecture – The Murder Mystery appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Wednesday 24 June, 7.30pm
Colchester Library, Trinity Square, Colchester, CO1 1JB

Bestselling crime fiction author Vaseem Khan takes us on an exhilarating journey from the post-Independence complexities of his Malabar House novels – the latest of which, The Edge of Darkness, involves a locked-room mystery in India’s northeastern jungle – to contemporary Britain’s MI6 and the exploits of James Bond and Q.

He will take a detour via his standalone thriller The Girl in Cell A, immersing us in a claustrophobic small American town replete with dark secrets. And his new series featuring Q, beginning with Quantum of Menace, brings to life one of spy fiction’s most iconic characters – but who was the real Q?

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.
📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.

Vaseem Khan

Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India and the upcoming Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise.

He is a previous winner of the Shamus Award in the US. His debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was translated into 16 languages. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House novels set in 1950s Bombay, won the CWA Historical Dagger and was shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Vaseem lives in London and is the chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.

The Edge of Darkness

The unmissable new historical crime novel from bestselling author Vaseem Khan.

India, 1951. After wilfully ignoring orders, Persis Wadia, India’s first female police detective, is exiled from Bombay to the wild and mountainous Naga Hills District. As India’s first post-Independence election looms, and tensions rise across the country, Persis finds herself banished to the Victoria Hotel, a crumbling colonial-era relic, her career in tatters.

But when a prominent politician is murdered in his locked room at the Victoria, his head missing, she is thrust back into the fray. Is the murderer one of the foreigners staying at the hotel or an insurgent from the surrounding jungle? As the political situation threatens to explode, Persis has only days to stop a killer operating at the very edge of darkness…

‘Historical fiction at its finest’

– Mail on Sunday

‘Brilliant!’

– Ann Cleeves

‘Vaseem Khan writes with charm and wit, and an eye for detail that transports the reader entirely. I couldn’t love this series more’

– Chris Whitaker

Buy a copy of the book from bookshop.org.

Quantum of Menace – Q Mysteries

Centring on one of Ian Fleming’s most beloved characters Q (aka Major Boothroyd), this delicious witty James Bond spin-off murder mystery finds the tech boffin investigating the suspicious death of his scientist friend after being unexpectedly ousted from his job at MI6.

Filled with wit and verve, Vaseem Khan brings his vibrant and dynamic style to one of Ian Fleming’s most beloved characters, Q. Charming, drily humorous, and intelligently crafted, Quantum of Menace, the first in the Q mystery books, will appeal to Bond fans, readers of Murder Before Evensong,The Thursday Murder Club and Slow Horses novels, and those who are looking for a new take on clever crime fiction.

Q is out of MI6 and into a new world of deceit and death.

‘Excellent. An entertaining mash-up of Fleming, Le Carré and the best of British detective fiction’

– Charlie Higson

‘Pay attention, 007 … this is the story we always wanted, and Vaseem Khan tells it like the master he is – fast, wise, funny, suspenseful and highly recommended’

– Lee Child

‘Clever, cunning and quirky … Quintessential Khan’

– Mick Herron

Buy a hardback copy of the book from bookshop.org.

Pre-order a paperback copy of the book from bookshop.org – released 23 April 2026

The Girl In Cell A

A Times Thriller of the Year 2025

The world knows her as the girl in cell A

Convicted of murder at seventeen, infamous killer and true crime celebrity Orianna Negi has always maintained her innocence.

But if she didn’t kill Gideon Wyclerc, then who did?

Orianna has a blind spot over that fateful day: she can’t remember what happened. Forensic psychologist Annie Ledet is tasked with unlocking the truth.

Orianna grew up in Eden Falls, ruled by the insular Wyclerc dynasty and its ruthless patriarch , Amos. As their sessions progress, Annie reaches into Orianna’s past to a shattering realisation….

Scandal. Sex. Power. Race. And murder. Between guilt and innocence lies a fallen Eden.

‘A twist you’ll never guess’

– Alex Michaelides

‘Thrilling, thought-provoking, suspenseful’

– S.A. Cosby

The post From Bombay to Bond, via a Small Town Killing appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Tuesday 23 June 2026, 7.00pm
Chelmsford Library, County Hall, Market Road, Chelmsford, CM1 1QH

Sarah Vaughan, million copy best-selling author of Anatomy of a Scandal, talks about her latest ‘utterly addictive’ thriller, Based on a True Story – a compelling novel about power, money and lies. A famed children’s author summons her family and friends to her exquisite manor house on the cliffs but on the eve of a lavish party someone threatens to expose the lie she’s kept up for over half a century.

‘Wholly absorbing and utterly addictive, with that perfect blend of twisty plot and stunning prose that readers have come to expect from Sarah Vaughan. One of my favourite books of the year’

– Andrea Mara

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.
📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.

Sarah Vaughan

Photo of Sarah Vaughan © Johnny Ring

Brought up in Devon, Sarah Vaughan read English at Oxford and went on to become a journalist. After training at the Press Association, she spent eleven years at the Guardian as a news reporter, political correspondent and health correspondent, before leaving to freelance and write fiction. Her previous novels include Anatomy of a Scandal, an instant international bestseller translated into 22 languages and adapted for a major Netflix series in 2022. Sarah’s fourth novel Little Disasters has recently come to screen starring Diane Kruger, airing on Paramount+ in 2025. Based on a True Story is Sarah’s sixth novel, publishing in March 2026.

Based on a True Story

The major new release from Sarah Vaughan, million copy bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal.

All families tell stories. And some of them tell lies…

Generations of children have grown up with Dame Eleanor Kingman’s stories. Her status as the country’s best-loved storyteller is unrivalled. But now it is under attack, because whilst her fans regard her as a national treasure, someone seems to know the truth about who she really is…

Eleanor is turning seventy and marking the occasion with a beautiful party at her new clifftop Cornish home. A retrospective television documentary has been commissioned to commemorate her, whilst the great and the good from the literary world will be there to toast her success. But as her three daughters and her many friends gather, alongside shadowy characters from her past (and present), the stories Eleanor has been telling for decades about her own life and family begin to feel less and less convincing.

Buy a copy of the book from bookshop.org.

‘I absolutely devoured this book. A predictably gripping read by one of the masters of the genre. I can completely see this stunning book as a mini-series… An absolute triumph. Hooked all the way to that thrilling end. And what a master stroke misdirection!’
– Imran Mahmood

‘Smartly plotted and wickedly fun; the secrets and revelations just keep coming.’

– Clare Fuller

‘A juicy, atmospheric and unpredictable family thriller which employs both schadenfreude and empathy to have the reader switching sides with every chapter.’

– Erin Kelly

The post Based on a True Story appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Essex Libraries seeks an Author in Residence to champion their service and engage teenagers across the county. Are you passionate about storytelling, community outreach, and inspiring the next generation of readers and writers? This could be the perfect opportunity for you!

Objective:

As our Author in Residence, you’ll be the face of Essex Libraries, advocating for the power of books and reading to enrich lives. Your mission? To attract teenage audiences, foster connectivity through words, and design engaging activities that captivate and inspire young adults.

Role:

• Deliver a dynamic programme of author/book events and creative activities over one year
• Generate events that focus on teenagers of ages 12-17
• Bring communities into libraries, enriching cultural activities and promoting library usage.
• Reach out to local schools and other settings to engage with young people and promote the library service
• Collaborate with the library service to deliver inclusive, teenage-focused activities.
• Reach teenage audiences and foster a positive relationship between them and the library service.

Who are we looking for?

• We seek a passionate and inspiring author, who will be work- based in Essex
• You may be an established author, or you may be up and coming.
• You should possess strong communication skills, adaptability, and approachability. Experience working with both adults and young people is essential.

Desirable Skills:

• A strong social media presence and self-promotion skills.
• Access to own transport.

Job Specification:

• One-year residency working 1 day per month.
• Author fee: £283 per day plus travel expenses to and from Chelmsford
• Preparation time included in daily rate.

Essential skills

• Being work based in Essex
• Car driver

How to Apply:

Submit an Expression of Interest including your CV, a workshop plan example, links to your social media presence/website, and details of your publications.

Apply by 3rd June 2024 (11am) to Author.Events@essex.gov.uk

Join us in fostering a love of reading, creativity, and community engagement across Essex Libraries. Apply now and be part of our exciting journey!

The post Essex Libraries Author in Residence Opportunity appeared first on Essex Book Festival.