Harriet Constable and Lucy Steeds
The Instrumentalist, The Artist
Saturday 25 April, 11am – 12pm
Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion
From 1920s Provence to 18th-century Venice, critically acclaimed debut novelists Harriet Constable and Lucy Steeds join bestselling author Clare Chambers for a talk about art, music and writing historical fiction.
Harriet Constable is the author of The Instrumentalist, about Vivaldi and the woman written out of the history of one of the greatest musical masterpieces. An international bestseller, it was shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown.
Lucy Steeds is the author of The Artist, a story of passion and art set in 1920s Provence. It won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize in 2025 and was named a Waterstones Book of the Year.
Chaired by Clare Chambers
Price: £10 (incl booking fee)
Ruth Ware
The Woman in Suite 11
Saturday 26th April, 12.30pm - 1.30pm
Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion
We’re excited to welcome critically acclaimed and #1 New York Times bestselling crime writer Ruth Ware to Books in the Park. She’ll be discussing The Woman in Suite 11, the follow-up to her multi-million copy mega-hit The Woman in Cabin 10, now a major Netflix film starring Keira Knightley. In The Woman in Suite 11 Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe. Prepare for thrills, kills and plenty of twists!
Chaired by Joy Kluver
Price: £10 (incl booking fee)
James Fox
Craftland – A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Arts and Vanishing Trades
Saturday 25th April, 1pm - 2pm
Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion
From the Isles of Scilly to the Scottish Highlands, BAFTA-nominated broadcaster James Fox travels the length of Britain to seek out the country’s last great craftspeople.
Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and coopers, bellfounders and watchmakers in Craftland, Fox chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions that once governed every aspect of life on these shores. Craftland was shortlisted for the 2025 Nero book awards and was one of Waterstones Books of the Year 2025.
Chaired by Travis Elborough
Price: £10 (incl booking fee)
Simon Goddard and Alexander Larman
Starman: A David Bowie Odyssey
Saturday 25 April, 3pm - 4pm
Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion
David Bowie returns to Beckenham! We’re thrilled to welcome Simon Goddard and Alexander Larman for a celebration of the life and legacy of one of the world’s most important artists. Marking 10 years since Bowie’s death, this special event will trace Bowie’s early beginnings and mainstream success, to his creative resurgence and final artistic works before his death.
Simon Goddard has been writing about music for nearly 30 years. His Bowie Odyssey series has twice made the Sunday Times Books of the Year. Alexander Larman is a journalist and author. His latest book, Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie is the first book to deal with the second half of Bowie's life and career.
Chaired by Travis Elborough
Price: £10 (incl booking fee)
Jesse Bernard
Escaping Babylon – An Intimate History of Black British
Saturday 25 April, 5pm – 6pm
Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion
From the height of jungle and hip-hop in the 90s to the London uprisings in 2011, the birth of UK rap and the rise of grime superstars like Stormzy, filmmaker and DJ Jesse Bernard examines how Black culture in Britain is moulded by creativity drawn from Lagos and Los Angeles, Sao Paolo and South London. The first major history of black British music from 1989 to the present day, Escaping Babylon celebrates its richness, heritage and towering legacy.
Chaired by Natasha Onwuemezi
Price: £10 (incl booking fee)
Paul Sinha
One Sinha Lifetime
Saturday 25 April, 7pm - 8pm
Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion
Paul Sinha is an award-winning comedian, a quizzing mastermind and a happily married husband. But for much of his life none of these seemed remotely imaginable. In this very special event, he speaks to Karen McLeod and shares his unforgettable journey.
As a boy, Paul struggled to find his place in a world where he didn't quite fit. Who was he? An over-achieving schoolkid with the world's knowledge at his fingertips? A traditional Bengali son, destined for a career in medicine that he never once craved? A young gay man yearning to breathe freely? Or was he yet another flawed human being on a self-destruct mission?
Amid life's mayhem, it was frequently Paul's love of facts in which he found solace, whether funding his lifestyle through quiz machines or simply trying to show off to his mates. Stumbling serendipitously into both a career in stand-up and a clandestine network of competitive quizzers introduced him to a new sense of purpose, a new identity, and, eventually, new love.
A hilarious and moving coming-of-age memoir of one man's search for fulfilment, One Sinha Lifetime is an unconventional odyssey through love, family, and the joy of general knowledge.
Chaired by Karen McLeod
Price: £12.50 (incl booking fee)
Helen Bowell
Eco-poetry writing workshop
Saturday 25 April, 10am -11.30am
Venue: Upstairs classroom, The Homestead Education Centre, Homestead Courtyard
Why write about flowers now? Is it a luxury to write about birds? Can writing about trees help to move us towards a better world?
In the context of worrying geopolitics, Helen Bowell’s writing workshop will ask what paying attention to nature can do for us and our world. Together, we’ll read and discuss contemporary nature poetry and write our own poems in response, seeking a way to write poems that don’t claim to have the answers but which are curious, open-hearted and contain multitudes. You don’t need any experience to come along – just bring something to write with.
Price: £20 (incl booking fee)
Annie Lyons
Fiction Writing Workshop
Saturday 25 April, 12pm - 1.30pm
Venue: Upstairs classroom, The Homestead Education Centre, Homestead Courtyard
Join author Annie Lyons for a fun-filled adult workshop aimed at anyone who wants to have a go at writing fiction - whether you long to discover if you really do have that novel in you or just want to put pen to paper and see where it takes you.
Designed to ease you into the writing process and build your confidence as a writer, the workshop will cover the basics of storytelling: generating ideas, understanding structure, creating a character, and developing their story.
You'll use a combination of individual and group exercises to get the brains buzzing and the words flowing!
Price: £20 (incl booking fee)
Gill O’Halloran
Flash Fiction Workshop
Saturday 25 April, 2pm - 3.30pm
Venue: Upstairs classroom, The Homestead Education Centre, Homestead Courtyard
Gill would love to write a novel, but she hasn’t got two years to spare. She loves poetry, but prefers the path a story follows. Flash fictions are tiny stories - under 1000 words, but can be just 50. With so few words, like a poem, every word counts, and like a story, you still need a turning point, a narrative arc.
You'll look at examples of successful flash fiction, try out some writing exercises and hopefully leave the session with a couple of draft stories. Gill will give you prompts, so you’re not stuck for ideas. Bring something to write on/with.
Price: £20 (incl booking fee)