Reading & Conversation with Robert Ashton
Down to Earth: Rediscovering our roots through the soil beneath our feet
Friday 4th September, 7pm

We're excited to welcome Robert Ashton, author of Where Are the Fellows Who Cut the Hay. Robert's new book Down to Earth explores our relationship with the soil through the eyes of the people who work with it - from prehistory to the present.
Booking essential! Please see us in store for details.
 

Reading & Conversation with Baroness Natalie Bennett
Green Thinking
Friday 11th September, 7pm
We look forward to welcoming back Natalie Bennett, Green Party peer. Natalie will be sharing her new book, Green Thinking, and her previous book Change Everything, now out in a new edition.

Green Thinking is about unlearning, discarding damaging, outdated ideas deeply rooted in our societies. and explores the flowering of probiotic Green thinking, and the rediscovery in the 21st century of powerful indigenous and other previously repressed thinking. Natalie Bennett understands that the foundation of life is cooperation, not competition; that diversity is essential to resilience and health of systems; that humans are just one more species of animal; that reductionism has to be replaced by relational thinking; that financialising society has destroyed – as it was meant to do – relationships essential to wellbeing; and, perhaps most crucially of all, that we have to draw on the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous societies that have maintained themselves and their environments in healthy balance for tens of thousands of years.

'Tickets and further details available in Diss Publishing Bookshop. Booking essential.

Reading and Conversation with Louis de Bernieres: Smelling of Rooks:
Nine Years in the Norfolk Alps
Friday 16th October, 7pm

A warm welcome to Louis de Bernieres, returning to share his funny, tender, and defiantly unfiltered portrait of a writer’s life in rural Norfolk. Smelling of Rooks: Nine Years in the Norfolk Alps gathers a decade of reflections, anecdotes and observations on everything from music, cats and motorcycles to politics, parenting and the perils of social media. It is a book about the texture of ordinary days, told with the warmth, eccentricity and mischief that have made de Bernières one of Britain’s most beloved storytellers. Booking essential. Tickets and further information available in store.
 

Reading & Conversation with Stewart White
See You at 6:30
Friday 19th June, 7pm

BBC presenter Stewart White joins us to share his new memoir - sure to be a fascinating evening! Booking essential.

See You at 6:30 is the captivating memoir of beloved BBC presenter Stewart White. With warmth and wit, he recounts a life spent behind the microphone, from his early days in local radio to becoming the face of BBC Look East for nearly four decades. Stewart shares unforgettable encounters with Hollywood legends like James Stewart and Walter Matthau, the chaos of live television, and the profound human stories at the heart of regional news. This is a heartfelt and engaging reflection on a changing industry, the power of storytelling, and a lifetime of being welcomed into half a million homes every evening.

Tickets available at Diss Publishing Bookshop. £15/ticket or £20/2 tickets - each price point includes 1 copy of the book.

Reading & Conversation: The Life-Affirming Magic of Birds with Charlie Bingham
Friday 15th May, 7pm

Join us in conversation with Charlie Bingham, author of The Life-Affirming Magic of Birds: and the Extraordinary Things They Can Teach Us. A fresh, funny and personal blend of natural history and memoir, mental health awareness and natural science. Booking essential - please see us in store for further details.
 

Saturday Signings: Ali Stearn
Jack Brock and the Walk
Saturday 9th May, 11am - 1pm

For little (or not so little) fans of horses, ponies and dogs - Ali will be signing copies of her new Jack Brock story about her real life Shetland Pony!

Free to attend and no need to book - all welcome.

Ali regularly takes Jack, a friendly and mischievous miniature Shetland pony, to visit people in care homes. During one visit, they meet Billy, a boy who often visits his grandfather. Billy is surprised but delighted to meet Jack, and he praises the hard-working nurses. His comment about the need for more specialist nurses gets Ali thinking – could Jack Brock somehow help?
 

Saturday Signings: Pauline Manders
Deftly Kilned
Saturday 25th April, 11am - 1pm

Pauline Manders is back with the second book in her new series, The Hatter Street Private Investigation Agency. A car cloning scheme - and murder - abound in rural Suffolk, while PI Pember Quinn is reluctantly housesitting for a client who collects porcelain... A treat for fans of Pauline’s ‘Utterly’ series, and all local crime fiction aficionados.
 

Saturday Signings: Laura Tunmer
Tiny Turtle 32
Saturday 11th April, 11am - 1pm

Welcome to Laura Tunmer with her real life-inspired story of Tiny Turtle 32! Tiny Turtle tells us about her journey from being an egg to her new home in the ocean, and through her courage and resilience, she finds her place.

With space to draw, write and respond to the story, this book creates space for children to express their thoughts and feelings with their trusted adult.
 

Reading & Conversation: Words From the Hedge with Richard Negus
Thursday 5th March, 7pm

Richard Negus joins us again for the paperback release of his book Words From the Hedge: A Hedgelayer's View of the Countryside. Called 'joyful and illuminating', and an 'important, funny and passionate defence of the British countryside,' Richard's visit and book were thoroughly appreciated by you all when he joined us for a signing last year.

Booking essential! Book your tickets here in the shop now for a fascinating, in-depth evening conversation with Richard. Tickets are £20/single and £28/double, to include 1 copy of the book, a drink, and a donation to Diss Rugby Club (Diss under 15s Diss Rugby Tour and MND Charity).
 

Reading & Conversation: The Teacher of Auschwitz
with Wendy Holden
Friday 6th February, 7pm

Bestselling author, biographer, and historian Wendy Holden joins us for an evening talk about her book The Teacher of Auschwitz- just after the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.

Assiduously researched and drawn from archives and survivor testimonies, Wendy tells the inspirational and uplifting true story of a young, gay prisoner of the Nazis.
Wendy will also talk about her own experience of war through her parents and as a war correspondent, and what draws her back time and again to WWII and the Holocaust.
Booking essential- please see us in store for tickets.
 

Saturday Signings: Claire Davies
Braver Than You Think: Cycling to Self Discovery, from Lands End to John O'Groats
Saturday 31st January, 11am – 1pm

Join us in welcoming Claire Davies, sharing her cycling travelogue Braver Than You Think: Cycling to Self-Discovery, from Lands End to John O’Groats. Written from the perspective of a woman in menopause, who is not an athlete, it’s a relatable story of female resilience and a love letter to the healing power of nature. A memoir to inspire you in the new year.