Forget ‘self-help’ and embrace ‘shelf-help’ by discovering the healing power of books and reading to inspire, comfort and fortify.
 
Join authors Daisy Buchanan (PITY PARTY, LIMELIGHT, CAREERING) and Nikki May (THIS MOTHERLESS LAND, WALAHA) as they talk to local author Isabelle Broom (The Orange House, The Get Away, The Summer Trip) as they discuss the power of reading for pure pleasure. Put aside preconceived ideas about genre and prepare to leave with a list of reading recommendations the length of your arm after a conversation that will leave the idea of any book being a ‘guilty pleasure’ in the dust.
 
PITY PARTY
Nothing scares Katherine more than stopping, but everyone insists she needs to take some time for herself. Head to a wellness retreat, they said. Enjoy some me-time, they said...
Except this retreat isn't the pity party she was hoping for. Instead of massages, she has erotic meditation, and instead of spa treatments she has scream therapy.
Katherine has never lost control in her life. In fact, she's fairly certain that if she starts screaming she might never stop
But she's about to let go, and everyone had better stand back…
 
THIS MOTHERLESS LAND
Witty, warm, hugely entertaining, ThisMotherlessLand bridges three decades and two continents, delving into the thorny territories of race and culture and belonging. At its heart is a story about love and how it can make the difference between surviving and thriving.
 
THE ORANGE HOUSE
Henry and Violet first met in the garden of The Orange House on the beautiful island of Mallorca.
As the years have passed, cracks have appeared and secrets have built barriers between them.
Finally, on the brink of divorce, they have come back to Mallorca to sell up. Will this final summer together be the end - or a new beginning?
Twenty years ago, The Orange House brought them together. Now, will it be the reason they part?
 
Daisy Buchanan is a bestselling author, and award winning journalist and broadcaster. Her books include READ YOURSELF HAPPY and the novels PITY PARTY, LIMELIGHT, CAREERING and Insatiable. She hosts the YOU'RE BOOKED podcast, where she interviews legendary authors about their reading habits. She lives by the seaside in Kent with her husband, the writer Dale Shaw.
 
Born in Bristol and raised in Lagos, Nikki May is Anglo-Nigerian. Her critically acclaimed debut novel Wahala won the Comedy Women In Print New Voice Prize, was shortlisted for the Diverse Book Award and the Fingerprint Debut of the Year Award, and longlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award. It’s being turned into a major BBC TV drama series.
Her second novel, This Motherless Land was a Read with Jenna pick and was shortlisted for the shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Novel With a Sense of Place Prize 2025.
Nikki lives in Dorset, England, with her husband, two standard Schnauzers and way too many books. She should be writing but is probably reading.
 
Isabelle Broom is the award-winning author of 12 novels and is published in 14 overseas territories. Having left heat magazine in 2018, where she’d spent over five years as book reviews editor, she began writing full-time alongside freelance work and still works regularly for heat, Closer, Bella, Grazia and Crime Monthly magazine. Isabelle loves nothing more than chatting to authors and has interviewed the likes of Giovanna Fletcher, Lucy Score, and Victoria Hislop, as well as hosting multi-author panels for Waterstones, independent bookshops and in 2024’s Love Stories Etc Festival in Manchester. She lives in Sudbury, Suffolk, surrounded by books, family, unruly dogs, and a rooster from the farm next door, which has inexplicably fallen in love with her. Her most recent novel, The Orange House, is out now.