Past Events

Damon Young is the author of The Art of Reading, a celebratory tribute to one of our most under-appreciated skills. In it, he reminds us just how miraculous the process of reading is: through a series of scratches and dots we, the reader, can create whole worlds and lives lived only in our imaginations. Young defines six Aristotelian ‘virtues’ - curiosity, patience, courage, pride, temperance, and justice - which he argues will make us better readers, embracing them wholeheartedly himself on the winding tour of literature…

Over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of August 2018, the great Arts and Crafts house Voewood is throwing open its gates for The Summer Social Festival! There are a whole host of incredible music, craft, literary and music events lined up on both days (and nights!)

But the Saturday Summer Salon (a literary event extravaganza happening alongside the PBFA Summer Book Fair in the gardens) will see the Book Hive's very own Henry Layte chairing a number of the book-related talks...

Sarah Perry is back! And we're very honoured to be helping her launch her new novel, Melmoth, here in Norwich - at the fabulous Octagon Chapel on Colegate. Inspired by Charles Maturin’s forgotten gothic masterpiece, Melmoth begins in the present day, and takes its ensemble cast of characters on a spectacular journey through time. Dazzlingly inventive, terrifying and beautiful, this is a novel that transcends easy categorisations of gothic or literary fiction to speak urgently to our time...

In her ground-breaking new book, historian Lauren Mackay reveals the untold story of Thomas and George Boleyn - the father and brother of Anne Boleyn - bringing into the light two pivotal characters whose part in the rise and swift fall of Anne Boleyn has so far remained cloaked in shadow. Join us at Aylsham Town Hall this October to celebrate the launch of Lauren's book - she'll be reading and discussing her work just a stone's throw from the Blicklign Estate, a famous Boleyn family residence...

Join us for the Norwich launch of 'The Ballad of Syd & Morgan' by Haydn Middleton - the new book published by Propolis (the imprint of the Book Hive). Haydn's masterful and puckish imagining is a short counterfactual novel, published exactly fifty years after the encounter it purports to describe, viz: at the prompting of Pan the goat-god, Syd Barrett, the 22-year-old former leader of Pink Floyd, bursts into the Cambridge University rooms of legendary novelist E M Forster, 89, on a matter of surpassing urgency...

Spend an evening with award-winning children's author Cherie Chen to celebrate the launch of her magical and festive new book! In "The Winter Wassail" Cherie combines her interest in English Medieval folklore with her unique artistic style, which is, in part, inspired by traditional Oriental techniques such as giclee. The story is based on the Medieval pagan tradition of wassailing - the ritual of waking the spirits of the trees from their winter sleep to help them grow healthy and strong...

Duck is grumpy. The pond is dry and, even worse, there's a grey cloud following her around. Can any of Duck's friends cheer her up? This funny farmyard tale about friendship is the latest book from children's book legend (and Norwich resident!) Joyce Dunbar. For this wonderful new adventure, her warm, wise and humerous words are brought to life with the bold, evocative and colourful illustrations of multi-award-winning artist Petr Horacek. Join us for a fun-filled evening to celebrate the…