Enjoy a sparkling drinks reception and a delicious lunch while two award-winning authors tell you more about their writing inspirations and journey to getting published. Take a table of ten and fill it with clients or friends or book individual spaces and meet likeminded people.
The authors will be Gemma Morgan, author of Pink Camouflage and Claire Daverley, author of Talking at Night.
The Author
Gemma Morgan began her career as an Army Officer and was the first woman to be awarded the Carmen Sword from HRH Princess Royal. She was Captain of the Wales lacrosse team, gaining 85 Caps. Gemma is an inspiring keynote speaker and leadership consultant sharing her expertise on a range of subjects including women in leadership, resilience, and what it takes to build a high-performing team. She is also a campaigner for mental health awareness and an ambassador for the charity, Help for Heroes.
The Book
When Gemma Morgan was 33, her husband found her by the roadside, delirious and choking on her own vomit. She was happily married with two young children, an outstanding army service record and a first- class international sporting career. But underneath she was a wreck.
In 1996 she had been one of the few female recruits at Sandhurst’s prestigious Military Academy. Experiencing first-hand the Army’s culture of misogyny, toxic masculinity and sexual abuse soon challenged her assumptions about the values she thought were at the heart of what it meant to serve. A highly unusual deployment then found her unarmed in the blood and mayhem of a war zone, powerless to alleviate the suffering surrounding her.
In her own words, Gemma shares the hard-hitting story of her abandonment by the Army, her subsequent battle with PTSD and her battle back from the brink.
The Author
Claire Daverley has been writing stories since she was 6 years old, inspired by art, film and many trips to the library. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art from the University of Oxford, she began a career in publishing, writing about books by day but penning her own by night, on trains, and in the light of the early mornings. She has spent most of her ife in Hertfordshire, but recently relocated to Scotland with her husband and spaniel.
The Book
For those that willed on the romance between Emma & Dexter in David Nicholls’ One Day and felt the pang of first love between Connell & Marianne in Sally Rooney’s Normal People, meet Will and Rosie.
Meeting as teenagers, they are opposites in every way, but over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer, destined to be one another’s great love story. Until one day, tragedy strikes, and any possibility of them being together shatters. But that tragedy – and their history – is what will connect them forever…
For more information and to book, please follow the link below.