In this episode of Bookable Space, host Yvonne Battle-Felton is joined by Allie Cresswell. Allie reads to us from The Cottage on Winter Moss.

About the author:

UK-born Allie Cresswell has a BA and an MA in English Literature.

She was a print-buyer, pub landlady, bookkeeper and college lecturer, but nowadays she writes full time, producing the kinds of books that she herself enjoys reading; character-driven historical and contemporary fiction and prose as delicious as a rich, truffle chocolate.

She lives in remote, coastal NW England, where The Cottage on Winter Moss, her 13th novel, is set.

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In this engaging episode of Bookable Space, we’re joined by Joanne Limburg. Joanne reads from Small Pieces and talks to us about writing grief, taking care of yourself while writing, and writing as a monument.

About the book

When Joanne Limburg's brother Julian took his own life, she found herself holding the fragments of a shattered family narrative. In Small Pieces, she assembles them into a new pattern, with pieces from their shared childhood, their wider family history, their Jewish background, the three-year period between her brother's death and that of her mother, and the ten strange days after his death, spent in the town where he lived and died.

About the author

Joanne Limburg grew up in NW London. She published her first poetry collection with Bloodaxe Books, Femenismo, in 2000. Since then, there have been two further poetry collections for adults, one for children, three non-fiction books and one novel. Her most recent book is Letters to my Weird Sisters: on Autism and Feminism. She lives in Cambridge and teaches at the Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education.

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Bookable Space is a reading podcast that celebrates books and introduces readers to books we may have missed the first time around. In this episode of Bookable Space, host Yvonne Battle-Felton is joined by Laura Gwendolyn Hill. Laura reads to us from The Saxon Sword: The Song of Artemis Book One

About the book:

On a remote Scottish island, a baby girl, Artemis, is born. As a child, she is determined to unravel the mystery of her father’s identity. As a young woman with the heart of a warrior, she leaves home to find her father and faces many dangers on the road.

Fate leads Artemis into the kingdom of Northumbria where Edwin reigns as High King of Britain. Artemis is oath-bound to protect a princess, but can she prove her worth in a man’s world? Is she worthy of wielding the Saxon Sword?

Bio

Laura Gwendolyn Hill is a Sheffield based author, musician, and mother. ‘The Saxon Sword’ is her debut novel.

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Bookable Space is a reading podcast that introduces readers to books we may have missed the first time around. In this episode of Bookable Space, Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Curdle Creek, is joined by C.C. Legault. C.C. reads to us from Who is Bobbie-Mae?

About the book:

Bobbie-Mae wakes up alone in a hospital room. In the aftermath of a life-threatening car accident, there is complete darkness in her recall. Unsure whether her memories will ever return, Bobbie-Mae starts to read her old journals with the hope that they will help her understand who she was so that she can discover who she wants to be.

Bio:

C.C. Legault lives in Canada with her husband, three children, and her dog Lulu. She is currently a teacher, but she has previously worked in a university, a library, a coffee shop, and a cemetery. People, stories, and music are her passions. Who Is Bobbie-Mae? is her debut novel.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cclegault.author/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cc.legault

Website: www.cclegault.com

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Bookable Space is a reading podcast that introduces readers to books we may have missed the first time around. In this episode of Bookable Space, Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Curdle Creek, is joined by Victoria Bennett. Victoria reads to us from All My Wild Mothers.

About the book:

Weaving together memoir and herbal folklore, All My Wild Mothers is a story of motherhood, grief, and growing. At seven months pregnant, Victoria learns that her eldest sister has died in a canoeing accident. In that moment, her life changes. Five years later, and struggling with the demands of motherhood, grief and full-time care, Victoria and her family move to a new social housing estate in rural Cumbria. Here, in the rubble of a former industrial estate, she and her young son begin to grow a wild apothecary garden: daisy, for resilience; dandelion, for strength against adversity; sow thistle, to life melancholy, and borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times. Stone by stone, seed by see, they discover that sometimes life grows, not in spite of what is broken, but because of it."

Victoria Bennett is a disabled writer, carer and mother. Her writing has received several awards for poetry and narrative non-fiction, including the New Writing North Debut Award. Her debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers: motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden, is published by John Murray Press (2023), and won the Nautilus Award for Memoir 2024, was shortlisted for the Lakeland Book of the Year, and long listed for the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize. She lives in Orkney. When not juggling writing, care and chronic illness, she can be found where the wild things grow, tending her apothecary garden.

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Bookable Space is a reading podcast that introduces readers to books we may have missed the first time around. In this episode of Bookable Space, Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Curdle Creek, is joined by Sharon Tyers. Sharon reads to us from Linen and Rooks.

About the book:

Linen and Rooks is set in 1830’s Denbigh, North Wales at the time when cholera visited twice. The Bleachworks where the linen was whitened just outside the town is long gone but rooks still circle the town and in this story a white rook visits and leaves carrying a child.

About the author:

Sharon Tyers is a retired English teacher who self -published her first book, Linen and Rooks, in 2022 and is now working on a memoir of her mum’s life as a sock linker in Leicester. She gives talks on creative writing skills in libraries and galleries.

One of the bookstores where you'll find Linen and Rooks https://www.orielglasfryn.com/

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In this special holiday edition of Bookable Space, host Yvonne Battle-Felton turns the tables as she reads from Curdle Creek. This episode was recorded live at Autumn Book Launch 2024. Curdle Creek was published by Holt/Macmillian in the US and Dialogue Books/Hachette in the UK.

About the book Osira, a forty-five-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of the remote all-Black town that’s stuck in the past and governed by ominous rituals including a one in, one out population policy. Osira has always been considered blessed, but her luck changes when her grown children run off to parts unknown, escaping Curdle Creek’s harsh traditions, she comes in second to last in the Running of the Widows, and her father flees after his name is called in the annual Moving On ceremony. They say there’s no place like home. Let’s hope they’re right.

About the author Yvonne Battle-Felton is an author, academic, editor, podcaster, host, creative producer, and writer. Her debut, Remembered, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2019) and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize (2020). Winner of a Northern Writers Award in fiction (2017), Yvonne has six titles in Penguin Random House’s Ladybird series; and writes creative nonfiction essays, short stories, and stories for children. She is Senior Commissioning Editor at John Murray Press (UK) and the academic director of creative writing at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education. Curdle Creek is her second novel.

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In this episode of Bookable Space, host Yvonne Battle-Felton is joined by Emily Grandy. Emily reads to us from Michikusa House.

About the book

While spending a year on a small farm in rural Japan, a young woman struggling with mental illness finds meaning in learning to grow her own food and cook with the seasons. But transformation is often bittersweet, and she will be forced to choose between the familiarity of old ties and the desire for fulfillment.

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