So what happens when I’m let loose in a room full of authors and other guests? Turns out I bore them talking about Jane Austen, persuade an author to buy a copy of the book I’m reading and discuss the architecture of the town I live in…

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to a little shindig in Leeds thrown by HQ Stories. There I met some of the lovely folks from HQ Stories, including a lovely welcome from Joe and Lucy.

The first author I spoke to was the charming Anne O’Brien. She told me how she had started by writing books for Mills and Boon before moving onto historical fiction and how research for such novels is paramount. Her latest novels are The Shadow Queen which is out in paperback on 22 March 2018 and Queen of the North, out in hardback on 31 May 2018.

I then started chatting to Michael Stewart. I say chatting, I think I ended up bending his ear off. Michael and I had plenty to talk about as he works at the University in my town, and has worked with the husband of someone I work with. It really is a small world. Michael’s latest novel, Ill Will, published on 22 March 2018, continues the tale of Heathcliff, after he has left Wuthering Heights. Whilst we did of course discuss the Bronte sisters I also managed to turn the discussion to Jane Austen. Lets just say I persuaded him to read Persuasion and leave it at that.

After some lovely vegan food I was introduced to Henry Firth and then Ian Theasby, authors of the what is billed to be the most anticipated vegan cookbook this year, Bosh! Published on 19 April 2018, the book has only last week been printed and in fact there are only currently 10 in the country. One of them was on show last night and looks striking. The recipes that I caught a peek at look mouth-watering too. So the conversation went as you may imagine. Henry and I got talking about books and I ended up persuading him to buy my current read. Obviously.

Adele Parks then kindly came and joined us. Adele had sent me a lovely message on Twitter to say she was looking forward to meeting me and the feeling was of course mutual. I’m not sure how she felt after we had managed to turn the conversation from the regional terms for hair tangles to the merits of the Biff, Chip and Kipper books. Adele’s latest novel, The Image of You was published on 22 February 2018.

Time ran away with us and I only briefly got to chat to Simon McDermott, whose book, The Songaminute Man, out on 5 April 2018, is a memoir about Simon and his father, Ted, and Ted’s diagnosis of Dementia.

All in all I had a lovely evening and came away with loads of books I want to get and read. Thanks HQStories and everyone else for a lovely night.

I may have overdone it on the books….