Parade’s End Books

Secret Spitfires: An Evening with Author Gavin Clarke
2023-01-28 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an engaging evening with author Gavin Clarke on Saturday 28 January, 7.30-9pm. Gavin will be discussing his book Secret Spitfires – the remarkable true story of the hidden army of women who assembled in WW2 to build spitfires in secret. See you there!
September 1940: In the midst of the Second World War, The Luftwaffe unleashed a series of devastating raids on Southampton, all but destroying its Spitfire factories.
But production didn’t stop. Instead, manufacturing of this iconic fighter moved underground, to secret locations staffed by women, children and non-combatant men. With little engineering experience between them, they built a fleet of one of the greatest war planes that has ever existed.
This is their story.
You can book your free tickets by ordering in the store, ringing us on 020 85495425 or emailing orders@paradesendbooks.co.uk. Tickets will be allocated on a first come first served basis, so book now to secure your place.

Jazz Night
2023-02-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Parade’s End live music is back! Join us on Friday 10th February, 7.30pm, for an evening of chamber jazz with the Serkan Trio. The group will play a mixture of instantly recognised classics interspersed with less familiar compositions and improvisation. There will be drinks and non-alcoholic refreshments on sale.
Book your free ticket now instore, by emailing us at orders@paradesendbooks.co.uk or ringing us on 020 8549 5425. Book early to avoid disappointment!

Book club meeting 21
2023-02-22 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we’re reading The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.
The book follows a Professor with a peculiar problem – ever since a traumatic head injury seventeen years ago, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory – and a sensitive but astute young housekeeper who is entrusted to take care of him. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant mathematical equations from the past. He devises clever maths riddles – based on her shoe size or her birthday – and the numbers reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her ten-year-old son.
We’ll meet for the book club in the shop on Wednesday 22nd February @ 7pm – everyone is welcome and we encourage newcomers, just drop us an email at orders@paradesendbooks.co.uk to come along!

Frog's Bog Author Read and Crafts
2023-03-12 11:00 - 12:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
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Join us for a fun reading of children’s picture book Frog’s Bog.
Author Marielle Bayliss will be in the store from 11.00 on March 12th and the reading will be followed by some fun froggie crafts.
Children of all ages (and adults who are young at heart) are welcome to join us. The event is free, just register above if you’d like to come along.

Lore Segal in Conversation
2023-03-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
We are excited to announce a virtual event with Pulitzer nominated author, Lore Segal on
14 March at 7pm. Segal will be discussing her new book of short stories, Ladies’ Lunch.
Publication date is 9 March. Anyone pre-ordering or buying a copy of Ladies’ Lunch, will receive a link to watch on the
day of the event, 14 March.
About Lore Segal
Lore Segal was born in Vienna in 1928, and is a renowned American author. She won an
American Academy Award (for Her First American), the O. Henry Award and was nominated
for a Pulitzer (for Shakespeare’s Kitchen). She was first published in The New Yorker in
1958 and remains a regular contributor in her nineties.
Lore Segal’s novel Other People’s Houses (1964), based on her experience in Britain as a
kindertransport refugee, was republished by Sort of Books in 2018.

Book Club Meeting 22
2023-03-22 19:00 - 20:00
This month we are reading Leviathan by Rosie Andrews.
This debut novel is set in Norfolk in 1643 and is a sinister, twisting tale with a harrowing yet satisfying conclusion.
The book is now available to buy in store and we welcome current members and new to join us at the store on March 22nd.
If you can’t make it but would like to join us in reading Leviathan, you can order your copy here and you can also submit your own review in our Customer Recommendations section Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Please enter your email, so we can follow up with you.Book title & Author *ISBN If you know it - don't worry if not!Additional DetailsLet us know any additional details, for example how many copies you need and when you need the book by. Submit
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Author Event with Tanya van Dalen
2023-03-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with author Tanya van Dalen as she talks about her book Sensory Parenting for Sensory Children
Please sign up below to secure your place.

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Out of the Blue Reading with Author Robert Tregoning
2023-04-05 11:00 - 11:45 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for a fun reading event with Robert Tregoning, author of Out of the Blue!
A stunning celebration of being yourself and living in ALL the colours of the rainbow, this is a book this is a book about finding the bravery to be yourself. As an LGBTQ+ writer, Robert hopes to help children and adults alike to accept and celebrate all that makes us uniquely ourselves. The stories Robert writes are stories he wishes he could have read as a child, full of validation and kindness to those who need it.
The event is most suitable for children aged 5-8 and their adults, just sign up above or instore to come along!
Please sign up below to secure your place.

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An Evening with Priscilla Morris
2023-04-08 18:30 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with Priscilla Morris as discusses her Women’s Prize longlisted debut novel Black Butterflies.
Priscilla Morris is a debut author from London who lives mostly in Ireland and sometimes in Spain. She read Spanish, Italian and Social Anthropology at Cambridge University and spent her younger years teaching English in England, Spain and Brazil. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and teaches creative writing at University College Dublin. Her debut novel Black Butterflies, set during the siege of Sarajevo, with themes of disintegration, resilience and art as resistance to war, has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023 and for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2023. It was Indie Fiction Book of the Month in May 2022. You can find out more about Priscilla and Black Butterflies at www.priscillamorris.org and follow her on @priscillamorriswriter.
The discussion will be followed by Q & A session and book signing.
Please sign up below to secure your place.

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Portrait of Priscilla Morris, writer, by Conor Horgan. September 2021

Book Club Meeting 23
2023-04-26 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading French Braid by Anne Tyler.
When Mercy Garrett moves herself out of the family home, everyone determines not to notice.
All she wants is space and silence. No clutter. Not even their cat, Desmond.
But it turns out family life is impossible to escape – particularly when it’s in your past. For Mercy it all begins in 1959, with a holiday to a cabin by a lake. It’s the only one the Garretts will ever take, but its effects will ripple through the generations.
Everyone is welcome and we encourage newcomers. Just drop us an email to join.

Get Up and Glow with TEMPLE SPA
2023-05-11 09:00 - 09:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Start your day this Thursday with a 30 minute complimentary facial courtesy of Temple Spa consultant Catherine.
Join us at the shop where you will be guided through a luxury facial using award-winning Temple Spa products.
Spaces are limited so sign up below to reserve your spot.

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[SOLD OUT] Poems, Tales & Magical Lands Jazz Evening
2023-05-19 19:30 - 21:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an unmissable, intimate, evocative evening of songs inspired by stories, characters and places, as well as settings of sonnets and other poems, including Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Masefield…
Acclaimed British jazz singer Nette Robinson will be accompanied by saxophonist Tony Woods and pianist Meredith White for a poetic and literary musical feast!
Nette Robinson (voice)
Tony Woods (saxophones/alto clarinet/flute)
Meredith White (piano)
This event is now sold out. Keep a look out on our page or join our mailing list to get the latest news about new events!

Book Club Meeting 24
2023-05-24 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading The Romantic by William Boyd
Soldier. Farmer. Felon. Writer. Father. Lover.
One man, many lives.
Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days. As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic.
From one of Britain’s best-loved and bestselling writers comes an intimate yet panoramic novel set across the nineteenth century.
Everyone is welcome and we encourage newcomers. Just drop us an email to join.

Flourish Launch Event
2023-05-26 18:30 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join author Kate Greenstock for the launch of Flourish – a practical and emotional guidebook to thriving in midwifery.

Guests will be welcome to chat to Kate about Flourish and purchase the book for themselves or to donate to a local midwife at Kingston Hospital. Guests will receive a complimentary welcome glass of Prosecco. Kate will be reading from the book at approx 7.15pm.
This is a free event but registration is required.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Flourish is the only book addressing the stark psychological impact of midwifery work while giving midwives the tools to choose a brighter future. Flourish aims to support you as a midwife to do two things: to name what’s going on around you and within you, then to find and claim your distinctive place in the midwifery world.

You might be a newly qualified or early career midwife facing the challenges of finding your voice as well as your feet. Maybe you’re an established midwife but feel as though you have lost your way – and with it the energy to reshape either yourself or the environment you work in. Perhaps you’re a team leader seeking to find the vocabulary to connect with your team, acknowledge what they might be feeling and reach out for resources and tools to support them to thrive, reflect and grow.
As a guidebook, Flourish is a tour of discovery that reveals how ‘standard’ maternity environments and practices might be impacting you personally, and then invites you to reconnect with the core of your personality and purpose. You’ll recognise more clearly the realities of trauma exposure, burnout, compassion fatigue and moral injury, and explore what’s really needed for psychological safety. You’ll choose from an array of exercises to practice living well in the day to day, and you’ll find a way back ‘home’, to a place where your sense of motivation for being a midwife is rekindled – a place where you can reconnect to your values, strengths and your unique voice. Once there, you will be able to make real, rich choices about your life and your career.
Kate Greenstock is a distinctive combination of practising midwife and coach, bringing the flavours of both: reality and possibility; rawness and hope.

Donate a copy of Flourish to a local midwife.

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An evening with Ben Aaronovitch
2023-06-10 18:30 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Highly acclaimed author and screenwriter Ben Aaronovitch will be joining us for the launch of his brand new Rivers of London novella, Winter’s Gifts.
There will be a Q & A session followed by the opportunity to purchase signed copies of Winter’s Gifts.
This event will be extremely popular so registration is required if you wish to attend.

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Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Marlon James
2023-06-12 11:00 - 2023-06-30 20:00 | Online
We are excited to announce a special online event with Shehan Karunatilaka, discussing his 2022 Booker Prize Winning novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida with the 2015 Booker Prize Winning author, Marlon James.
About the book
A searing satire set amid the murderous mayhem of Sri Lanka beset by civil war, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida follows the adventure of the eponymous war photographer, gambler and closet gay, who has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira lake and he has no idea who killed him. At a time where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. Maali has seven moons to try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka. The Booker judges said the book “fizzes with energy, imagery and ideas against a broad, surreal vision of the Sri Lankan civil wars.”
Watch the discussion here.

Pamper Evening with Temple Spa
2023-06-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Treat yourself after a hard days work!
As part of our series of events during Independent Bookshop Week, we are hosting a pamper event with Temple Spa.
Come along for free to enjoy a mini-facial with Prosecco and chocolates. Temple Spa consultant Catherine will talk you through a self-administered facial with these award winning spa products (only available to buy in Harrods).
Spaces are limited so please reserve yours below.

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Robin Ince's Confessions of a Bibliomaniac - a virtual event with Bookshop.org
2023-06-25 19:00 | Online
“‘Bookshop people are good people. I spend as much time with them as possible. They re-enchant the world.” – Robin Ince

On behalf of independent bookshops in the UK, and as a fitting finale to Independent Bookshop Week (IBW, June 17-24), we’re excited to announce an exclusive online event with the bibliomaniac himself, Robin Ince introduced on behalf of indie booksellers by Jo Coldwell of Red Lion Books.

Customers who buy any book from us during Independent Bookshop Week (until midnight on Saturday June 24) are eligible to attend.
Here’s how it works:

Any customer who buys a book through our Bookshop.org affiliate account will receive an invitation to register for the event.

Any customer who buys a book in our shop during IBW can receive an invitation to register for the event.

You do not have to buy a copy of Robin Ince’s book.

Book Club Meeting 25
2023-06-28 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson.
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
At the heart of this glittering world is notorious Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson brings together a glittering cast of characters in a truly mesmeric novel that captures the uncertainty and mutability of life; of a world in which nothing is quite as it seems. _____
Everyone is welcome and we encourage newcomers. Just drop us an email to join.
The book is available to buy in the shop or order online.

Rebels Not Muses: an Illustrated Talk with Rosamund Bartlett
2023-07-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
The women artists of European Modernism.
Join us for an evening with cultural historian Rosamund Bartlett as she paints a new picture of avant-garde experimentation before and after World War One by showcasing the lives and careers of the many unsung female artists who also contributed to the European Modernist movement.
Rosamund Bartlett is a cultural historian with a background in Russia and Eastern Europe whose current interests focus on modernism, opera and the intersection between politics, history and the arts. She has lectured widely at galleries in the UK, including the V&A and the Ashmolean, written for both The Burlington Magazine and Apollo, and in 2020 contributed an article to the catalogue of Tate Britain’s Aubrey Beardsley exhibition.
Tickets £3. Also available to purchase in shop.

Freedom to Think: Protecting a Fundamental Human Right in the Digital Age with author Susie Alegre
2023-07-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with Kingston author Susie Alegre who will be discussing her book Freedom to Think. CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND THE TELEGRAPH.

Part history and part manifesto, Freedom to Think explores how the powerful have always sought to influence how we think and what we buy. Connecting the dots from Galileo to Alexa, human rights lawyer Susie Alegre charts the history and fragility of our most important human right: freedom of thought.
Filled with shocking case-studies across politics, criminal justice, and everyday life, this ground-breaking book shows how our mental freedom is under threat like never before. Bold and radical, Alegre argues that only by recasting our human rights for the digital age can we safeguard our future.
Tickets can be purchased here or in the shop and price includes 1 glass of beer or wine.

A Night of Live Music @ Parade's End
2023-07-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
We’re so excited to announce a night of live music!
Get your ticket online here or instore for our next music event on Saturday 22nd July, 7-9pm. We’d recommend booking early as live music events are very popular and tend to sell out quickly!

Book Club Meeting 26
2023-08-02 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
This is the story of Sam and Sadie. It’s not a romance, but it is about love.
When Sam catches sight of Sadie at a crowded train station one winter morning he is catapulted back to the brief time they spent playing together as children. Their unique spark is instantly reignited.
What comes next is a story of friendship and rivalry, fame and creativity, betrayal and tragedy, perfect worlds and imperfect ones. And, ultimately, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.
Everyone is welcome and we encourage newcomers. Just drop us an email to join.

Book Club Meeting 27
2023-09-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading Best Of Friends by Kamila Shamsie.
** SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2023 ** CHOSEN AS A BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR BY THE GUARDIAN, BBC, OBSERVER, DAILY MAIL, IRISH TIMES AND FINANCIAL TIMES **
Maryam and Zahra.
In 1988 Karachi, two fourteen-year-old girls are a decade into their friendship, sharing in-jokes, secrets and a love for George Michael. As Pakistan’s dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong, and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome.
Zahra and Maryam.
In present-day London, two influential women remain bound together by loyalties, disloyalties, and the memory of that night, which echoes through the present in unexpected ways. Now both have power; and both have very different ideas of how to wield it… Their friendship has always felt unbreakable; can it be undone by one decision?

Storytime for Pre-schoolers - CANCELLED
2023-09-24 10:00 - 11:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us at the bookshop for storytime for 3 to 5 year olds!
Pam will be reading 2 books – ‘Oh No, George!’ by Chris Haughton and ‘Neon Leon’ by Jane E. Clarke.
Pam is a historian, gardener and dog lover. A believer in the power of kindness, a follower of nature and explorer of all things she believes are interesting! She has lived on the Tudor Estate for 30 years, is a lover of books and reading and is Chair of the Tudor Library Friends group. She looks forward to continuing to explore Storytime tales with youngsters at Parades End Bookshop.
You can register to attend here. Attendance is £4 or free with purchase of book.

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Live Music with The Nelson Brothers
2023-09-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening of music at the the bookshop on Friday 29th September.
The Nelson Brothers have travelled the world playing gigs and writing songs; from the Midlands to the Isle of Dogs; the Arizona desert to Sydney, Australia; Amsterdam to Bermuda.
Performing a beguiling blend of roots rock, folk and Americana, the British duo have only released four albums under their own name but to those in the know they’ve been ever-present on the scene, whether writing songs in Nashville or winning international acclaim for their liaison with Oscar-nominated American actress Elizabeth McGovern as Sadie and the Hotheads.
Buy your tickets here or in the shop.

Storytime for Pre-Schoolers
2023-10-01 10:00 - 11:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us at the bookshop for storytime for 3 to 5 year olds!
Courtney will be reading two exciting children’s picture books.
Courtney Cornfield is Canadian actor, comedian, improviser, English teacher & a mum whose been a Kingston local for over 20 years. A lover of cats, bright colours and leopard print. She has a love of reading and bringing stories to life with an injection of creativity and flare. Her teens have outgrown story time so she is very excited to be able to carry on reading stories to children. She can be rather silly at times too.
You can register to attend here. Attendance is £4 or free with purchase of book.

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Book Club Meeting 28
2023-10-04 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading Tin Man by Sarah Winman.
Tin Man is almost a love story. But it’s not as simple as that. It begins with two boys, Ellis and Michael, who are inseparable. And the boys become men, and then Annie walks into their lives, and it changes nothing and everything.
Everyone is welcome to the book club and we encourage newcomers. Just drop us an email to join.

An Evening with Sean Lusk
2023-10-06 18:30 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with author of the spellbinding BBC Between the Covers book club pick – The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley.
Sean will be sharing his writing journey of his debut novel and signing copies of books purchased on the evening.
FREE to attend, please register below

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[FULLY BOOKED] Secrets, Shenanigans and Jane Austen
2023-10-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with 3 local authors as they discuss their novels.
Tony Malcolm’s memoir Chateau Shenanigans follows the journey of a man determined to salvage a crumbling, semi-derelict wreck, but managing to turn himself into one in the process.
Linda Corbett’s What Would Jane Austen Do is a witty, feel good romance.
Tell Me No Secrets by Danielle Coleman is a gripping thriller set in the Cotswolds.
This event is now fully booked. You can check out our other upcoming events here.
