Parade’s End Books

Book Club 35: The House of Doors
2024-05-15 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we’re reading The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng.
It is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer and his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay.
Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day. But he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. As Willie prepares to leave and face his demons, Lesley confides secrets of her own, including how she came to know the charismatic Dr Sun Yat Sen, a revolutionary fighting to overthrow the imperial dynasty of China. And more scandalous still, she reveals her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts – a tragedy drawn from fact, and worthy of fiction.
Everyone is welcome to the book club and we encourage newcomers. Contact us to join

Go back Your message has been sent

Name(required)

Warning

Email(required)

Warning

Website

Warning

Message

Warning

Warning.

Submit

An Evening with Tom Shakespeare
2024-06-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join BBC Radio 4 presenter, sociologist and comedian Tom Shakespeare for an evening celebrating the release of his fiction debut, The Ha-Ha. You’ll be able to hear more about Tom’s writing, ask all your burning questions, purchase books and get them signed.
This event is FREE to attend and you can book your spot here:
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Event *Let us know which event you would like to register forSubmit

Georgina Moore and Kirsty Capes In Conversation
2024-06-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening in conversation with two fantastic authors: Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls, and Kirsty Capes, author of recently released Girls. Both explore sisters, dysfunctional families and absent mothers in their dazzling novels.
Book your free place here.

About The Garnett Girls:
Tangled relationships, family secrets and the unbreakable bond between sisters
Meet the Garnett Girls…
Three sisters living in the shadow of their parents’ glorious failed marriage.
Rachel, desperate to return to London, but tied to the beautiful crumbling house they grew up in on the Isle of Wight.
Imogen, with a devoted fiancé and a fledgling writing career, feeling a powerful connection to a beautiful stranger.
And wild, passionate Sasha, trapped between her sisters and her husband, hiding a secret that could shake their family to the core…

About Girls:

Everyone has heard of Girls.
But what happened to the women they became?
At the time of her death, the press wrote many things about Ingrid Olssen:
She was a brilliant artist. She was a terrible mother to her girls, Mattie and Nora. And that her legacy would live on forever.
Even so, it’s unlikely the world will ever see another Ingrid Olssen exhibition – her last request to her daughters was to throw her ashes in the canyon and her paintings in the sea.
But as Mattie and Nora reluctantly embark on an all-or-nothing trip to fulfil her wishes, they start to unpick the painful scars of their past.
And soon they begin to realise that the ties that bound them, might also break them…

Book Club 36: Cloudstreet
2024-06-12 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we’re reading Cloudstreet by Tim Winton.
Cloudstreet is Tim Winton’s great family drama, a twenty-year story of life and love, full of boisterous energy, joy and heartbreak. His visceral evocation of the Australian landscape is nowhere more extraordinary than in this classic.
Everyone is welcome to the book club and we encourage newcomers. Contact us to join.

Book Launch: The Perfect Guest
2024-06-22 17:30 - 19:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
We’re excited to welcome local author Ruth Irons to celebrate the launch of her unputdownable thriller The Perfect Guest.
Free event – come along on the evening!

School of Life Conversation - Getting Over Your Parents
2024-07-11 18:30 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening of conversation presented by The School of Life. The topic will be Getting Over Your Parents – based on the book which is an insightful and illuminating guide to understanding the psychological legacy left to us by our parents.

Our parents are a huge deal: no matter our relationship to them, who we are today (what love stories we get into, our attitudes to work, our self-esteem) is crucially determined by our relationships with our origin families.

Following on from the bestselling How To Overcome Your Childhood, Getting Over Your Parents is a practical guide on how to navigate the complex legacies left to us by our parents. By exploring different types of parents, such as “The Preoccupied Parent”, “The Overprotective Parent”’ and “The Controlling Parent”, it gives us a vocabulary with which to understand some of the stranger and more difficult things that parents sometimes do to their children, as well as advice on how to move forward from our puzzles or confusions. The emphasis is never on blame, always on understanding.
Offering constructive solutions for dealing with the symptoms of a difficult childhood, this book helps us to explore the past so that we can avoid the mistakes our parents made, and secure for ourselves the more creative, calm and loving future we deserve.

The event is FREE and all are welcome. Tea and coffee will be available for purchase on the evening. Register your place HERE

An Evening with Mima Biddulph and Adam Collier-Woods
2024-07-12 19:30 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening of making something out of nothing and flying by the seat of your pants.
Mima Biddulph’s debut book, ‘ Playing it By Ear, Adam’s recycled build on a budget’.
Book for event here

Book Club 37: Forbidden Notebook
2024-07-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading Forbidden Notebook by Alba De Cespedes
Out running an errand, Valeria Cossati gives in to a sudden impulse – she buys a shiny black notebook. She starts keeping a diary in secret, recording her concerns about her daughter, the constant churn of the domestic routine and her fears that her husband will discover her new habit. With each entry Valeria plunges deeper into her interior life, uncovering profound dissatisfaction and restlessness. As she finds her own voice, the roles that have come to define her-as wife, as mother, as daughter-begin to break apart.
Forbidden Notebook is a rediscovered jewel of Italian literature, published here in a new translation by the celebrated Ann Goldstein and with a foreword by Jhumpa Lahiri. A captivating feminist classic, it is an intimate, haunting story of domestic discontent in postwar Rome, and of one woman’s awakening to her true thoughts and desires.
All are welcome! Contact us if you’d like to come along.

Go back Your message has been sent

Name(required)

Warning

Email(required)

Warning

Website

Warning

Message

Warning

Warning.

Submit

Art Classes with Lucy Smith - 1st August
2024-08-01 19:00 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Throughout August Lucy Smith will be hosting art classes for beginners or those wishing to improve their art skills. The classes are inspired by her book Botanical Sketchbooks: An Artist’s Guide to Plant Studies.
You can sign up for as many of the classes as you like. Each class is £30 per person and includes tea or coffee.
INTRODUCTION TO BOTANICAL ART
In these sessions, botanical artist Lucy T. Smith will introduce you to botanical art techniques and approaches by showing you how to observe and record plants using sketchbook studies.
Each 1.5 hour session can be taken as a stand-alone class, but they work even better if you take all four, with time to practice techniques in between!

SESSION 1 – DRAWING PLANTS IN PENCIL
Graphite pencil: How to make accurate pencil drawings of flowers, fruits and seeds using line to describe shapes, and tone to depict three-dimensional form.
Book your place here.

Art Classes with Lucy Smith - 8th August
2024-08-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Throughout August Lucy Smith will be hosting art classes for beginners or those wishing to improve their art skills. The classes are inspired by her book Botanical Sketchbooks: An Artist’s Guide to Plant Studies.
You can sign up for as many of the classes as you like. Each class is £30 per person and includes tea or coffee.
INTRODUCTION TO BOTANICAL ART
In these sessions, botanical artist Lucy T. Smith will introduce you to botanical art techniques and approaches by showing you how to observe and record plants using sketchbook studies.
Each 1.5 hour session can be taken as a stand-alone class, but they work even better if you take all four, with time to practice techniques in between!
SESSION 2 – WATERCOLOUR FOR BOTANICAL SUBJECTS
Watercolour: mixing watercolour to match botanical subjects and adding colour to pencil sketchbook drawings.
Book your place here

Art Classes with Lucy Smith - 15th August
2024-08-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Throughout August Lucy Smith will be hosting art classes for beginners or those wishing to improve their art skills. The classes are inspired by her book Botanical Sketchbooks: An Artist’s Guide to Plant Studies.
You can sign up for as many of the classes as you like. Each class is £30 per person and includes tea or coffee.
INTRODUCTION TO BOTANICAL ART
In these sessions, botanical artist Lucy T. Smith will introduce you to botanical art techniques and approaches by showing you how to observe and record plants using sketchbook studies.
Each 1.5 hour session can be taken as a stand-alone class, but they work even better if you take all four, with time to practice techniques in between!
SESSION 3 – BOTANICAL PEN AND INK
Pen and Ink: Discovering pen and ink techniques for drawing plants using line, how to add shading in ink using stipple and hatching.
Book your place here

Art Classes with Lucy Smith - 22nd August
2024-08-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Throughout August Lucy Smith will be hosting art classes for beginners or those wishing to improve their art skills. The classes are inspired by her book Botanical Sketchbooks: An Artist’s Guide to Plant Studies.
You can sign up for as many of the classes as you like. Each class is £30 per person and includes tea or coffee.
INTRODUCTION TO BOTANICAL ART
In these sessions, botanical artist Lucy T. Smith will introduce you to botanical art techniques and approaches by showing you how to observe and record plants using sketchbook studies.
Each 1.5 hour session can be taken as a stand-alone class, but they work even better if you take all four, with time to practice techniques in between!
SESSION 4 – FREEHAND SKETCHING
Pencil, pen & ink, watercolour: how to make loose sketches of plants using mixed media.
Book your place here

Frog in a Fog Reading and Activities
2024-09-08 10:30 - 12:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join Marielle Bayliss for this fun activity for kids aged 2 to 6.
There will be a reading of Frog in a Fog followed by a frog warm up, fun facts and activities.
Book your FREE place here.

Book Club 39: In the Blink of an Eye
2024-09-11 19:00 - 20:00
This month we are reading In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan
DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic. But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.
All are welcome! Contact us if you’d like to come along.

Go back Your message has been sent

Name(required)

Warning

Email(required)

Warning

Website

Warning

Message

Warning

Warning.

Submit

A Memoir and Manifesto about Autism
2024-09-17 18:30 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with Virginia Bovell as she discusses her memoir Danny’s People.
Virginia’s son Danny has a way of lighting up a room. He’s warm, personable and has an infectious laugh. He forms lasting relationships and has known his best friend since they were little. He is also nonverbal and autistic, and requires round-the-clock care and a liquid diet. And for this reason, there are many people who would rather not encounter Danny.
Fighting against a view that autism is something which needs to be ‘cured’, Virginia Bovell testifies to the battles to obtain support, the dismissive attitude of some professionals, and chronic underfunding faced by families at every turn. Passionate and unapologetic, Danny’s People draws on Virginia’s experience as both a mother and activist to offer a compelling argument for change.
Get your ticket here.
£5 ticket cost can be used against purchase of this or any other book on the night

Food for Menopause with Dr. Linia Patel
2024-09-23 18:30 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with Dr.Linia Patel as we discuss the impact of nutrition and diet on women going through menopause and perimenopause
Get your ticket here
£5 ticket price can be used against purchase of this or any other book on the night.

Food for Menopause by Dr Linia Patel is packed with 80 super tasty, appealing recipes – perfect for busy lives.
You might already know a bit about menopause symptoms or you might believe it’s something to think about some time in the future. But studies show that there’s lots you can do from your thirties to make your menopausal years easier.
Dr Linia Patel’s friendly, authoritative cookbook explains how to make your menopause work for you by setting out the impact of nutrition on the body. It’s about mastering your mid-life body by knowing exactly what to put on your plate. For example, why do you get brain fog, hot flushes or mood swings, which nutrients should you be getting more of to combat these, and what recipes can you make to pack in more of those nutrients? There’s so much you can factor into your diet to see you through perimenopause, menopause and beyond and crucially to enable you to THRIVE, not just survive.
Part 1: Understanding your body and your symptoms
Part 2: Eating for success
Part 3: Living for success
Part 4: Recipes for success – breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, weekend meals, sides and extras, sweet treats and drinks

Gyles Brandreth Book Signing
2024-09-28 14:00 - 17:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Come along to Parade’s End Books on Saturday September 28th for your chance to meet one of the UK’s most loves national treasures and raconteur Gyles Brandreth.
Gyles will be signing copies of his new book Prose & Cons from 2pm and we are sure he will have some great anecdotes for you!
You can pre-order your copy here and collect for signing on the day.

Book Club 40: North Woods
2024-10-16 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading North Woods by Daniel Mason
Over four centuries, Mason charts the story of a single house deep in the woods of New England: home to runaways and visionaries, inseparable twins, a lovelorn painter, a desperate mother and a ruthless conman…
All are welcome! Contact us if you’d like to come along.

Go back Your message has been sent

Name(required)

Warning

Email(required)

Warning

Website

Warning

Message

Warning

Warning.

Submit

[SOLD OUT] Jazz Evening
2024-10-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
[THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT]
Live music @ Parade’s End is back! Join us for an unmissable evening with Green St. Jazz with Rebecca T. Sit back, relax, and let the music carry you away…
Tickets are £15.
Alcoholic and soft drinks will be available to purchase throughout the evening.

Book Launch: The Mischief Makers
2024-10-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening with Elizabeth Gifford to hear about her new book The Mischief Makers – an enthralling and brilliantly conceived historical novel exploring the troubled inner world of Daphne Du Maurier.
About THE MISCHIEF MAKERS:
She wrote her stories in his shadow. Now Daphne’s past is catching up with her…
In a beautiful house in the wilds of Cornwall, Daphne du Maurier is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Tangled in a self-destructive love affair that threatens to unravel her marriage, she is also distracted by worry for the family friend whose shadow looms over her childhood: J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan.
Daphne tries to escape into writing her new book, but the line between fiction and reality blurs dangerously when her own characters start manifesting before her eyes – in particular a woman called Rebecca who looks suspiciously like her husband’s alluring ex-girlfriend.
Daphne must confront the dark truth that lurks beneath the fantasy of Peter Pan and the secret life that has plagued her since she found fame. Unless she can solve these mysteries and reckon with who she truly is as an artist, her next great work may be lost to history…
Book your FREE ticket to the event here.

Book Club 41: After the Funeral
2024-11-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley
In these twelve short stories, Hadley plumbs the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships.
All are welcome! Contact us if you’d like to come along.

Go back Your message has been sent

Name(required)

Warning

Email(required)

Warning

Website

Warning

Message

Warning

Warning.

Submit

Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Tasting Evening
2024-11-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for a tasting of delicious Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Cost is just £20pp and includes five sample wines and cheese nibbles. Get your ticket here.
About the wines:
Beaujolais Nouveau owes its easy drink-ability to a wine-making process called carbonic maceration, also called whole berry fermentation. This technique preserves the fresh, fruity quality of the wine, without extracting bitter tannins from the grape skins.

Book club 42: Golden Age
2024-12-11 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom

Festive Late
2024-12-12 18:00 - 20:00, 2024-12-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us for our festive late night shopping evenings, where you will be treated to bubbly, nibbles and recommendations for all your Christmas present-buying. We will also be offering our free gift wrapping service.
Our booksellers will be on-hand after hours to give you the best advice in the business, whether you’re buying for your children, your other half, friends, or that tricky uncle who only reads books about fishing. Whatever it is, we have got you covered!

Book Club 43: The Empusium
2025-01-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom

Book Club 44: My Friends
2025-02-19 19:00 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
This month we are reading My Friends by Hisham Matar.
This novel follows the friendship of Khaled, Mustafa and Hosam, bound together by their shared history, torn between the lives they have created in exile and the lives they have left behind in Libya.
All are welcome! Contact us if you’d like to come along.

Go back Your message has been sent

Name(required)

Warning

Email(required)

Warning

Website

Warning

Message

Warning

Warning.

Submit

[SOLD OUT] Jazz Evening
2025-02-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Our first jazz evening of 2025, with the Alice Black Jazz Duo!
Join us for an evening with Alice Black, a jazz, swing and soul singer based in Surrey. Her repertoire includes songs famously performed by Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan, Dusty Springfield, Nat King Cole, Diana Krall and many more. She will be accompanied by her husband and talented pianist, David Black.
Get your ticket here. Jazz evenings are very popular, so book early to avoid disappointment!
A range of alcoholic and soft drinks will also be available to purchase during the evening.

Colours of Siena Author Event with Judith May Evans
2025-03-15 18:30 - 20:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join us to welcome brilliant author Judith May Evans, and be gloriously inspired by the art and life of medieval Tuscany.
Get your ticket here. Ticket price is redeemable against purchase of the book on the night.
ABOUT COLOURS OF SIENA:
A medieval feud – an arrogant artist – a woman’s passion. This compelling new novel follows Clara, forced from her home in Tuscany’s art capital, Siena, and her determination to return there to paint.
When the most expensive painting in Christendom is paraded through the streets of Siena, Clara, young servant to the city’s most powerful family, is inspired. Ambrogio, a young painter, spots her genius for colour, and ignites her passion to become an artist. But when her father is murdered, she’s banished to the country. Can Clara persuade Ambrogio to rescue her? Will family and the Black Death stop Clara realising her dreams?

Storytime!
2025-03-16 10:00 - 11:00 | Parade’s End Books, 406 Richmond Road, KT2 5QF, United Kingdom
Join Courtney as she reads classic children’s storybooks! This event is perfect for inspiring little ones…
Cost is £2, redeemable against the purchase of any book. You can grab a ticket here or instore.
