Apart from the bookshop, we organise and help with a number of ‘extra-curricular’ activities.
- Book clubs
- Supper book club
- Frinton Literary Festival
- Author book signings
- Author visits and talks with readings
- School events
Supper Book Club with Author Jem Lester
Tuesday 26th April 2016 – Café 19 at 7pm
Tickets £30 for 2 courses, coffee & Jem’s brilliant debut hardback, Shtum.
When Ben and Emma fake a separation, a strategic decision to further their severely autistic son Jonah’s case in an upcoming tribunal, Ben & Jonah move in with Georg, Ben’s elderly father. Here three generations of men – one who can’t talk; two who won’t – are thrown together. As Ben battles single fatherhood, a string of well-meaning social workers and his own demons, he learns some difficult home truths. Jonah, blissful in his innocence, becomes the prism through which all the complicated strands of personal identity, family history and misunderstanding are finally untangled. A wonderful book, full of pathos, comedy and love.
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Supper Book Club with Author Sarah Winman
Thursday 10th March 2016
Café 19 at 7pm
Tickets £28 for 2 courses, coffee & Sarah’s latest book,
A Year of Marvellous Ways
We are delighted to announce that Sarah Winman, author of the international bestseller When God Was a Rabbit will be joining us at Café 19 to talk about her latest book A Year of Marvellous Ways.
Here’s Café 19′s very tempting menu:
Main Course
Lamb Madras Curry with Basmati Rice & Plain Naan
Grilled Cod Fillet with King Prawn & Sweet Chilli Sauce, New Potatoes
& Seasonal Vegetables
Stuffed Chicken with Brie Cheese, Apricots & Creamy Apricot Sauce,
New Potatoes & Seasonal Vegetables
Vegetarian Madras Curry with Basmati Rice & Plain Naan
Dessert
Homemade Apple & Blackberry Crumble & Custard
Chocolate Sponge Pudding with Vanilla Ice-Cream
3 Cheese Platter with Biscuits & Homemade Chutney
Supper Book Club 
with author
Clár Ní Chonghaile
Thursday 11th February 2016
at Café 19 at 7pm
Tickets £25 for 2 courses, coffee &
Clár’s new book Fractured
Peter Maguire has been kidnapped in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. He does not know where he is or what is going to happen to him. The journalist is filled with fear and, as the days go by, this dread of the unknown is shot through with remorse for the mistakes of his past. Peter’s mother Nina comes to Somalia to wait for her son’s release. His plight forces her to relive another trauma – the fatal shooting in Liberia of Shaun Ridge, a young photographer she once loved, and Peter’s real father. Abdi, a Somali teenager working with Peter’s captors strikes a tenuous friendship with the prisoner based on a shared feeling of captivity. He decides to help Peter escape. Together and they set off into the barren vastness of a land filled with danger. Three people must journey into one of the world’s most dangerous places, the human mind, to answer the question: are we ever truly free?
Here’s Café 19’s delicious menu:
Main Course
Beef Bourguignon
The classic French casserole served with gratin potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli
Grilled Loin of Cod
With chorizo & king prawn, herb & chilli butter served with sauté potatoes and seasonal vegetables
Chicken Kiev a la Café 19
Served with sauté potatoes and seasonal vegetables
Vegetarian Option
Roasted Mediterranean vegetables and goats cheese Calzone pizza with dressed salad
Dessert
Vanilla Panna Cotta with fresh fruit garnish
Chocolate Strawberry Sundae with toasted nuts and fresh fruit
Sticky Toffee Pudding with vanilla ice cream
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NEXT EVENT FOLLOWING RACHEL JOYCE ON 12TH NOVEMBER:
Crime & Dine at Café 19 with Sharon Bolton & Tammy Cohen
Thursday 26th November 2015 at 7pm
Tickets £25 for 2 courses, coffee & your choice of either Sharon’s or Tammy’s latest book.
Join us for another thrilling evening with two brilliant and well established crime writers. Menu to follow shortly!
Sharon Bolton (previously known as S. J. Bolton) is the critically acclaimed author of some of the most bone-chilling crime books ever written. She has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA Dagger in the Library. Sharon lives near Oxford with her husband and young son.
Tammy Cohen (who also writes as Tamar Cohen) is a freelance journalist writing for national magazines and newspapers. After a late start, she has now written six novels – The Mistress’s Revenge, The War of the Wives, Someone Else’s Wedding, The Broken and Dying For Christmas, together with her latest First One Missing. She is a Writer in Residence at Kingston University and lives in North London with her partner and three (nearly) grown children, plus one very badly behaved dog.
Crime & Dine at Café 19
Thursday 26th November 2015
Main Course
Grilled Sea Bass fillet served with a creamy lemon & pesto sauce,
buttered new potatoes and roasted cherry tomatoes
Pan-fried Lambs’ Liver & Smoked Bacon with rich onion gravy,
mashed potatoes & garden peas, garnished with crispy onion rings
Fricassée of Chicken Breast cooked with mushrooms, peas, cream & tarragon
served with basmati rice and baby carrots
Vegetarian Option: Ratatouille with potato gratin
Dessert
Crème Brulée with a berry coulis
Warm Chocolate & Hazelnut Brownie with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream
Individual Homemade Apple & Berry Crumble with custard
A FASCINATING LOCAL TALK by PAUL RUSIECKI
on Thursday 24th September, 2015
at Walton and Frinton Yacht Club – 6.30pm for 7pm.
Tickets are £5 redeemable against the book which retails at £18.99 and there will be a pay bar.
Paul Rusiecki is a Yorkshireman by birth and upbringing but has lived in Colchester since 1978. He studied History at the universities of Sheffield and London and completed his PhD at Essex in 1994. His first book on the county’s history, The Impact of Catastrophe: The People of Essex and the First World War, was published in 2008.
Under Fire brings into focus the social, economic, political and religious strains caused by the war.
Education was forced to adapt in the face of massive disruption – industry too: the contribution to victory made by firms that switched to war work is analysed. A picture emerges through the records kept by individuals of how Essex people viewed wartime events both at home and much further afield - the successes and failures of their own government and the actions of both allies and enemies. The experience of war also encompasses aspects that are at odds with traditional views of wartime Britain and the so-called ‘Dunkirk spirit’.
Paul Rusiecki recounts the hostility faced by conscientious objectors, as well as the undercurrents of political disaffection circulating by 1942 which produced a sensational by-election result at Maldon. The murkier aspects of the war in Essex - crime and a supposed crisis in morality - are also dealt with in depth. Faced with the most appalling circumstances, most nonetheless found ways of keeping their spirits up, whether that meant reading in air-raid shelters, continuing to flock to the theatre and cinema, or playing football for their factory team.
Above all, this is the story of how the people of Essex survived the most extraordinary challenges they had ever faced, ultimately emerging with a sense of having earned the right to eradicate the gross inequalities that had marred society for so long.
This year we were thrilled to be asked to host an event for award winning author of Elizabeth is Missing , Emma Healey. This is Emma’s first novel and it has been a phenomenal success. We had already read the book with our 4 monthly book clubs, so it was no surprise that the event was a sell-out! We took the opportunity to team up with the recently re-vamped Piatto’s Delicatessen in Connaught Avenue, which is run by a great bookworm customer Alison Banham and her partner provided some very scrummy canapés. Emma was quite delightful and the venue was great, so watch this space for the next author event at Piatto’s
The week culminated in our second annual Book Club Summer Garden Party on Saturday and we were delighted to welcomed 4 debut authors from W&N publishing that each had the chance to promote their book to an enthusiastic gathering of some 60 book clubbers. What started out as a gloomy grey day turned into a perfect summer’s evening and this together with wine, nibbles and a jazz band made for a truly superb start to the summer season.
Supper Book Club with author Nicola Upson
Wednesday 15th July 2015 - Café 19 at 7pm
Tickets £28 for 2 courses, coffee & Nicola‘s latest novel, London Rain.
Nicola Upson was born in Suffolk and read English at Downing College, Cambridge. She was the winner of an Escalator/Arts Council England award in 2006 for her debut novel, An Expert in Murder, the first in a series of books to feature Golden Age detective writer, Josephine Tey. In 2008, the novel was published by Faber to wide critical acclaim, and praised by PD James as marking ‘the arrival of a new and assured talent’.
Menu for Supper Club 15th July
Mains
Italian Cod
Grilled Loin of cod wrapped in Parma ham and basil served with a light cream pesto sauce new potatoes and summer vegetables
Steak and mushroom sauce
Poached Steak cooked in the sauce served with French fries and dressed green salad
Apricot and Brie Chicken
Chicken Breast stuffed with brie cheese and apricots with a sweet cream sauce
New potatoes and summer vegetables
Wild Mushroom Stroganoff
Pan-fried wild mushrooms cooked in a classic stroganoff sauce served with rice sour cream and warm bread
Dessert
Homemade Chocolate Mousse Chantilly cream
Duo of Italian Ice cream
Hot Apple Tart with vanilla ice cream
Coffee
Elizabeth is Missing author Emma Healey visits Frinton
In conjunction with Piatto’s Delicatessen, we are delighted to be hosting an event for award-winning author Emma Healey.
Sunday Times Top Five Bestseller, Elizabeth is Missing is the stunning, smash-hit debut novel from new author Emma Healey. The book’s many accolades include:
- Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2014
- Shortlisted for National Book Awards Popular Fiction Book 2014
- Shortlisted for National Book Awards New Writer of the Year 2014
- Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2014
- Longlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction 2015.
Join us at Piatto’s Delicatessen on Tuesday 23rd June at 5.30 for 6pm to hear Emma talk about her amazing success!
Tickets are £5 which includes wine & canapés. We will also be offering a £1 discount on Emma’s book for this event.
Crime & Dine at Frinton Lawn Tennis Club with two brilliant crime writers:
Renée Knight & Kate Hamer
Join us for a thrilling evening!
Tuesday 28th April 2015 at 7pm
Tickets £30 for 2 courses, coffee & one of the books and £2 off the other book
Two highly praised debut crime writers will be joining us to talk about their debut novels and their experience of writing. As with Sarah Hilary last August, I am sure this will be the beginning of two enormously successful careers. Both books are still in hardback at £12.99, which is why we are offering £2 off the second book.
Menu
Mains
Roasted chicken supreme with a creamy chardonnay, leek & tarragon sauce
Grilled fillet of Scottish salmon with a tomato & basil sauce.
Garlic mushroom, spinach and red onion tart with cheddar cheese (V)
All mains are served with parmentière potatoes and
a panache of fresh market vegetables
Desserts
Mature cheddar cheese with Chef’s Chutney, celery,
grapes and biscuits.
Milk chocolate mousse cake with a creamy chocolate anglaise.
Fresh fruit salad.
RED NOSE DAY 2015
We both got cooking for Comic Relief and were delighted that the lovely folk of Frinton bought our cakes outside the shop on Saturday morning and at Cinema-on-Sea in the afternoon and evening. Judith made a delicious selection including a Lime, Courgette & Coconut cake and Raspberry and Almond muffins and Sally baked chocolate brownies and cookies from The Great Comic Relief Bake Off book. We raised a total of £150!
Supper Book Club with author Stephen May
Tuesday 10th March 2015 - Café 19 at 7pm
Tickets £28 for 2 courses, coffee & Stephen’s latest novel, Wake Up Happy Every Day.
Join us to hear the very entertaining Stephen May, who spent many years in Colchester, talk about his latest book. Choose your supper from Café 19′s delicious menu below:
Mains
Corn-fed Norfolk chicken
Chicken breast with blue cheese & bacon
served with mashed butternut squash with thyme and garlic
Natural Smoked Haddock Fillet
Grilled and served with a king prawn, sweet chilli & cream sauce,
sauté potatoes and mange tout
Vegetarian ‘Angry’ Pasta
Tortellini stuffed with ricotta cheese & spinach
cooked in white wine, cream & jalapeño pepper sauce & toasted walnuts
Essex Steak and Ale Pie
Slow cooked beef pie with creamy mashed potato & seasonal vegetables
Dessert
Black cherry and kirsch crepe with ice cream or cream
French apple tart with vanilla ice cream or custard
Fresh fruit cocktail and vanilla ice cream
Cheese & Biscuits
Wake Up Happy Every Day – Nicky has always known Russell was rich, but he has no idea how astronomically rich Russell is until his friend drops dead, on his fiftieth birthday, with Nicky as the only witness. And now Nicky has come up with an uncharacteristically daring plan. If Nicky were to become Russell and leave his old life lying dead on the bathroom floor, he and his family could start again. But when the foundations of their glittering existence start to crack, the impact of his hasty decision begins to be felt by those around him: by Nicky’s distant father; by his daughter’s babysitter and her boyfriend, who harbour grand hopes of their own; by a young Englishwoman attempting to find her father; and by Catherine, an ex-soldier with a suspicious interest in Nicky’s movements. Sharp, funny, warm and acutely observed, Wake Up Happy Every Day is a novel about dreams and delusions, family and friendship, and what happens if you do actually find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Supper Book Club with author Rebecca Whitney
Tuesday 27th January 2015
Café 19 at 7pm
Tickets £28 for 2 courses, coffee & Rebecca’s Hardback.
What if the thing you were most afraid of was your husband? A startling, dark and audacious novel set in and around the Brighton streets, The Liar’s Chair will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the final page has been turned. A stunning psychological portrait of a woman in a toxic marriage, Rebecca Whitney’s debut will show that sometimes the darkest shadow holds the truth you have been hiding from.
Menu
Main Course
Chef Jon’s Fillet of Beef Stroganoff with rice or new potatoes
Authentic Chicken Curry with basmati rice and naan (medium hot)
Vegetarian Cannelloni with ricotta, spinach & mustrhooms baked in a rich mozzarella & parmesan sauce served with garlic bread
Grilled Cod Fillet Mornay with seasonal vegetables & new potatoes
Dessert
Bannoffee Pie with fresh Cream
French Lemon Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream
Hot Chocolate & Rum Sponge with rich chocolate sauce
& Vanilla Ice Cream
Coffee & Mints
The Big Bookshop Party
Saturday 11th October
Two Great Opportunities to celebrate Books Are My Bag 2014
- Meet best selling author Barbara Erskine who will be in the
shop from 10am till 12pm signing her latest book The Darkest Hour, an epic tale of love, passion and heartbreak, set in the present day and the South of England in the summer of 1940, when the battle for Britain has just begun. The book is a beautiful hardback at £14.99 and would make the perfect Christmas present! - Grab a Collector’s Limited Edition Books are My Bag bag designed by Tracey Emin! The bags will be exclusively available from chain and independent bookshops nationwide and we have 60 to give away to the first 60 customers to spend over £20 in store on Saturday 11th October!
Tracey Emin is the latest figure to back the campaign, which has won the support of over a hundred high profile figures since its launch in September 2013 including David Cameron, Lily Cole and Nigel Slater. She said that books and bookshops were fundamental education for her and was saddened that there weren’t enough bookshops on the high street….We couldn’t agree more, so please come and join the party on Saturday 11th October!!
This month for our Supper Book Club we will be welcoming two brilliant crime writers: Sarah Hilary and Alex Marwood. Sarah will be talking about her first novel Someone Else’s Skin a dark and terrifying tale with a huge twist in the middle and a fascinating yet disturbed lead character – Detective Inspector Marnie Rome! Alex will be telling us about her second psychological thriller The Killer Next Door. Alex spent a decade as a features writer and columnist for the UK press before turning to writing novels. She had four novels published under her own name, Serena Mackesy, before turning to crime with the international bestseller, The Wicked Girls.
Join us at Frinton Lawn Tennis Club for a thrilling evening on Thursday 21st August 2014 at 7pm. Tickets £27 for 2 courses & coffee, including one of the books & £1 off the other title. Here’s the menu:
Mains
Tuscan Chicken cassoulet with pinto and butterbeans served with herb rice.
Lightly Cajun spiced salmon supreme served on a classic Caesar salad with shaved parmesan.
Butternut squash and sweet red pepper tart with mixed leaves and balsamic (V).
Slow roasted pork belly with potato croquet, mixed greens and a red wine sauce.
Dessert
Chocolate fudge cake with crème chantily and chocolate sauce
Fresh strawberry Eton Mess with homemade meringue and summer fruit compote
Dutch apple tart with crème anglaise and berry coulis
Supper Book Club with Author Rachel Cooke
Thursday 12th June, Café 19 at 7.00pm Tickets are £27 which includes 2 courses, coffee and Rachel’s book Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties. Rachel Cooke is an award-winning journalist. She currently writes for The Observer and is the television critic of the New Statesman. ’In her apron and rubber gloves, a smile lipsticked permanently across her face, the woman of the Fifties has become a cultural symbol of all that we are most grateful to have sloughed off. A homely compliant creature, she knows little or nothing of sex, and stands no chance at all of having a career. She must marry or die. But what if there was another side to the story?’ In this book Rachel Cooke tells the story of ten extraordinary women whose pioneering professional lives – and complicated private lives – paved the way for future generations. Plucky and ambitious, they left the house, discovered the bliss of work, and ushered in the era of the working woman.
MENU
Main Courses
Chef Johns’ Paella with chicken, king prawns, chorizo & mussels served with a dressed mixed salad.
Homemade luxury fish pie with smoked haddock, prawns, cod & mussels in a cream & white wine sauce, topped with piped mashed potatoes served with seasonal vegetables.
Essex Rump Steak (28 day old) and frites, cooked to order with a Béarnaise sauce, cherry tomatoes and a watercress garnish
Vegetarian Tuscany Pizza fresh Mozzarella cherry tomatoes and rocket leaf with fresh parmesan and pesto sauce.
Dessert
Hot French Apple Tart and custard
Pecan and Banana crèpe with butterscotch sauce & ice-cream
Mixed fruit Sundae with strawberries, banana & raspberries,
chantilly cream & ice-cream
Coffee and Mints
Supper Book Club with Author Jeremy Page Wednesday 7th May, Café 19 at 7.00pm Tickets are £27 which includes 2 courses, coffee and Jeremy’s new novel ‘The Collector of Lost Things’. This is the story of a collector travelling to the Arctic in 1845, trying to find evidence of a bird that became extinct a year before. It’s about obsession, delusion and the environment in an age when the environment was not yet an issue. This is Jeremy’s third novel, but as well as writing novels, he has worked in the UK film and TV industry for nearly twenty years, as a script editor for the BBC, Channel 4 and Film Four, where he was lucky to work on the best of British drama. He has also taught creative writing at the University of East Anglia on their MA course and undergraduate courses and as a residential writing Fellow. We are delighted to welcome Jeremy to Frinton! Here is Café 19′s delicious menu:
Cod Fillet Milanese
Cod fillet covered in seasoned bread crumbs, shallow fried with new potatoes, fresh tomato salsa, pesto sauce, and fine green beans.
Supreme of Chicken
Whole grilled Chicken breast on the bone with a fennel and cream sauce served with gratin potato and medley of fresh vegetables
Spring Lamb
Slow roasted lamb shoulder with garlic and rosemary served with potato gratin and fine green beans
Warm Chorizo and king prawn salad
Tiger prawns pan fried in white wine chilli and garlic oil, with chorizo sausage and fresh parsley served with a tomato red onion and rocket salad with parmesan shavings and warm garlic toast.
Dessert
Crème Brule with fresh raspberry coulis
Warm French chocolate tart and Chantilly cream
Fresh fruit sundae with ice cream and Chantilly cream
Coffee and mints
SUPPE
R BOOK CLUB WITH AUTHOR DAVID EVANS
Thursday 27thCafé 19 at 7.00pm Tickets are £27 which includes 2 courses, coffee and Dave’s first thriller: TROPHIES. By the turn of the millennium, memories had dulled. But the discovery of a trophy case at the scene of a murder leads to the realisation that a series of attacks on women over the past twenty years had gone unconnected. DI Colin Fear is convinced there is also a link with one other notorious unsolved crime. His best friend from schooldays, journalist Spud Shaw has returned to Yorkshire and begins to probe. Working separately and together in an awkward alliance, they seek out the answers. “TROPHIES moves at a cracking pace. Full of believable, well-drawn characters in an equally believable Yorkshire setting, where that county’s most notorious crime spree still impinges upon DI Fear and Spud Shaw’s current investigations.
MENU
Main Courses
Grilled Sea Bass, pesto sauce, roasted baby tomatoes & new potatoes
Roasted Duck Breast, port & raspberry sauce, creamy mash
& fine green beans
Café 19 King Prawn Thai Green Curry, sticky white rice
& spiced coconut flatbread (vegetarian option available).
Chef John’s Beef Stroganoff with white rice or new potatoes
& warm bread.
Desserts
Homemade Sticky Toffee Pudding with vanilla ice-cream or custard
& toffee sauce
Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake
Rich Chocolate Sponge with chocolate sauce and ice-cream
Fresh coffee or Teas & Mints
An Evening with Romilla Arber, winner of the 2012 Gourmand International Award
In collaboration with Lifehouse Spa & Hotel, we will be inviting Romilla Arber to talk about the Food Education Trust which is entirely funded by the sale of her fabulous cookbook and of course the book itself. You will also get the chance to sample some of her amazing food. Numbers are limited, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Tuesday 12th November at Life House Spa & Hotel 6.30-8.30pm
Tickets are £24 per person, which includes a five course tasting menu ofrecipes from the book and a glass of wine. They are available from us
via The Membership Office at the Lifehouse on 01255 863442.
We will also be offering £5 off the book (£25 RRP).
Supper Book Club with author Wendy Jones
Thursday 14th November – Café 19 at 7.00pm
Tickets £25 which includes 2 courses, coffee and Wendy’s book, The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals.
We are thrilled to welcome Wendy to our November Supper Book Club to talk about her delightful debut novel - a charming and moving depiction of love and secrecy. In 1924, in the Welsh village of Narberth, undertaker Wilfred Price proposes to a girl he barely knows at a picnic. Almost instantly he knows he has made a mistake – he doesn’t not love her. He thinks it will be easy to extricate himself, but a chance meeting at funeral and the revelation of a long-held secret complicates his world beyond recognition…
MENU
Main Courses
Grilled Whole Lemon Sole with Dill & Fennel sauce & new
potatoes
Steak & Stilton Pie with new potatoes, rich gravy &
fine green beans
Roast Belly of Pork, slow roasted on Bramley apples &
parsnips with mustard mash and sweet gravy
Vegetarian Tart – Goats Cheese & cherry tomato tart
served with roasted vegetables and a pesto sauce
Desserts
Warm Chocolate Cake with Vanilla ice-cream
Vanilla Crème Brulée with raspberry coulis
Homemade Apple & Blackcurrant Crumble with Custard or Cream
Fresh coffee or Teas & Mints
Supper Book Club with author Julia Crouch
Thursday 12th September
Café 19 at 7.00pm
Tickets £25 which includes 2 courses, coffee and Julia’s book, Tarnished.
We are delighted to be welcoming Julia Crouch to our September Supper Book club. Julia’s first two novels Cuckoo and Every Vow You Break were critically acclaimed, and her latest book Tarnished can be seen as her breakout book. It’s the story of a young woman orphaned at a young age and raised by her grandmother and bed-ridden aunt, who finally decides to confront the skeletons in the family closet – without realising the full horror of what she will uncover!
Menu
Main Courses
Café 19 Fish & Chips
King Prawn Coriander Salad – Pan-fried Tiger Prawns with crispy bacon & avocado
Lamb Moussaka* served with Greek Feta Salad & Olive Bread
Chicken Milanese served with a tomato salsa, new potatoes & fine green beans
*Vegetarian option available
Desserts
Strawberry Eton Mess with Chantilly cream
Potted marinated Peaches with Tia Maria and vanilla ice-cream
Homemade Chocolate Mousse with cream
Fresh coffee or Teas & Mints
National Reading Group Day – Saturday 29th June 2013 – McGrigor Hall, Frinton. 6.30-9pm. Tickets £12 including one of the books & 10% off the other title.
Francesca Brill started her professional life as an actress, training at RADA and working in theatre, film and television before becoming a screenwriter and film maker. She has lived and worked in France, Italy, India and America and currently lives in London. The Harbour is her first book.
About The Harbour – It is the summer of 1940, and for Stevie Steiber, a young American journalist in Hong Kong, the war raging in Europe is a world away. She keeps her readers informed about society gossip from the Orient, her days at the Happy Valley race-course slipping into dangerous, hedonistic nights.
Major Harry Field has been charged by Her Majesty’s Government with investigating suspicious activity inside the colony. He is intrigued by the recent arrival of Jishang, a sophisticated Chinese publisher who owns a controversial political magazine. But it is Stevie, Jishang’s outspoken, beautiful correspondent who really fascinates him.
As the decadent British contingent remains oblivious to the cataclysm nearly upon
them, the spy and the journalist are obsessively drawn to one another. And when
the Japanese army seizes the island, they are faced with terrifying challenges.
“This is a powerful novel of depth and intensity, and one
that subtly changes mood from cocktail- and opium-fuelled larks to despair and
degradation” – Sunday Times.
Melissa Harrison lives in South London and is a freelance writer and photographer whose clients include the Guardian. She was the winner of the John Muir Trust’s ‘Wild Writing’ Award in 2010 and Clay is her first novel.
About Clay – This is a lyrical portrait of four people finding freedom and beauty in a city’s concreted confines. Eight year old TC skips school to explore the
city’s overgrown forgotten corners.
Sophia, seventy-eight, watches with concern as he slips past her window, through the little park she so loves. She is writing her weekly letter to her granddaughter Daisy, whose privileged upbringing means she exists in a different world to that of TC, even though they live less than a mile apart.
Jozef spends his days clearing houses and works night shifts at the local takeaway, but he is unable to forget the farm he left behind in Poland, the woods and fields he
grew up with still a part of him, although he is a thousand miles away. When he
meets TC he finds a kindred spirit, despite the forty years between them: both
lonely, both looking for something, both lost.’
“Heartfelt, elegiac … lovingly observed” – The Sunday Times
“A gently-evoked urban tragedy – and the most powerful and original debut
novel I’ve read for years” – A N Wilson, Readers Digest
Supper Book Club with Author Kate Worsley
Thursday 16th May at 7.00pm at Café 19
Tickets £28 for 2 courses or £30 for 3 courses including coffee & a copy of Kate’s hardback ‘She Rises’.
Kate Worsley will be joining us at Café 19 to talk about her debut novel ‘She Rises’. . According to The Times, Kate ‘leaves convention behind to tell a rollicking story of love and adventure. Harwich is gloriously reinvented as a place of smuggling, secrets and a decidedly contemporary passion. This is a fresh take on historical fiction; enjoyably witty and playful’.
Menu
STARTERS
Café 19 King Prawns in Chilli & cream sauce served with Garlic Bread toasty
Fresh Sardine fillets with warm tomato salsa & toasted ciabatta
Tuscany Pizza Bread (V) with fresh mozzarella, rocket leaves, cherry tomato, parmesan shavings & topped with fresh pesto
Fresh Homemade soup with warm French bread and butter
MAINS
Café 19 Fish Cake made with smoked haddock, salmon, spring onions and crushed new potatoes, topped with a poached egg, hollandaise sauce and frilled medley of vegetables
Balentine of Stuffed Chicken – chicken breast stuffed with brie & apricots with a cream sauce, green beans & buttered new potatoes
Beef Stroganoff made with best fillet of beef poached in our own homemade stroganoff sauce with white rice & soured cream
(Vegetarian option of mixed mushrooms)
Café 19 chicken Caesar salad – chicken breast , bacon & avocado on a bed of
mixed leaves with croutons, anchovies & parmesan served with our own Caesar
dressing & warm garlic toast.
DESSERTS
Vanilla crème brule with raspberry coulis
Sticky toffee pudding with ice cream or custard
Duo of sorbet melon and pineapple with peach belini
Warm chocolate fudge cake with cream or ice cream
Wednesday 20th March – Café 19 at 7.00pm
Tickets £25 which includes 2 courses coffee and Liz’s book – The Last Telegram
Liz Trenow’s family have been silk weavers for nearly three hundred years, and she grew up next to their mill in Sudbury, which is the oldest family-owned silk company in Britain. The Last Telegram is a novel set during the Second World War and based on her family’s experience of keeping the mill going by weaving parachute silk and taking in German Jewish refugees to work on the looms. The Last Telegram has been described as ‘an evocative and engaging novel for fans of The Postmistress and Suite Francaise’. Please see Liz’s website for further details: www.liztrenow.com.
Menu:
Main Choices: Café 19 Fish & Chips or Thai Chicken Curry* or Fettuccini King Prawn or Beef Stew with Sage Dumplings
* Vegetarian option available
Dessert Choices: Individual Chocolate Tart with cream or Black Cherry Crepe with cream of ice-cream or Hot Apple Pie with vanilla custard
Dragons, Witches, Ghosts & Heroes & Villains of Essex
The mysterious landscape of our Essex coast is still haunted by the spirits of historical invaders and the tales told by smugglers to keep prying eyes away from their secret hideouts. Inland, dramatic stories of witches, ghosts and dragons and a good selection of heroes and villains abound. Jan Williams, a professional storyteller will be telling entertaining Essex Folk Tales with stories of Fire-Breathing Dragons and the tale of Kitty Canham, her Two Husbands and Three Ghosts from Thorpe le Soken.
Friday 14th December in the Gallery at 6.50pm and 7.45pm.
National Reading Group Day – Saturday 30th June from 6-9pm at McGrigor Hall
This year Vanessa Gebbie author of A Coward’sTale and Stephen May author of Life! Death! Prizes! will be joining us to discuss their latest books, so get your reading group involved in this national initiative where you can talk to the authors about their books. Or, if you are not a member of a reading group, simply come along yourself or with some friends! Nibbles will be provided, with wine and soft drinks for sale.
Tickets £10 which includes one of the books & 10% off the other title.
An evening with Dame Harriet Walter – Saturday 21st April from 6.30-9pm at Frinton Golf Club
Harriet Walter will be joining us to talk about her illustrious acting career as well as the two books she has published: ‘Other People’s Shoes-Thoughts on Acting’ and ‘Facing It, Reflections on Images’. Tickets £25 for a two course supper and coffee.
Apart from the bookshop, we organise and help with a number of ‘extra-curricular’ activities.
- Book clubs
- Supper book club
- Frinton Literary Festival
- Author book signings
- Author visits and talks with readings
- School events
