Windmill Hill Book Tour – an exciting life on the road ahead

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13 Apr 2023

My fifth novel, Windmill Hill, will be published in the UK on 25th May 2023, and there’s an incredible variety of events planned (click links for tickets), from the dynamic Postcards from Midlife Live in London, to The Bath Festival , one of my favourite UK book festivals, and some truly lovely local bookshops, including Abingdon’s Mostly Books, Oxford Waterstones, and Cookham’s The Little Bookshop. I’ll also be popping into Suffolk Libraries & Commemoration Hall, Huntingdon, in June, with a signing in Waterstones Durham in July, rounding off with Newark Book Festival.

More events and signing will be added, but for now, that’s quite enough to keep me very busy

Behind Closed Doors: Event with Arifa Akbar at Daunt Books Summertown

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11 Apr 2022

Book tickets here

Arifa Akbar, chief theatre critic at the Guardian and author of Consumed, and Lucy Atkins, journalist, book critic & author of several novels including Magpie Lane, will discuss their books, difficult families, and how to write about them. Both books – one memoir, one novel – consider ideas of family, the secrets and mysteries they often keep, and the resulting tensions.

When Arifa Akbar discovered her sister had fallen seriously ill, she expected a short hospital stay and then home. It wasn’t until the day before Fauzia died that the family discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis. Consumed is a beautifully written and moving memoir exploring sisterhood, grief, art and the myths surrounding TB.

Magpie Lane, a chilling Gothic thriller set in Oxford, begins in the aftermath of a young girl going missing. The police have turned to Dee, her nanny, for answers. As Dee recalls her time with this dysfunctional family – Nick, the powerful father, his glamourous, pregnant wife Mariah – and Felicity, daughter of Nick’s previous marriage, who is almost mute and grieving her mother. As time goes on, and there’s no sign of Felicity, suspicion turns to Dee.

Tickets are £5 including a glass of wine and a soft drink.

Event Details

Friday 13th May 2022Event starts at 7:00pm

Writing Masterclass with Lucy Atkins & Mick Herron at Chipping Norton Literary Festival 2022

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10 Apr 2022

Friday 22 April 10:30 – 15:30

Ticket price includes lunch and refreshments

Tickets now on sale

ST MARY’S PARISH ROOMS

WORKSHOP

£50.00 each BUY TICKETS

A comprehensive, invaluable creative writing masterclass. Explore the value of planning and plotting basics. Understand why settings matter and how to choose one that suits you. Create believable characters and develop dialogue to build that characterisation. And learn techniques to keep your readers reading.

Mick Herron

10:30 – 12:30
1. To plan or not to plan? (& how to do both). Beginnings and endings. Plotting basics.
2. Settings: why they matter, how to choose one, the difference a setting makes.

12:30 – 13:30
Lunch

13:30 – 15:30
3. Creating believable characters: how to develop both main characters and extras. Using detail, interactions, backstory & dialogue to build characterisation.
4. Page turning techniques: how to keep the reader reading. How to create intrigue, and raise the stakes.

Lucy Atkins 2021