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Events

Mark Billingham & Abir Mukherjee – HYBRID EVENT 

A chance to hear from two crime writers at the top of their game. Author of 21 Sunday Times bestsellers Mark Billingham introduces his first new series for 20 years with The Last Dance. The award-winning author of the bestselling Sam Wyndham crime novels set in 1920s India, Abir Mukherjee introduces his new and exciting contemporary thriller Hunted. 

The Last Dance: meet Declan Miller: unique, unconventional and criminally underestimated. He’s a detective and a dancer with no respect for authority – and he’s the best hope Blackpool has for keeping criminals off the streets. The Last Dance is Mark Billingham’s first new series for 20 years. 

Hunted: After a bomb goes off in an LA shopping mall, Sajid and Carrie are thrown together in a race against time to find his son and her daughter, prove their innocence and stop a catastrophe. Abir Mukhajee’s blockbuster contemporary thriller is “a masterclass in intelligent suspense fiction” (Mick Herron).  

Mark Billingham started his career, 22 years ago, bringing a fresh, edgy and terrifying twist to the genre, and his lead character, Tom Thorne, was every bit as quirky and different as his creator. Since then, his novels have sold over six million copies and he has had 21 Sunday Times bestsellers. Two TV series have been made of Mark’s books – Thorne by Sky starring David Morrissey, and In the Dark by the BBC. A third is currently in development. Rabbit Hole, his 2020 novel, was named as Crime Book of the Year by The Times. 

Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Sam Wyndham series of crime novels set in Raj era India. His debut, A Rising Man, won the CWA Endeavour Dagger for best historical crime novel of 2017 and was shortlisted for the MWA Edgar for best novel. His second novel, A Necessary Evil, won the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing and was a Zoe Ball Book Club pick. His third novel, Smoke and Ashes, was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 Best Crime & Thriller Novels since 1945. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in London with his wife and two sons.

HYBRID EVENT – this is a Hybrid event, which can be attended in person at the venue or accessed online. Simply select the Live or Online ticket link for your preferred event viewing. For online access a link will be sent to you the day before the event takes place. 

ACCESSIBILITY – This event will have live subtitling by Stagetext to make it more accessible to those who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. If you are attending with a carer, please book an additional free ticket for them.  

Date: Sunday 28 April 

Time: 5pm-6pm 

Venue: Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP 

Tickets: £8 (£5 conc), online tickets £3, free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers 

Age guidance: 16+ 

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/syngenta-cellar 

 

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ONLINE – Learned By Heart

The heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine. 

Full of passion and heartbreak, Learned By Heart is the beautiful and evocative historical novel from Emma Donoghue, the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder. Shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Prize. 

In 1805, at a boarding school in York, two 14-year-old girls first meet. Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society’s expectations of what a woman can do. As they fall in love, the connection they forge will remain with them for the rest of their lives. 

Born in Dublin in 1969, and now living in Canada, Emma Donoghue writes fiction (novels and short stories, contemporary and historical including The Pull of the Stars), as well as drama for screen and stage. Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes, selling between two and three million copies in 40 languages. Donoghue was nominated for an Academy Award for her 2015 adaptation starring Brie Larson. She also co-wrote the screenplay for the Netflix film of her novel The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh.
 

Note: this event will take place online as a Zoom webinar. A link to access the event will be sent to you the day before the webinar takes place.

 

Date: Tuesday 23 April  

Time: 7pm-8pm 

Online 

Tickets: Free, donations welcomed 

Age guidance: 16+ 

Book tickets