From the creators of the internationally bestselling, award-winning phenomenon The Lost Words, Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane return with The Books of Birds a celebration of birdlife in Britain and how we can save them.

Around 50% of bird species are in decline worldwide. Our dawns and springs are quieter each year than the last. An almost unimaginable abundance has been lost. It does not have to be this way – but we will not save what we do not love. The Book of Birds is a compendium of forty-nine bird species, from Avocet to Yellowhammer, all of which are presently declining or endangered in Britain.

With lyrical precision and playfulness, Robert Macfarlane evokes each bird’s habits and habitats – their patterns of flight and of song, how they hunt and gather, how they nest and raise their young, the stories and myths which attend them, the threats which shadow them, and how their wild lives intersect with our own. And on every page, we encounter Jackie Morris’s exhilarating artwork, painted in watercolour and gold and animated by an extraordinary attention to detail and sense of life.

Seven years in the making, The Book of Birds is a love letter to the splendours and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the loss of birds from land, sea and sky. From Dipper to Dunnock and Kestrel to Kingfisher, from mountain to ocean and city to river, Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane conjure the unique spirit and lifeway of each species.

Robert Macfarlane’s Sunday Times– and New York Times-bestselling books include Is a River Alive?, Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind. Jackie Morris has written or illustrated over seventy books. In 2018 she won the Kate Greenaway Medal and the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year for The Lost Words.

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Meet A. F. Steadman, author of the hugely popular Skandar series! Steadman will be visiting our bookshop in June as part of her “Summer of Skandar tour”.

A.F. Steadman grew up in the Kent countryside, getting lost in fantasy worlds and scribbling stories in notebooks. Before focusing on writing, she worked in law, until she realized that there wasn’t nearly enough magic involved. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Skandar series.

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Due unforeseen circumstances, our event with Francesca Segal on Thursday 4 June has been cancelled. We are so sorry for any inconvenience caused.  

Join us for an exciting evening with Costa Prize winning author Francesca Segal to celebrate the publication of Island Calling, the next novel in the Tuga Trilogy!

‘Absolutely blissful… Get both books in the series: I’ll eat my hat if you don’t love them’ India Knight, Sunday Times

On remote Tuga de Oro, vet Charlotte Walker’s caseload of donkeys, cows and ailing lizards has only increased. She still can’t believe the humiliating truth about her father. She probably ought to feel worse than she does. But the islanders have taken Charlotte into their hearts and somehow, between days on the farms and nights with an absorbing (if unsuitable) love interest, she’s content to remain in blissful retreat from her real life in London. Just for now.

But real life hits the island with the force of a tropical storm: Charlotte’s mother arrives. Lucinda Compton-Neville knows an identity crisis when she sees one, and has come to haul her daughter back on course: back to England, back to her career, back home where she belongs.

Funny, moving, and filled with hope, Island Calling is a joyous novel about mothers and daughters; about holding on and letting go.

Francesca Segal is an award-winning writer and journalist. She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Innocents (2012) and The Awkward Age (2017), and a memoir of NICU motherhood, Mother Ship (2019). Her writing has won the 2012 Costa First Novel Award, a Betty Trask Award, and been longlisted for the Women’s Prize.

In association with James Allen’s Girls’ School.

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A workshop for new writers led by bestselling novelist and experienced creative-writing tutor Laura Barnett.

Have you longed to write for as long as you can remember, but just can’t work out how to get started? Are you brimming with ideas for novels and stories, but none of your efforts quite measure up? Or are you just curious about writing fiction and looking for a way in?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then this workshop is for you. Bestselling novelist and experienced tutor Laura Barnett will lead a warm, inclusive session, offering prompts and writing exercises, alongside group discussions and practical advice. Open to new and emerging writers of prose – both novels and short stories – this is an opportunity both to expand your creative horizons and to reflect on how to translate your best ideas into real, engaging works of fiction.

Laura Barnett’s debut novel The Versions of Us was a number-one bestseller. Her other novels include Greatest Hit, Gifts, This Beating Heart  and most recently, Births, Deaths and Marriages which was published in 2025.

A Dulwich Festival event.

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Join award-winning food writer and cook, author of best-selling Greekish, Georgina Hayden, as she discusses MEDesque, her collection of delicious and easy recipes to be cooked at home by anyone and everyone. From weeknight dinners to weekend feasts, travel through Italy, Spain, the Middle East and beyond in your own MEDesque kitchen with over 110 effortless, sensational recipes.

Georgina writes for publications such as The Telegraph, Delicious Magazine and Observer Food Monthly, and in 2021 she won the Fortnum & Mason Best Cookery Writer Award for her work in Waitrose Food magazine. She has appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and regularly appears on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen. Growing up above her grandparents’ Greek Cypriot taverna, Georgina developed a love of cooking and storytelling through the recipes passed down to her. Her third book, Nistisima: The secret to delicious Mediterranean vegan food was a Sunday Times bestseller and was voted Best Cookbook at the OFM and Fortnum & Mason Awards.

A Dulwich Festival event.

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Join award-winning Times journalist and local author Katie Prescott to discover the real story behind the life and improbable death of Mike Lynch, Britain’s enigmatic billionaire.

On the morning of 19th August 2024, the Bayesian yacht tragically sank off the coast of Sicily, taking with it the lives of Mike Lynch, his daughter and five others. Hours earlier, Lynch’s associate and co-defendant in one of the biggest fraud cases in Silicon Valley history, Stephen Chamberlain, was hit by a car in Cambridge and killed.

The odds of these two deaths occurring together were estimated at four in one billion.

Drawing on extensive research and exclusive access to key sources, Prescott forensically explores the life and death of this elusive maverick. Come and learn from Prescott about Lynch’s humble beginnings, through his meteoric rise to CEO of Autonomy, and beyond to a vicious legal battle lasting more than a decade following the 2011 sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for more than £11bn. See the lid lifted on the investigative process asking how and why Lynch’s life came to such an abrupt end.

Katie Prescott is technology business editor at The Times and a weekly columnist for the newspaper’s award-winning business section. A regular on Times Radio and The Times’ daily podcast The Story, she is a familiar voice to millions of listeners after a decade reporting for the BBC and presenting the business news on Radio 4’s Today. She is the current host of The Times Tech Podcast.

A Dulwich Festival event.

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From autism to allergies, ADHD to long Covid, more people are being labelled with medical conditions than ever before. Join best-selling author Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan discussing whether a diagnosis can do us more harm than good.

The boundaries between sickness and health are being redrawn. Mental health categories are shifting and expanding all the time, radically altering what we consider to be ‘normal’. Genetic tests can now detect pathologies decades before people experience symptoms, and sometimes before they’re even born. And increased health screening draws more and more people into believing they are unwell.

An accurate diagnosis can bring greater understanding and of course improved treatment. But many diagnoses aren’t as definitive as we think. And in some cases they risk turning healthy people into patients.

Drawing on the stories of real people, as well as decades of clinical practice and the latest medical research, Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan overturns long held assumptions and reframes how we think about illness and health.

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Join us for a talk by Britain’s leading bee expert, Dave Goulson. Bees are much-loved and hugely important creatures. But most of us know next to nothing about them. There are actually over 200 species in this country. They live in burrows, holes in trees and even empty snail shells. They have favourite flowers. Some even sleep curled up in the blooms. They are more fascinating, beautiful and surprising than you can imagine. Once you start to notice bees, sitting in the garden or going for a stroll will never be the same.

Discover mason bees and mining bees, cuckoo bees and carder bees, even a  couple of convincing bee impersonators. Learn to distinguish your white-tailed bumblebee from your buff-tailed bumblebee, your pantaloon bee from your hairyfooted flower bee.

Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex. He has published  more than 300 scientific articles on the ecology and conservation of bumblebees and  other insects. His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers The Garden Jungle and A Sting in the Tale, which was also shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. He is an Ambassador for the UK Wildlife Trusts, the National Allotment Society and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

A Dulwich Festival event.

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Come to Village Books to meet Jamie Smart!

From the multi-million-copy bestselling phenomenon, Jamie Smart, comes a brand-new comic book series bursting with monstrous mayhem! We’re thrilled that Jamie will be visiting our bookshop to sign copies of his new book.

There’s three things you need to know about MEGALOMANIACS!
They are TERRORS from outer space!
There are LOADS of them!
They are TINY!

Bobbletown is under attack – from the cutest, silliest and zaniest alien invasion EVER! The super-powered Megalomaniacs have crash-landed, and they’re going to do their very best to take over planet Earth! That is, if they don’t get in each others’ way first…

Jamie’s well-loved Bunny vs Monkey and Looshkin stories are regularly published in The Phoenix comic, and as bestselling graphic novels. He is also the creator of the Max and Chaffy comic series for younger readers. Jamie was named Illustrator of the Year and won the Illustrated Children’s Book Award at the British Book Awards 2024, and won Illustrator of the Year and Best Book for Ages 6-8 at the 2024 Lollies Awards.

Terms & Conditions:

Jamie will sign the new Megalomaniac book included with your ticket, plus one additional book, which can be a favourite brought from home, or can be bought from the bookshop on the day.

If you want to buy additional books on the day, it would be best to reserve them by calling or emailing the bookshop in advance.

Accompanying parents and siblings do not need a ticket, but Jamie will only sign two books per ticket. Please don’t bring more than one book from home as Jamie will not be able to sign them.

To avoid disappointment, we must stress there will be no opportunity to meet Jamie without a ticket.

We want all fans to have the best possible experience meeting Jamie Smart. In the interest of the limited time available and to maximise the number of readers that Jamie can meet, the following terms and conditions will be in effect for this book signing. We are putting these rules in place for the safety and enjoyment of everyone involved.

Please respect each other and Jamie on the day. Be kind to each other and take the opportunity whilst in line to make some friends.

You will be required to show your ticket on the day of the event to gain entry, and as proof of purchase. Please keep your ticket in a safe place. Your ticket is single-use only and will be scanned on arrival at the bookshop.

Should you not receive your e-ticket confirmation email please contact events@village-books.co.uk quoting your booking reference.

Due to the anticipated high turn-out, please come prepared to queue. We are offering short time-slots to try to minimise the queuing time but we can’t eliminate it completely. You will need to queue outside on Calton Avenue so please do come dressed appropriately for the weather and keep hydrated. Our shop is small so to keep everyone safe we’ll be letting you in a few at a time.

Ticket holders will receive their copy of the book at the bookshop.

Please note the event may be filmed of photographed, as an attendee you consent to footage and/or images of you being used for promotional purposes.

If you have further questions, please contact us.

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Was Grigori Rasputin a visionary, a fraud, or a victim of history?

Antony Beevor searches for the truth about the great seducer of the Romanovs, the wild mystic who laid the ground for the Russian Revolution.

When Russia’s Dowager Empress was pregnant with the future Tsar, she dreamed that a peasant would one day kill her son. The idea terrified her, and for the rest of her days she ‘lived under the pressure of the prophecy’.

Rasputin had no official position. A barely literate moujhik from Siberia, he had no forces at his command. He was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. And yet, through his uncanny seduction of the imperial household, he contributed more than any other individual to the collapse of the greatest autocracy in the world. ‘This man was unique’, observed one writer who knew him well. ‘Like a character out of a novel, he lived in legend, he died in legend, and his memory is cloaked in legend.’

In this extraordinary new work, Antony Beevor, master of narrative history on the grandest scale, sharpens his focus to pierce the fog of fantasy that has only grown denser over time.

“Totally fascinating, compelling and beautifully written. In its deep political and psychological understanding of Rasputin, the Romanovs and Russia itself, it’s intriguing and original. One of the great stories of history, told by one of our greatest historians” Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Antony Beevor is the author of thirteen works of non-fiction, including Crete (1991), which was awarded a Runciman Prize; Stalingrad (1998), which won the first Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature; and D-Day (2009), which received the Prix Henry Malherbe in France and the Westminster Medal, and was a no. 1 bestseller in seven countries.

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