Marika Cobbold first found writing fame with her novel Guppies for Tea – a story about growing old and fighting back, was accepted for publication. As Marika says, “Several other publishers had turned it down saying no one was interested in reading about old people. Luckily, as it turns out, they were wrong.” Guppies for Tea became a publishing sensation, promoted in bookshops and the media and serialised on BBC Woman’s Hour.
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We’re reading and chatting about Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This brilliant new bestseller has already been optioned for TV – and it’s a debut novel written by a woman in her 60s; the perfect Goldster choice! …
Past Events
Julie Summers is a bestselling writer, researcher and historian. Her books include Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine; a biography of her grandfather, the man who built the ‘real’ bridge over the River Kwai, The Colonel of Tamarkan, Stranger in the House and When the Children Came Home, a social history of servicemen returning to their families …
Laura Payne began her career as a journalist and has a background in international media and marketing. She has advised and mentored some of the world’s leading businesses and organisations – and then, in her 50s, she decided to change her life and career. She made the decision to go back into academia and train as a psychotherapist. …
This January, our Book of the Month is a title chosen by Goldster members. We’ll be reading and chatting about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by the Scottish author Muriel Spark on Friday 27 January, at 12pm – recently chosen as one of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels That Shaped Our World’. …
Tobias Jones is making a much -anticipated return to Goldster to talk about his latest book, a gorgeous journey along the River Po in Italy. The Po is the longest river in Italy, travelling for 652 kilometres from one end of the country to the other. It flows next to many of Italy’s most exquisite cities – Ferrara, Mantova, Parma, Cremona, Pavia and Torino – and the river is a part of the national psyche, as iconic to Italy as the Thames is to England or the Mississippi to the USA.
Sam Blake has been writing fiction since her husband set sail across the Atlantic for eight weeks, and she had an idea for a book. Originally from St. Albans, she now lives in Ireland, at the foot of the Wicklow mountains. Her debut novel Little Bones launched the bestselling Cat Connolly trilogy.
There’s nowhere quite like Piccadilly Circus. From the moment they emerge, blinking from the underground station, visitors to Piccadilly Circus face a sensory onslaught. Its streets and alleyways merge into an intoxicating thoroughfare, with the power to propel an individual onwards to adventure, romance, or something more sinister.