Event: The Books that Built Me with Sasha Wilkins & Helen Brocklebank at the Chiswick Book Festival

I am super excited that the very first event I am doing around the launch of my cookbook is in London at the Chiswick Book Festival on Saturday 13 September. The full programme is here, with authors and speakers including A.N. Wilson, Elizabeth Buchan, Judith Flanders, David Hempleman-Adams, Malcolm Gluck and Bryony Gordon.

Behind every great writer is a library full of beloved books – from childhood favourites to grown-up classics. The Books That Built Me – in association with Harper’s Bazaar – explores the novels that most influenced and inspired a writer’s life and work.

In a special The Books That Built Me salon for the Chiswick Book Festival, Harper’s Bazaar’s Helen Brocklebank will be in conversation with Sasha Wilkins, fashion journalist, former magazine editor and founder of the award-winning LibertyLondonGirl.com.

In the Festival’s Saturday night keynote session, at 7pm on September 13th in St Michael & All Angels Church, we will talk about my life as a writer; the journey that led me to write my first cookery book, Friends Food Family: Recipes and Secrets from LibertyLondonGirl; and the books that have nurtured and nourished me along the way.

Tickets to The Books That Built Me with Sasha Wilkins of LibertyLondonGirl are available here, price £10 – or £20 to include a year’s subscription to Bazaar. Don’t miss the Festival Drinks Reception (from 6pm), goodie bags, a free copy of Bazaar, a prize draw for ticket-holders with some wonderful presents from LLG friends Ralph Lauren and Le Creuset, and the chance to tell us your own Books That Built Me.

(Admission to the other festival events is by Saturday or Sunday Day Pass – £10 per day or £17.50 for both days.)

The Chiswick Book Festival brings together top authors and their readers for a weekend of history, poetry, sport, biography, creative writing, fiction, thrillers, wine, politics and children’s books. After each event, readers can buy copies of the latest books from Waterstones’ Festival bookshop, and have them signed by the authors.

Now in its sixth year, the Festival is a non-profit-making community event, raising money for St Michael & All Angels Church, which hosts the event, and three charities which support reading and literacy:

– RNIB Talking Books Service and Books for Children, supporting blind and partially-sighted people. The Festival has sponsored the creation of Talking Books by previous CBF speakers Claire Tomalin, Andy MacNab and Rosamund Lupton.
– InterAct Reading Service, which uses actors to provide a reading service for stroke patients in hospital.
– The Letterbox Club, which works with local authorities to send book parcels to children aged 7 to 11 in foster families, to improve their educational outlook. It’s part of the Book Trust and one of its patrons is Jacqueline Wilson, who spoke at the first Chiswick Book Festival.