| When | Friday 14th June 2024 at 15:00 |
| Where | The Exchange, Sturminster Newton 1 Old Market Hill Sturminster Newton Dorset DT10 1QU |
| Event Type | Talks |
| Price | £8 |
| Booking | Preferred |
| Tickets | |
| Also available at 1855, Market Cross, Sturminster Newton |
Bridport prizewinner Fiona Williams discusses her debut novel, The House of Broken Bricks, with Jenny Devitt.
Set in the Somerset Levels, The House of Broken Bricks is Fiona William’s debut novel. Fiona will be discussing the inspiration for the book and her writing with Jenny Devitt.
As Tess traces the sunrise over the floodplains, light that paints the house a startling crimson, she yearns for the comforting chaos of life as it once was. Instead of Max and Sonny tracking dirt through the kitchen – Tess and Richard’s ‘rainbow twins’ – Tess absorbs the quiet. The nights draw in, the soil cools and Richard fights to get his winter crops planted rather than deal with the discussion he cannot bear to have.
Secrets and vines clamber over the broken red bricks and although its inhabitants seem to be withering, in the damp, crumbling soil – Sonny knows it – something is stirring . . . As the seasons change, and the cracks let in more light, the family might just be able to start to heal.
This is the story of a broken family, what they see and what they cannot say laid bare in their overlapping perspectives. It is a tale of life in the cracks, because in the space for acceptance, of passing and of laying to rest, the possibilities of new energy, light and love, are seeded.
Fiona Williams holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Westminster and an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. She is the winner of the 2021 Bridport Prize, Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award. Originally from South-East London, she now lives with her family on the Somerset Levels. She is currently completing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Exeter. The House of Broken Bricks is her debut novel.
Jenny Devitt is an experienced interviewer, radio presenter and producer, and an award-winning scriptwriter. She began her broadcasting career in the BBC, and has since worked for numerous radio and specialist natural history television programmes and publications, both in the U.K. and in France. Her work has taken her on recording trips from West Africa to Europe to the eastern Himalayas. She regularly hosts author events at the Yeovil Literary Festival, and produces and presents a bi-monthly factual magazine programme on two Dorset radio stations. She lives just over the border in Somerset!
