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A feast of talent to appear at Nuneaton Library

As part of the Fantastic Fun with Words festival, organised by Warwickshire County Council Library Service, Nuneaton Library will host not one but two leading writers to share their enjoyment of reading.

Amanda Smyth and Paul McDonald will appear at Nuneaton Library on Tuesday, 29th September, 7.00-9.00 pm, when they will meet with the public and members of local reading groups for a lively discussion of what reading means to them.

Amanda Smyth, one of Waterstone’s New Voices 2009, will be featured on the night.  Her recently published first novel, Black Rock, set in Tobago and Trinidad, has been hailed by critics as reminiscent of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. The Guardian says, ‘Smyth writes entrancingly on tropical heat and light, indolence, vengeance and desire’, while award winning writer Ali Smith praises her ‘heady, mesmerising yet translucent prose which marks Smyth out as a born novelist.’ Her short stories have been broadcast on Radio 4 as a part of a Series called Love and Loss.

Also appearing is Walsall native Paul McDonald, author of several novels, poet, and lecturer in American writing and culture. McDonald is especially interested in humour and regional writing, and his latest novel, Do I Love You?, is described by The Times as ‘a wholly unpretentious, humourous and easy read’.

"This is more than a book-signing or lectures about the authors’ works," says Carla Tate of Warwickshire County Council Library Service.

"This is a chance to talk with writers about their own reading lives, their reading histories, how their reading has affected them, influenced and shaped them, both as writers and as human beings."

Tickets for the evening can be purchased in advance at Nuneaton library or at the door on the night. Admission is £4.00 per person and light refreshments will be available.

The author event is part of Fantastic Fun with Words, a festival of 45 events taking place throughout Nuneaton & Bedworth, North Warwickshire, and Rugby. The festival aims to involve the whole community including children, schools, families and adults, and will also see intergenerational events. Funded by the Arts Council, this is the second year of Fantastic Fun with Words. The Readers Evening which was held at Nuneaton Library last year, 28th Sep 2008, and was well-attended and very successful.