Mary Lawson: Solace in Winter

Mary Lawson is at QUAD on Sunday 15 November, talking about her new novel Solace in Winter. She'll be in conversation with Sarah Newton, a Festival Trustee and former journalist, so it's a proper chat rather than a reading. The session runs from 3:30pm to 4:30pm, and it's part of the Derby Book Festival - Autumn 2026, which sits inside QUAD's wider programme of film, culture and art events.

Solace in Winter is set in the deep winter of 1969, with the Vietnam War raging in the background. The story follows Jack, a widower whose quiet life in Northern Ontario is overturned by two accidents on the bend in the road into town: first a dog in bad shape, then a seriously injured draft-dodger lying in the snow. Things take another turn when Jack's daughter comes to visit. It's a story of connection and moral complexity, and it shares the same Northern Ontario setting as Lawson's other bestselling, prize-winning novels Crow Lake, The Other Side of the Bridge, Road Ends and A Town Called Solace.

Lawson has a fair few big names behind her on this one. Graham Norton called her one of his all-time favourite writers, and Rachel Joyce described the book as a beauty of a book. If you've read her previous work, you'll recognise that particular corner of Canada she keeps coming back to.

Tickets are £10 standard and £10 concession, and the talk runs from 3:30pm to 4:30pm on Sunday 15 November at QUAD, Derby DE1 3AS.