An evening with Louis de Bernières

Louis de Bernières is coming to Linghams Booksellers on Wednesday 28 October, starting at 7pm. Most people know him as the author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, but he's also a musician and a poet, and this is one of those nights where those sides of him sit together rather than separately. The evening includes musical performances alongside the talking, so it's not just a reading.

He's there about his latest book, Smelling of Rooks, which is a bit of an odd one in the best way. It's built from more than a decade of his Facebook posts, from 2015 to 2024, and he describes it as a candid, comic and companionable memoir of a writer's life. It's full of reflections on music, cats, motorcycles, politics, parenting and the perils of social media, told with the warmth, eccentricity and mischief that have made him one of Britain's most beloved storytellers. If you've read his novels, that same voice is here, just turned on himself.

Bernières grew up in rural Norfolk, a landscape he calls the 'Norfolk Alps', and his writing has long been shaped by that countryside. That connection to place runs through his work, and Smelling of Rooks is no different, even when it's looking at the smaller, more domestic things. It's a book that comes from a writer who's spent a long time thinking about how to tell a story, whether it's on a grand scale or in the scraps of a social media feed.

Linghams Booksellers is at 248 Telegraph Road, Wirral, CH60 7SG, and it's been trading continuously since the late 19th century. It's regarded as one of the UK's most significant independent bookstores, known for its collection of rare and first edition books, so it's a fitting place for a writer's evening. Tickets start from £9.00, and the whole thing kicks off at 7pm on Wednesday 28 October.