Rewriting Grief - Relaunch of Dear Blacksmith with Beverley Ward & friends

Beverley Ward is relaunching her memoir Dear Blacksmith at Sheffield Plate on Sunday 29 November, from 2 pm to 4 pm. It's a relaunch in the truest sense: the book first came out with Valley Press in February 2020, but the pandemic and family events that followed meant it never really found its audience. Ward has since regained the rights and is bringing it back under her own imprint, Pebble Press.

The book itself grew out of a very specific, very personal place. Ward, who runs The Writers Workshop, wrote it after her partner, Blacksmith Paul, died suddenly in 2016. She turned to writing to process the loss, and the blog that accompanied the book ended up being read by more than 200,000 people. That response led to an invitation to the House of Commons as a 'thought-leader in the world of bereavement', and she's written regularly for The Huffington Post since. The memoir is the account of that time, and the relaunch is her way of finally giving it the space it needs.

She won't be on her own for the afternoon. Joining her are authors Amy White, Jo Hird and Debbie Enever, each of whom also turned their own experiences of loss into memoirs. The four of them will be talking about that process together, and the whole thing marks the opening of Grief Awareness Week. It's a conversation about writing through loss, and about the books that come out of it.

Copies of Dear Blacksmith will be on sale at the event. It runs from 2 pm to 4 pm at Sheffield Plate, 31-33 Orchard Square, Sheffield City Centre, S1 2FB.