The Big Book Group

Some rich pickings were on offer in this evening for book-lovers playing to a packed house and beginning with the author Kate Mosse. She spoke eloquently from the heart about feeling both bereft and free now that she had completed her trilogy after 23 years of research and writing. Her love of the Languedoc region in south-west France shone through as she spoke of its inspiration for all of her novels. A change of tempo led to the The Big Book Quiz and challenged our literary mettle before the interval with a diversity of questions ranging from ‘Mrs Dallaway’ to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. Sophie Hannah revealed herself as not just a crime writer but a natural comedian too. Her animated account of a chain of events after a flight delay enraptured the audience as well as being the inspiration for her new novel.

Studio Theatre, Brighton Dome, 11 December 2012

Rating: