A. K. Blakemore - Doom Painting

Shipston Bookfest closes with a rebellion

A.K. Blakemore closes this year's Shipston Bookfest with the England of 1381: plague-scarred, taxed to the edge, and about to erupt. Her novel The Manningtree Witches won the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction, and The Glutton was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize; her new book turns to Wat Tyler and the Peasants' Revolt.

Doom Painting opens with two childhood friends caught up in an altercation in Brentwood, Essex, and follows the sixteen days that pull half the country toward London. Wat Tyler emerges from the rebellion as its improbable leader, marching the common people to put their demands to the boy-king Richard II.

Her earlier books turned real history into unsettling fiction. This one asks what a revolt built on genuine grievance does to the people who end up leading it.

Sunday 27 September 2026 · St Edmund's Church, Church Street, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire CV36 4AP · Starts 4pm