Local Author Showcase with Community Book Swap

A Career Spent Spotting the Next Big Thing Now Chairs the Newcomers

Peter Buckman was the youngest member of Penguin's editorial board before decades in publishing and television, writing episodes of Inspector Morse and The House of Eliott along the way. Since founding The Ampersand Agency in 2003, he has represented the estate of Georgette Heyer and discovered Vikas Swarup, whose debut novel became the film Slumdog Millionaire. These days he writes his own series, the Pumpernickel Mysteries, following a Soho solicitor and his poodle through a run of very English murders.

Buckman chairs six local authors here, each given five minutes to talk about their work and what drove them to write it, with an interval for meeting them, buying their books and getting them signed. Your ticket covers a first drink at the bar, and the Festival Bookshop stays open through the evening. The twist is the swap table: bring a book you've read and loved, leave it there on arrival, and take home whatever another reader has chosen to pass on.

Six writers your bookshelf doesn't know yet, introduced by someone whose job has been finding the ones it eventually will.

Saturday 19 September 2026 · The Townsend Hall, Sheep Street, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire CV36 4AE · Starts 7:30pm