Books by the Beach
YMCA Theatre is proud to once again provide the box office for the 2024 Books by the Beach Festival
Friday 7th June, Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th June 2024
Please use the links below to buy your tickets online, alternatively, you can give us a call on 01723 506750 or visit our box office at the Community Desk inside YMCA Scarborough, St. Thomas Street, Scarborough, YO11 1DY.
We are on the corner of Elder Street.
Tickets must be bought or collected in advance, our box office is not open on Sunday.
For more information about the festival please visit booksbythebeach.co.uk
Frequently asked questions can be found at the bottom of the page
Friday 7th June 2024
STACEY HALLS
THE HOUSEHOLD
In Conversation with Gerry Foley
STACEY HALLS has written for many publications including the Guardian and the Independent. Her first book, The Familiars, was the bestselling debut hardback novel of 2019 and won a Betty Trask Award. The Foundling, her second, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her third Mrs England won the Women’s Prize Futures Award. Today Stacey introduces her new novel The Household. Set against Charles Dickens’ home for fallen women and inspired by real figures from history it’s her most ambitious and captivating novel yet.
JOANN FLETCHER
WINE IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Prof JOANN FLETCHER is based at the University of York and is Lead Ambassador for the Egypt Exploration Society, patron of Barnsley Museums & Heritage Trust and patron of Scarborough’s ‘Big Ideas by the Sea’ festival. Her books include The Story of Egypt, Cleopatra the Great and The Search for Nefertiti. Having won a BAFTA and Royal Television Society Award for her TV work, she’s written and presented several series for the BBC including Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher. Today Joann discusses Wine in Ancient Egypt: from the temples of the gods to the table of Cleopatra.
GLENDA YOUNG
COSY CRIME with CAKE AND COCKTAILS
GLENDA YOUNG’s bestselling sagas are set in a northeast mining village in 1919 and her cosy crimes are set in modern-day Scarborough. She has also written TV tie-in books for ITV’s Coronation Street. Glenda’s whodunnits are warm and humorous with a host of engaging characters – a tonic for the times. Join her to hear how landlady Helen Dexter and rescue greyhound Suki solve coastal crime in her new novel Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel. A slice of cake and a cocktail served during the interval.
PETER TAYLOR
OPERATION CHIFFON
In conversation with Helen Boaden
PETER TAYLOR OBE is acknowledged to be one of the BBC’S most distinguished and respected journalists. He is best known for his coverage of the Irish conflict over the past fifty years. He reported for the Panorama programme and has won numerous awards including Lifetime Achievements Awards from both BAFTA and the Royal Television Society. Peter will be discussing his new book
Operation Chiffon: The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland. Discover how those involved risked their careers – and their lives – to help secure the fragile peace that exists in Ireland today.
DAVID NICHOLLS
YOU ARE HERE
In conversation with Helen Boaden
DAVID NICHOLLS is one of the most beloved writers in the English language. David is a Booker Prize-longlisted storyteller whose books, including Starter For Ten, Us, and the international publishing phenomenon One Day, have sold over 8 million copies worldwide and are published in over 40 languages.
David is also one of our most talented and sought-after screenwriters. Highlights have included adaptations of Far from the Madding Crowd, When Did You Last See Your Father? and Great Expectations. His adaptation of Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, was nominated for an Emmy and won him a BAFTA for best writer.
There have been numerous adaptations of David’s own novels. The latest is a major new 14-episode Netflix adaptation of One Day starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall. Tonight David will be discussing his highly anticipated new novel, You Are Here – a moving story of first encounters, second chances and finding the way home.
Saturday 8th June 2024
HELEN SCALES
WHAT THE WILD SEA CAN BE
HELEN SCALES is a marine biologist, author and broadcaster who explores the wonders and plight of the oceans and the living planet. She writes for National Geographic Magazine, the Guardian and New Scientist, among others. She is a story-telling ambassador for the Save Our Seas Foundation and science advisor for marine conservation charity Sea Changers. Helen will discuss her latest book What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean – an impassioned examination of the threats of the ocean and cautious optimism for the abundant life within it.
RORY CLEMENTS
MUNICH WOLF
In conversation with Gerry Foley
RORY CLEMENTS is a Sunday Times bestselling author, and twice winner of the CWA Historical Dagger Award, for Revenger and Nucleus. His books have sold over 1 million copies to date. Munich Wolf is Rory’s fifteenth novel, and the first featuring Munich detective Sebastian Wolff. In this pre-WW2 thriller Wolff is tasked with solving a high-profile murder in the shadow of Adolf Hitler. Rory’s research and imagination combine with real-life figures to bring history alive on the page and stage. A crime to miss this event!
FRANK GARDNER
INVASION
In conversation with Helen Boaden
FRANK GARDNER OBE is the BBC’s Security Correspondent, reporting on issues of domestic and international security. In June 2004, while reporting in Riyadh, Frank and his cameraman, Simon Cumbers, were ambushed by Islamist gunmen. Simon was killed outright, Frank was shot multiple times and left for dead. Against all expectations, he survived and published his acclaimed memoir, Blood and Sand. The film Being Frank: The Frank Gardner Story was broadcast on BBC 2 in November 2020. in 2016, Frank’s debut novel, Crisis, was a No.1 bestseller followed by Ultimatum and Outbreak. Tonight he discusses Invasion – his new international thriller.
POLLY TOYNBEE
AN UNEASY INHERITANCE
In conversation with guest interviewer:
Alan Johnson
POLLY TOYNBEE is a journalist, author and broadcaster. She has won numerous awards including a National Press Award and the Orwell Prize for Journalism. A Guardian columnist, she was formerly the BBC’s social affairs editor. Today Polly will be discussing her memoir An Uneasy Inheritance. Through a colourful examination of her own family, she will explore the myth of mobility, the guilt of privilege and open up an honest discussion about class in Britain.
HELEN LEDERER
NOT THAT I’M BITTER
In conversation with Gerry Foley
HELEN LEDERER is a writer, actress, comedian and presenter. Apart from on stage, and radio, she’s best known as Catriona, the dippy journalist in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous. Her novel Losing It was nominated for the PG Wodehouse comedy literary prize. In 2019 Helen set up the Comedy Women in Print Prize (CWIP).
As one of Britain’s first female stand-up comedians of the 80s, Helen performed regularly on stage and TV with other household names. It was tough to break through and tonight Helen shares her new book Not That I’m Bitter – a revealing and honest memoir which offers us a front row seat to her life. Join us for a frank and hilarious evening!
Sunday 9th June 2024
ALAN JOHNSON
DEATH ON THE THAMES
In conversation with Helen Boaden
ALAN JOHNSON’s childhood memoir This Boy won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize. Please Mr Postman won the National Book Club award for Best Biography and his last in the trilogy The Long and Winding Road won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Memoir. Alan was a Labour MP for 20 years and served in five cabinet positions. He is now a full time writer and will be chatting about his new novel Death on the Thames.
SOPHIE ELMHIRST
A WHALE, A SHIPWRECK AND A LOVE STORY
SOPHIE ELMHIRST is a prizewinning writer for the Guardian Long Read and The Economist‘s 1843 magazine. In 2020 she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year. Maurice and Maralyn is her first book. Bored of 1970s suburban life, unlikely couple Maurice and Maralyn decide to sell up, build a boat and set sail for New Zealand. Halfway there their beloved yacht is struck by a whale. It sinks within the hour and they are cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean… Come and listen to this jaw-dropping true life tale of a whale, a shipwreck and a love story.
JENNIE GODFREY
THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS
In conversation with Gerry Foley
JENNIE GODFREY was raised in West Yorkshire within a mill-working family. Following a corporate career, she is now a writer and part-time Waterstones bookseller. Her debut novel, The List of Suspicious Things, is inspired by her Yorkshire childhood in the 1970s. The book follows 12 year old Miv who decides to make Yorkshire ‘safe again’ by finding the man dubbed The Yorkshire Ripper. Jennie will share the real-life connection her family had with Peter Sutcliffe and how her passion for true crime podcasts compelled her to write this page-turner everyone is talking about …
JACKIE KAY
MAY DAY
In conversation with Helen Boaden
JACKIE KAY is one of our best-loved poets and former Makar, National Poet for Scotland. Also a novelist and writer of short stories, her novel Trumpet won the Guardian Fiction Prize. Jackie will be discussing her long-awaited new poetry collection May Day. These poems cast an eye over several decades of political activism, from the international solidarity of Jackie’s Glasgow childhood through the feminist, LGBT+ and anti-racist movements of the 80s and 90s, up to the present day when a global pandemic intersects with the urgency of Black Lives Matter. Jackie will be performing her poetry at this event.
PATRICK GRANT
LESS
In conversation with Helen Boaden
(This event is sponsored by a festival friend)
With a career in fashion spanning nearly two decades PATRICK GRANT has a lot to say about our clothing, who makes it and how it’s made. He is a regular on television and radio as a commentator on the clothing and textile industries and is best known as a judge on the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee. Patrick holds an honorary Doctorate from Heriot Watt University, is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is in the Business of Fashion 500 index of the most influential people in global fashion. In 2016 he launched Community Clothing, a social enterprise which supports thousands of UK jobs through making and selling affordable high-quality clothing. Tonight he will discuss his new book Less – an unmissable finale!
Frequently Asked Questions
We will announce an onsale
No, please make sure you are aware of where each event takes place
No, Tickets are not available on the door. You will also not be able to collect tickets after 5pm on Saturday.
No, no refunds are available. If you have purchased refund protection online you will need to follow the instructions from the insurance company.
Yes, tickets costs £1.50 per booking to post.
Yes, refreshments will be available to buy at all of the events
Queens Street Church and YMCA Theatre have hearing loops installed
