Writing the Brontës - Karen Powell and Bella Ellis in conversation with Sophie Parkes

Please book your tickets here.

We're delighted to be welcoming Karen Powell and Bella Ellis to Manchester to discuss FIFTEEN WILD DECEMBERS and A GIFT OF POISON - two brilliant new novels centered around the Brontë sisters. Karen and Bella will be in conversation with Sophie Parkes (Out of Human Sight)

Doors: 18.30, event starts: 18.45

Tickets are £3.00 or free when pre-ordering a copy of either book. FIFTEEN WILD DECEMBERS and A GIFT OF POISON will also be available to purchase on the night and both authors will be signing copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact us on 0161 274 3331 or manchester@blackwell.co.uk and we can arrange this for you.

A bout the books:

Fifteen Wild Decembers - Karen Powell

Isolated from society, Emily Brontë and her siblings spend their days inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape to which she has become so passionately bound, she is simply unable to function.

To the outside world, Emily Brontë appears taciturn and unexceptional, but beneath the surface her mind is in a creative ferment. A violent phenomenon is about to burst forth that will fuse her imaginary world with the landscape of her beloved Yorkshire and change the literary world forever.

Fifteen Wild Decembers is the dazzling second novel from a writer who has been compared to Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene, and whose first novel was described as ‘utterly stunning’, ‘mesmerizing’ and hailed as ‘a masterpiece.’

A Gift of Poison - Bella Ellis

Haworth 1847 - Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte's has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.

At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.

Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent - or guilty - without a shadow of doubt.

A bout the authors:

Karen Powell grew up in Rochester, Kent, but now lives with her family in North Yorkshire. She works at York Minster Fund, an independent charity which raises money for the conservation and restoration of York Minster. Her debut novel The River Within was published by Europa Editions in 2020.

Bella Ellis is the Brontë-inspired pen name for the award winning Sunday Times bestselling author Rowan Coleman. A Brontë devotee for most of her life, Rowan is the author of fourteen novels including The Memory Book, The Summer of Impossible Things and The Girl at the Window.