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Promoting the never-ending
joy of books and reading in Suffolk

Our Goal, Vision & Commitment

An annual programme of speakers and other events

Join online today

Upcoming Events

  • Ian Collins
    Ian Collins
    09 Jan 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA
    Ian Collins' eagerly-awaited 2024 biography, Blythe Spirit: the Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe, draws on personal conversations with his friend as well as referencing letters, notebooks and Ronald’s published works.
  • Emma Healey
    Emma Healey
    13 Feb 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA, UK
    Emma Healey will be talking to us about her new novel, Sweat. Elizabeth is Missing won the Costa First Novel Award in 2014 and sold more than a million copies. It was adapted for television with Glenda Jackson as Maud, the missing protagonist with dementia.
  • Noreen Masud
    Noreen Masud
    12 Mar 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA, UK
    Noreen Masud is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. Author of Stevie Smith and the Aphorism: Hard Language (Oxford University Press, 2022) and A Flat Place (Hamish Hamilton [Penguin] and Melville House Press, 2023)
  • Zeb Soanes
    Zeb Soanes
    04 Apr 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA, UK
    Zeb Soanes will talk about his writing life, especially his charming bestselling Gaspard books for children, inspired by Zeb’s own encounters with an urban fox. Recently two of the Gaspard books have been conceived as orchestral concert works, sometimes narrated by Zeb himself.
  • Katie Ward
    Katie Ward
    08 May 2025, 19:30
    Eastern Angles Centre, Gatacre Rd, Ipswich IP1 2LQ, UK
    Katie Ward is an award-winning author and creative writing tutor. Her fascinating new novel, Pathways (2024), is about Cara, a Cambridge-based neuroscientist and her ‘almost step-daughter’, Heather, who makes an impulsive decision to take a trip to Las Vegas.
  • Tom Crewe
    Tom Crewe
    11 Jun 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA, UK
    We are delighted that Tom Crewe will talk about his remarkable, critically acclaimed debut, The New Life.
  • Sarah Hardy
    Sarah Hardy
    17 Jul 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA, UK
    The Walled Garden, Sarah Hardy’s poignant, delicate novel is set in 1946 in the fictional village of Oakbourne but firmly located in recognisable Suffolk landscapes.
  • Sarah Perry
    Sarah Perry
    17 Sept 2025, 19:30
    Eastern Angles Centre, Eastern Angles Centre, Gatacre Rd, Ipswich IP1 2LQ, UK
    Sarah Perry is the internationally best-selling author of the novels After Me Comes the Flood, The Essex Serpent, Melmoth, and the non-fiction Essex Girls.
  • Naomi Wood
    Naomi Wood
    13 Nov 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA, UK
    Naomi Wood is the critically acclaimed author of three novels: The Godless Boys, Mrs Hemingway and The Hiding Game.
  • Lottie Mills
    Lottie Mills
    04 Dec 2025, 19:30
    Ipswich Institute, 15 Tavern St, Ipswich IP1 3AA, UK
    Lottie Mills will talk to us about her outstanding debut collection Monstrum (2024).
  • Online Event with Hannah Gold
    Online Event with Hannah Gold
    View any time
    Online
    Available to all - Hannah joined us to us about her debut novel The Last Bear which brings together the big theme of climate change with the story of one small girl and her encounter with a lonely bear. This is an online event open to the public at £5. This event was first released in April 2020.
  • Online Event with Francesca Wade
    Online Event with Francesca Wade
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    Online
    Available to all - Francesca Wade talks about her book 'Square Haunting', a Sunday Times Literary Non-Fiction Book of the Year, a Guardian Best Book of the Year This is an online event open to the public at £5. This event was first released in July 2021.
  • Online Event with Andy Friend
    Online Event with Andy Friend
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    Online
    Available to all - Andy Friend's biography is a comprehensive picture of John Nash’s life and art, and offers a compelling narrative, embracing both love and tragedy. This is an online event open to the public at £5. This event was first released in June 2021.
  • Online Event with George Szirtes
    Online Event with George Szirtes
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    Online
    Available to all - Join us as we interviewed George Szirtes about his memoir of his mother Magda, The Photographer at Sixteen. This is an online event open to the public at £5. This event was first released in May 2021.
  • Online Event with Fiona Sampson
    Online Event with Fiona Sampson
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    Online
    Available to all - In conversation with Fiona Sampson on her book about Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • Online Event with Jeremy Page
    Online Event with Jeremy Page
    View any time
    Online
    Available to all - Matt Gaw is a writer and freelance journalist. His first book is The Pull of the River: A Journey into the Wild and Watery Heart of Britain. This is an online event open to the public at £5. This event was first released in February 2021.
  • Online Event with James Canton
    Online Event with James Canton
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    Online
    Available to all, join us in the company of one of the UK's foremost nature writers, James Canton, author of The Oak Papers. This is an online event open to the public at £5. This event was first released to members in September 2020.
  • Online Event with Matt Gaw
    Online Event with Matt Gaw
    View any time
    Online
    Available to all - Matt Gaw is a writer and freelance journalist. His first book is The Pull of the River: A Journey into the Wild and Watery Heart of Britain. This is an online event open to the public at £5. This event was first released in October 2020.

To us, reading matters

Suffolk Book League is a registered charity that has encouraged a love of reading since 1982 and continues to support a range of local initiatives across the county. Aside from bringing a range of popular and distinguished writers to Suffolk, we have held short story competitions, donated books to hospital and hospice libraries, supported literacy groups and partner events, including the Suffolk Libraries School Book Mastermind competition.

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In May 2019 the novelist Tessa Hadley appeared  at one of our regular monthly events. Afterwards she commented:

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‘So great to remember that there are groups like your Book League out there,  full of such authentic love for literature, so well-read and with such sophisticated understanding. Of course that’s who we writers are addressing, always. But so reassuring to meet that audience in person.’

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