Venue: North Down Museum, Castle Park Road, BT20 4BN

Tickets: £8 Book HERE

Martina Devlin’s new book Edith: A Novel is based on the life of the author Edith Somerville, one half of the writing partnership that was Somerville and Ross, the novel is set in a period of turmoil for the country and for Edith Somerville herself.

‘Edith is an engrossing and sensitive portrait of the writer Edith Somerville during the War of Independence when her writing partner Violet Ross is dead and her own career as a writer not flourishing. It is a portrait of a sensitive, solitary figure in a time of turmoil, of a woman striking out as an artist in a time when there were many barriers.’ Colm Tóibín.

Jan Carson’s book, The Raptures is based on 'Absolutely MAGNIFICENT: dark, witty, charming. I LOVED it.' Marian Keyes. 'Original, terrifying, hilarious and memorable.' Sunday Times Ireland. 'An Agatha Christie-esque whodunnit, a dark supernatural mystery and an account of mass trauma...meticulously observed.' Guardian

When several children from the same village start succumbing to a mysterious illness, the quest to discover the cause has devastating and extraordinary consequences.

These two books by these talented and experienced writers seem very different at first glance, and indeed they are. However although set in different eras they have similar themes running through them.