Authors with fascinating tales to tell will be stopping off in Swanage in Dorset, to share their stories as part of a new series of book themed events.
Tickets are now on sale for four talks by authors booked to appear at The Mowlem arts hub between March and June 2025, with more to be announced soon, and will cover smuggling, murder, marriage and espionage.
Events manager at The Mowlem, Paul Angel, has lined up four very different authors for the new club
Smuggling, murder, marriage and espionage
It is hoped that the talks will continue regularly through the year and will culminate with the second Swanage Literary Festival after its successful debut in November 2024.
The new series will begin in The Studio at The Mowlem on Wednesday 12th March 2025, with a talk by Malcolm Angel, author of the ultimate book on Dorset’s notorious smuggler, Isaac Gulliver, who for a while ran his contraband operations out of Worth Matravers.
Lucy Brazier, whose new book about her midlife crisis has just been published by Bloomsbury, will open her heart in The Studio on Tuesday 8th April 2025 to talk about The Honesty Box, or the diary of a broken marriage, a mental health crisis and a large marrow.
Malcolm Angel will introduce the audience to Purbeck’s most notorious smuggler, Isaac Gulliver
Lucy Brazier’s new book The Honesty Box is about discovery, denial and salvation and has been recommended by Dame Joanna Lumley
Dorset based murder mysteries
On Saturday 26th April 2025, Rachel McLean and Millie Ravensworth – the latter a pseudonym for Heide Goody and Iain Grant – will be in The Studio to discuss their latest collaborative Dorset based murder mystery, The Lyme Regis Women’s Swimming Club.
Rachel McLean is best known for her Dorset Crime series which has sold over a million copies and won the 2021 Kindle Storyteller Award for the first book in that series, The Corfe Castle Murders.
She has since set murder mystery books at Blue Pool, on Brownsea Island, in the ghost village of Tyneham and in Swanage, where a dead body is found draped over The Globe.
On Tuesday 3rd June 2025 in the main theatre, SAS escape stories will be recounted by Dorset author Damien Lewis, a former war reporter, World War Two historian and expert on the history of the SAS, who wrote the book recently filmed by Guy Ritchie as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
The Corfe Castle Murders started off the Dorset Crime series for Rachel McLean, coming to The Studio in April 2025
Damien Lewis of Dorchester will be appearing in June 2025 to talk about his latest SAS book
Amazingly talented authors in Dorset
Events manager at The Mowlem, Paul Angel said:
“There are a large number of amazingly talented authors in Dorset. I hope we can use the monthly events to build up towards the second Swanage Literary Festival in November – I have already sat down with the organiser, Salliann Coleman, to discuss that.
“I was really impressed with the numbers the first literary festival got and it has given them the impetus to look at slightly bigger names in 2025.
“I come from a family of booksellers and I can use the connections I have to help get the authors in, as we talk to publishers all the time and have a really good relationship with them.
“I hope we will be able to run an author’s event every month, although July and August can be incredibly busy, but we will see how it goes.”
Salliann Coleman organised Swanage Literary festival in 2024 and is already planning a second in autumn 2025
“People told us they wanted more talks”
Paul added:
“In consultations that we did before Christmas, one of the things people told us was that they wanted more talks, and authors give us a chance to have a huge range of topics on all kinds of subjects.
“Damien Lewis in June will talk about the history of the SAS, which is very different to what we usually offer at The Mowlem, and we think it will be a very well attended event, so he will be in the main theatre.
“We are trying to fulfil what people were asking for and to make sure we cover a wide variety of topics, which is very evident from our first four events!
“What is nice about having The Studio is that we can experiment with different things to find out what works well with different sized audiences, and we will continue to introduce new things, so watch this space!”
Further information
- Tickets for all events can be booked through The Mowlem
