Our second event for 2016 extended our innovative approach to the BookTalk formula once again, providing BookTalkers an opportunity to meet the authors of two recent best-selling novels set in the Victorian period. There was also the opportunity to hear about the continuing public appetite for the 19th century by modern readers from an academic specialist in the field. Neo-Victorianism combines the nostalgic pull of the Victorian age and its aesthetics with present-day interrogations of the past and its limitations. A complex, yet popular, genre, Neo-Victorian fiction offers an ironic reinterpretation of history based on the gap between past and present. Our speakers for the evening were Gaynor Arnold, John Harding and Prof. Ann Heilmann.

You can read the posts for the event below:

1. BookTalk event, 7 Mar 2016: Meet the Authors—Gaynor Arnold & John Harding 14 Feb 2016
2. From a review of After Such Kindness 28 Feb 2016
3. From a review of Florence and Giles 28 Feb 2016
4. From an interview with Gaynor Arnold 4 Mar 2016
5. From an Interview with John Harding 4 Mar 2016
6. Arnold’s After Such Kindness: Excerpt 5 Mar 2016
7. Harding’s Florence and Giles: Excerpt 5 Mar 2016
8. Theorizing about Florence and Giles 17 Mar 2016
9. Meet the Authors—Gaynor Arnold and John Harding: Event Report 24 Mar 2016