An Audience with Carolyn Kirby

Booking is required for this event.

Join us at Shipston Library as author Carolyn Kirby gives an illustrated talk that tells the story of how she came to write When We Fall through the lives and careers of four female pilots of World War II. Using photographs and visuals, she will explain how, over more than ten years of writing, her novel was shaped by the lives and fates of these remarkable women.

This is the perfect event for our Book Bingo category 'A book with a yellow cover' (you don't have to be taking part in our Book Bingo challenge to attend, but if you would like to find out more, head over to our website!)

When We Fall

England, 1943. Lost in fog, pilot Vee Katchatourian is forced to make an emergency landing where she meets enigmatic RAF airman Stefan Bergel, and then can't get him out of her mind.

In occupied Poland, Ewa Hartman hosts German officers in her father's guest house, while secretly gathering intelligence for the Polish resistance. Mourning her lover, Stefan, who was captured by the Soviets at the start of the war, Ewa is shocked to him on the street one day.

Haunted by a terrible choice he made in captivity, Stefan asks Vee and Ewa to help him expose one of the darkest secrets of the war. But it is not clear where everyone's loyalties lie until they are tested...

About the author

Carolyn Kirby is an award-winning novelist. The Conviction of Cora Burns was longlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Debut Crown Award and shortlisted for the Specsavers Debut Crime Fiction Award. When We Fall was chosen by The Times as one of the best novels of 2020. She is currently a judge for the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown Award for fiction. Originally from Sunderland, Carolyn studied history at St Hilda’s College, Oxford and now helps to run Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend. Her novel Ravenglass will be published by Northodox Press in September 2025.

Refreshments provided. There will be copies of Carolyn's books to purchase after the event (cash only).

If you have any questions, please contact libraryevents@warwickshire.gov.uk

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