Wendy Erskine
The Benefactors

Thursday 25 June 2026, 11.00am – 12.00pm
Colchester Arts Centre, Church Street, Colchester, CO1 1NF

A Book Club Author Event

We are delighted to be joined by virtuoso short story writer of collections such as Sweet Home for this special event to discuss her astounding novel, The Benefactors – a blazingly funny and astute portrait of modern-day Northern Ireland that deftly mines issues of class, money and parenthood.

If you are member of a book club, why not come along en masse for an in-depth discussion about the book with the author in person!

In partnership with Red Lion Books’ Appetite Book Club.

This event will include an audience Q&A and after the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed.

All are welcome to attend (you don’t have to belong to a book club), but please note as this is a Book Club event there is an assumption that the audience has read the book and this event may include spoilers for the book.

Tickets:
£16 includes paperback copy of book and the event – available via Red Lion Books, here’s the booking link:
https://redlionbooks.co.uk/product/book-club-event-with-author-wendy-erskine-discussing-the-benefactors/

or

£8 event only – book at Eventbrite.co.uk, here’s the link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wendy-erskine-the-benefactors-tickets-1985792196917

Wendy Erskine

Wendy Erskine is the author of two short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move. She was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize, longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, and she received the Butler Literary Award and the Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Award. She edited the art anthology well I just kind of like it. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is a frequent broadcaster and interviewer, and works as a secondary school teacher in Belfast. The Benefactors is her debut novel.

The Benefactors

Waterstones Irish Book of the Year 2025
Longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction
An Observer Best Debut Novel 2025
Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize

In The Benefactors we meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh – very different women but all mothers to 18-year-old boys. Glamorous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances. Bronagh, the CEO of a children’s services charity, loves the celebrity and prestige this brings her.

They do not know each other yet, but when their sons are accused of sexually assaulting Misty Johnston, whose family lacks the wealth and social-standing of their own, they’ll leverage all the power of their position to protect their children.

From the prize-winning author of Dance Move and Sweet Home, this is an astounding novel about intimate histories, class and money – and what being a parent means. Brutal, tender and rigorously intelligent, The Benefactors is a daring, polyphonic presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland. It is also very funny.

‘What a beautiful, hilarious blast of brilliance.’
– Donal Ryan, author of Heart, Be at Peace