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PRODID:-//Essex Book Festival - ECPv4.0.4//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Essex Book Festival
X-ORIGINAL-URL:http://35.176.91.154
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Essex Book Festival
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DTSTART;TZID="Europe/London":20261008T190000
DTEND;TZID="Europe/London":20261008T200000
DTSTAMP:20260726T034228
CREATED:20260610T114255
LAST-MODIFIED:20260624T100951
UID:11956-1791486000-1791489600@35.176.91.154
SUMMARY:The Shapeshifter's Daughter - SOLD OUT
DESCRIPTION:Sally Magnusson in conversation with Chris Penhall\nThe Shapeshifter's Daughter\nThursday 08 October 2026\, 7.00pm\nRayleigh Library\, 132/4 High Street\, Rayleigh\, SS6 7BX\n\nCelebrate the joy of reclaiming our stories with best-selling author\, journalist and broadcaster Sally Magnusson. The Shapeshifter's Daughter is a spellbinding feminist retelling of the Norse myth of Hel\, the Goddess of the Underworld\, set in the magical landscape of Orkney.\n\n\nTickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students\, under 27s and unwaged)\nBox Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948\n\n\n\nEvent Information\n💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.\n📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night.\n🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.\n🪑 Seats are unallocated.\n\n\n \n\n** Note: This event was originally booked for Thursday 18 June. Now rescheduled to Thursday 08 October.**\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nSally Magnusson\n\n\n\n[caption id="attachment_11392" align="alignnone" width="200"] Photo of Sally Magnusson © Derek Prescott[/caption]\n\n\n \n\nBestselling author\, journalist and broadcaster Sally Magnusson has written several books for adults and children\, most recently her Sunday Times bestseller Where Memories Go (2014) about her mother’s dementia\, The Sealwoman’s Gift (2018)\, her acclaimed debut novel\, The Ninth Child (2020) and Music in the Dark (2022). Sally lives outside Glasgow.\n\n\n\nThe Shapeshifter’s Daughter\n\n\n\n \n\nSelected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club Autumn Season 2025.\n\nThe spellbinding feminist retelling of the Norse myth of Hel\, the Goddess of the Underworld\, set in the magical landscape of Orkney\, from the Sunday Times bestselling author Sally Magnusson.\n\nNothing\, on earth or below it\, freezes faster than the worthless heart.\n\nBefore she was a hideous monster\, the queen of the underworld was simply Hel. But cast as a girl out of lofty Asgard\, realm of the gods\, by Odin the Allfather\, Hel’s fate as the terrible goddess of death is sealed. Half beauty\, half crone\, she has reigned for aeons in the starless darkness of Niflheim\, grimly welcoming the most pitiful of death’s travellers to her ice-locked prison. Until one day a memory shifts\, and she is forced to seek out the sun in Midgard\, where humans have made their home.\n\nFaced with a terminal cancer diagnosis\, Helen Firth makes the impulsive decision to return to Orkney after forty years to make peace with her past. Under the wintering solstice sun\, she reconnects with the ungainly but affable Thorfinn Coffin\, who helps her address the real reason she has returned to the islands to die.\n\nAs Helen draws closer to death and ever closer to Thorfinn\, Hel in turn is intrigued by Helen. She\, too\, has a past to confront and a lesson to learn: that perhaps who she thinks she is isn’t who she is really meant to be.\n\nA powerful reimagining of the Norse myth of Hel\, The Shapeshifter’s Daughter celebrates the joy of reclaiming our stories.\n\n \n\nOrder a hardback copy of the book from bookshop.org.\n\nPre-order a paperback copy of the book from bookshop.org – released 04 June 2026.\n\n \nChris Penhall\n\n\nSally Magnusson will be in conversation with Chris Penhall.\n\nChris Penhall writes uplifting stories set in gorgeous places.\n\nA member of The Society of Authors and the Romantic Novelists Association\, she has written six books\, the first of which\, The House That Alice Built won the Choc-Lit Search for a Star Competition in 2019. She is currently working on her 7th book.\n\nA freelance radio and podcast producer\, Chris worked for BBC Essex for many years and was an Associate Producer for the Richard and Judy Podcast for Jibba Jabba Pods for 9 years. She presents and produces a community radio show called Books and Tunes\, a podcast called Chris and Lizzie’s Random Bookish Chats with fellow author Lizzie Chantree\, and also runs writing workshops.\n\nYou can find more information about her on her website www.chrispenhall.co.uk\nInstagram: christinepenhall\nor Facebook as ChrisPenhallWriter\nhttps://linktr.ee/chrispenhall\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n \n
URL:http://35.176.91.154/event/the-shapeshifters-daughter-2/
LOCATION:132-134 High Street\, Rayleigh\, SS6 7BX
CATEGORIES:Fiction,SOLD OUT!
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