Books and the City - Girls on Tour at Waterstones, Birmingham High Street

Yesterday I spent a fantastic evening (along with my husband (photographer, chauffeur and travel companion)) at Waterstones on Birmingham High Street where Books and the City at Simon and Schuster hosted their first Girls on Tour Event in the city. 

Sara Jade Virtue (@BookMinxSJV), Peter Saxton (@TweetingPeter) and the Simon and Schuster team were fantastic hosts, along with Waterstone's staff, were immediately serving fizz and cupcakes before we took our seats and looked in our goodie bags.

I was lucky to find myself sitting behind two fellow bloggers: Kim Nash (@KimtheBookworm) and Kirsty (@minionsofbooks):

The Girls on Tour event bought three fantastic authors to Birmingham and each had their new books to talk about and promote. 

Ali Harris

Ali Harris has just released her third novel, Written in the Stars and often had the audience in hysterics with her anecdotes and insights into her book. I feel I must apologise to her because when she was telling us all about the synopsis for her new release, my husband's mobile wolf whistled at the near perfect moment! My review will be following soon. 

 Paige Toon has recently released her eighth adult novel, entitled Thirteen Weddings I have reviewed on my blog: Thirteen Weddings and I really enjoyed hearing about how she planned her family holidays around the location of her next book - I think we need to keep an eye on twitter to find where her next book will be set! 

Paige Toon

Milly Johnson

And the last author is Milly Johnson who is fantastic - I have previously seen her appear on Come Dine with Me and she is just as she appeared and also how she writes. her personality shines through her books, strong Yorkshire roots and a fantastic sense of humour! Her latest book is out today and is reviewed here: Teashop on the CornerShe spoke passionately about her characters and I really wish I could visit that Teashop on the Corner, even if it is only her mind as it sounds like a beautiful place to visit, eat cake and satisfy my stationary addicition all at the same place! I must admit as I was walking up the stairs in Waterstones (all the way to the fourth floor - I don't do lifts) all i could hear was Milly and fizz bottle corks popping). I could tell then that we were in for a great evening.

The event was planned for a maximum of 50 guests, and I was told about 40 tickets were sold, It was great to have a small audience as it felt cosy and intimate - no need for microphones and it felt friendly. Sara Jade and Peter were constantly popping up to refill our glasses (Thimble sized as SJ apologised) and offering cupcakes.  The event took the form of a chat between the authors and an editor, Sarah which covered their new books, inspiration and much more, before the floor was open for questions and we learnt that Milly loves serious crime books and would love to write one which would challenge Mo Hayder for a top spot in crime fiction - we also heard that Paige Toon has written a number of chapters for a sci-fi, fantasy novel and how Ali Harris got over her writers block. In all it was a fantastic evening and I really hope that Books in the City return to Birmingham soon for another event.

I would like to thank Simon and Schuster and Waterstones Birmingham High Street for a fantstic evening and also my Husband, Darron Broadhurst, for the great photographs and taking time off work to drive me to Birmingham and also for attending the event. I will never forget the look of relief on his face when the only other man sat down in the audience!