King Sorrow And Nonesuch: Joe Hill in Conversation with Francis Spufford

About this event

Francis Spufford and Joe Hill visit Foyles to celebrate the paperback publication of their newest books: 'Nonesuch' and 'King Sorrow'. Nonesuch : It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a technical whizz at the BBC's nascent television unit. What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into an adventure of otherworldly pursuit – into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread. Soon there are Nazi planes overhead. But Iris has more to contend with than the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand. King Sorrow: Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings. But his idyll - and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot - is shattered when local drug dealers force him into a terrible crime: stealing rare and valuable books from the exceptional college library. Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for help: the wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren; brave, beautiful Allison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen. Together they dream up an impossible, fantastical scheme that they scarcely imagine will work: to summon the fabled dragon King Sorrow to kill those tormenting Arthur. But the six stumble backwards into a deadly bargain - they soon learn they must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow each year or one of them will become his next victim. Unleashing consequences they can neither predict nor control, this promise will, over the course of four decades, shape and endanger their lives in ways they could never expect. And only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever . Joe Hill is the number one New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Fireman , NOS4A2 , Horns , and Heart-Shaped Box ; Strange Weather , a collection of novellas; and the acclaimed story collections Full Throttle and 20th Century Ghosts . He is also the Eisner Award-winning writer of a seven-volume comic book series, Locke & Key . Much of his work has been adapted for film and television, including NOS4A2 (AMC), Locke & Key (Netflix), In the Tall Grass ( Netflix), and The Black Phone (Blumhouse). Francis Spufford is the author of five highly-praised works of non-fiction, most frequently described by reviewers as either ‘bizarre’ or ‘brilliant’, and usually as both. His debut novel Golden Hill won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and the British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year. His second novel, Light Perpetual , was awarded the 2022 Encore Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize. His third novel, Cahokia Jazz , was published in 2023. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and lives near Cambridge. Your ticket includes a complimentary glass of wine. Tickets: £10 General Admission, £8 Foyalty Member / £25 Book and Ticket Package (includes a copy of King Sorrow RRP £12.99 and Nonesuch RRP £9.99)