Tuesday 6th October at 6.30pm

Manchester Libraries, The Reading Agency and Pan MacMillan are excited to invite you to this special #LibrariesWeek event with acclaimed author Sarah Butler.

Sarah is a writer and literature activist who lives in Manchester. She has three novels published by Picador in the UK: Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love, Before The Fire and Jack and Bet which was published in early 2020.

In 2007, Sarah established the literature consultancy UrbanWords, through which she explores the relationship between writing and place through prose, poetry and participatory projects.

Sarah joined Manchester Metropolitan University as Lecturer in Creative Writing in June 2018.

Saran will be in conversation and reading from her latest novel, followed by a Q&A and the opportunity for audience questions.

You can register for the FREE event here.

Jack and Bet

Jack is a man of few words, married to a woman of many. He and Bet have been together for seventy years — almost a lifetime — and happily so, for the most part.

All Jack and Bet want is to enjoy the time they have left together, in the flat they have tried to make their home. Their son Tommy has other ideas: he wants them to live somewhere with round-the-clock care, hot meals, activities. Bet thinks they can manage just fine.

When they strike up an unlikely friendship with Marinela, a young Romanian woman, Bet thinks she has found the perfect solution — one that could change Marinela’s life as well as theirs. But this means revisiting an old love affair, and confronting a long-buried secret she has kept hidden from everyone, even Jack, for many years.

Tender, moving, and beautifully told, Jack and Bet is an unforgettable novel about love and loss, the joys and regrets of a long marriage, and the struggle to find a place to call home.

The event will take place via Live Webinar. We’ll send all the details on how you can join the event in the confirmation email.