Explore’s month long festival inspired by Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum returns this autumn with 5000 books giveaway and a packed programme of events.
Explore’s month long festival inspired by Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum returns this autumn with 5000 books giveaway and a packed programme of events.
York’s Big City Read is back after a four-year gap and the book for 2022 is Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Explore York Libraries will be giving away 5000 free copies of a very special edition of the book and hosting events and activities across York to get everyone talking about books and reading.
Explore is revealing the full programme of events and activities today and Kate Atkinson herself will be in the city to launch the Big City Read at the Yorkshire Museum on 28 September. This will be her only public appearance this year and is a coup for Explore. Tickets for all of the events are available for sale on Eventbrite.
This will include artist in residence, Tabitha Grove, who is creating a solo performance called Them There Then That: a story about stories; a very special partnership with York-Unlocked, who will be throwing open the doors of some of York’s iconic buildings for an exclusive look behind the scenes; some singularly ‘York’ author events and, of course, plenty of opportunities to come and talk about the book at libraries across the city.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum was Kate Atkinson’s first novel and was first published in 1995 when it won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
Kate Atkinson has said “Looking at Behind the Scenes now, I can see that York..… is the all-pervading main character of this book. The novel is a hymn to my relationship with the city, constructed out of history, memory and nostalgia.”
You can collect a free book from any library in York from 29 September through to 31 October while stocks last. Explore will also hold pop-up giveaway sessions all over the city, details will be available on social media and from any library in York.
During October we are offering unlimited e-book and e-audio downloads of Behind the Scenes at the Museum from our Overdrive website yorklibraries.overdrive.com/ or from our Libby app which is free from your app store.
If you can’t wait to join in, Tabitha is hosting 4 story making workshops in September where you can discover how we share stories and perhaps create your own.
https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/exploring-the-importance-of-story-making-workshops-819709
The aim of the Big City Read is to get the whole city of York reading the same book at the same time, bring people together to talk about the book and invite them to join in with an inspiring month of events and activities. Our Big City Read book is Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson and we are giving away 5000 copies of a special edition.
www.exploreyork.org.uk/bigcityread
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