Sunday Times bestselling author and journalist Clover Stroud returns home for Ridgeway book launch

THE next Hungerford Bookshop author event is taking place in Wantage where its sister shop is located.

Sunday Times best-selling author and national journalist Clover Stroud returns home to Wantage and the countryside she loves to launch her new book, The Giant on the Skyline at the Wantage Silver Band Hall on Wednesday (May 8, 7pm).

Clover writes regularly for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and the Saturday and Sunday Telegraph, among others. She also hosts a popular podcast called Tiny Acts of Bravery.

Her first book, The Wild Other, was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Her critically acclaimed second book My Wild and Sleepless Nights: A Mother's Story and third book, The Red of My Blood: A Death and Life Story, were instant Sunday Times bestsellers and rated “best books of the year”.

What is it that makes a home? What is a home without the roots that tie you to a place? What is a home when a family is split?

Clover Stroud’s eldest children are leaving home for university. Her husband Pete’s work is in the US.

The only way for Clover and the younger children to live with him is to uproot, leave their rural life near the ancient Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and move to Washington DC.

Forced to leave the home she loves and consider these questions, Clover sets out to explore the place where she lives, walk the Ridgway, understand a little of the history of her landscape and work out why it is that it is so hard for her to go.

In doing so she paints a beautifully layered portrait of family, community and of belonging in a landscape that has drawn people to it for generation after generation.

Catch Clover the day before official publication, as she talks to broadcaster Hannah MacInnes about The Giant on The Skyline, followed by a Q&A and booksigning.

Tickets are £10 and available from Eventbrite, wantagebookshop.co.uk or by calling (01235) 763215.