Join us online as we celebrate the launch of Kate Mosse’s touching memoir An Extra Pair of Hands. This heart-warming book shines a light on the joys and challenges of being a carer and shows how even the smallest act of caregiving is one of the greatest acts of love. Kate will be interviewed by journalist, broadcaster and editor Sam Baker.
An Extra Pair of Hands sees Kate shift focus from historical fiction to personal history. Here she tells her own story - of finding herself as a carer in middle age: first, helping her heroic mother care for her beloved father through Parkinson's, then supporting her mother in widowhood, and finally as ‘an extra pair of hands’ for her 90-year-old mother-in-law. If you follow Kate on Twitter, you’ll already know beloved Granny Rosie, who has become a social media sensation in her own right!
As our population ages, more and more of us find ourselves caring for parents and loved ones – there are nearly 9 million people in caring roles in the UK. Many are unpaid and unsupported. Kate’s book is a love-letter to carers but it’s never sentimental. By showing us what being a carer really means, it invites us to care too. It’s about juggling priorities, mind-numbing repetition, about guilt and powerlessness and grief. It’s also about celebrating older people, learning to live differently and thinking differently about ageing. But most of all, it’s a story about love.
Kate Mosse is, of course, an international bestselling writer with global sales of more than eight million books. She is the Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and is currently running an incredibly successful campaign called #WomanInHistory which celebrates ‘forgotten’ women. Kate will be interviewed by Sam Baker.
Sam was Editor of Red and Cosmopolitan before co-founding The Pool. She is the author of five novels and one work of non-fiction, The Shift: How I (Lost And) Found Myself After 40 - And You Can Too, which is also a hit podcast. Sam has judged the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She is a star interviewer at festivals including Cheltenham and Edinburgh, and her recent guests have included Nigella Lawson, Isabel Allende, Bret Easton Ellis, Marian Keyes, Celeste Ng and Philippa Perry.
Join Kate & Sam online from 8-9pm (UK Time). This event will happen on YouTube so you won’t be on-screen and don’t have to worry about accidentally appearing in your pyjamas. You’ll be able to post questions and mingle in the chat before, during and after with the chance to chat directly with Kate & Sam. Damian Barr will also be in the chat room. Tickets are £5 and available from Eventbrite. one lucky ticket holder will be in with a chance of winning a copy of An Extra Pair of Hands.
Kate is an Ambassador of Parkinson’s UK and we’ll share details of how to donate on the night. We look forward to you joining us.
If you can’t join us live on the night don’t fret, as you'll be able to watch the Salon whenever you want using the link in the Online Event Page and in your ticket confirmation email.
This event is produced and presented by Damian Barr’s Literary Salon.