Reading and Re-Reading Daphne du Maurier: how books change us A talk by Dr Serena Trowbridge

A book may always be the same, but readers change; books we read as young adults speak to us in very different ways throughout our lives. This informal talk will explore a thirty-year engagement with du Maurier’s novels, from breathless teenage reading in the school library to teaching them in a university setting, along with other books including Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. You will hear about how Serena cried all the way across Bodmin Moor because of Jamaica Inn and how she now makes undergraduates angry when they read Rebecca, and perhaps have the opportunity to reflect on your own reading.

Dr Serena Trowbridge is Reader in Victorian Literature at Birmingham City University, where she specialises in Pre-Raphaelite women, and is Chair of the Pre-Raphaelite Society.

We will allocate tickets by a ballot system. Please register your interest in attending by Monday 4th July and tell us how many tickets you would like. We will then draw out names and let you know if you have been successful.

£5 suggested donation. Refreshments will be served.