Join us for an evening with Rose Tremain to celebrate the release of her new book 'The Housekeeper'!

'She lifted me high, high up into another world, and then let me fall . . . Daphne du Maurier stole my life.'

Date: Wednesday 16 September

Time: 7pm

Venue: Walthamstow Hall, Holly Bush Lane, Sevenoaks, TN13 3UL

Tickets: from £15

'A sweeping, atmospheric story of forbidden love, power and privilege' Erin Kelly

'An absolute masterclass in character and style. The Housekeeper is a novel of patient observation and irresistible passion all at once. Just as this novel grows from between the lines of another, so we see the great layering of Tremain's writing. It is, in some ways, a book of half-lived lives. It is also a book of what can be imagined, the possibilities of desires followed, ambitions pursued' Claire Lynch

'Exquisitely drawn, poignant and devastating. Rose Tremain is masterful in her depiction of a summer romance, and how a shared experience can be so utterly different for the people involved' Stacey Halls

The Housekeeper

A dramatic story of forbidden love, from enduring bestseller Rose Tremain.

Mrs Danowski - known as Danni - is the housekeeper of a grand masnion on the wild coast of Cornwall. When glamorous young writer Daphne du Maurier visits Manderville Hall to research her new novel, she and Danni are drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair.

For Danni, it is an all-consuming love; for Daphne a submission to long-suppressed desires. But their fragile secret is vulnerable to prying eyes and destined for heartbreak. When Daphne's novel launches to triumphant success, Danni is distraught to find herself transformed into a malign and jealous character on the page. She seeks respite from the hurt by telling her own story: The Housekeeper.

What unforeseen encounters, what forbidden feelings can inspire a writer? With flair and panache, Rose Tremain has invented the story of how a great novel of the past came into being and in turn creates a masterwork of her own.

Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain's novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence) the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and France's Prix Femina (Sacred Country), and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata).

Her most recent novel is Absolutely and Forever (2023), which was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. The Housekeeper is currently in production as a major film, directed by Richard Eyre, with script by Tremain, and starring Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter.

Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

Some of the ticket options that don’t include the author’s book, or are specially priced for couples, are limited in number and can sell out quickly. Our aim is to try and bring the best and most interesting authors to our town. We are always trying to balance accessibility and affordability for our audiences, alongside requirements from publishers to sell enough books for events to be worthwhile enterprises for their authors.

Description supplied by the event organiser.