Ilkley Manor House, Castle Yard, Ilkley, LS29 9DT

Author event: Saturday 3rd October, 2pm - 3.30pm

Yorkshire authors Dr. Amy-Jane Beer and Rob Cowen, and myself will be talking wildly about our love of the river Wharfe.

Rob and Amy will read some of their latest work (some as yet unpublished, what a scoop!) and all around you will be CONDUIT, my collection of large scale, immersive and lyrical paintings about the rivers Wharfe and Worth. Consider yourselves rivered!

Free event, no need to book. There is limited seating available, please be kind to those less able to stand. Donations are very welcome on the day.

Accessibility: The gallery is on the First floor: access is via 18 steps; Unfortunately there is no lift available.

Rob Cowen is an award-winning writer and poet, hailed as one of the most original voices on nature, place and people. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors. His second book, Common Ground, was shortlisted for the Portico, Richard Jefferies Society and Wainwright Prizes and voted one of the nation’s favourite nature books of all time in a BBC poll. His follow-up, The Heeding, was the best-selling debut book of poetry in 2021. His latest book The North Road has been described as a ‘masterpiece’ and a ‘dazzlingly inventive work of literature’ and debuted as Book of the Week in the Observer, Financial Times, Telegraph and New Statesman. Rob was born in Ilkley and now lives in North Yorkshire. 

Dr Amy-Jane Beer is an award-winning author, biologist, naturalist, and campaigner. She is a Country Diarist for The Guardian, columnist for British Wildlife. Her last book, The Flow: rivers, water and wildness, won the Wainwright Prize for nature writing and her latest A River Running Through You is a collaboration with illustrator Elin Manon. Amy is a codirector of the Right to Roam campaign and honorary President of the national park society Friends of the Dales.