Meet Mike Parker, award winning author of All The Wide Border: Wales, England and The Places Between and On The Red Hill.
A funny, warm and timely meditation on identity and belonging, following the scenic route along the England–Wales border: Britain’s deepest faultline.
There is a line on the map: to one side Wales, small, rugged and stubborn; the other England, crucible of the most expansionist culture the world has ever seen. It is a line that has been dug, debated, defined and defended for twenty centuries.
All the Wide Border is a personal journey through the places, amongst the people, and across the divides of the border between England and Wales. Taking in some of our loveliest landscapes, and our darkest secrets, this is a region of immeasurable wonder and interest. It is there that the deepest roots and thorniest paradoxes of Britishness lie. The border between the countries, even as a concept, is ragged, jagged and many-layered.
Kiran’s I Can Hear the Cuckoo is a tender, philosophical memoir about the beauty of a microscopic life, the value of solitariness, and respecting the rhythm and timing of the earth. This is a reflective book about finding friendship in the most unexpected places - and what nature and a small community in the Welsh Valleys can teach us about life.
TICKETS
This is an unticketed event as we are running an author signing/reading at 4 o’clock daily during Hay Festival (flexibly between 4-5 as the authors are available – refreshments will be available).
At North Books, 4 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye on Thursday 1 June, 4pm.
THE AUTHORS
Garlanded author Mike Parker has adored and explored these places his entire life. Born in England but settled in Wales, he finds himself typical of many in being pulled in both directions.
Kiran Sidhu is a freelance journalist and has written features, lifestyle and opinion pieces for the Guardian, Observer, Telegraph, The i Paper, The Independent, Metro, Woman magazine, Woman's Own and Breathe magazine. Her article about her farmer friend Wilf was the 13th most read article in the Guardian in 2021, and was made into a short film Heart Valley, directed by Christian Cargill and produced by Pulse Films. She lives in the Welsh Valley with her husband.