Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening withTayari Jones to discuss her latest novel, Kin.

An intensely powerful and propulsice novel from the acclaimed author of An American Marriage. Kin, is a novel about two girls with absent mothers navigating the dangers and heartbreaks of racially segregated America. Vernice and Annie are ‘cradle friends’, both born in Honeysuckles, Louisianna, both destined to never know their mothers. The girls are inseparable, bound by a friendship far deeper than sisterhood, but as they grow up, their lives start to look very different in the segregated America of the 1950s and 60s.

Tayari Jonesis the author of four novels,includingAmericanMarriage, whichwas an Oprah’s Book Club selection and also appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list and his year-end roundup. It won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and an NAACP Image Award and has been published in two dozen countries. Jones is the C.H. Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University and lives in Atlanta.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Manish Chauhan to discuss his debut novel, Belgrave Road.

Belgrave Road, Leicester. Mira and Tahliil, like many other lovers before, meet at work.
Mira's days are filled with duty and light on freedom. In a new country, living with a husband she barely knows - and who she fears she'll never love - Mira is desperate to discover all that her new life in England might offer.

And then there's Tahliil. The quiet, beautiful man she sees at work each day. With a depth in his eyes and a face full of questions. The first person in this new world who listens to Mira's hopes for who she yearns to become.

But beyond their lunchtime encounters, the pair couldn't lead more different lives: the duties that bind them, the homes they are trying to build threaten to subsume them. As Mira and Tahliil navigate the deep and turbulent waters of their new worlds can they find a way to be together, and will finding each other set them free?

Manish Chauhan hasn't lived in Leicester - the place of his birth - for many years, but it's a place that goes on living inside him. A kind of ocean that keeps offering up its pearls, its stories. Belgrave Road is one such story. Set in the community that formed him, and amongst the people he most admires, who have lived many lives in search of home. A love letter to his beginnings, to a place he visits often, and to those wanting to make something of their lives the way he hopes to. His short story Pieces was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Awards, and his work has also been shortlisted for the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and the Exeter Short Story Competition. This is his debut novel.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join us as we celebrate the publication of Minbak with bestselling author Ela Lee and The Candid Book Club. Minbak is a sweeping story of three generations of women who cross continents and decades to find truth, forgiveness and compassion. As the past collides with the present, all three women are forced to face not only their family’s dark history, but that of an entire country.

The Candid Book Club are five unique reading women of colour who lend their candid voices to books new, books old and books borrowed. They give the most honest reviews on Instagram and Tiktok and host dynamic book club events with authors and readers at Piccadilly. This time they're back to interview one of their favourite authors for a special evening with all of you.

Ela Lee is a London-based author. Her debut novel Jadedwas published as a lead title by Vintage in the UK, and Simon & Schuster in the US.In 2024, Jaded was an Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year and Lee was named a Spotify Breakout Author. She has also been selected for Forbes 30 under 30, Class of 2025.Minbak, her second novel, will be released on 5 March 2026.

Please note: Book and ticket option includes a copy of Minbak (RRP £16.99) available for collection on the night

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Oyinkan Braithwaite to discuss her novel, Cursed Daughters.

The bestselling author of My Sister, the Serial Killer returns with another deliciously dark masterpiece, as a young woman must find out whether she can escape a gloomy family curse which states that the person she loves will end up dead.

Oyinkan Braithwaite is a Nigerian-British novelist and writer. Her first novel, My Sister, The Serial Killer, was published in 2018 to wide acclaim. It was a Sunday Times bestseller, longlisted for The Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and won the Crime and Thriller Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2020.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Lisa Smith to discuss her debut novel, Jamaica Road.

South London, 1981: Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. All she wants is to keep her head down, preferably in a book. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed. Spanning one tumultuous decade, Jamaica Road is an emotionally expansive debut novel about race and class, the family you're born with, the family you choose and the limits of what true love can really conquer.

Lisa Smith is a writer from South London born to Caribbean parents. She has an MA in Creative & Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she won the Pat Kavanagh Prize in 2019. Her short story Auld Lang Syne won the 2017 Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize and in 2020 she was selected to join the London Library Emerging Writers Programme. Jamaica Road is her first novel.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Aisha Hassan to discuss her debut novel, When the Fireflies Dance.

Inspired by a true story, this mesmerising debut novel of love, family, resilience and redemption will appeal to fans of modern classics The Kite Runnerand The Beekeeper of Aleppo.

Aisha Hassan has a Masters degree from the University of Oxford. She lives and works in London and has previously lived in Lahore. When the Fireflies Dance is her first novel. 

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Kirkdale Bookshop for an evening discussing Sareeta Domingo's final novel as we celebrate her life and words.

Join The Candid Book Club at Kirkdale Bookshop for an evening in which we discuss Sareeta Domingo's final novel before she passed away, Possibility.

Sareeta Domingo passed away in September 2025. She was an author and publisher, and a passionate champion for diverse voices. As an author, her novels include The Nearness of You (Piatkus, 2016), If I Don’t Have You (Jacaranda, 2020), and most recently, Possibility (Renegade, 2025). She was the creator, editor and contributing writer of Who’s Loving You? (Trapeze, 2021), a celebration of love written by women of colour. She also published books for young adults with Hachette Children’s Books, numerous erotic short stories with Pavilion Books and her journalism was featured in publications including Black Ballad, gal-dem, and Stylist.

This special event will both be celebrating Sareeta's words and life, as well as delving into her final novel Possibility, the Candid way!

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night.

100% of the ticket sales will go to Sareeta's preferred charity Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Ingrid Persaud to discuss her new novel, Lost Love Songs.

From the award-winning author of Love After Love, comes an epic of wonder, danger and risk. Four brave and brilliant women, connected and controlled by one man, and a world that puts all power to his elbow. This is their story, and for some of them, it is all that is left.

Ingrid Persaud's debut novel, Love After Love, won the Costa First Novel Award, the Author's Club First Book Award and the Indie Book Award for Fiction. Other prizes include the BBC National Short Story Award and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She was born in Trinidad and lives in London.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Julia Armfield to discuss her latest novel, Private Rites.

It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.

Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.

As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.

Julia Armfield's work has been published in Granta, The White Review and Best British Short Stories 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award 2018, and won the White Review Short Story Prize 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under the Sea, was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022 and won the Polari Prize 2023. She lives and works in London.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

The Candid Book Club Festival at Foyles Charing Cross Road

Saturday 7th September, Midday until 8pm

£40 All Day General Admission Ticket including premium goody bag worth £90 (only 50 available)

Waterstones and Foyles are thrilled to collaborate and host the first-ever Candid Book Club Festival. We’ll be celebrating by hosting talks from bestselling authors and doing what Candid do best: being Candid about books! The festival will feature a day of talks from bestselling authors, including; Etaf Rum, JJ Bola, Iggy London, Wiz Wharton, and Zoulfa Katouh, with plenty more to be announced.

Event Highlights:

Author Panels: Hear from your favourite authors as they discuss their latest works, share insights into their writing processes, and answer audience questions.

Book Clubs: Join an intimate, open discussion with an author and fellow readers to delve deep into the book's themes, highlights, and big questions.

Signings: Get your books signed and personalised by the authors themselves.

Meet the Editors: Gain valuable insights from industry experts on what it takes to get published.

Networking Opportunities: Connect with other book enthusiasts and expand your literary network.

Premium goody bags worth £90 are available for the first 50 all-day general admission ticket holders

All day general admission tickets are now available to purchase. Ticketholders will be granted access to all talks throughout the day. Individual talk tickets will be released at £12 in due course.

Please note that books from participating authors will be available for purchase on the day of the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Mike Gayle to discuss his latest novel, A Song of Me and You. Helen and Ben parted as heartbroken 18-year-olds and went their very separate ways. Twenty years later, mother-of-two-teenagers Helen is still in Manchester, a part-time primary teacher, stunned by the behaviour of her love-rat husband. In an old T-shirt and scruffy jeans, she feels at the lowest point in her life. And then suddenly, impossibly, Ben is standing on her doorstep. Tired maybe, lonely even, but clearly still the world-famous, LA-based multi-millionaire rockstar he has become. For Helen and Ben, so much has happened in the years between. Can you ever go back to what was?

Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham, graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology. He became a full-time novelist following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend, and is now the author of twelve novels, including Mr Commitment, Turning Thirty and Wish You Were Here. His books have been translated into over thirty languages. Mike now lives in Birmingham with his wife, kids, two sheds and a rabbit.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road for an evening with award-winning journalist and author, Poorna Bell to celebrate the publication of her second novel ‘This is Fine’. This is an insightful, funny, and moving story about family dynamics and womanhood.

Poorna Bell is an award-winning British journalist and author of fifteen years, and has written for Red, the Telegraph, The Times, Stylist, I News, BBC, the Guardian and Grazia. former Executive Editor and Global Lifestyle Head for HuffPost. She won Stylist's Rising Star award for 2019, Red magazine's Big Book Award for 2019 and a Sunday Times Sports Books Award in 2022. She was named as one of Marie Claire's top 30 women, is a Balance magazine top 100 Wellness personality and a judge for the Mind Media Awards and the Costa Book Awards. Poorna has published three works of non-fiction: Chase The Rainbow, In Search of Silence and Stronger, which is part memoir, part manifesto about women's strength and fitness. She is an experienced public speaker and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio. Poorna's first work of fiction, In Case of Emergency was published in 2022 to high acclaim. This is Fine is her second novel.

The Candid Book Club are five unique reading women of colour who lend their candid voices to books new, books old and books borrowed. They give the most honest reviews on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and host exciting and dynamic book club events with authors and readers at Waterstones. This time, they'll be interviewing one of their favourite authors for a special evening with all of you.

Please note: Book and ticket option includes a copy of This is Fine (RRP £18.99) available for collection on the night.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Ishi Robinson to discuss her debut novel Sweetness in the Skin.

For Pumkin Patterson, family is complicated. There’s her mother Paulette, who ignores her. There’s her beloved Auntie Sophie, who her mother resents. And there’s her grandmother, who has always played favourites. Whenever tensions rise, Pumkin retreats to the kitchen - creating the Jamaican bread puddings and coconut drops that have always given her comfort.

When Sophie moves to France for work, she vows to send for her niece in one year’s time - but follow her aunt, she’ll have to escape her mother and make enough money to get to Marseille. Inspired by her skills in the kitchen, Pumkin turns to her community in the hope that she can sell enough sweet treats to bake her way out.

Ishi Robinson was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. A Canadian citizen, she has lived in Bern, Toronto, Rome, London and now lives in Berlin with her Czech husband. Her first published work was a short story in Jamaica’s national newspaper when she was eleven years old. At seventeen, she sent a letter to her father from Switzerland that he thought was so funny he sent it to the other national newspaper, which snagged her a weekly column on teenage life in Kingston. She also previously wrote a weekly column on life as an expat in Rome for a now defunct online magazine. She got back into fiction writing in Berlin, from where she has published short stories in several online publications and one anthology. Sweetness in the Skin is her debut novel.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

We're so excited to announce a special online event with two incredible Sudanese authors, Leila Aboulela and Reem Gaafar, discussing all things River Spirit and A Mouth Full of Salt.

Join us for what will be a brilliant evening celebrating Sudanese writing, and of course, we'll be keeping things candid.

There is so much to talk about, and we cannot wait to discuss with

Leila and Reem and all of you.

As a special treat, SAQI BOOKS have offered a 15% discount code off your orders of both A Mouth Full of Salt and River Spirit (in any format).

This code is valid until April 30th 2024, and cannot be used in conjunction with other discounts.

TCBC15

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Huma Qureshi to discuss her debut novel Playing Games.

A fight between her sister and her husband sparks a creative urge in Mira, in Qureshi's beautifully wrought exploration of sisterhood, art and what it means to be a woman.

Huma Qureshi is an award-winning author and former journalist. Her memoir How We Met was shortlisted in the Books Are My Bag Indie Book Awards, while her collection Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love was longlisted for both The Jhalak Prize Book of The Year and The Edge Hill Prize for excellence in a single authored short story collection. Playing Games is her fourth book and debut novel.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Ela Lee to discuss her debut novel Jaded.

A multi-faceted and brave exploration of race, power and violence, Jaded finds a successful young woman's life irrevocably change after she is sexually attacked at work.

Ela Lee was born in 1995 and is a British-Korean-Turkish writer. She studied Law at the University of Oxford and went on to practise as a City lawyer. In 2021, during the global pandemic, Ela began work on her debut novel, JADED, which explores themes of consent, race, and identity. She lives in London, with her partner and their mini Aussie Shepherd.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join us as we celebrate the publication of Hidden Fires with author Sairish Hussain and The Candid Book Club. Hidden Fires follows Yusuf and Rubi as they grapple with their past and explores themes of grief and loss, the power of family ties, and the long arm of history.

Sairish Hussain is a Bradford based author and Lecturer in Creative Writing. Her debut novel, The Family Tree, was published by HarperCollins and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, the Portico Prize and The Diverse Book Awards. It was also longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and winner of Calibre Audio's 'Hidden Gem' Prize. Sairish was selected by Kei Miller as one of ten ‘unmissable writers working in the UK’ for the International Literature Showcase 2021. She was one of the finalists in the Women’s Prize & Good Housekeeping Futures Award, an initiative which celebrates the most promising emerging female authors today.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road for an evening with award-winning author, Huma Qureshi to celebrate the publication of her novel Playing Games. Playing Games is a gorgeous, tender and intimate story of two sisters caught up in the joys and pains of art and family, a poignant story of love and betrayal.

The Candid Book Club are five unique reading women of colour who lend their candid voices to books new, books old and books borrowed. They give the most honest reviews on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and host exciting and dynamic book club events with authors and readers at Waterstones. This time they'll be interviewing one of their favourite authors for a special evening with all of you.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, to discuss her novel Dust Child. A dazzling, richly evocative reflection on the complex legacy of the Vietnam War, Dust Child deftly interweaves the stories of a group of unforgettable characters who are all searching for meaning from the traumas of the past.

Dr Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is an award-winning Vietnamese writer and journalist. She is the author of eleven books of poetry, short fiction and non-fiction. Her books in Vietnamese have received the 2010 Poetry of the Year Award from the Hanoi Writers Association, the Capital’s Literature & Arts Award, and First Prize in the Poetry Competition celebrating 1,000 Years of Hanoi. Her debut novel and first book in English, The Mountains Sing, is an International Bestseller, Finalist of the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, Winner of the Blogger’s Book Prize 2021, Winner of the 2021 International Book Awards, Winner of the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for "a work of exceptional quality" and for "contribution to peace and reconciliation".

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but paperback copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Krystle Zara Appiah, to discuss her novel Rootless. An at-once tender and heartbreaking meditation on freedom, motherhood and obligation, Rootless explores the limits of love and friendship through a story of a British-Ghanaian marriage in crisis.

Krystle Zara Appiah is a British-Ghanaian writer, editor, and screenwriter, born and raised in London. She has a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of Kent. She was one of forty writers selected for the London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme. Rootless is her debut novel.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but hardback copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Cecile Pin, to discuss her debut novel Wandering Souls. Heartbreaking and exquisitely constructed, Pin's accomplished debut follows a group of Vietnamese refugees as they navigate their way through the cold individuality of Thatcher's Britain, guided only by the voice of their deceased younger brother.

Cecile Pin grew up in Paris and New York City before moving to London at 18 to study philosophy at University College London, followed by an MA at King's College London. She is currently editorial assistant at Jonathan Cape. She also writes for Bad Form Review, was longlisted for its Young Writer's prize and is a London Writers Awards 2021 winner.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event.

Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Zoulfa Katouh, to discuss her debut novel As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow. A searing novel set in war-torn Syria, Katouh's deeply powerful work centres around Salama and her agonising decision as to whether to flee her native country or stay and help those in danger.

Zoulfa Katouh is a Canadian writer with Syrian roots. A trilingual pharmacist, currently pursuing a master’s in drug sciences, Zoulfa is the first Syrian author to be published in both the US and the UK in the young adult category. When she's not talking to herself in the woodland forest, she's drinking iced coffee, baking aesthetic cookies and cakes, and telling everyone who will listen about how BTS paved the way. A dream of hers is to get Kim Nam-joon to read one of her books. As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow is her debut novel.