Wayward Book Festival

Cancellation announcement

We are sad to say that we have made the difficult decision to cancel Wayward Book Festival this year.

Due to significantly low advanced ticket sales, we cannot be confident in the talks being well-attended enough to be enjoyable for attendees, or viable for us and The Poly. With authors travelling down to Falmouth there are significant travel plans and costs involved and whilst we hoped for an increase as the events grew closer, we cannot leave these decisions to the last minute.

We can only apologise to those who had already booked tickets and to those who were hoping to attend.

Since she will still be in Falmouth, our event with Ruby Free will still be going ahead in the cafe space at Above the Bookshop. We’d love it if you’d join us to hear all about Ruby’s wild island life on Rathlin.

This is absolutely not the end of our book events programme – we still have many individual events planned throughout the year, and will be involved with the Falmouth Book Festival in the autumn.

We appreciate that it can be tricky to plan ahead (especially when the sun is out) but booking in advance often ensures events can go ahead – not just for us, but for any local events. It really does help and has a huge impact for the organisers.

Thank you as always for your support and enthusiasm. We hope to see you at a different event soon!

Rathlin, A Wild Life with Ruby Free

Heartfelt, impassioned and full of joy, Rathlin, A Wild Life is a love letter to the island and the wildlife Ruby finds there, but it’s also a call to action; a reminder of everything we stand to lose if we don’t change.

Rathlin, A Wild Life: Island Living, Seabirds and Extraordinary Gifts from Nature

In 2021, Ruby Free, 21, got her dream job working on an RSPB reserve. But this position wasn’t for the faint hearted – it meant moving to live on Rathlin Island, off the County Antrim coast. One of the wildest and most biodiverse corners of the UK and Ireland, to Ruby, who had grown up in the south-west of England, it felt both thrilling and very far from home.

Ruby thought she knew what wildness was but arriving on the island alongside a quarter of a million seabirds, her perception of it changed forever. From swimming with seals and late-night trips to hear the call of the corncrake, to spotting dolphins from her front door and getting to know some very special seabirds, this is the story of Ruby’s time on Rathlin. It’s also the story of what happened next – how Ruby took everything she’d learned through living on the island to the following stage of her life.

Heartfelt, impassioned and full of joy, Rathlin, A Wild Life is a love letter to the island and the wildlife Ruby finds there, but it’s also a call to action; a reminder of everything we stand to lose if we don’t change.

Monday 28th April, 6:30pm
Above the Bookshop
£8 + Poly fund

Book tickets