During the summer of 1726, a little-know author named Jonathan Swift arrived in London from Dublin, with a draft of Gulliver’s Travelsin his bag.

Join social historian Hester Grant for an event focussing on the extraordinary months when Swift lived with Alexander Pope. Together with John Gay, the friends rollicked through London, made satirical fun of Robert Walpole’s corrupt administration, And plotted their literary lives.

In The Twitnam Summer, Hester brings Eighteenth-Century London to life, with all its stench, its complicated politics, its social pleasures, and the unlikely friendship of three very different writers.

A rollicking, brilliant book. It feels as if the reader has been invited to the dinner parties and firesides of the hard-drinkers and thinkers of the Georgian era.Gareth Russell

We’re delighted to welcome Hester - author of The Good Sharps - back to Alfriston for a spirited discussion of extraordinary people and times. She will be speaking in the first-floor event room of The Star in Alfriston, from 3pm on Sunday 14 June.

Copies of The Twitnam Summer will be available - and will be at Much Ado in the days before the event.

Tickets costing £6 are available in advance from Much Ado, as well as by clicking the button here. (Note: We won’t issue a physical ticket - we’ll keep a guest list.)