Chance to meet Sunday Times best-selling author at 'Magic of Books Day' in Bognor Regis bookshop

The award-winning bookshop’s annual event, which has taken place since 2021, promises to be bigger and better then ever this year, featuring a real DeLorean from Back to the Future, a Sword in the Stone prop, the welcome return of the Platform 9 ¾ trolley and Hogwarts tickets, as well as a full sized Doctor Who Dalek.

AJ West, author of critically-acclaimed novel The Betrayal of Thomas True, will perform a reading of his latest book, followed by a question and answer session and a book signing for eager readers. He will be joined by Sussex writer Christine Chambers, author of new children’s book Red Fox Does What? Surely not!, and is set to take the lead on Magical Story Time.

"‘I really want to show people the magic contained within the pages of a book, and the easiest way to release it is to open it up and read,” Mr Passingham said. “But to help show what we mean, we will be having things on the day that have been inspired by the words on the page.

“Both children and adults’ literacy is a cause close to my heart, and anything we can do as a business to help encourage it, and maybe improve it, can only be a good thing, but like with all things, the spark of interest needs to be generated, and we hope days such as this will make that happen.

"This is our third year staging this event, and we very much hope that we will be able to make it an annual event in the town’s calendar, and grow it to an event that will get bigger and better each year, so if any cosplayers would like to pop along on the day to make it more of a magical experience for those attending, please feel free to do so.”

The Magic of Books day will take place at Heygates Bookshop, on Station Road from 10.30am til 4.30am. The author readings will take place in additional space kindly provided by The_Track, next door to the bookshop itself.