An Evening with Joanna Miller

Join us for an evening with Joanna Miller to celebrate the publication of her debut novel, The Eights - a captivating piece of historical fiction set in 1920s Oxford about sisterhood, self-determination, courage and friendship.

Joanna Miller will be joining us for a Q&A session (chaired by our very own Suddenly Joanna!) with the chance for you to ask her about her novel and her writing experience. This will be followed by a book-signing, with the opportunity to have signed and take home the novel before it is officially published! Light refreshments will be provided.

• Tuesday 1st April 2025, 6pm

• Suddenly on Sheaf Street, 22 Sheaf Street, Daventry, NN11 4AB - please note the event will be held in our upstairs space.

• £16.99 with book, £5 without book.

About the book:

They knew they were changing history. They didn’t know they would change each other. Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students.

Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship. Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place.

Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way – and her own friends – for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they won’t be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone – even The Eights – if she is to succeed.

But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever. The Eights is a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that is forever changed.