Friends, Breconians, Book-lovers...

This Summer we are committed to bringing you Author events that enlighten, enthuse and perhaps most importantly, soothe. The world is a tricky, testing and tenuous place right now (to put it lightly) and we hope to provide you with a still-point, a haven, a spot to sit, listen, breathe and think (or not think!). And all our Author events are free - there shouldn't be any barriers to healing should there?

So...

On Thursday June 26th at 6.30pm we are thrilled to be hosting Jay Griffiths for the next in our series of Summer Author events to discuss her new book How Animals Heal Us (Penguin).

Originally from Manchester but a long-time resident of Mid Wales, Jay is an award-winning Author of Fiction, non-Fiction, Memoir and Journalism. A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Jay is a recipient of the Hay Festival International fellowship, a member of Academi and is a Tutor and Reader across many disciplines.

Pet-owners and animal-lovers instinctively know that animals heal. This new book offers the evidence, drawing widely on scientific discoveries, history, and Indigenous knowledge...

We meet a pot-bellied pig who saved her owner's life, lions who guarded a girl from kidnappers, dolphins and whales rescuing people in danger, and dogs who can smell cancer and phone the Emergency Services.

Animal sounds, from insects to birdsong and the purring of cats, are directly medicinal and their presence can heal the pain of loneliness. Animals, including donkeys, can be natural therapists for the hurt psyche, alleviating trauma, fear and depression. In this original, revelatory and exuberant book, Jay Griffiths explores how animals can have a role in every level of healing, from the individual to the collective, guiding us in how we might create societies that are healthier, fairer and kinder.

Wolves may be teachers of ethics; monkeys and dogs can object to unfairness and bees take collective decisions. Animals are irresistible medicine for a healthy culture, animating the arts with spectacular vitality and verve, as poetry knows.

Open-hearted, playful and wise, How Animals Heal Us puts animals at the heart of a restorative vision of health.

We do hope you will join us 

Leigh & Nicky Xx

Praise for How Animals Heal Us

'No book has changed my thinking about Nature more quickly and more fundamentally than this moving, essential work. Nobody writes about Nature - the world and us in it - with more beauty and grace than Jay Griffiths. She senses connections so deep and so resonant that they ring on and on in my mind.'

- Brian Eno 

‘A wise, deep, and tender account of animal healing for humans, written in lyrical language that sings with compassion. This is one of my favourite books of all time’

-Pascale Petit

'A pure praise poem to the more than human world, a poem filled with love, respect and joy. It thrums with wit, wisdom, understanding and research. But mostly the joy of being connected to life, from the smallest insect to the great whales.'

-Jackie Morris

How Animals Heal Us is a book of boundless passion and compassion. As she explores the worlds of animals, Jay Griffiths make the case for a different way of living: a joyous, vital inclusivity. This is how a book should be - genuinely mind-expanding.'

- Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen

We are thrilled to be hosting Horatio Clare this November to discuss his new book 'Your Journey Your Way - How to Make the Mental Health System Work For You' (Penguin Books).

A highly acclaimed bestselling Author, Broadcaster and Lecturer whose very many works cover travel, memoir, nature and children's fiction, Horatio Clare grew up on a remote hill farm in the Black Mountains - an idyllic but isolating childhood that has informed all his writing since. His first book 'Running For The Hills' documented a beautifully almost lawless childhood in the Welsh hills including the breakdown of his parents marriage and their subsequent divorce with an honesty that startled his own family.

Whatever his subject, Horatio's writing is lyrical, immediate and brutally honest. His 2021 memoir 'Heavy Light' - aptly subtitled 'a journey through madness, mania and healing' is the candid often shocking account of his own breakdown at the end of 2018 and his subsequent sectioning and treatment at Wakefield Hospital.

'Your Journey Your Way - How to Make The Mental Health System Work For You' is it's natural follow-up - a deeply researched and visceral exploration of the current mental health system that asks serious questions about whether it is working and how things might change.

International Velvet - How Wales Conquered the 90’s Charts

Jazz infused Delta Blues? Hot dang! Paul Keddle and his cool as cats band of musical men assemble to bring you a foot-tapping, hip-swinging, scrumptious Festival weekend closer to remember

What are Jazz Weekend Sunday afternoons made for? Bella Blue of course. Join us for delectable Jazz and Blues from one of the smokiest soul-filled voices around. An outside bar, sun-streaked skies (?!), and one girl and her Blues guitar celebrating four decades of incredible music in beautiful Brecon

One of the UK's hottest Jazz ensembles led by the gorgeous Susanna Warren bring us an exhilarating feast of sassy Hot Club Jazz, Gipsy, Swing and sooo much more for an absolutely simmering Jazz Saturday evening on the Close

We are thrilled to bring you an exciting new quartet - Blue Haddock - featuring Composer, Improviser and Pianist Rod Paton; Coren Sithers on saxophones; Liz Exell on drums and lan Cooper on bass

Book a table

Our Jazz Festival Weekend revelry begins with new Folk Fusion collective Enw

An alt hybrid folk fiesta for your hips, head and heart under the ancient sycamores on the Cathedral green

Brecon resident Grahame Davies reads fom his newly-published Seren volume A Darker Way. This collection of poems and songs traces a hard-won but redemptive path between idealism and irony, failure and faith.

The reading will accompany an exhibition of paintings by Brecon artist Jess Hinsley  whose striking image of Pen y Fan provides the cover picture of the book. 

We will be serving Festive Oggies and Mulled Cider from 4pm…

Jazz infused Delta Blues? Hot dang. Paul Keddle and his cool as cats band

of musical men assemble to bring you a foot-tapping, hip-swinging,

scrumptious 40th Festival weekend closer to remember

Jazz impresario Keith Little brings us deft and dazzling Jazz, Hot Swing and

Dixie with a smattering of Shuffle - all the ingredients required for

an absolutely swinging celebratory afternoon at Cathedral Close

One of the UK's hottest Jazz ensembles led by the gorgeous Susanna

Warren fill the Green with an exhilarating feast of Hot Club Jazz, Gipsy

and Swing for an absolutely simmering Jazz Saturday night under

the ancient sycamores to remember

Our special 40th Jazz Festival celebrations begin with a sultry afternoon of

delicious Jazz and Blues from one of the smokiest, sassiest voices around -

Bella Collins. One girl and her Blues guitar celebrating forty years of

incredible music in beautiful Brecon

In the beautiful setting of Brecon Cathedral Tithebarn…