Explore’s month long festival inspired by Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum returns this autumn with 5000 books giveaway and a packed programme of events.
Explore’s month long festival inspired by Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum returns this autumn with 5000 books giveaway and a packed programme of events.
York’s Big City Read is back after a four-year gap and the book for 2022 is Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Explore York Libraries will be giving away 5000 free copies of a very special edition of the book and hosting events and activities across York to get everyone talking about books and reading.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum was Kate Atkinson’s first novel and was first published in 1995 when it won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
Kate Atkinson has said “Looking at Behind the Scenes now, I can see that York..… is the all-pervading main character of this book. The novel is a hymn to my relationship with the city, constructed out of history, memory and nostalgia.”
You can collect a free book from any library in York from 29 September through to 31 October while stocks last. Explore will also hold pop-up giveaway sessions all over the city, details will be available on social media and from any library in York.
During October we are offering unlimited e-book and e-audio downloads of Behind the Scenes at the Museum from our Overdrive website yorklibraries.overdrive.com/ or from our Libby app which is free from your app store. On 1 September the full programme of events will be available to book at any Explore Library or online on Explore’s Eventbrite page.
Kate Atkinson herself will be in the city to launch the Big City Read at the Yorkshire Museum on 28 September. Tickets will be available for sale on Eventbrite on 1 September. Explore is also offering 30 free tickets to the launch as part of a prize draw. This opens on 1 August and will close at midnight on Monday 29 August. Enter your name into the draw here.
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