Edinburgh Gliterary Lunch with Senta Rich & Carole Hailey

Hotel 21
Senta Rich

The Author

Senta Rich began her career as an advertising copywriter while also wroting radio plays and articles for magazines. She then moved into the world of writing for film and TV and has a feature film in development. Hotel 21 is her first novel.

Senta has a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from Liverpool University. She has a strong background and interest in psychology with particular emphasis on Jungian psychology. She is originally from London but now lives in Dublin with her husband and son.

The Book

Noelle is a model employee. Or so she’d have you think. The trouble is that she can’t help taking a little ‘souvenir’ as she cleans the hotels where she works. Nothing of value, just tokens of happy, normal lives: a lipstick, a hair clip, some tweezers. And by the time the guest has noticed, she’s long gone.

As she starts at her 21st hotel, she’s determined to beat her record of one month in a five star hotel before suspicion falls on her. But when she meets her new colleagues, they make her wonder what it might be like to have real friends, people to stick around for…

Praise for Senta Rich

What a wonderful book! … Hotel 21 is a sharp, funny, poignant and completely heart-warming story about female friendship and kick-ass women. I truly loved it!  Ruth Hogan

The Silence Project
Carole Hailey

The Author

Carole Hailey completed the six-month Guardian/UEA novel writing course taught by Bernardine  Evaristo, who imbued Carole with such a love for writing fiction that she abandoned her career in law to undertake an MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, followed by a PhD in Creative Writing at Swansea  University. Carole was a London Library Emerging Writer 2020/21. The Silence Project is her first  published novel and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award  2020 and highly commended by the judges. She lives in Wales with her husband and two rescue dogs.

The Book

On Emilia Morris’s thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their  garden. From that day on, she never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women  join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her  followers around the world burn themselves to death. 

In the aftermath of what comes to be known as the Event, the Community’s global influence quickly  grows. As a result, the whole world has an opinion about Rachel – whether they see her as a callous  monster or a heroic martyr – but Emilia has never voiced hers publicly. Until now. 

Praise for Carole Hailey

Engrossing and original, political and unpredictable, The Silence Project will get people  talking’ Bernardine Evaristo