An evening with Robert Macfarlane

The West Kirby Bookshop are delighted to host an evening with the acclaimed, best selling author, Robert Macfarlane.

Join us at West Kirby Grammar School on Thursday 8th May, 7pm, when Robert will be in conversation about his forthcoming book, Is A River Alive? before answering questions from the audience and signing copies of the book.

Tickets are £8 standard admission or £30 including a copy of Is A River Alive?
West Kirby Grammar School will also be running a fully licensed bar, with a selction of soft and alcholic drinks available for purchase on the night.

Is A River Alive? is one of our most anticipated books of 2025, and we're thrilled to be celebrating its publication in West Kirby. Please see below for further information.

We look forward to seeing you there!

About the event:

• This event is being held at West Kirby Grammar School, Graham Road, West Kirby, Wirral, CH48 5DP.
  
• The venue is a short walk from West Kirby train station, with many local bus links too. If you are driving to the venue, please be mindful of the residents who live on Graham Road and avoid obstructing driveways.
  
• Doors will open at 6:45pm for a 7:15pm start.
  
• The venue is wheelchair accessible, and if you have any specific accessibility requirements, please do get in touch in advance.
  
• Please note that the book & ticket bundle price is only available in advance of the event, however there will be copies of Is A River Alive? (RRP £25) and Robert's other books for sale on the night.
  
• This event is non-refundable, but if you can't make the event and would like to reserve a signed copy of Is A River Alive? please do get in touch.
  
  
  About Is A River Alive?:
  
  'One of the big publishing events (if not the biggest) of 2025 – a new book by Robert Macfarlane . . . Personal as well as political, it’s almost as certain to shift readerly perspectives as it is to be a bestseller .'― Observer
  
  'A rich and visionary work of immense beauty. Macfarlane is a memory keeper. What is broken in our societies, he mends with words. Rarely does a book hold such power, passion, and poetry in its exploration of nature. Read this to feel inspired, moved, and ultimately, alive.' ― Elif Shafak
  
  From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book – which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title.
  
  At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.
  
  The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining.
  
  Then, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, where a desperate battle to save the lives of these waterbodies is under way.
  
  And finally, to north-eastern Quebec, where a spectacular wild river – the Mutehekau or Magpie – is being defended from death by damming in a river-rights campaign.
  
  At once Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, spark debates and lead us to the revelation that our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has.
  
  About Robert Macfarlane:
  
  Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His bestselling books include Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind, as well as the book-length prose-poem, Ness.
  His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, won many prizes around the world and been widely adapted for film, music, theatre, radio and dance. He has also written operas, plays, and films including River and Mountain, both narrated by Willem Dafoe. He has collaborated closely with artists including Olafur Eliasson and Stanley Donwood, and with the artist Jackie Morris he co-created the internationally bestselling books of nature-poetry and art, The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. As a lyricist and performer, he has written albums and songs with musicians including Cosmo Sheldrake, Julie Fowlis and Johnny Flynn, with whom he has released two albums, Lost In The Cedar Wood (2021) and The Moon Also Rises (2023). In 2017, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him the E.M. Forster Prize for Literature, and in 2022 in Toronto he was the inaugural winner of the Weston International Award for a body of work in the field of non-fiction. He is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.