Meet Rose Diell, author of Fledging, for a reading, discussion and Q&A hosted by Kate Packman of AmpLiterary, at The Eagle Bookshop, Bedford. 

Sunday 9 March, 7.15 - 8.15pm (doors open 7pm). Tickets available here! 

Fledging will be available to buy from The Eagle Bookshop and Rose will sign copies on the night. 

Rose grew up in London but her partner of seventeen years is a Great Barford/Bedford native so she's spent many an afternoon alongside the Ouse, walking the dogs or watching the boats go by. Fledging is her debut and is a contender for the People's Book Prize (vote here) as well as being longlisted for the Reflex Press Novella Award.

Kate is an organiser of AmpLiterary, a literary festival run by book-loving volunteers as part of Ampthill Festival. Her debut novel, You Can See the End of the World From Here, was longlisted for the Bridport Prize Novel Award and is published by Protea Press (February 2025).

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It starts as bloating, a hard curvature in my gut that won’t go away. I wonder if it’s my period, but it isn’t the right time. The cramps come slowly at first, like a rising tide, and then grow shorter and sharper, a racing heartbeat.

When Lia lays an egg she doesn’t know what to do. At her age, it’s impossible to escape the baby question, and all her friends seem to be having children. She feels her heart’s not in it – but all the same, there’s the egg, impossible to ignore, lying in a nest of towels in the living room.

Her partner on tour on the other side of the world and her mother diagnosed with a terminal illness, Lia finds herself torn, unsure whether she’s ready to give up on her songwriting dreams; but time is running out, and she must make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

Beautifully written and brilliantly original, Fledging is a riveting tale that asks what it is to lead a meaningful life, and sounds a resounding call for women to make their own choices, whether that means embracing motherhood or living child-free.

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"Wildly unsettling… I really enjoyed this razor-sharp look at womanhood and potential motherhood." - Laura Pearson, author of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont

"This book is so clever and careful with how it explores women’s bodies, the choice of motherhood, and how a need to create does not always equal a need to procreate. A stunning, spectacular, very thoughtful novella…" - The Debut Digest

Keep tabs:

Rose Diell's Website @rosediell @rosediellauthor

@ampliterary @katepackmanauthor