The Discovery of Britain - Graham Robb in conversation with Adam Farrer
Stockport
Culture
16 Oct 2025
Thursday 16 October

Join us for a fascinating journey round Britain from the comfort of your seat (and with a drink in your hand!) as we welcome Graham Robb to Runaway Brewery and Taproom in Stockport for the launch of his brilliant new book The Discovery of Britain - a fun and enlightening history of Britain told from the vantage point of Graham on his bicycle! Graham will be dicussing his adventures with host Adam Farrer (Broken Biscuits and Other Male Failures) and the talk will be followed by an audience Q&A and booksigning.
Tickets are £5.00 each or £22.00 including a copy of The Discovery of Britain.
Event starts at 6:30pm (doors at 6pm)
Please note this event will be held upstairs at Runaway Brewery and Taproom which is only accessible via stairs. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The downstairs bar will be open throughout the evening.
About the book:
Taking the reader on a time-travelling adventure around the 'spindly, sea-wracked islands' we call home, The Discovery of Britain is history that's panoramic and intimate, poignant and shocking, seriously funny, and enlightening in the most surprising way.
In the assured hands of the prize-winning author of The Discovery of France, and often from the unique vantage point of his bicycle, we encounter an entertaining cast of characters foreign and homegrown, drop in on places and events, and dwell on the successes and catastrophes across British history. From ancient settlements swallowed up by the sea and the creation of Stonehenge to the advent of multiculturalism and recent political earthquakes, all is seen as it's never been seen before.
With intriguing maps and illustrations throughout, The Discovery of Britain can be devoured whole or each chapter read in the time it takes to change a bicycle tyre or drink a cup of coffee. The wonderful choice of how to enjoy this original and sweeping history of Britain is yours.
'Graham Robb has found a new format for writing history just as Craig Brown found a fresh way to write biography' – Alan Johnson
'Robb tumbles into British history with an infectious enthusiasm . . . immensely entertaining' – Chris Bryant, author of The Glamour Boys
About the author:
Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border.
Adam Farrer is a writer, a lecturer and the editor of the creative nonfiction journal The Real Story. He has been a photo lab technician, an illustrator, a ceramicist, a musician, a music journalist and currently works at the University of Salford, where he is the Writer in Residence for Peel Park. His first book, Cold Fish Soup, won the Northbound Book Award and his second book, Broken Biscuits, was published by HarperNorth in 2024.
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