GINSIGHTS AUTHOR EVENT: Joanna Nell Thursday 6 November 2025
On Thursday 6 November 2025, Big River Distilling Co and paperchain bookstore will host Ginsights with guest author Joanna Nell. Joanna is a much-loved author of best-selling novels that are laugh out loud funny, relatable and poignant: The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village, The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker, The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home, The Tea Ladies of St Jude’s Hospital and Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year. This last novel was described by Canberra Living Arts as: “A powerful work wrapped in a gentle cover of affection and fun…This is a wise, kind and insightful writer. An astute observer of the human condition."
At Ginsights we will have a formal Q & A and informal conversations with Joanna over cocktails about her novel to be released in October: The Funeral Crashers. This novel continues her explorations of older people struggling, just like the rest of us, with uncertainties, demands and difficult decisions. This time we enjoy a sometimes awkward and often hilarious ride with academic Martin Pottinger who has romantic aspirations for the delectable head of his former university’s archaeology department, and recently bereaved Grace Cavendish who spends her days helping out at All Souls Church, making it her mission to drown out the Reverend Rod’s tone-deaf hymn-singing. They meet and bond at an All Souls service and unwittingly set off a chain of events with far-reaching consequences. They become funeral crashers. But who could have predicted that crashing funerals might have such life-changing and life-affirming outcomes?
Our audience will be able to buy a copy of the book and have it signed by Joanna. We will serve complimentary snacks and guests can purchase cocktails or no alcohol drinks from the Big River menu. We will also be serving a signature cocktail in honour of Joanna’s visit, a Left Bank Martini featuring Big River Lanyon Dry Gin.
All are welcome to come along to join this informal reader/writer conversation co-sponsored by Canberra Writers Festival and MARION. You can find Ginsights at Big River Distilling Co, 1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick. Use Entry 2 off Dairy Road and park in carpark P4.
Bookings required and tickets are $10 per person.
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