Patience Agbabi at The Story Museum

On Wednesday, I went to the Story Museum in Oxford to listen to author, Patience Agbabi talking about her ‘Leap Cycle’ series. Oxford was looking particularly lovely in the Autumn sunshine and I had plenty of time to explore my favourite bookshops before the event. In Blackwells, I was surprised to find the children’s section has been moved. Now on the first floor, it is a wonderful space, devoting so much more room to children’s books!

Once at the museum, there was time for a quick hot chocolate and a delicious slice of Biscoff brownie in the Story Cafe before heading to The Woodshed, ready for the event.

An eager crowd were waiting for Patience and the hour passed really quickly. Patience introduced her books and told everyone about things from her life which had helped her to develop her stories. Her love of athletics, her son’s love of ‘super cars’, her heroine, Elle’s Nigerian roots…amongst other things have all found their way in to her books.

Having introduced her characters, Patience focused on the second book in the series, ‘The Time-Thief’, where Elle and her friends leap to 1752 to prove her friend innocent of the theft of the Infinity Glass. She explored how she had developed her characters, explaining the significance of certain events and characters, including Dr Johnson and Frances Barber.

It was a fascinating session with plenty of inspired and interested questions from the enthusiastic audience. The ‘Leap Cycle’ is an excellent series with the third book, ‘The Circle Breakers’, due out next year.

The Infinite Patience Agbabi

Cannongate ISBN: 978-1786899651

The Time-Thief Patience Agbabi

Cannongate ISBN: 978-1786899903

You can read my review of ‘The Infinites’ here.