Bestselling author to tour UK cathedral cities

Cathedrals across the UK will welcome novelist Salley Vickers as she promotes the new paperback edition of her latest book, The Cleaner of Chartres, thanks to innovative joint working with public libraries by The Reading Agency and publishers Penguin.

Bestselling author Salley Vickers will meet audiences of local readers in specially chosen cathedral city venues where she will answer questions and read from The Cleaner of Chartres – which centres on the beautiful and enigmatic but mysterious and vulnerable Agnès Morel, a foundling raised by nuns. Now in her forties, Agnès works daily to clean historic Chartres Cathedral. But with a chance meeting in the cathedral the spectre of Agnès' past returns, provoking malicious speculation from locals. As the rumours grow more ugly, Agnès is forced to confront her history, and the mystery of her origins finally unfolds.

Salley Vickers’ cathedral tour will start on 1 June 2013 at Gloucester Cathedral’s Chapter House; moving on to venues in Bristol, Canterbury, Guildford, Ludlow in Shropshire, Chichester, Armagh in Northern Ireland, and finishing on 12 October at Beverley Minster in East Yorkshire. Please see“Notes to editors” for full details of the tour.

National charity The Reading Agency, which works with publishers and libraries to create successful and exciting events and activities for readers, used its extensive contacts within the UK’s public library network to invite libraries to approach their local cathedrals about hosting an event and planing joint promotion, and then bid to play host to Salley Vickers. Publishers Penguin are offering the successful library/ cathedral bidders a range of promotional materials, plus free copies of The Cleaner of Chartresto offer book groups to read before they attend their local event. Local booksellers will also be invited to sell books from Salley Vickers’ backlist –which includes bestsellers such as Miss Garnet’s Angel, Vacation, Dancing Backwards and The Other Side Of You –at each event.

Sandeep Mahal, who leads The Reading Agency’s work with publishers and libraries, says: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Penguin to bring The Cleaner of Chartres alive in local communities, through the public library network and a unique collaboration with cathedrals. Libraries’ unique ability to forge local partnerships to spread reading is helping reach and create new audiences, and publishers are finding new ways to work with them to market books to the nation’s readers. This proves that libraries provide an irreplaceable hub for community reading experiences.”

Kate Woodward, library manager: reading and learning for Shropshire Council, says: “Shropshire Library Service is delighted to work with The Reading Agency in support of the new Ludlow Arts Festival for 2013. This affords us the opportunity to work with a range of new partners and attract new audiences, whilst bringing our library service to the community in The Cathedral of The Marches. St. Laurence’s Church in Ludlow is a very special venue which we feel will beautifully complement Salley Vickers’ talk about her new novel.”