Talk – The Mystery of the Haberdasher’s Scissors

Presented by Alison Habens and Matt Wingett

Writers and researchers, Alison Habens and Matt Wingett, claim to have discovered an extraordinary fact: three famous literary figures of the 19th Century, H.G.Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling met each other in the early 1880s, in the Old Drapery Bazaar, Hide’s Emporium, on King’s Road in Southsea. Even more amazing, they were involved in a dark mystery that might have come straight from one of their own stories. Hear it unfold, through a series of extracts from their autobiographies, solve a few clues yourself – and work out where the boundary between true history and pure invention sits.

Alison Habens

Alison is best known for her novels Dreamhouse, Lifestory and The True Picture.  She is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Portsmouth and leads the Portsmouth Writers Hub; a community interest company that brings University writers and writing groups together.

Matt Wingett

Matt Wingett is the publisher, editor, designer, local historian rare book dealer and general dog’s body of Life Is Amazing, dedicated to publishing books.  He has always been interested in writing, having started his first story when he was six years old. At various times since then, he has looked back, wondered what the hell he was doing spending so much time writing instead of having a life, given up, taught English in Egypt, came back again, ran a computer company and a successful rare book dealership – and finally thrown up his hands in defeat and said: “I give up! I can’t help writing, so I’ll have to just get on with it.”

Tickets: You must book a ticket in advance to be sure of entry. Tickets are available for £5 each only from Bookends, 7 High Street, Emsworth, PO10 7AQ. Seats are unreserved.