Author Event: Saints
Part of the Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival 2025!
Location
Unitarian Meeting House, Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds IP33 1RH
Telephone
- Next Event
- 12th October 6:00pm
- Event Finishes
- 12th October 7:00pm
About this event
Saints’ legends suffused medieval European culture. Their heroes’ suffering and wonder- working shaped landscapes, rituals and folk beliefs. Their tales spoke of men raised by wolves, women communing with flocks of birds and severed heads calling from between bristling paws.
In Saints, Sunday Times bestselling author of Storyland and Wild, Amy Jeffs retells legends born of the medieval cult of saints, including our own King Edmund. She draws on ‘official’ lives, vernacular romances, artworks and obscene poetry, all spanning from the fourth to the sixteenth centuries. The commentaries following the stories offer a history of each saint, and trace the rise and fall of the medieval cult of saints from the first martyrs to the Protestant Reformation.
Kindly sponsored by Bury Developments
Books: Saints, Wild, Storyland (Quercus)
Suitability: 12+ Timing: 50 mins followed by book signing
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About the Venue
Bury St Edmunds' finest building
The Meeting House was built in 1711 for its Presbyterian congregation, and is a fine example of the English Baroque style in its softer, more provincial manner. Fully restored between 1975 and 1991, the Grade 1 listed building is now one of Bury St Edmunds' most elegant venues.
The facade to Churchgate Street is one of the jewels of the town, with its gauged and rubbed brickwork in two tones of red, and excellent proportions.
Superb Acoustics
The warm wood floor, good height, and human scale combine to provide a clear and sympathetic sound for a variety of public uses. After all, it was built to ensure commanding solo performances!
A highly adaptable space
The interior is a classic example of a nonconformist meeting house of the period. The central open space is dominated by a fine two-tiered pulpit and surrounded on three sides by galleries containing the original box pews.
Serving Bury St Edmunds
The Meeting House is currently owned by Unitarian Trustees, and managed by the House Committee which includes representatives of the Community. The aim is to ensure wide and appropriate public use of the building for many years to come.
The House Committee is a committee of the Unitarian Trustees, an excepted charity
