A palliative care nurse, a former Labour MP and the founder of Ealing’s only Korean cooking school were among the local authors who took to the Ealing Book Festival stage last Friday (1 May 2026) in a high-speed pitching event.
The Local Authors Showcase, which took place this year at Ealing’s University of West London (UWL), once again saw 20 writers from all genres – given two minutes to ‘pitch’ their book to a capacity crowd, and hopefully persuade audience members to add a copy to their bookshelves.
The evening, hosted by Capital Xtra’s early breakfast presenter Jojo Silva – who is a huge advocate for reading, especially among younger age groups – included pitches for historical fiction, poetry anthologies, romcom, fantasy, and autobiographical works inspired by some deeply personal events.
Among those taking part in the event were Caroline Lamond, who brought her new book The Socialites to the event two years after appearing with her previous novel Well Behaved Women. The Socialites centres on three real-life women – including actress Vivien Leigh and George Orwell’s wife Sonia – and how their lives were shaped by their experiences at convent school.
We also heard from Haebin Sudo – founder of the Ealing-based Kimchi Club W5 – who talked about her Korean recipe book Seoul Food – as well as author Alexander Raphael whose book The Gameshow follows a group of disgraced celebrities as they attempt to rebuild their reputations on the titular show. Former Labour MP Tom Levitt also took to the stage to introduce The Business Of History, a look at family-owned businesses inspired by a 1926 portrait of household names including Hovis and Lyons.
Meanwhile Dr C K Arora spoke about his book Quest To Succeed, about an Indian villager facing obstacles from childhood to adult life as he journeys across India and London. Black History in Ealing, West London by Carlene Bender takes a quiz form to tell the story of the borough’s black Caribbean and African communities – while Ginny Bell offered up World War II-set drama and romance in Dover Café on Trial.
The line-up also included palliative care nurse Angela Vincent, who tackles issues of life and death in All Those Hands Held, Rachael Chong, whose poetry anthology The Red Strings Between covers East Asian mythological beliefs, and Jack Waddington, whose book I’m On A Journey To See You, Sam, is inspired by his brother, who died aged 26 after living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
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