Nigella Lawson, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Afua Hirsch among guests at Vintage party

Nigella Lawson, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Afua Hirsch were among the guests at Vintage’s party at German Gymnasium in Kings Cross last night (21st February). 

They were joined by Richard Ratcliffe, Neneh Cherry, Julian Barnes, Rukmini Iyer, Sarah Perry, Edward St Aubyn, Viv Albertine, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Helen Macdonald, Abir Mukherjee and Helen Fielding, as well as teachers from The Arden Academy in Solihull, with whom Vintage is working in partnership this year. Vintage is donating to the school one book on behalf of each of the 400 party guests.

Managing director Hannah Telfer said the publisher’s authors “expand our minds and our hearts”. She said: “You play a critical role in bridging the distances between us, in moving our society forward. Connecting us through bold storytelling, showing us where we are alike, celebrating where we are not, rebelling against perceived wisdoms, challenging us to think differently, to understand lives beyond our own, to re-evaluate the past and consider new futures.” 

Telfer introduced Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Richard Ratcliffe, whose memoir A Yard of Sky will be published by Vintage imprint Chatto & Windus in October. They spoke to guests about the power of reading and the bold act of writing their story together.  

Nazanin said: “The first time my parents brought me books when I was still in solitary, I could not believe my luck. What prison guards did not know was that through allowing me to have books, they had given me the chance to leave the cell and distract myself from interrogation sessions and awful periods of terror and intimidation by travelling through the stories of others, without physically leaving. Since then, I had precious pieces in my cell I could return to, reading them over and over, helping me forget what I was going through. Even though they left me starving while in the cell but gave me food for thought without knowing.”