Chapters by Candlelight: Christmas Charity Read-In

House of Books & Friends would like to invite you to Chapters by Candlelight, our first charity ‘read-in’, sponsored by gunnercooke. We will be fundraising for the charity Once Upon a Smile, based in Greater Manchester.

Join us in a candle-lit bookshop for an evening of reading, relaxing, and supporting those in need. Get in the festive spirit with our offerings of mulled wine and minced pies. Enjoy performances from local poets, learn about the incredible work of Once Upon a Smile, and settle down for an hour of reading together; no screens, no chatter, no pressure from the outside world. Closing the night, enjoy some festive songs from a local musician, and letting the warm glow of the night carry you home.

Tickets are £5 each, which goes straight to our chosen charity, as well as any donations made throughout the night at our designated donation points. Tickets can be bought here.

About the charity

Once Upon a Smile is a children’s bereavement charity providing practical and emotional support to bereaved families to enable them to adjust to a new life without their loved one.

Based in Sidley House, Trafford, Greater Manchester. A dedicated children’s bereavement centre with ten dedicated support rooms, designed by children of Once Upon a Smile, these rooms include a chill out room, baking room, arts & craft room, Lego room, music room, young person support room and a cinema/games room.

About the poets

Matt Alton is a House of Books and Friends regular, MA Social Research student and writer of many stripes. This year he was supported by the Lowry’s Artist Development Programme to develop a short puppet show which explored the paternalism experienced by disabled people in Britain. He has also been selected to receive mentorship in non-fiction from Katie Goh though Extra Teeth magazine, and published poetry in national magazines and anthologies including Gutter and Broken Sleep Books’ Masculinity: an anthology of modern voices. His work can be found at mattalton.com.

Canadian poet Evan Jones [Ευριπίδης Ιωάννου] lives in Manchester. His first collection of poetry, Nothing Fell Today But Rain (2003), was a finalist for the Governor-General’s Literary Award for Poetry. He co-edited Modern Canadian Poets (2010) and has since published Paralogues (2012) and Later Emperors (2020). Men of the Same Name (2025), his most recent collection, was long-listed for the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Prize and was a finalist for the Derek Walcott Poetry Prize. His translation from the Modern Greek, The Barbarians Arrive Today: Poems and Prose of C.P. Cavafy (2020), was a TLS Book of the Year.