Events

May 2025 Programme

Saturday mornings - Storytime at 10.30 a.m.

Thursday 1^st May 5.30pm – Diversity Book Club

We’ll be discussing The Grey Bees by Ukrainian novelist Andrei Kurkov. All welcome. Free to attend.

Sunday 4^th May 9.30am -12.30pm - Workshop: Fab Paper Flowers 
A fun workshop where people of all ages can learn how to make paper flowers. Tickets are £25, available online.

Wednesday 7^th May 5pm – The Culture of Dying Matters
A free public event which aims to break down the stigma and taboo of talking about death and dying. Free to all.

Saturday 14^th May – The Tiger Who Came to Tea 
The Tiger from Judith Kerr’s iconic picture book will be paying a special visit to Chapter Two. 
From 5.30 p.m. Free to all.

Thursday 22^nd May 19.00pm: Dr Nighat Arif 
Chesham’s most famous doctor will be speaking on The Power of Menopause, at the Centenary Theatre in Berkhamsted.
Tickets are £5, available online here 

Saturday 24^{th -} Sunday 25^th May - Chesham Fringe Festival 
See separate programme. All our Fringe events are free.

Saturday 31^st May - Ben Batten Reading from ‘Sol’ 
Ben Batten will be reading from and signing copies of his latest poetry collection ‘Sol’. 11am -1pm

Events take place at Chapter Two and are FREE unless otherwise stated.
Donations welcome with all profits going to the Hospice of St Francis.

For more information on any of our events please ask a member of staff who will be happy to help

Sue recently became the shop Manager at Chapter Two, the Hospice bookshop in Chesham! She describes Chapter Two as a ‘friendly, happy community space’. 

"I joined the Chapter Two team as a volunteer in 2021, working on Saturday mornings to coincide with my teaching role. As teaching was becoming more admin focused, I applied for and got the Deputy Manager role in June 2022 and, subsequently, following the interview process, took on the Shop Manager role in September 2023. I only knew the Hospice through the shop and walking past before I applied to be a volunteer. 

Chapter Two has grown and developed in the two years since I started.  It has a thriving customer base and, following our support of events in the High Street, is the happy place for volunteers and customers alike. We pride ourselves on our offering and get a lot of praise from customers (and their pets) for the wonderful community appeal.  

My daily job is a juggling act! We have loads of lovely donations every day, sometimes up to 1000 books when it’s busy.  My team are amazing and help clean, gift aid, price and store these books. We have different routes to market – in the shop, high value items in the cabinet, good quality or new books online and sometimes we are lucky enough to be donated a valuable book which goes to auction so checking through the donations is therefore a very careful and precise task. 

We have a wonderful team of volunteers and young people working towards their DoE Awards. We are lucky enough to have more than 35 regular volunteers who all help make the shop warm and welcoming. It is a pleasure to work with so many interesting people who give their time willingly to support the Hospice.  

I enjoy planning and implementing the window displays with my creative team which receive a wide range of positive comments from the public, particularly for the main displays such as Christmas, Easter and local events such as Hats Off.  We also put on a number of events in the shop during the year, some monthly such as the Diversity Book Club and Open Mic Poetry evenings, and others which are specific to a book launch or a local artist from the community displaying their work. I enjoy meeting these diverse people and helping make their event a success.   

I love retail.  I owned a shop many years ago and enjoy the interaction with customers as every customer is different and so it is very motivating to listen to their stories and find a suitable book for them or for customers to give as a present. 

My favourite memory of the shop is winning the Muddy Stilettos Award for the Best Bookshop in Bucks & Oxon in 2023.  This meant so much as it was voted on by the general public, our volunteers and customers.  Everyone was smiling as a result!”