Best selling author Ali Harris in conversation with BBC journalist Hannah Morrison. They’ll discuss love, loss, and the role that writing and sharing stories play in surviving the darkest of times, and in finding hope on the other side.

This is a free event to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week. Please book tickets in advance at Huntingdon Library, or contact Huntingdon.referral@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Ali will introduce her new novel This Wasn’t Meant to Happen. Inspired by her own experience of baby loss, the novel tells the story of Sofie, a woman terrified of risk, whose world is upended when she experiences the stillbirth of her baby boy, Leo. As Sofie and her husband navigate the deep waters of grief, they are forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about love, marriage, identity, and the fragility of life.

It’s a story about loss, but it’s also a story about what comes after. It’s about survival, friendship, family, and the quiet strength it takes to keep going. It’s about choosing hope, even in the darkest moments. In many ways, it’s the ultimate love story.

Readers have said it will “break your heart and put it back together again.” Many have told Ali they felt seen, held, comforted - even uplifted - by this book. It’s a novel that invites you to feel deeply, and to ask yourself, in the words of Mary Oliver: What will you do with your one wild and precious life?

Whether you’ve known grief yourself or love someone who has, this event is for anyone who believes in the power of stories to heal, to connect us, and to remind us we’re not alone.

Ali’s book will be available to purchase, with thanks to Niche Comics.

For accessibility information about Huntingdon Library, please visit AccessAble - Your Accessibility Guide