University Bookshop on tour

The Medieval History weekend is always a joy to support, and 2026 proved no exception. The venue saw us set up camp for the first time at the Grimond Building, adjacent to the Templeman Library & the Gulbenkian Theatre at the University of Kent. For three days our bookshop-away-from home supported 20 lectures given to over 1,000 attendees by leading medieval historians.

The most rewarding experience has to be, as always, meeting up with the community of PhD students, the many returning conference-goers from years past, as well as new delegates from Europe and beyond. The CAMEMS History Weekend is a very real example of leading-edge research and scholarship shared and made accessible to specialists and the general public alike.  Dr Rachel Koopmans gave a memorable account of the incredibly detailed research and academic detective work undertaken to reveal in all probability a scene missing for perhaps 600 years from one of the Thomas Becket miracle windows in Canterbury Cathedral. 

In these challenging times, with the existential crisis facing the education sector, it is all too easy to lose sight of ‘what is a university’, what is its role & purpose - but without doubt the Canterbury History Weekend continues to doggedly serve as a sure and certain reminder. 

Signed copies of Marc Morris’ and Helen Castors’ books can currently be found available to order on our events pages, along with publications by other speakers.