THE founder of parkrun, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, will be the guest at the Bowness book club next month. (Friday September 8). He will be in conversation at the Burn How Hotel with local author Eileen Jones who has written two books about parkrun.

Paul set up the first parkrun at Bushy Park in London in 2004. There are now parkruns in 23 countries and more than eight million people have signed up world-wide to take part in the free, weekly 5k events for runners, walkers and volunteers.

The book club was established earlier this year and unlike others, there is no expectation that visitors will have read a particular book. Instead, everyone is welcome to come along and listen to authors discussing their work and their ideas.

Recent guests have included the leading crime writer Martin Edwards; adventurer, artist and writer Heather Dawe: and Kerry Darbishire who is currently poet in residence at William Wordsworth’s home, Rydal Mount.

Ambleside-based Eileen Jones is the author of the best-selling How parkrun changed our lives, and p is for parkrun: a journey from A to Z, both published by Gritstone.

Book club organiser Vicky Robinson said: “We are delighted that Paul and his wife Jo will be our guests. Here at the Burn How we are great fans of parkrun, and we have special deals for those who want to stay here when running at our local events.

“We plan to take Paul and Jo to one of our Lake District parkruns on the morning after book club.”

The book club will meet on Friday September 8 at 7 pm at the hotel. There’s no fee and no need to book in advance.

The programme for the rest of this year includes psychological-thriller writer Paul Teague, and paddleboarder Jo Moseley.