mostly books blog

Nicki’s books of the year 2011

2012-01-14T13:13:00.002Z

Moving into 2012 and all the lovely new books coming in daily that are now toppling my reading pile, it’s always a good moment to look back and think about those books I read in 2011 that I remember most fondly.

Tricky (almost impossible) to pick one book above all others that I enjoyed last year, because you always enjoy books for different reasons and comparing them seems very unfair. But I have done a selection of those which have particularly appealed.

A vision of Loveliness by Louise Levene £7.99

All right, I admit, this is a total guilty pleasure (up there with Kate Atkinson) as an utterly indulgent read, with lines so wonderful I can go to them again and again.

It’s a dark comedy that will transport you to late 1950s London and a grim suburb where dinner was ‘a tinned steak and kidney pie, soggy King Edwards, and Surprise dried peas – the surprise being that anyone bought them’.

If, like me, you adore a wallow in a bit of extremely fine observation, then you will also find plenty to love about this story of a young suburban shopgirl determined to claw her way to a more glamorous life, using men along the way, with little more than a Pan-stick, 21-inch waist and a pair of false eyelashes 'fluffy nylon fringes to create all those killer glances' – (by the end Jane’s eyelashes almost have a life of their own).

Chance brings Jane into contact with Suzy – and Jane is certainly a girl who knows how to make the most of a chance. Soon she is in possession of a modelling assignment, a room in a shared Mayfair flat, a sapphire bracelet, a hermes alligator bag and a collection of dinner dates.

Clothes matter a lot to Jane (now Janey). 'Ballerina length might be all very well Down South but they wouldn't let you through the door without a long frock in Wilmslow, apparently'.

Through clothes she makes instant judgments about people. Clothes are detailed so much they are practically an additional character in the book ‘It was a dogtooth check sort of a day.’

She also acquires a very desirable boyfriend and a worldly-wisdom ‘Crepes suzette 'involved setting fire to pancakes on a trolley in rather a flashy way but they tasted quite nice'.

Enough to steer her through meeting his posh mother and a dinner party in Roehampton with his superior friends ‘she was giving them ‘her’ coq au vin: ‘hers’ in the sense that nobody else’s was made with half a bottle of sweet cider and burned to a crisp’. Janey successfully parries every attempted put down, while at the same time despising their lives (just keesh and Kingsley Amis from now on).

It's the sort of book that really gets other people annoyed when you are reading it as you can't help but keep sniggering.

In fact there is very little that is lovely about Janey’s journey. Even she starts to notice her dead eyes and wonders if there is more to life. But the only serious alternative is marriage to ‘wear a cheap black frock (home made even, People did), or attend poxy ‘mmm-did-you-make-these-yourself?’n coffee mornings.. And Janey reflects that in her life men are expected to pick up the cheque, but at least she isn’t expected to do much in return.

Her triumphant return to Norbury is one of Janey’s high points. In a Bentley and with a mink hat, is pure joy as her friends try to keep discussions to candlewick bedspreads and brushed nylon sheets (they Saved Work). They had to keep talking about themselves in case one of the unasked questions slipped out – Did it hurt? Did they respect you afterwards? Did you have to keep the lights on? How did she stop the eyelashes falling off?

My book group queried the chick litty cover and a quote from Joan Collins. But overlook that and just enjoy what’s between the covers.

It’s a story of a journey that’s pretty grubby underneath – tawdry finery and false hope, learning how to stetch a yawn into a smile. Enough to make you want to bring out the Liquid gumption. But definitely a step-up from Norbuy.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides £20

Pulitzer-prize winner, Eugenides, has written very few books, but his latest is a timely reflection on the lives of three college students in the1980s – a decade that gave birth to the very modern angst – the quest for meaning in lives where choice is seemingly limitless, and commitment need only be fleeting.

Three college students trying to find their futures in 1980s America. Madeleine with her unfashionable interest in English Victorian literature, when everyone around her is starting to worship Nietzche.

Mitchell, seeking spiritual enlightenment in India. And golden boy Leonard and the damaging secret of his brilliance and already sewing the seeds of his downfall. Eugenides makes us care for them all. But which will ultimately find the satisfaction they seek?

We meet them when they are all enjoying their last years of freedom, while considering their futures. With loving detail, Eugenides creates the period, the uncertainties. Madeleine is delighted when the brilliant Leonard chooses her. Leonard’s ambition is to ‘become an adjective’ – (Faulknerian, Kafkaesque, Checkovian).

He is the one who looks like having a vocation and a scientific career – someone who will discover something and make something of himself. But when Leonard’s secret unfolds and we get a vision of how precarious is his brilliance, his leadership qualities, Madeleine is left with complex decisions.

If this had been a Victorian novel, she would have had to make the best of it, take her damaged husband and try to repair the tatters and secure what future for themselves she can.

But this is the eighties, when you can be madly in love with someone one minute, and the next, see the chance of a rewarding career of your own and a better prospect. Do you still need a mate? And one who will only bring you down at that?

An absorbing tale of how slippery it can be to find a role in life when love, money, success are becoming such throwaway commodities.

Hedge funds, pasties and Daniel Day-Lewis: Other People's Money by Justin Cartwright £12.99

A novel set in the world of ultra-rich bankers fighting to save their skins following the banking crisis sounds like the makings of a grim read peopled with unsympathetic characters.

But Justin Cartwright’s ‘Other People’s Money’ is a stunningly good read. A romp and a comedy, a thriller and a thoughtful piece for our times on the ramifications of the unseemly scrap for easy money.

In the balance are the future and fortunes of a long-standing family-run bank, creaking under the weight of its hedge fund losses. And, at the other end of the world (in Cornwall) are others seizing their last chances for glory.

Julian Trevelyan-Tubal is trying to cover up his bank’s losses. He has to find several hundred million in a hurry. Julian may be aware that he is already morally bankrupt. That it is only by wrestling back the Matisse from a loyal employee, selling the yacht under the nose of his dying father, and using his clients’ money in dubious ways one last time, he may just pull it off.

He is aware that he is becoming as single-minded and unlovable as his father.

And there are other good characters who stand to lose if everything fails. Artair MacCleod, playwright and actor-manager, now mounting productions of Thomas the Tank Engine ‘for the little, obese, pig-faced kiddies of Cornwall’, is the story’s touchstone – the ancient playwright who has never lost sight of the beauty and relevance of art.

And the ancient editor of the Cornish Globe and Mail, his Fleet Street days long behind him, like an old retriever, he sniffs on the air one last chase, even if his facts are faulty and his motivations flawed.

It’s a chase to the finish, will the lovable or the ludicrous get to the finish line first? And will anyone still have their morals intact?

Inheritance by Nicholas Shakespeare 7.99

Publishing pen-pusher, Andy Larkham is late for everything. In a life where nothing is going right he even embarrassingly stumbles even into the wrong funeral. But this leads to a reversal of fortune – and enormous and sudden wealth?

To unexpectedly come into another man’s money, someone like Andy Larkham might be expected simply to go with the flow, spend it on a hideous nouveau riche flat, exotic holidays, showering his friends with gifts that only make them feel in adequate.

But the prospect of money (a vast fortune) undeserved sits uneasily with our hero. In particular he worries why his mysterious benefactor who should have had everything, died alone. He is motivated to explore - is the money is tainted? Instead, he discovers not a person who exploited others, but an injustice that Larkham feels compelled to try to put right and a truth and a personal history that couldn’t be more different from what he expected.

A wise, funny and moving tale of an unexplained inheritance and its consequences.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness 12.99

One of my ‘best reads’ of the year, but not one I find myself recommending very often. Not because it isn’t beautifully written. Not because it isn’t a great story. Not because it doesn’t have the makings of an absolute classic in your hands.

But because everyone I know who has read it has cried bucketloads.

It’s a wonderfully touching story of love and dealing with loss. Conor’s mother has been undergoing treatment for cancer, which has been going on so long 13-year-old Conor is used to putting himself to bed, making his own lunch, taking responsibility for getting all his homework done. But everyone at school knows he is the boy whose mother is going to die. And everyone treats him differently because of it.

Conor has another secret, but this time it’s one that not everyone knows. He has a terrifying monster who visits him regularly. But as Conor tells the monster that a monster that looks like a tree is really the least of his problems.

As his situation becomes increasingly desperate it is to the terrifying monster he turns for answers.

The craftsmanship of the storytelling draws you right up to the edge with Conor, desperately wanting someone to come in and take away his pain. His loneliness. His terror.

Written for children, Patrick Ness completed the story from an original idea from the brilliant writer Siobhan Dowd, who died of breast cancer at the age of 47 before completing her fifth novel. It has deservedly been snowballing prizes and nominations for top children's book awards, including for the illustrations by Jim Kay – a children's illustrator and was previously Assistant Curator for the Illustrations Collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

It’s such a beautiful and powerful and poignant story and is really, really worth a read. Just have tissues handy. Have several. This one should come with an emotional health warning.

Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans 10.99

There is nothing like a really quirky mystery when you are looking for some fun bedtime reading with your children.

The opening of a mysterious money box and a cache of old threepenny bits is the start of a magical adventure for Stuart Horten (10, but looks younger).

Stuart has just moved to a new town with his crossword-puzzle-compiler father, and busy working mother and longs for his old friends. What he has is next door’s nosy triplet girls (April, May and June – tall with glittery hairclips and a love of investigative journalism), who quiz him about everything and dog his every step.

What Stuart doesn’t know is that he is on the brink of solving a mystery that has been covered up for years. He is soon on the trail of a mysterious ancestor and an even stranger mythical magic workshop and must work through a series of puzzles and clues – to find the truth, and of course, discover the workshop before the baddie gets there first.

Lovely illustrations – great cover. The compact gift format of this book is part of its delight. I could not have been more pleased when this was on the Costa shortlist of the children’s book of the year as I thought something that such good clean, nostalgic fun would surely get overlooked for all the big prizes.

Old fashioned storytelling at its very best.

Review: To A Mountain In Tibet

2012-01-11T10:07:00.009Z

John Lewis refers to it as 'edited choice': a curated sub-selection of products, presented to customers in a way that delights. There are tens of thousands of books published every month, a figure rising rapidly in the digital arena, and the ability to offer expertise and appropriate recommendations, to attenuate the more 'enthusiastic' blurbs and to momentarily tune out the clamoring of desperate online marketing is becoming ever more critical.

It seems that the independent booksellers who are surviving and even thriving do this better than anyone else - and it's certainly what we aspire to (however, note to self: "must do better in 2012"). Strip out the events, blog posts and tweets, and underneath it all is a passion for "bringing you only the best" (as booksellers Magrudy's would say).

This sets a very high bar. You get close to the nerve-shredding world of the restaurateur, where one duffer meal means you'll never see a customer again. But possibly the worst feeling is that you have 'missed' a book. Suddenly everyone is talking about it, and you didn't see it coming.

Because it's impossible to read everything that is published, you get to rely on your bookselling 'intelligence network'. We have a superb one, which sits on the shoulders of publishers, reps, reviewers, other booksellers - and ultimately customers. One of the many and best privileges of running a bookshop is the sheer number of people you get to talk to about books and authors. Over time, you begin to develop an intuitive feel of 'the best of the best' - and author Colin Thubron definitely sits in that category.

'To A Mountain In Tibet' came out last year in hardback, and I meant to get around to reading it (along with the hundred or so other books that fit into that category). The intelligence network was giving out plenty of strong signals (not least bookseller Patrick Neale who flagged it as one of his books of the year). I finally read it just before Christmas, and it's a book that has got under my skin in a totally unexpected way.

In one way, this book is easy to describe: one of the great travel writers makes the pilgrimage to Mount Kailas, possibly the most sacred mountains on Earth. But the book is such an intensely personal account of the journey, that at times you feel Colin wrote it with no readership in mind. The elements that he weaves together - the punishing and at times brutal nature of the pilgrimage, the despair and poverty of the people he meets, the legacy of Chinese rule, are grimly painted on with broad brush strokes, and the central story never wavers too far from the author's own experience. This works brilliantly, and places you right there on the scree paths, at times gasping for air as the path climbs ever higher.

Mount Kailas is sacred to one-fifth of the world's population, and is believed to be the residence of Lord Shiva. It has never been climbed. Thousands of people make the pilgrimage every year, circumambulating the mountain clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on thousand year-old traditions of the four religions.

The pilgrimage starts with plenty of descriptions of Nepal, anxiety of crossing into Tibet, the poverty and reality of the people that Colin meets and spends time with. His writing style - familiar to his other books - is one of particular empathy with the people that he meets, and divining the family situations of the houses he stays in allows Colin to give a snapshot of the day-to-day reality of life in both countries.

As the book progresses however, the writing – like the air through which he ascends – becomes more rarified, and themes become much more finely honed. At one point he draws attention to the physical price he’s paying as he ascends into thinner air (Thubron is over 70). Old injuries are remembered, nagging at him like old adveriseries, but we slowly become aware of a more profound incident from his younger days. This personal tragedy - of which we learn only the merest of details - is resolved, in a manner of speaking, a few pages from the end of the book, in just a handful of sentences. It’s possibly one of the most moving things I’ve ever read, and with great skill and absolute respect he manages to weave this into the mythology and significance of where he is and the journey he is taking.

It's tempting to believe Thubron had a profound spiritual experience at the height of the ‘prama’, but if he did, it was a very British one, in keeping with his character, but nonetheless as touching and moving as if he had been prostrating himself at intervals as other pilgrims do.

Colin keeps the writing at a dizzying quality throughout, and the descriptions of landscape, religions, history and individuals demands effort, but conjures up lucidly this moonscape at 18,000ft. The area around Mount Kailas does indeed feel like you are on another planet. Peppered throughout is matter-of-fact descriptions of the consequences of Chinese actions over the 50 years of occupation. The destruction of holy sites during the Cultural Revolution dwarfs anything the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

(Incidentally, this book does not make you want to visit Tibet, but I did guiltily log on to Google Earth and overfly the mountain (something I heartily recommend doing thanks to the improvements in recent technology). As you zoom in on the grey and brown blasted landscapes you do feel as as if you have walked along the sides of the mountains.)

The book ends abruptly. He turns for home with the other pilgrims, changed. As will you. It's a book that you will read in an afternoon, but if you're receptive, it will stay with you for a long, long time.

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('To A Mountain In Tibet' is published by Vintage, out now in paperback, £8.99. To receive a copy of the paperback, together with a copy of Mark's review, please click on the link below)

It's beginning to look a lot like Hugless...

2011-12-15T23:43:00.001Z

When you come into Mostly Books, there are a few 'signature' books, ranges and authors that people have got to know us for over the years. Our Persephone Books have been a feature of the shop since we opened, and favourite authors of the staff tend to do well on the shelves too: Reginald Hill, Neal Stephenson, Brandon Sanderson and a few others we have more than a soft spot for.

Amongst shrines to authors in the children's room, you'll find Catherine Rayner, Julia Donaldson - and local children's author David Melling.

We've known David for many years, and recent events with him have seen a drawing masterclass at the local library, and also a splendid make-your-own-Douglas event that took place in the courtyard garden. But what has been really exciting is to see how 'Douglas' has really taken off and quickly won a place as a modern classic, shortlisted for plenty of awards, even spawning a hugely popular and pioneering smartphone app (itself up for awards).

Douglas has featured rather largely in the shop window for the last few months:

Hodder have done a great job turning Hugless into a very cute plush together with the book. Just look at his little nose and scarf:

David recently came into the shop to kindly sign copies of his books for us, and we took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his writing (and drawing) life...

Five questions with . . . David Melling's writing life

1. What are you working on at the moment?

'We love you Douglas' the fourth Douglas book, then I’m taking a break from Douglas. I’m then working on a new character, not entirely sure of his name, but probably called ‘Warren’. It’s going to bit more slapstick humour than Douglas, a bit of a change of pace. The feedback from my publisher in terms of what they like about my work is my characters: they like the pathos, humour and the strength of character – and Warren will focus on all of these elements.

2. What is the best writing tip you've ever been given?

I think my knee-jerk response to that question is: do a little each day. It’s very important. Kids often ask me ‘how do you do that?’ when I draw, and it all comes down to a little each day. It’s like learning to play a musical instrument or a sport. You don’t pick up your tennis racquet one day and be volleying, hitting winning shots the next. The more you practice the better you get, and that’s the same with drawing and writing.

3. What's the best and worst thing about being a children's writer?

The best thing is to be able to sit down and write and draw all day long. I’m very lucky, and there is nothing better. The worst aspect is towards the end of a project however, you do long and unusual hours, you neglect your family. That can be tough.

4. Do you have a writer's survival kit?

Well, I did hear that Andrew Motion finds Lemsip gets him all creative, and Agatha Christie apparently used to bathe in a hot bath with apples, and the aroma inspired her! If I’m stuck, I’ll go for a walk, or drive, in fact – just get moving. I find train journeys are very useful in that regard. I do a lot of work in coffee shops, just doodling when ideas come. I always have a sketchbook on me, and so can always write stuff down.

The cartoonist James Thurber once said the hardest part of his job was convincing his wife that when he was standing and staring out the window he was actually hard at work. And that’s true. When I’m sitting and staring out of the window, having a meditative moment, that’s when ideas come. It links back to the joy of the job, at any point – whatever I’m doing – I can pull back from reality a little, and dip into the writing well.

5. What was your big breakthrough?

I had two big breakthroughs. The first was in my 20s, when I was introduced to an illustrator who lived a couple of streets away. I was very lucky, and for a year I apprenticed to him, and was able to build up a portfolio. If you have the opportunity to apprentice to someone great, it’s very fortunate, and a wonderful opportunity - but to find someone nearby in the same town was incredibly lucky.

Breakthrough number two was whilst working at an animation studio. I had been building my portfolio up, and realised that my big passion was children’s books. At the time I made this decision and starting to look around, I was introduced to someone who had just set up on her own as an agent, and was looking for clients. It was perfect timing, and although it took almost two years to get published, having guidance within the industry was incredibly useful. I’m happy to say that – nearly twenty years later – she is still my agent!

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For more insights into David's writing life, visit his rather splendid website here. And if you are a young fan of Douglas, you can vote for him in the Red House Children's Book Awards here. And of course, we have signed copies of Douglas (including rarely signed copies with the plush) in the shop. Just email books@mostly-books.co.uk if we can send you a last minute, rather special Christmas present...

Fake penguins

2011-12-13T12:27:00.000Z

At Mostly Books we pride ourselves on our stock selection - and more importantly, that what we sell is up to our high quality threshold (particularly at this time of the year). What we would hate to happen is to recommend a book to a customer that turned out to be not quite what they were expecting.

So all the fuss about the BBC's Frozen Planet and possible faking of scenes is a bit of a concern. We have copies of Frozen Planet in the shop, and so this morning I went and inspected a copy to see if I could make out any hint that photographs in this gorgeously produced book have in any way been faked.

However, after taking it off the shelf and inspecting it more closely, I found this picture on pages 57-58). On the face of it - a touching encounter between the baby polar bears, their Mum - and a penguin. But look more closely:

Real or fake? The BBC need to be asked some very searching questions...you be the judge...

Turning Real-Life Stories into Books - with added imagination from Frank Cottrell Boyce

2011-12-07T10:26:00.002Z

What if you had a car that could fly? What would you do if you found a bag full of money?

The imaginations of more than 200 schoolchildren from more than five Abingdon schools were given a jump start on Wednesday Nov 30 as they listened to multi award-winning children’s author Frank Cottrell Boyce talk about the inspiration behind his books.

Frank read from his latest novel ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again’ and told how the roots of the story grew from real life.

Ian Fleming is well known as being the creator of James Bond, but fewer people know that he was the creator of the original children’s story ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ . Even fewer would have known that the story was inspired by a real car.

Ian Fleming saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang race when he was a young boy – and that memory came back to him when - convalescing from a heart attack - it formed the inspiration behind his only children’s book.

Frank Cottrell Boyce told the amazing story of a rich count who came into his money very young and spent his money on things most children couldn’t even dream of. Things like a full-size train track in his grounds to race trains, and putting a zeppelin engine in a car - the original Chitty - to race it at Brooklands (it could go over 100mph).

Frank Cottrell Boyce’s first books are all based on what children would do when placed in extraordinary situations. ‘Millions’ is about what a couple of boys decide to do when they find a huge amount of money. And ‘Cosmic’ is about a 12-year-old boy who looks much older and gets mistaken for an adult.

These stories have been loved by children, turned into films, and means Frank Cottrell Boyce has been on every major award for children’s writing.

In Frank Cottrell Boyce’s ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again’ – the original Chitty’s engine is reassembled (without the family’s knowledge) inside a camper van. So when they set off, their trip around the world is like no other.

Frank also shared loads of stories and advice about how simple things can become stories if you add a lot of imagination and a little magic – and talked about all the things that inspired him to become a children’s writer.

He knew he wanted to be a writer from when he was at school and a teacher read out something he’d written to make a friend laugh – and he made the whole class laugh.

‘I learned that if you choose words in the right order people will laugh even if you’re not there in person. Someone could be laughing at the same thing even all the way in China. Writing is like having a superpower.’

His incredible talk ended with so many hands bristling with energetic questions for the author he could have been there all day.

Note to other booksellers: If you’re going to organise a big author event involving lots of schools – don’t organise it on a day when there is a big strike on and lots of schools are going to be closed.

But do organise it with author Frank Cottrell Boyce. Because even if the whole event has hung in the balance – it can still turn out to be a tremendous day that makes several sleepless nights truly worthwhile.

A huge thank you for all the schools and teachers who turned out in force to keep the event going.

And a big thank you to everyone who came to the shop to meet Frank at Mostly Books afterwards. Particularly to Jo and Rosie Caulkin who travelled from Birmingham to meet him.

Five questions with . . . Frank Cottrell Boyce's writing life
1. What are you working on at the moment

'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 2' (looks nervously at his editor sitting across the table from us). No, of course, that's finished. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 3!

2. What is the best writing tip you've ever been given?

Read, read, read.

3. What's the best and worst thing about being a children's writer?

The best thing is the contact with children. Watching them meeting an author, getting questions. It's very real, very visceral. The worst thing is that, you do so many events that you end up having no time to write. You can't do events half-heartedly, every event I do I put everything into, I don't want to let anyone down.

4. Do you have a writer's survival kit?

No - nothing. My house is so busy, and I am so busy, I write anywhere, at any opportunity. Edith Nesbit (and also PG Wodehouse) used to write at parties. In fact, that's a great tip for writers: learn to write at parties!

5. What was your biggest breakthrough?

I had written the script for ‘Millions’, and Danny Boyle told me "I'll do the film, but you must write the book". And that was the nudge I needed. I think writers need to have other people give them a shove to get a book out there.

Abingdon Christmas Extravaganza - and a smiley snowman

2011-11-30T22:50:00.003Z

November is over. Tomorrow night is the annual Abingdon Extravaganza, parade, Christmas lights switch-on and fireworks. This year there will be entertainment in the market square, and hopefully the temperature will be slightly warmer than last year when some of the band musical instruments froze...not to mention one or two Cubs and Brownies.

We spent Sunday doing our Christmas window, and very festive it looks too. Someone came into the shop this evening asking "where did you get your snowman". She was gutted when she learned it had been made for us...

He is a very smiley snowman, and he has been making a lot of people - young and old - smile.

And here he is at night. Aaah.

If you come into the shop, take a look at this utterly gorgeous nativity set from German toy company HABA. Designed to be a family heirloom, and drawing on a German tradition of lovely wooden, handcrafted nativity sets, this does have a wonderful wow-factor. £99 - but we are selling it for £87.99...

The parade starts at 6.45pm, with fireworks scheduled for (approx) 8.30pm. And this Saturday it's a special Christmas shopping day in Abingdon, and all the car parks will be free...

The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce

2011-11-27T22:00:00.000Z

“We see the world clearly when we're children, and spend the rest of our lives trying to remember what it is we saw” – Garrison Keillor

Cosmic was the first book I read by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It was on the shortlist for the Carnegie award in 2009, and that year – for the first time ever – I read all the books on the list. It was a strong list that year: Eoin Colfer, Siobhan Dowd, Kevin Brooks, Patrick Ness. But for sheer comic exuberance, and a fantastically imagined story (and me being a sucker for anything to do with space flight), it was easily my favourite.

Cosmic features the exceptionally tall Liam Digby, who – through a series of unlikely events somehow rendered plausible in Boyce’s story – gets mistaken for an astronaut and sent into space.

The inspiration for the exceptionally tall Liam was a boy at a school in Bootle, Merseyside, near to where Frank lives, and the school where he first sat in front of children as part of an author event. The school has influenced Frank (and his stories) in other ways, but the subject of his latest book The Unforgotten Coat takes as its inspiration (clearly the wrong word) a sadder episode from the school.

The story centres around Julie, in her final year at primary school, full of confidence, and on the cusp of stepping out into a wider world. But into her class come two brothers, immigrants from Mongolia – Chingis and Nergui – who not so much turn her world upside down, but make her realise that she only has a grasp of a very small part of it. Wilful, intransigent and full of sinister stories of a demon trying to ‘vanish’ his younger brother (possibly by eating him), Chingis picks Julie to be their ‘Good Guide’ – and she in turns seeks to understand more about their country and culture.

Initially the strangeness of the boys actions put everyone on the wrong foot, including their nomadic wanderings around Bootle, and even turning up and demanding ‘emergency baking’ privileges at Julie’s house. Julie initially wants to assimilate elements of Chingis and Nergui’s world, and thereby enter a Xanadu of strange Mongolian myth and folklore. But when the truth of their lives becomes evident, and Julie starts sorting myth from reality, she is forced to intervene and act beyond her age, something which has dramatic consequences for everyone.

Whether or not you cotton on quickly to the reality of the boy’s lives, or even spot the heartbreaking twist towards the end, is immaterial – this is a book for young children after all. What Frank does so masterfully in The Unforgotten Coat is take you completely into a world as seen through the eyes of the child protagonists. The design of the book works completely to support this, looking and feeling like a school exercise book, complete with pasted-in polaroid photographs. The last aspect comes courtesy of a collaboration between photographers Carl Hunter and Clare Heney. The effect works beautifully, and I genuinely can't see this book having the same emotional impact in a digital format.

In all his writing – including his earlier books Framed and Millions – Boyce lets stories unravel through the eyes and imaginations of children. Crucially, he always explores the way imagination can influence reality in profound ways.

This is a theme Frank is passionate about, as anyone who has ever heard him speak or met him will testify. Last weekend, Boyce was (by all accounts) the star turn at the British SCWBI conference in Winchester, sharing anecdotes, inspiring writers and reading liberally from E Nesbit, quoting Richmal Crompton and other authors who bring this quality to their writing.

The Unforgotten Coat is a simple story, and although it is streaked through with sadness, it nevertheless ends on an uplifting note. The message is one of tolerance, mutual respect, and the importance of seeing the world in a different way. These messages can be found in plenty of other children's books, but not perhaps in such a simple and elegant way.

The book has been deservedly shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book of the Year - although my loyalties are slightly torn between this and Lissa Evans' Small Change for Stuart. Together with Morris Gleitzman's Too Small to Fail and Andy Briggs' Tarzan, these are my favourite children's books of the year.

Frank Cottrell Boyce has had a busy year - and 2012 will only get busier. Having also released Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again (the officially-commissioned sequel to Ian Fleming's original) Frank is also about to enter a two-month writing 'purdah' to script (together with filmmaker and long-time collaborator Danny Boyle) the entire opening ceremony of the London Olympics. No pressure then.

If you ever get a chance to meet Frank, or listen to him speak, please try to do so. He is truly inspirational, and already one of our greatest children's authors.

Frank will be at Mostly Books this Wednesday, 30th November at 1pm, for one hour only, to meet customers and sign copies of Chitty and The Unforgotten Coat. This will be his last public event before his Olympic writing duties, and our last public event of the year. It's a slightly crazy day on Wednesday, what with the possibility of disruption to the school timetable, but if - unexpectedly, at short notice - you find yourself able to come down to the the shop and give him a big welcome to Abingdon, we would be delighted to see you.

More details can be found here. And we would also be delighted to reserve a signed copy of his book if you cannot make it, and would like one as a gift. Please let us know.

Regards - Mark

P.S. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again is as much a sequel to the film as to the book, which is just as well, as this is a fun, frenetic romp of a story in which the Tooting family stick a huge engine into a VW Camper Van, which then develops a mind of its own. Flying (literally) between England, Paris, Egypt and Madagascar, and involving a truly sinister and scary baddy (Tiny Jack - a worthy equal to the childsnatcher) this is an action-packed thrilling story that I heartily recommend for ages 8-11. And a sequel is on its way...

Hard Times, Great Expectations

2011-11-17T16:53:00.000Z

In October 1843, a 31-year old author had an idea for a book which he believed would 'strike a sledge hammer blow' for the poor. Despite some early success, he was not doing well as a writer. The 1840s were a time of severe economic downturn in England, and his books had not been selling well.

But the economic situation was taking a far worse toll on the poor, exacerbating their already desperate living conditions. Starving to death was not uncommon. This was the Autumn of 1843, and Engels was in Manchester observing at first-hand the horrors of poverty and child labour. What he wrote as a result of what he saw continues to impact societies across the globe.

The struggling author had also visited Manchester, and the story which came to him - and which he composed "entirely in my head" - was a direct result of that visit. He felt the same anger as Engels, but he focused his anger into fiction. The book was written, illustrated and rushed into print on December 19 1843, sold 6,000 copies in the six days before Christmas, and has since gone on to become one of our most enduring works of fiction.

Much of our attitude towards Christmas - its imagery and traditions - can be traced back to Charles Dickens and "A Christmas Carol". When one thinks of the prevailing 'spirit' of Christmas, of hope, joy, thinking of others - these are all messages that spring readily from Dickens' tale.

It's entirely appropriate, therefore, that two books on Dickens are near the top of our Christmas newsletter - the annual gathering together, by everyone at Mostly Books, of all the titles and gifts that we think you should consider for friends and family this Christmas.

February is the 200th anniversary of Dickens' birth - and Claire Tomalin's masterful biography is published in anticipation of that - along with many other titles scheduled throughout 2010. Dickens has plenty of advice for the hard times we currently face, incidentally.

We are biased of course, and we believe books make wonderful gifts. But whether you are buying books for others or yourselves this Christmas, we urge you to "make time for books". Turn off your gadgets, clear some time for you and your family, and approach a book with great expectations for providing some solutions to current problems you may face.

And we are here to help. Please just ask.

Steve Jobs of the Renaissance? Keith Devlin's 'The Man of Numbers'

2011-11-11T11:20:00.000Z

At the start of "The Man of Numbers", the subject of the book - Leonardo of Pisa - is compared to a pre-Renaissance Steve Jobs. Gratuitous and opportunistic? Not really. It's a clever - even canny - comparison admittedly, but spot on. Leonardo of Pisa is better known to us as 'Fibonacci' (a nicknamed coined by a 19th century historian), and as Keith Devlin rather skilfully explains in this beatifully produced book, he took a number system in existence for more than 700 years, optimised it for merchants, made it more user-friendly - and in doing so transformed the world.

The bare facts are these: the Hindu-Arabic number system has been existence for hundreds of years, but in medieval Europe it was of academic interest only, and everyone else got on with roman numberals and the abacus. Calculations - particularly for commerce - were carried out using arcane methods fiercely guarded by calculators, and a lot of trust was involved (no records of any of the working, you see?). Add to the fact that at that time there were a multitude of weights, measures, currencies and you get an idea of the complexities of trade.

Leonardo grew up as the son of a wealthy trader in Pisa, who thus had the education, the experience (through travelling in North Africa) and the opportunity to observe the power of the 'new math' at first hand, and realise the potential for simplifying trade. It is a measure of the ubiquity of the Hindu-Arabic system ("the only global language") that Devlin has to work hard to make us understand the profound implications of using base 10 numbers, of number placement, and of the 'tricks' that can be done to do complex calculations.

Leonardo's publication of Liber abbaci ("The Book of Calculation") was an immediate success, and its focus on being a teaching aid (with plenty of worked examples) ensured its widespread copying and dissemination. The impact was dramatic and rapid. Despite initial resistance to the number system (you can imagine the power-position that existing calculators occupied and their Luddite response) its potential to manage increased complexity meant the new maths was unstoppable, and led to developments in trading, banking, ledger-keeping, and more complex companies based on pooled capital or 'shares'. This was something that turbo-charged Italy's place as the centre of global commerce.

The fact that history has forgotten Leonardo (Fibonacci comes from the moniker 'Fils Bonacci', or son of the Bonacci family) is both surprising and intriguing, although Devlin does some superb detective work to make plausible suggestions of why this was. It provides a primer on the history of mathematics and numbers, pre-eminent Muslim scholars, pre-Renaissance Italian politics and business, medieval manuscript hunting and even the impact of the printing press.

It must be said, "there is maths in this book". This requires some engagement from the reader, and at least one chapter will require you to put aside any school-era squeamishness to see the examples that would have had such a big impact. But it's worth it. And I think Mr Jobs would have been flattered by the comparison. Although there is a little sting in the tale: in an era before the printing press, widespread copying of the original manuscript - and an explosion of copycat publications - ensured that Leonardo all but disappeared from the historical record, and his only recently (through painstaking computer-aided analysis) been returned to his rightful place.
Republished again in Italian only in the 1800s, with an English language translation only published in 2002, the rescuing of Fibonnacci’s reputation and standing in the development of maths has been a long time coming. With this book, there is a hope that a much wider audience will learn about - and appreciate - what Leonardo of Pisa achieved.

One enchanting evening: Kevin Crossley-Holland

2011-10-22T18:37:00.000+01:00

It is doubtful to be able to think of another writer writing today who celebrates so wholly, the long traditions of story-telling, as Kevin Crossley-Holland.

At an event hosted jointly by the Oxford Children’s Book Group and Oxford Brookes, Kevin Crossley-Holland, who has recently published an autobiography of his childhood, described his journey to becoming a writer.

He places its origins not simply down to sharing stories of myths and folk tales with his father, but also to a love of history – which fired him up as a boy, to transform his garden shed into a museum. People brought him artefacts discovered locally or from home. And his grandfather had collected treasures that were so precious he had offers from the British Museum.

It was an accident which closed the door to a possible sporting career, resulting in a lot of time recuperating, that than transformed his studies into a proper appreciation and a love of language – particularly Anglo-Saxon.

One of his first works was a translation of Beowolf (he started writing poetry in his youth), which he started when at Oxford University.

But a full-time writing career didn’t beckon until two mentors he had met in Oxford, encouraged his decision to give up his job in publishing to research and write a book of Norse myths.

And those mentors were JRR Tolkien and WH Auden.

Of course he has gone on to not only be shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, but to be the only writer ever to have won with a book for younger readers ‘Storm’. He called for the judging criteria to be split, as so many novels published are for older readers, meaning primary school teachers are left lamenting the fact that there is never room for the best writing for younger readers.

But even all this did not make it easy for Kevin Crossley-Holland to write the book he is best known for his King Arthur trilogy, which starts with ‘The Seeing Stone’. This was a project he had thought about and planned for years but could not find a way to approach, until he was commissioned to write it and had already spent his advance before he started to do the actual writing.

Here, he gave an insight into his writing life. Answers are under our own noses, he said and offered plenty of tips about how to approach work, how to get inspiration and ideas, and how to weave your own knowledge and research into a narrative world children can enter.

Why should our first thoughts be the best, says the author, who spends about 40% of a book’s journey in the planning, thinking and getting to know a character, then about 20% of the time in rapid writing and about the last 40% in drafting and revising.

In answer to a question about whether he could put his finger on why stories were so important, the author was in no doubt. He believes it is important for children to know stories because is that it is part of a genetic heritage. This is why we are so able to suspend our disbelief, because it is through stories that we learn to be human, to feel sympathy, joy, or excitement for another person – through reading about what happens to a character we learn empathy.

Five questions with . . . glimpses of Kevin Crossly-Holland’s writing life

1 What are you working on at the moment?

I am completing the second in the Viking trilogy ‘Scramasax’. I always write poetry. And I am going to do a picture book with Jane Ray about Vivaldi.

2 What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?

It is a job of work and a matter of getting down to it and not waiting for inspiration. It’s all about thinking of writing as a discipline. It’s also about going that extra mile – writing something and thinking even as you write it that it won’t wash – you have to take risks and go for it. Actually, I am better at doling out tips than receiving them.

3 What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?

It is probably having children writing to you, sometimes even long after they read something, and tell you that something you’ve written really counted. That and the smiling faces of children when you meet them. There really isn’t a worst. It is a gloriously rewarding job.

4 Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing of snack essential before you can start work?

Well I am extremely pernickety and I go around my study tidying imaginary things away and checking that my pens have got a refill and just about anything to defer starting work.

5 What was your biggest breakthrough?

In terms of critical esteem is was ‘Storm’ (which won the Carnegie Medal) and in terms of sales it is the Arthur trilogy, which has been translated into 25 languages.

Dinosaurs, doggy paws, shark-phobia, Helliconia: The Kennington Literary Festival 2011

2011-10-18T10:16:00.001+01:00

This was our third year as bookseller for the small but perfectly formed Kennington Literary Festival, a fantastic little festival which springs out of the passionate and thriving community surrounding Kennington Library - given added poignancy this year by the threats to the library's existence.

This year the festival welcomed the widest possible range of authors, from first time novelists to literary legends, poets, illustrators and local celebrities.

Newly-installed Oxford City Poet Kate Clanchy read poems, and extracts from her memoir Antigona and Me, in which Kate writes about the deepening friendship between her and a Kosovan immigrant whom she employed as a cleaner, and who becomes her friend. Kate uses her own story to explore many aspects of immigration, heimat and our treatment of immigrants in this country. We were also very pleased to have copies of the superb collection of science-inspired short stories she edited: Litmus (we have both books in the shop, and can really recommend them both).

In the main hall, Winnie The Witch illustrator extraordinaire Korky Paul sketched dinosaur portraits and read from the original Winnie book (25 years old next year). Korky also announced and presented prizes to a story and illustration competition held in the run-up to the Festival.

Science Fiction legend Brian Aldiss talked about his life in writing, and also discussed Oxford as a centre for fantasy fiction, in conversation with fantasy author Juliet McKenna.

I was very excited to meet Brian, whose books I consumed voraciously at school and university, and felt particularly privileged to discuss his views on the future of manned spaceflight for a few minutes whilst he signed. Brian was born in 1925, won a short story competition in the Observer in 1955, and then went on to become one of the true greats of Science Fiction - and definitely the grandmaster described on his website. He is also an accomplished poet and (exhibited) artist.

He and Juliet were heading off to the Cheltenham Festival that afternoon, and had other events lined up the following day. Truly inspiring.

A change of tack in the afternoon. Local authors Margaret Pelling and Frank Egerton spoke about their novels Diamond in the Sky and Invisible respectively. MG Harris talked about her bestselling books for confident readers The Joshua Files (and gave news of next year's final installment, with its sexy black cover).

Bill Heine was utterly compelling in talking about 25 years of the Headington Shark. Never heard of the Headington Shark? I'll bet this looks familiar:

The shark celebrated its 25th birthday in August, and Bill has published the definitive account of its history. Bill is a local celebrity and broadcaster on BBC Radio Oxford who, I think it's fair to say, divides opinion. The same can be said of the shark, whose arrival in 1986 on a well-to-do suburban street (an artistic response to the threat of nuclear war) caused all kinds of conflicts, court battles and ultimately led to a ruling from the then home secretary which has had implications for planning laws ever since.

It is frankly an incredible story, particularly concerning the court battles that Bill lost time and again (comprehensively, expensively) and yet the shark survived. Bill is a master storyteller, holding his audience rapt (albeit running out of time). The book has been beautifully produced by OxfordFolio and is a work of art itself, and of course we have signed copies in the shop...

After the authors had signed books and met fans, the local author and journalist Helen Peacocke led a local walk to tie in with her latest dog-friendly walking guide "Paws Along The Way".

Kennington has a very family-friendly reputation. The Friends of Kennington Library laid on tea, coffee and cake (amongst other refreshments) and lots of volunteers gave up a very sunny October Saturday to ensure the event was a big success. Thanks to them, to the authors - and thanks for inviting us to take part too.

Book frenzy week!

2011-10-10T22:12:00.000+01:00

It’s been a week of hurtling through book-related celebrations that has left us feeling exhilarated at so much enthusiasm for books, exhausted – and suffering from a severe case of bookshop envy.

Recovering as we were from the previous week’s excitement with Cathy Cassidy – and Our Lady’s school in Abingdon hosting their first book festival (with more than an author a day visiting the school) – on Thursday we were up and ready to run a bookstall for the Oxfordshire Book Award ceremony – 300 children, 5 authors and a lot of cake.

With only about half an hour to transform a school dining room into a book buying and signing palace, it was a race against time to deliver, unload and unpack 25 boxes of specially chosen titles – from all the current new crop of interesting writers, bestsellers – but, primarily titles from no fewer than five guest authors at the Oxfordshire Book Award ceremony.

The Oxfordshire Book Award is run among primary and secondary schools in Oxfordshire with the aim of encouraging reading and lively debate about reading. And if the enthusiasm for book buying is any sort of gauge of success – all this encouragement has definitely created a severe case of bookitis among all the pupils who attended.

There was certainly a lively enough atmosphere as we served up books at the same time as the children were served up afternoon tea refreshments at Abingdon School, following an afternoon of listening to the guest speakers. There was a chance for children to meet some of the prize-winning authors, as well as guest authors Jo Cotterill, SL Powell and Sally Nicholls.

Award-winning author Malorie Blackman (winner of Secondary School Category for ‘Boys Don’t Cry’) was kept busy signing and meeting her fans.

Axel Scheffler, best-known as illustrator of The Gruffalo, won Best Picture Book (Primary School Category) for ‘Zog’, and the queues for him didn’t die down until everyone had to be dragged back to school for the end of the day.

The awards are judged by children across schools in Oxfordshire. They also picked Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Shadow’ as the winner of the Primary Book award.

Our sincere thanks to Gabby, Jo and Sally for their assistance in manning the bookstall. I don’t suspect for a minute they knew what they were letting themselves in for, but it was too late to prepare them when someone suddenly yelled ‘they’re coming’ and the next 40 minutes went by in a blur of recommending titles and scrabbling to find enough one pound coins.

The atmosphere wasn’t much less frantic at the opening of Barefoot Books in Summertown (piccies below).

The whole place is enticing enough to host a children’s party, let alone some storytelling. It’s a beautiful space for selling books.

It’s wonderful to be able to add Barefoot to the list of Oxfordshire booksellers and we hope their incredible programme of events means many people will make the trip to Summertown and fall in love with Barefoot Books.

We were lucky enough to grab a little time with two of the authors on Thursday – our thanks to Sally Nicholls and Jo Cotterill.

Five questions with . . . Sally Nicholl’s writing life

Sally Nicholls is the author of two books. 'Ways to Live Forever' is about a boy with leukaemia, and won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize. It is currently being translated into sixteen languages. 'Season of Secrets' is based on the pagan myth of the green man.

1. What are you working on at the moment?

I am trying to put together a submission for my next book. I am at a really very early stage with putting together my ideas and it might be a ghost story. I’ve also been commissioned to write two books for Barrington Stoke, who publish books for reluctant readers.

2. What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?

To learn from writers that you love, but not to try to write the same book as they would write – that way your book will only ever be second rate. You have to write the book that only you can write. You have to write about the things you love.

Also – that the first draft won’t be any good, but that is a good thing. A first draft can be as rubbish as you like and this is a positive thing because what’s important is that you have got it written and can start to work on it.

3. What is the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?

The thing that I like is that you have a lot more freedom. You can write a realistic book and a historical book and they will sit together on a bookshelf. What I don’t like is the fact that a book takes so long to write, it takes several years to finish a book and you are on your own in front of a computer.

4. Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing or snack essential before you can start work?

I am definitely a procrastinator, I always think a cup of tea would be nice, so for me it helps if I am somewhere else – someone where I know I am there because I am supposed to be writing. I like best to be writing with other people. Getting two or three people together in the same room who are supposed to be writing really works for me because you don’t want to be the one who’s not writing.

5. What was your biggest breakthrough?

It never really felt like I had a breakthrough, more a series of stages. Firstly, getting on an MA course, finding an agent, then a publisher. I had five publishers interested in my first book, so probably my biggest breakthrough was when a publisher actually said they would pay me some actual money. That meant I was able to write and just work part-time three days a week.

Five questions with . . . Jo Cotterill’s writing life

Joanna Kenrick published her first book, Moondance, a picture book for young children, in 2004. Since then, she has published many different books for teenagers and young people, including her young adult novel Red Tears, a story about a teenage girl who turns to self-harm. She also writes a series of books for 9-13s called Sweet Hearts under the name Jo Cotterill.

1. What are you working on at the moment?

Book 6 in the Sweet Hearts series, which will be the last Sweet Hearts book! It’s due out in June 2012 and is about a synchronised swimmer competing in the Olympics.

2. What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?

Read, read, read

Write, write, write

I can’t remember who said it, but, to me, it sums up everything an aspiring writer needs to know.

3. What is the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?

Best thing: being paid to make up stuff!

Worst thing: constant worry about money . . .

4. Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing or snack essential bfore you can start work?

Empty house! Absolutely essential!

5. What was your biggest breakthrough?

Getting an agent for my YA novel ‘Red Tears’. It was the first time I really believed I could have a career in writing.

Going Barefoot in Summertown

2011-10-08T12:16:00.001+01:00

Mostly Books were invited to a heaving Barefoot Books Friday evening, and their sublimely gorgeous new bookshop cum offices in Summertown, North Oxford:

It was packed. But I managed to squeeze into the corners for a few photos:

Barefoot had put on quite a show, with a true access-all-areas event. It's a bold move from the multi-award winning independent publisher: the building has been outfitted to an incredibly high standard, with offices, storytelling spaces, shop and café.

They will be running courses and workshops. With other publishers opening their own bookstores elsewhere in the UK (Persephone, Gallic Books) this is probably one important, albeit niche, future of high street bookselling.

As you would imagine with Barefoot, the wow-factor is high due the high quality of craftmanship throughout the building.

And I got to sit in the big storytelling chair at the end!

Mmm. Now I wonder where we get a chair like that from for our bookshop...

Marshmallow Skye: The Dreamy Cathy Cassidy

2011-09-29T18:43:00.000+01:00

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a 'thing' for Cathy Cassidy (well, not that I'm fessing up to on the blog, anyway). But I do use the term 'dreamy' deliberately, because if there is one thing that Cathy does a lot of, it's daydream. She cites it as one of the best things about being a children's writer (see below), she claims it to be a crucial element of her writing success - and she advised all the children to do it at a buzzing author event held at King Alfred's in Wantage on Tuesday.

This was maybe not want the teachers wanted to hear. She imagined daydreaming being on the timetable, or a special daydreaming room where children would lounge around on sofas and beanbags, in surrounding of calm and plush carpets, with the teachers bringing smoothies and chocolate-chip cookies.

The response from the children was, overall, fairly positive.

Cathy came to Wantage as part of a staggering 2 or 3 event-per-day, 17-day tour as part of the launch of the second book in her Chocolate Box Girls series Marshmallow Skye. The hall was packed with nearly 300 students, and many had come dressed as their favourite character from one of Cathy's books.

Cathy took time to explain about her life as a writer (shed at bottom of garden, as well as a story 'teepee' which looked very cool) and how she came to write. The young Miss Cassidy bombarded the girl's magazine Jackie with 'hundreds' of short stories, so passionate did she want her stories to be published, and so it was perhaps natural that here was where she found herself in her first job.

(Cathy encouraged the children to publish their own school magazine. She also said, if there was already a school magazine, they could start up a rival. So there may be a media boom at King Alfred's over the next few weeks).

Having talked about her writing and her books, she read an extract from Marshmallow Skye. It is no surprise to us at Mostly Books why Cathy is so popular amongst her readers (which, for the Chocolate Box series, is broadly 9-13). The things she writes about are central to the life of her readers: friendships, feelings and quite simply the dilemmas of that simple-sounding phrase "fitting in".

Cathy warned children to 'never trust an author' as they were always on the lookout for shiny things to steal (in the form of story ideas), and then several of the bravest (and I thought this was *very* brave) children who had dressed up performed in a fashion show, across the stage, with the winners receiving some suitably fab chocolatey prizes...

There were some *very* big Cathy Cassidy fans in the audience, who were very excited to queue up afterwards to get books signed.

King Alfred's went to herculean efforts to put on a fabulously-organised event, and our thanks to Cathy for braving a schedule that saw her in Cardiff the day before, and Sheffield that evening!

Cathy also kindly offered to answer a few questions for the blog...so here goes:

Five questions with... Cathy Cassidy's Writing Life

1      What are you working on at the moment?

I am currently working on the third book in the Chocolate Box series called "Summer's Dream". It's due out next June, and is about Skye's twin sister Summer.

2     What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?

Well, I try to share as many tips as I can in the 'Writing Workshop' section of my website, so definitely take a look at that. But I guess my best tip is to write about what you care about. It shows, it really does. I write about feelings, that's what matters to me. But it could be anything: dragons, vampires, fast cars, anything - as long as it's something you really care about. If you try to write for a gap in the market, children are so sharp, and they are so open and direct, they will realise pretty quickly. Also, if I didn't write what I cared about, I'd have got bored long ago. I wouldn't be able to sustain it over several books.

3     What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?

The very worst thing is deadlines, and keeping to them. I think as you become a more successful author, there is more of an expectation to have books published on a faster timescale. I often think I would like a parallel 'me' writing away, whilst the other 'me' is doing all the other things! I'm currently on a 17-day tour, with sometimes two or three events per day, and by the end of the day there is very little energy left to write. On the one day off I had though, I was writing!

4     Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing or snack essential before you can start work?

I write in a little shed in my garden, and in there I am surrounded by lots of nice things, things that only mean something to me, but which no-one else would give houseroom to! But the main thing for me is my laptop. Just before this tour, my laptop died. It was the middle of the night, I had a dreadful cold, and I had to drive the two hours to Glasgow, put my laptop in the Apple repair shop, get a replacement and start the tour.

I always have a notebook with me though, so that if anything comes to me I can jot it down. I guess the most important thing is just my head, for daydreaming. And luckily I always have my head with me!

5      What was your biggest breakthrough?

Difficult to say if there was a 'breakthrough' as such, although as soon as the books started to do well, that was very important. But really, it was from making my living as a journalist. My first proper job after leaving art college was on Jackie magazine, and although I started at the very bottom as office assistant, within two years I was fiction editor. This allowed me to discover just what kids like to read about, and how to write stories: how to hook a reader, how to edit stories, how to structure and illustrate them. All that knowledge was incredible. Once I left, I started with short stories (I still love to write short stories BTW - I have one coming out at Christmas) but gradually grew to write books. I love the space the longer format gives you to tell a story.

LGC: The Making of a Company

2011-09-26T21:34:00.000+01:00

Mostly Books was very proud to be the bookseller at the launch of Richard Worswick's business memoir "LGC: The making of a company" on September 8th. The book - launched just around the corner from LGC's London headquarters - is Abingdon-based Richard's account of the privatisation in 1996 of the Laboratory of the Government Chemist.

Richard - backed by 3i Group - made a successful competitive bid to purchase what was then a DTI government agency. During 10 years as chief executive, and later as deputy chairman, Richard developed LGC into a highly successful international company and in 2003 was awarded UK Entrepreneur of the Year for Business Products and Services.

Mostly Books has been involved during the book's production, and is distributing the book.

With endorsements from a number of important figures in the story of British privatisation over recent years, the book provides both an insider's account and a highly successful case study of privatisation - a controversial area and one that still sparks intense debate.

Present at the launch was the current CEO of LGC, David Richardson.

Also present were Richard’s successor as Government Chemist, Dr John Marriott, and the current Government Chemist, Dr Derek Craston.

Richard was able to talk to past and present LGC employees, and sign copies of the book.

Mostly Books has copies in the shop now - or learn more about the book on the official website (http://www.lgcthemakingofacompany.com/).

A master class in dealing with the undead

2011-09-15T10:42:00.003+01:00

If you ever felt you needed to be much better informed in how to deal with an unexpected rising from the undead, you could've been in no better place than Abingdon School on Wednesday September 14, in the company of children’s author, Charlie Higson.

There is a suspicion that all the children who are avid readers of his books were already several steps ahead and knew that zombies don’t like sunlight and in a tight spot the bit to go for is the brain.

In a whistle-stop tour of despatching the undead, Charlie gave enthusiastic demonstrations of beheading, and stakes through the heart (good against vampires), before describing how popular entertainment in the Victorian era involved electricity and trying to revive recently demised corpses. Vampires were also the stars of the Victorian stage as people flocked to pay to be terrified.

Charlie led an enthralled audience in two sessions to 600 pupils from 12 schools across Oxfordshire, through the long tradition of stories to scare yourself stupid – weaving strands that can be traced back to the romantic poets.

What might have been new to the audience is that scare-the-hell-out-of-you stories are now considered classics when originally all they were out to do was to shock you. He advised everyone to go and read Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’.

Charlie’s talk was also a romp through the origins of some classic literature – for example, did you know that the image of a modern vampire is very much based on ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ poet Lord Byron?

Now it all makes sense that they are beautiful, charismatic and swish about in capes and lordly robes.

Zombies are, however, a different matter. Zombies are dirty, smelly, shuffling about and grunting. Charlie writes about zombies, so zombies were very much the subject of the day – as was how you manage to get the correct level of terror, gore, body bits and flesh eating when your audience is children.

The premise of his horror action stories is that a disease has struck the planet and has killed everyone over the age of 14 – and those not killed outright have been turned into zombies. So all the children must fight for their survival while also trying not to get eaten.

Charlie Higson relishes the fact that with his ‘The Enemy’ series, he is taking on the sky-high challenge of making reading as compelling as watching television or playing computer games.

When he set out to write a new series for kids he went right back to the stories that really gripped him as a boy – setting himself the challenge to make a story that packed enough punch that children would remember it for life. And here are some suitable exercised fans from John Mason School:

His starting point was that if it’s not giving your children nightmares it’s not working, so there was much sympathy in the room for Charlie’s ten-year-old son. We heard of his sweat-drenched night terrors (although it was possibly his own fault for night after night telling his horror-writing father ‘oh that’s not scary’).

His son’s sacrifices are, however, benefiting legions of teenage boys and girls who are now craving their next fix of Higson-induced zombie terror. The latest – ‘The Fear’, is out today (Sep 15):

So should you be recommending all this horror to your children?

Charlie Higson is probably still best-known to adults for his comedy writing. His long apprenticeship as a writer, including writing for television, plus some early (really nasty) adult horror means his books are very well written.

He told the audience he had written six full-length novels as a teenage boy, long before he was to make his living as a writer. He takes a whole year to write one of his children’s books – from initial draft to polishing, looking at the plot, the action and meticulously upping the body count, or deleting a character. The result is a roller-coaster thriller, full of strong character (including strong girl characters) and a seamless, gripping story, full of unexpected jolts and great moments.

Remember – if they do mean your children have nightmares you can be reassured they are in the long tradition of classic storytelling.

Of course if you’ve got a younger one, or a more sensitive one, Charlie Higson made his name as a children’s writer with his ‘Young Bond’ series – all about James Bond at school. Again, suitable from age nine upwards, it is the quality of the writing which means these will certainly become classics and they are readable for children right through their teens.

We hope Charlie Higson won’t have to resort to rising from his grave to grab a little piece of immortality.

We have signed copies in stock – while they last!

Charlie performed heroically over the course of six hours, and a huge thank you to him and Abingdon School for hosting the event so well. Charlie also very generously conducted a number of interviews - Gaskella has a fantastic write-up of the event over on her book blog - but we also were able to get a glimpse into the writing life of Charlie Higson...

Five questions with . . . Charlie Higson's writing life

Charlie Higson is the author of the ‘Young Bond’ series and now into the third of ‘The Enemy’ trilogy about a world where everyone over the age of 14 has either been wiped out by a plague. Those adults who weren’t killed outright were turned into zombies and are now after all the children as a source of fresh food.

1 What are you working on at the moment?

I am about one-third of the way through the follow up to ‘The Fear’. Originally it was going to be three books and then my publisher, Puffin, said make it five and now we’re up to it being seven.

Writing an ongoing series means that even when you think you’ve finished a book and you might think it’s time to break open the champagne or book a long holiday, in fact the next day you have to start on the next one. You have to keep the momentum up, because kids finish a book and they want to get on with the next one and they grow up quickly.

2 What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?

My father said when I was a teenager ‘get yourself a proper job you can always do your writing in evenings and weekends’. Of course, as I was a teenager I completely ignored him. In fact I’ve never had a proper job. I make a living writing – although technically I suppose I have followed his advice because I treat it like going to work and keep the words coming. So I suppose I must have taken something on board.

3 What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?

The best thing is the feedback. Only yesterday I met a boy having his book signed who was about 14 and said ‘The Enemy’ was the first book he had ever finished. When you get feedback from parents, librarians, teachers saying how much kids want to read them and through reading them they then find out what fun reading is – that’s the best thing.

The worst thing is that I sort of always have to think about behaving myself and think I had better not say this or do that and that’s probably not my natural behaviour. When Anthony Horowitz started writing for children (when nobody paid very much attention to children’s writers) he often followed around Roald Dahl on school visits. Roald Dahl had a reputation of saying very inappropriate things and probably didn’t even like children very much. My adult novels are full of sex and violence, but as a children’s writer you have to be an ambassador. And news papers being what they are I know that if my trousers accidentally fell down it would be the end of my career.

4 Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing or snack essential before you can start work?

I try not to be superstitious about it. If you say to yourself you can only write with a certain pen it can become a bit of an albatross. I would probably find it difficult to write without a computer – it does make life easier, but I can write almost anywhere, although it is easier at home.

5 What was your biggest breakthrough?

The success of ‘Loadsmoney’ on Saturday Live, which I wrote with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, meant we were accepted as established comedy writers. People asked us to do stuff. It opened lots of doors and meant publishers were more interested as well. Publishers want a writer they can market – it’s a business and they want to sell books. And I saw the possibility that I could make a living as a writer.

Glasses, guillemots, and the difference between Daleks and dogs. John Hegley at Mostly Books

2011-08-01T23:39:00.000+01:00

After an aborted event back in July, we were finally able to welcome John Hegley to the shop today, for a simply fantastic event. I still couldn't quite believe that someone who I have always loved to watch - and did so a lot during my student years (don't forget John started performing his poetry in 1980!) - was standing in the courtyard garden of our shop, holding everyone enthralled and making them laugh:

Originally we were going to do the event in the shop, but the weather was so gorgeous today we were able to do the whole thing in the back garden. Though still hot, it was shaded - and perfect.

The poetry was sublime, and whilst all John's favourite themes were there, lurking in the background (glasses, dogs, Luton) his performace took the form of an A to Z, and included poems and songs. The guillemot song involved audience participation (as did the discussion on what we could give Daleks to stop them exterminating us), and low humming was required for a poem about a bee...

John also did a reading of his fantastic picture book "Stanley's Stick", and finished with a reading of a brand new poem, still in draft form, about his sister.

John then stayed behind to sign copies of his books, before heading off into Oxford for a poetry event at the Jam Factory. The weather, audience and performer combined into a near-perfect event, and what better way to finish off than with a picture of the bookseller, having swapped glasses with his hero, staring out of *those* famous spectacles. How many people can say that?

Having got home this evening, amongst some lovely emails received from big John Hegley fans who thoroughly enjoyed the event, was this one:

"A poem on the problem of wanting to read your book of John Hegley poems as soon as you get out of the bookshop door, but having to cycle home first...

What I’d like
is a book stand
for my bike
to hold a book freshly signed
one of a kind
to improve my mind
I could speed
as I read
taking in ideas
as I change up through the gears
I have a basket
But I couldn’t ask it
To perform this task
It
needs a special stand

by Thea (10), with a little help from her Mum (44)"

BBC Oxford Afternoon Book Club - and a chat with Mark Billingham

2011-07-21T12:41:00.000+01:00

With BBC Oxford Afternoon Book Club regular Patrick Neale whacked with some horrible bug (get well soon Patrick) I had the chance to do a slightly ad hoc set of book reviews on Wednesday afternoon - and the focus was very much on Summer reading.

During the show we also talked to crime writer Mark Billingham, who talked about his latest (and 11th) DI Tom Thorne crime novel Good As Dead. Mark is an exceptionally talented writer (and not just crime fiction), as well as a stand-up comedian, scriptwriter, actor - and all-round good guy. He MC'd the 2008 British Book Awards (so fond memories from us), but we also had a chance to see him talk at the Harrogate Crime Fiction Festival in 2009 (this year's festival begins today). One day we will get him to the shop for an event...this is a great interview, and as well as talking about the new novel, there's a chance to hear Mark's thoughts about DI Thorne on the telly, as well as details of a truly shocking incident that occurred to Mark early in his writing life, and which he drew on for elements of one of his books...

As always you can listen again for the next 6 days or so on BBC iPlayer (fast forward 12 minutes or so). The interview with Mark occurs after the main book reviews.

For the Summer reading recommends, here are the books discussed (anyone following the blog regularly will notice a few favourites from recent reviews creeping in):

"Inheritance", Nicholas Shakespeare (Vintage, PB, £7.99)
"Other People's Money", Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury, PB, £12.99)
"House of the Hanged", Mark Mills (HarperCollins, PB, £7.99)
"Small Change for Stuart", Lissa Evans (£10.99, HB, Random House)
"Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy", Andy Briggs (Faber, £6.99)

All the books in the shop of course...

Goblins, pirates, pen and ink: learning to draw with Chris Mould and David Melling

2011-07-14T23:44:00.001+01:00

One of the best things that happened last year was our first ever event at Abingdon Library. Keen to strengthen our ties further (and also very keen to take advantage of the recent stunning upgrade to the Library layout) last Saturday we held an illustration masterclass for about 30 children, aged between 7 and 12. Inspiring and captivating everyone throughout the afternoon were two very special illustrators: Chris Mould and David Melling.

David is very well know at Mostly Books (we had a lot of fun last year with the launch of Hugless Douglas), but this was the first event we had done with Chris - who travelled down from Leeds especially. And they complemented each other brilliantly: both Chris and David have a very understated, laid back approach to presenting in front of children, in which the drawings takes centre stage. Whilst I very much appreciate events we have done with some of the high-octane, 'whoops-I've-hit-myself-with-a-chicken' authors that we have had in the past, I think it's great to see that children can be rapt and captivated simply by the power of the drawings that emerge on a flip-chart.

David kicked off by giving an overview of how he draws, and what quickly emerged was a series of rapid-fire illustrations which acted as a metaphor for the creative process (it doesn't come out well in the photo below, but the Goblin figure at top left is equipped with a large pencil).

Chris then stepped in, using black paint to 'block' some space, out of which emerged a somewhat scary creature, appropriate for someone whose books (such as the Something Wickedly Weird series) are often filled with weird and scary creatures...

During the event, both authors emphasised the importance of 'just getting on with it'. getting stuff down on paper and trying not to get self-conscious about drawing. Chris in particular is very passionate about countering the phenomenon that kids stop drawing around 11 years old, which corresponds with the leap to secondary school. He tends to work only in black and white and never rubs out - "you kill your drawings if you do that!"

As the acryllic paint dried, and Chris inked in details for the character, he then used tippex to add elements over the black paint. It was mesmerising because it was all done at such speed...

Many of the older children had already got busy with the paper and pencils in front of them, but at this point David took over and we got all interactive. Here, David instructs everyone in a Goblin's 'masterclass'...

And you can't see much, but here were the results.

And here are a few Goblins close up:

Chris - referencing his next project, all about pirates - got everyone drawing a skull and crossbones, and then our hour was (officially) up. With the library closed, Chris and David signed books and answered questions for some time afterwards...

...before one final pose, and a nip round the corner to the shop for a cup of tea, despite the heat:

My thanks to both Chris and David for a really superb event, and one which we have received so much great feedback about. It was a real privilege to meet and listen to Chris for the first time, someone who communicates so strongly the joy of illustration simply putting pen (or pencil) to paper.

It also happened that July 9th was the launch of the national libraries Summer Reading Challenge. Based on the theme of 'Circus Stars' children are challenged to read six books over the Summer from their library, and get prizes for doing so. Go see the website to learn more. Very happy to report (via the head librarian) that several children signed up at the end of the event...including some children on their first ever visit to the library. Magic...

The Awesome Andy Briggs

2011-07-13T14:56:00.001+01:00

Andy Briggs uses the word "awesome" a lot. This is very appropriate. Andy hangs out a lot in Hollywood. He sometimes overtakes Beyoncé and walks past Steven Spielberg and on his way to work. He writes books, but he also writes for TV, films and scripts comic books. Stan Lee once phoned him up and offered him a job.

Andy Briggs IS awesome, and any one of the 300 hundred or so children at Larkmead and John Mason schools who spent an hour in his company yesterday during a series of incredible events would definitely agree. As one boy said on his way out at John Mason: "you sir are the most awesome author I have ever heard". 'Nuff said.

Andy was in town ostensibly to talk about his latest book "Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy". I was already bowled over by this book - but Andy's talk was so much more than what Tarzan is about and how it came to be written.

Andy talks with more passion that I have ever heared about writing. He asks the kids "who here likes films?", "who here watches movies?", "who listens to songs?". All written by people like him: writers. And why stop there: let's include soap operas, sports commentary, video games and the sides of cereal boxes. Advertising, most of the Internet...and, yes, books. No writers = nothing to read, watch or be entertained by.

And then he makes the link between where his audience is now, and where he was at their age: broke, bored, but with an idea in his head which eventually spilled out as writing. It was compelling stuff. Even I wanted to get out a pen and start writing...

Then we were onto Tarzan. Andy approached the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs with an idea to change Tarzan and bring him up-to-date. One trip to Burrough's preserved house (Tarzana, near Los Angeles) later, and Andy was the first person in 100 years to be given permission to change the origins of Tarzan.

As well as a précis of the story, he talked about preserving endangered species (via his work with EAZA's Great Ape campaign), gave a fantastic geography lesson on the sheer size of Africa (see how China and the US fit neatly in there, and look out for GB overlaying Madagascar)...

...before finishing up with an awesome jungle quiz to see how many people would survive - or more likely perish horribly - if forced to survive in the rainforest.

All that in under an hour, three times in a row, and signing books after as well. As I say...awesome.

(The only thing not quite so awesome was my lamentably bad photography, but hopefully you get the general idea).

Signed copies of Tarzan are now in Mostly Books, and I urge you to take a look. Written in a tradition of Rice Burroughs, Willard Price, Spiderman...and with a sprinkle of Hollywood glamour thrown in there as well, this is unashamed rip-roaring entertainment, and one written in the service of making a real difference to endangered species. As Andy says, soberingly, "there are 900 children in this school, but there are only 650 mountain gorillas left anywhere in the world. This is their last chance".

Me Bookseller, You Jane: the return of Tarzan...in Abingdon

2011-07-11T15:28:00.000+01:00

In the days before running a bookshop, I spent a bit of time at the other end of the ‘paper supply chain’ – timber production. And not just any old timber, but tropical hardwood. I helped develop a system (still going strong) which tracked timber from the forest, proving (amongst other things) that the patio set you just bought from your local garden centre did indeed start life as a legally felled log – and definitely not from a shady illegal operation.

So when (ahead of two school events with him tomorrow) I started reading Andy Briggs’ Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy I was - quickly, brutally, and in an utterly compelling way - plunged back into the world of illegal timber in the rainforests of Congo. Boy oh boy, is it an exciting read...here's a picture of Andy at the recent launch of the book at Scotia Books.

We have been involved in one or two franchise ‘reboots’ this year, and it seems to be an increasingly attractive thing for publishers to do: this year there has been Deaver’s Bond, Lustbader's Bourne and forthcoming attractions include Cottrell-Boyce’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and Anthony Horrowitz’s Sherlock Holmes novel “House of Silk”. But rebooting Tarzan? It wasn't clear to me that that bringing Edgar Bice Burrough's creation back to life would work.

2012 is the one hundredth anniversary of the original Tarzan, and – like many people my age – I grew up with the tail end of the black and white Tarzan on Saturday morning telly, with Cheetah and Jane. However, I would be hard-pressed to tell you much about the characters and the stories, aside from swinging through the trees, thumping his chest and uttering that well-known roar.

But Tarzan on TV bore little resemblance to the original book, and Andy Briggs has sensibly gone back to Rice Burrough’s original tale, a book of surprising emotional depth (it's a great love story), and one which sits well with other science fiction writing around that time. Instead of (say) War of the Worlds, which extrapolated modern developments in warfare, Tarzan worked with ideas of identity, race and civilisation that are still very much relevant today.

Briggs stays very close to Burrough's original premise: of a boy adopted by a gorilla, who grows up to become a 'white ape' and Lord of the Jungle. Taught about the outside world by the mysterious D'Arnot, we first meet Tarzan dispatching (in a suitably savage way) three very nasty poachers, against an all-to-realistic backdrop of civil war and environmental destruction.

The main action though begins in an illegal logging camp. Jane Porter is the daughter of one of the loggers, a man who has fled America after losing almost everything of value to him - and when the camp is attacked and Jane disappears, it seems as though he will lost his daughter too. Jane has already been removed from her previous life, cut off from the outside world, sending emails from her iPhone destinated never to arrive by dint of the utter remoteness of her situation in the camp. And when she disappears, a young boy in the camp, Robbie, sets off in hotheaded pursuit.

Thus begins a tense yet thrilling pursuit through the forest on the one hand, whilst on the other hand the relationship between Tarzan and Jane - and the slowly unfolding truth about who Tarzan is - begins to emerge. I particularly liked the nuanced portrayal of everyone - ape or human, father and daughter. No-one is entirely good or bad (Tarzan is certainly no angel) and the nice moral ambiguities work well within the the exciting plot (rip-roaring is an understatement).

Anyway - Andy has pulled off a remarkable book, I hugely enjoyed it, and everyone should take the opportunity to reaquaint themselves with Tarzan (but for fans of the films, a warning: there's no Cheetah!)

We have previously done an event with Andy during the Amazing Books for Boys event with Trapped By Monsters, but I am very much looking forward to taking him to Larkmead School and John Mason School in Abingdon tomorrow. If you are coming along to those events, we'l see you there...

'Sentimental Amateurs' – five years of Mostly Books

2011-06-30T17:02:00.001+01:00

If a week is a long time in politics, five years is a lifetime in retail. On Saturday, July 1st 2006 – armed with books and a bubble machine – we opened the doors of our shop. This Saturday we will be serving champagne and cake, and we invite you to drop in and celebrate our fifth birthday with us.

During the five years that we’ve been open – in fact, even before that – this blog has been an integral part of Mostly Books, a sort of ‘running commentary’ of what we did and how we did it. At the beginning we never really thought anyone would read it, and it was very much a warts-and-all look at two enthusiastic, but possibly deluded, neophyte booksellers following their dream. But even from the first few posts we started to get readers – and more importantly commentators – who, looking back, probably couldn’t bear to watch a potential car crash happen, and weighed in with all kinds of suggestions, tips and assistance which made (and continue to make) a huge difference in the success of the shop.

Looking back through the 316 posts we’ve made over the past five years (approx one post every six days apparently) you get an accelerated and very scary whistle-stop tour through five incredible years of bookselling. I did this last night, and I’m still reeling.

The story (the way the blog tells it) seems to go like this: Couple have dream to open shop, start blogging, muse on the difficulties of everything from shelving to stock selection, indulge in slightly naughty underhand spying missions to nearest large city which catch the imagination and advice starts to come in from authors and booksellers from around the world. Shop opens, congratulations follow, amusing posts on the realities of running shop (hard work), dealing with customers (a joy) and interacting with the wider book trade in getting hold of obscure orders (often complex to the point of baffling insane). First events start happening, Christmas arrives leaving bookselling couple happy, but in heap on floor on Christmas Eve. New Year sees events start to get bigger and more complicated, hiatus caused by change of lifestyle having unforeseen impact on family life (a baby) then threatens to become crisis with apocalyptic floods, over-ambitious outdoor event and first Harry Potter launch, but victory and triumph snatched from jaws of defeat with New Bookshop of the Year Award. Cue stream of celebrity authors, courses, appearances, a radio gig, fame and fortune.

That’s the way the blog tells it of course. But the blog is ever-so-slightly one-sided. It gives a resolutely positive and, yes, spun side to events. What doesn’t appear on the blog are the mistakes that were made (several biggies), errors of judgment (many) and the things that didn’t come off (or, more usually, came off in ever respect apart from commercial). It doesn’t record the dark teatimes of the soul and late-night impromptu planning sessions over one-too-many glasses of wine as we tried to solve problems, change tactics and work out how the hell you make a bookshop work in the 21st century.

At the heart of it, it is difficult to over-emphasise just how demanding bookselling is on a day-to-day basis. Retail is physically demanding anyway, but bookselling has the added intellectual exertion that comes from a constant shifting of the mental gears as you switch between “recommendations for a bright 5 year old who likes dragons” to “a 60th birthday present for my Uncle who doesn’t read much” to books on infant sleep problems, diabetes and bereavement.

Those last subjects hint at a third element, one unique I believe to independent community retailing; the emotional demand that comes from sharing with customers, and them sharing back. It is the most incredible thing, and is what Anna Dreda at Wenlock Books once described to me as the magic that can happen in a bookshop when you recommend just the right book. There are plenty of people who get ground up by modern life, who – for all kinds of reasons – find they suddenly don’t fit into the neat systems of megalithic and Internet-powered modern business, and are in danger of getting squashed by the tectonic plates. At that particular moment, local community retailing – and bookshops in particular – provide a haven from the madness, and a place where they can simply talk to someone who can, in a very basic way, sit them down, give them a cup of tea, try to understand their problems, and genuinely care enough to work hard to suggest some answers. Sometimes this does not involve books even.

Many of our customers have become friends, and we have watched children grow up (and even start working in the shop). On the flip side, Abingdon has many families who are here for a short time, and it is always sad to see cherished customers moving away (although we try to recommend them a good bookshop before they do).

In the first year we were open, a customer (who we now know extremely well) described us as “sentimental amateurs”, and that was probably a not altogether inaccurate description of how we started. But as we’ve grown in confidence, as we’ve understood what we do well (and more importantly, what we don’t do well) I like to think we’ve hung on to all that’s good about sentimentality (caring about our customers) and amateurish-ness (open to new ideas) but this is now housed under thicker, and more rugged bookseller skin that allow us to run a much more professional and effective operation.

We genuinely feel very positive and upbeat about the future of our shop, and thanks to the fantastic staff that we have – past and present – we feel it is running better than ever, and we are still enjoying the experience. What may happen in the future next five years – with profound changes underway given the current economic and technological revolution in the book world – is a whole ‘nother question - and one for a different blog post methinks...

For now, this Saturday, Nicki and I will be in the shop to celebrate heartily with whoever comes in. Thank you seems a fairly inadequate expression for how we feel, but really – a heartfelt thank you to the many, many wonderful people who have helped make the shop the success that it is.

If you are in Abingdon on Saturday, please do drop in for some champagne because we would love to see you. I’m sure five years has seen plenty of changes in your life – why not come in and mark this as well? And if you can’t make it to the shop, post a happy birthday message below, tweet something suitably birthday-ish, or drop by our Facebook page and let us know you’re thinking of us. It means a great deal to know you’re with us, we’ve come a long way in five years and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Oh, and we found the bubble machine, repaired it. And it’s ready to roll on Saturday…

With very best wishes,

Mark & Nicki Thornton
Mostly Books, July 2011

Big debut for little Stuart

2011-06-27T00:10:00.000+01:00

The opening of a mysterious money box and a cache of old threepenny bits is the start of a magical adventure for Stuart Horten (10, but looks younger).

But Stuart is soon on the trail of a mysterious ancestor and an even stranger mythical magic workshop and must work through a series of puzzles and clues – to find the truth, and of course, discover the workshop before the baddie gets there first.

Uncovering an old family mystery is glorious fun. (I know I am a pushover for mystery stories and this one has magical clues, photographic clues and safe-cracking). Fantastic!

With genuine humour and a pacy plot it’s an absolutely cracking read for both boys and girls aged 8+, but a secret pleasure for parents too – perfect family reading. If only they would bring it out as an audio book it would be in our car like a shot for summer holiday travel.

It’s out now in a gorgeous little gift hardback size. It looks lovely, even down to all the line drawings.

Small Change for Stuart is on the longlist for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award (judged by fellow professionals). I am always heartened to see not only a debut children’s author up for a big award – but a book that is also written for younger children.

But the best news of all is that apparently the author, Lissa Evans, is already working on a sequel.

Review: It Had To Be You

2011-06-25T14:04:00.000+01:00

David Nobbs’ latest novel is everything we might expect from the creator of Reggie Perrin and one of our most consistently brilliant comic writers. By turns hilarious and poignant, Nobbs’ latest book It Had To Be You follows James Hollinghurst through his hurriedly re-examined life in the eight days between his wife Deborah’s death and her funeral.

James is a man whose life of quiet desperation seems to be heading towards ignominy. MD of the London office of troubled British packing company Globpack UK, burdened by a spectacularly inept PA, he is under pressure from his American boss, Dwight Shenkman the Third, to lay off staff – and he uses corporate trips as cover to cheat on his wife. The strands of his wider family life provide no comfort: an estranged daughter he is desperate to see, over-achieving siblings and a constantly disappointed mother. But then his wife Deborah suddenly and tragically dies in a car accident, and the circumstances of her death throw up all kinds of questions about the life he thought he was living.

The loss of Deborah – and the uncomfortable scrutiny that all his relationships are suddenly subjected to – gives Nobbs scope to bring many of his favourite themes to the fore. Nobbs excels in the tortured, flawed, fifty-something British male – basically decent, but adrift somewhat in the changing values and absurdities of modern life. There are some splendid diatribes against some of Nobbs’ favourite targets: banal TV radio commentators, call centres and organised religion. And of course Reggie Perrin is always lurking in the background (for Dwight, read CJ?). But what elevates this book way above a grumpy old man ‘guilty pleasure’ is the emotional depth of the characters – and a genuinely compelling mystery that gets murkier, and creepier, as the book progresses.

As we approach the funeral, many of James’ relationships undergo profound changes, and what Nobbs does particularly well is to examine the arc of love over many decades. The result is unexpectedly touching and – through several women who have played a role in his life – an unexpected love story emerges, but it isn’t what you might think.

Nobbs seems has actually written a book about things that matter. Unfashionable things like loyalty, respect and unsung heroes of working life. There is plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, and (incidentally) if you had any doubts about the urgency of preventing climate change, there is, through the character of his son Max, one of the most powerful and succinct arguments I think I’ve ever read.

Despite its focus on flawed human behaviour and tragedy, it is actually a hugely uplifting book, full of hope.

Review: Mary Hoffman's 'David'

2011-06-22T23:22:00.002+01:00

Very little is known about the boy/man who modelled as Michaelangelo's "David", perhaps the greatest work of Renaissance sculpture, and certainly one of the world's most famous and well-known works of art in any medium. So what a tantalising subject for a writer to tackle: reconstructing a possible biography for the model, as he lived and worked in 16th century Florence.

Taking on such a job is a real high-wire act for any author: Bend a few historical facts to fit a compelling narrative, you risk the ire of academics; Gloss over important aspects of the politics or art of the times, you'll be dismissed as a lightweight. But throw in too much historical detail and you risk killing the narrative and turning off the general reader. Luckily the author in question is Mary Hoffman, someone who has distilled a passion and knowledge of Italy history into thrilling works for children, including the Renaissance-inspired Stravaganza series and The Falconer's Knot.

And she gets the balance just right in David. It is a total triumph. What emerges is an intelligent yet exciting story, which plunges us into the brilliantly realised city-state of Florence, with all its tensions, rivalries, culture and networks, and then ratchets up the tension as the sculpture takes shape. And the stakes could not be higher for the central character, the 18-year old 'Gabriele'.

Gabriele arrives in Florence keen to seek out the master sculptor, having been nursing 'brothers' early in life. But as a young man of dazzling beauty, he soon finds himself inducted into a world of wealth and privilege, and a political situation of which he is desperately naive. He brushes up against a heavyweight supporting cast including the Medici family, a Borgia, and even Leonardo de Vinci himself.

(In fact, one of my favourite bits of the book is a slightly mischievous side-plot about the ongoing - and very slow - production of a painting by de Vinci of a noble's wife, Lisa del Giocondo, which may or may not bear more than a passing resemblance to Leonardo's male 'companion'. The painting is destined to become very famous, incidentally - no prizes for guessing the title...)

So there is humour, passion and beauty. But this being 16th century Italy, there is also sex and death. It is at times unflinching in the descriptions of what was a brutal and bloody age, but nothing is gratuitous: Gabriele's beauty, and the women who fall for him, provide the network for him to move in circles way above his class. And you understand by the end why noblemen would fight each other to the death to defend - or destroy - a single piece of art.

The book requires a lot from the reader, particularly in the early stages, as there is a lot of context that needs to be put in place as a backdrop for the story - but that effort is richly rewarded. The book is aimed at the Young Adult (YA) market, but will easily find a readership with anyone who wants to truly understand the importance of this period in Western history, and why Michaelangelo's work is still admired today.

By the end you understand intuitively the city of Florence, where it sits in the European power-plays, and the high stakes that are being played - but by then Gabriele is in mortal danger. Whether he will survive or not is something you absolutely have to know, and for that you are going to have to grab a copy when it's published in early July.

We are delighted that Mary will be at Mostly Books tomorrow at 5.30pm for a special teachers and librarians event. More details about that can be found here.

But in the meantime, here is a suitably grand trailer that Bloomsbury have produced. You may just spot that painting in there...

Father's Day books - Our First XI

2011-06-16T11:31:00.001+01:00

Ah Father's Day. A day close to my own heart, for personal and professional reasons. When I was a boy, we didn't celebrate Father's Day (in fact, was there ever a Father's Day 40-odd years ago?). In those days there seemed to be a stiff-upper-lipped "we-don't-do-that-kind-of-thing" agreement between father and son. An old maths teacher of mine use to rail against creeping americanisation (not spelled with a 'z' naturally) and I remember him singling out Father's Day as a classic case in point.

But these are different times, and a day celebrating Dads is very worthwhile. And whilst I would not dream of suggesting that flowers or chocolates would not be appropriate gifts (I'd be very happy to receive them), there's something about a good, solid, man-book that works well as a gift, but still carries an echo of a past stiff-lipped age ("Here you are Father, didn't want to make a fuss, got you a book on WG Grace, I'll be off then").

Anyway, this Father's Day all of us at Mostly Books have worked really hard to read through and recommend some fabulous Father's Day gifts, giving you perhaps a bit more inspiration than the piles of Clarkson tottering precariously at your local supermarket. Part gripping read, part improving book - here are our top man-books for Father's Day on June 19th:

How To Avoid Being Killed In A War Zone- Rosie Garthwaite (£12.99, Bloomsbury)

"What might have been a dry how-to manual, or a thrill-fest for armchair tourists, is actually a well-written, practical yet readable manual that does exactly what it says on the front. Peppered with anecdotes and advice from many journalists and reporters, the book helps you build intuition which I would suggest is useful wherever you travel in the world. Advice on coping with the heat and stress relief provides some more lighthearted - but nevertheless extremely useful - little gems which are as useful in Tenerife as they are in Tripoli." - Mark

Bed - David Whitehouse (£11.99, Canongate)
"Bed is a coming-of-age novel like no other about a man with huge prospects who, one day, goes to bed and decides never to get out again. Told through the eyes of Mal's younger brother, you're carried on a roller coaster of emotions. It's fantastic writing that is humorous and engaging, and it's a vivid and imaginative debut novel that explores the metamorphosis of a young man and the effect of love, loss and family on a lifetime." - Ellie

The Way of Kings Part 1- Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz, 8.99)"From the mighty Gollabcz, the first in a new series from Brandon Sanderson, contributor to the latest Wheel of Time and author of The Mistborn Trilogy. A man sold into slavery, a Warlord, a thief, a liar and a renowned Scholar are just a few of the characters in this complex story of war and conflict set in a whole new world. Good start to what I hope will become a classic fantasy series. Get in at the start..." - Julia

Inflight Science - Brian Clegg (£12.99, Icon Books)
This is one of those 'cor, I wish I had written that' books, a deceptively simple concept brilliantly executed. This marvellous little book tells you all about the sights, sounds and experiences (not to mention rock-hard engineering) going on from your vantage point in your aircraft seat. Packed with facts, figures and head-scratching information it sets out to restore some of that childlike excitement that you used to feel before air travel became 'yet another damned business trip'...I also like the fact that author Brian Clegg is a regular bearded British bloke living in Wiltshire. Top Dad points!" - Mark

The Damned Busters - Matthew Hughes (Angry Robot, £7.99)
"Chock full of humour, this is a fantastic romp with superheroes, Satan and a strike in hell. Given the choice of selling his soul to the devil, Chesney says no - only to find there are disastrous consequences. An interesting concept and a mismatched duo of costumed, crime fighting hero and demon sidekick make for an hilarious novel. This book is perfect for fans of Tom Holt and Robert Rankin." - Ellie

The Natural Navigator - Tristan Gooley (Ebury Press, £14.99)

"Get Dad to put aside the GPS this Father's Day and go out with this book and do some Natural Navigating. In Tristan Gooley's hands it can be surprisingly simple to work out directions from the sky, to get your bearings in a wood, or find inspiration in the drying of a puddle! Great stuff for those dads that want to be Steve Backshall or Bear Grylls - or for anyone who wants to turn a camping trip into a really wild experience!" - Nicki

Fall of Giants - Ken Follett (Pan Macmillan, £8.99)
"Starting in 1911 this book follows the lives of five families from different countries and social backgrounds. With his usual skill for historical descriptions and his attention to detail, Ken Follett takes you into situations as diverse as a mine collapse in Wales to the battlefield at the Somme, through World War 1 to the Russian Revolution and the struggle for votes for Women. Although a big book, it's extremely easy to read with an engaging plot and likeable, believable characters." - Julia

Fold - Tom Campbell (Bloomsbury, £11.99)

"Fold is fresh, blackly funny and aimed unashamedly at us blokes. It tells the story of five men, who meet once a month at each other's houses to play poker. But against this suburban backdrop, the stresses, strains and petty jealousies of each of the men's lives begins to impact not just on the poker they play, but on their lives, and the lives of those around them. Leading their 'lives of quiet desperation', one of the group - unlucky, bitter, a loser - decides he will bring down the alpha male. The result, not at all obvious, and nicely ambiguous, has consequences for everyone as they decide whether to raise...or fold. Definitely an author to watch. Oh, and a great cover!" - Mark

Peter Pan's First XI: The Extraordinary Story of J. M. Barrie's Cricket Team - Kevin Telfer (Sceptre, £8.99)

"Coinciding (loosely) with the 150th anniversary of JM Barrie's birth, this gem of a book tells the story of JM Barrie's cricket team, who included at various times AA Milne, PG Wodehouse and Jerome K Jerome. Fired with enthusiasm, lacking actual talent, they embodied a spirit of the times, an England about to descend into mud and trenches of WWI. A really lovely little book." - Karen

Other People's Money - Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury, £12.99)
"Both comic and clever, a stunning page-turning read about a banker in the aftermath of the banking crisis. Brilliant, engrossing and laugh-out-loud funny. My favourite book of the year." - Nicki

Carte Blanche - Jeffery Deaver (Hodder, £19.99)

Jeffery Deaver has great fun bringing Bond bang up to date, with i(Q)Phone Apps, brand names galore, and a truly great cast of characters including a creepy death-obsessed villain, an extremely nasty henchman, and even a scheming weasel of an upper-class MI5 colleague. All told with such an easy English charm that Deaver must be in line for an honorary knighthood. And we have a few signed copies left from our recent event..." - Mark

Local indie produce part 1: wine and passion with Bothy Vineyard and Rosalind Cooper

2011-06-15T09:54:00.001+01:00

I love doing our big events - honestly. They can be exhausting, high-wire stress-fests that satisfy the adrenalin-junkie in me, but they are also great fun and will provide some very special memories when we eventually hang up our bookselling spurs.

But the essence of independent, community bookselling - where the magic happens - is small events in the shop. And we have had two fantastic events in the last couple of weeks: the booklaunch of Judy Stubley's The Story Traveller, and - at the start of June - an evening of wine tasting with Richard Liwicki of Bothy Vineyard and wine writer Roz Cooper.

Richard is a living, breathing advertisement for owning a vineyard (something he might be alarmed about - the economics of wine production are probably as precarious as bookselling). Almost uniquely amongst small vineyards in this country, his is a vineyard where the grapes produced go directly into the wine he makes, which allows him to produce boutique wines, and experiment with unusual grape combinations.

Over the course of the evening, we tasted three wines produced from last year's production: The Doctor's Bacchus 2010, Oxford Dry 2010 and the splendid rosé, Oxford Pink 2010.

Assisting him throughout the evening was wine writer and hugely experienced wine expert Roz Cooper, author of The Wine Year. Roz has worked in many different areas of wine production - from giving tours of vineyards, to importing and selling wines, to writing about wines in magazines and books. She was able to give her expert opinions on Bothy's wines - and also provide some context for the tasting.

(The fact that Roz lives not far away in Berkshire was an extra local touch that everyone appreciated)

Roz is just the kind of wonderful speaker you'd hope for - someone with plenty of superb anecdotes from a life in wine. She is an entertaining and passionate speaker, from speaking about how she got started in wine, to her experiences in business, the changes happening in the global wine industry (not all of it good of course) and the importance of discovering and cherishing our local producers.

Roz's book The Wine Guide is a gorgeously-produced distillation (or should that be fermentation?) of her experience, opinions, suggestions (yes, there are recipes in this book) and passion about her experiences with wine. There are interviews with great wine makers - this is a book you could sit and read in bed just as equally as cooking in the kitchen following "A Serious Sunday Lunch with a Spanish Twist".

It was a very warm evening, and after the first two wines, we decamped to the coolness of the courtyard garden for the third.

Richard answered lots of questions about his experiences of growing and producing wine. Bothy have won awards (and growing admiration) for their boutique wines, based on a reputation for experimentation and risk-taking coupled with attention to detail.

There were questions about terroir: I was amazed to learn that the vineyard itself sits in a very special microclimate, on a narrow strip of almost pure-sandy soil which runs from Boars Hill down to near Faringdon, which means that water just runs away quickly after the rain. Bothy also use an array of environmentally-friendly techniques in the production of their grapes.

Wines are available down the road at Added Ingredients - and we have signed copies of Roz's book in the shop. But I can heartily recommend a visit to the vineyard - particularly around harvest time when volunteers descend on the five and a half acres of vines for picking...

Dinosaurs sploosh crunch spray roar

2011-06-08T15:58:00.000+01:00

Take lots of big, earth moving equipment, add some dinosaurs, a lot of squishy mud and you have the noisiest, messiest book about counting any toddler could wish for.
As part of our favourite transport theme for toddlers this week we have moved onto those perennail favourites - diggers, cranes, tippers and all manner of large-scale 'things that go', which are all brought together in one book.
Penny Dale's 'Dinosaur Dig' also adds in dinosaurs and a lot of noise in a big, colourful counting book by new publisher Nosy Crow.
For everyone who loves dinosaurs and diggers.

the super scooter - and other favourite modes of transport

2011-06-06T16:13:00.000+01:00

We are featuring favourite books for toddlers this week as part of our celebrations for Bookstart week.

Bookstart is an organisation that supports and celebrates reading in children and this is their week for celebrating pre-school reads.

This week we are doing a special story time along this year's theme, which is 'All Aboard'. And we will be encouraging our younger visitors to take part in our transport treasure hunts all week.

Let us start by introducing you to Pip and Posy are two delightful new characters from the charming illustrator, Axel Scheffler (known for The Gruffalo and others with Julia Donaldson).

Pip and Posy are a rabbit and a mouse – two toddlers who play together, but sometimes things don’t go so well. In the super scooter there is a little bit of rivalry about a great new toy - and there is a good lesson about sharing.

Also in the series is 'The Little Puddle' in which someone has a little accident, followed by lots of reassurance and hugs.

These are lovely brightly illustrated, not too much text for the target audience and a padded hardback format – surefire winners.Let's hope there will be more in this series.

A Diamond Is Forever - Carte Blanche and Jeffery Deaver

2011-05-31T22:03:00.000+01:00

By a series of very fortunate events, last Friday we were proud to host one of only three public events in the UK to coincide with the launch of the new James Bond novel 'Carte Blanche', with the book's remarkable author Jeffery Deaver.

Having been fortunate to have had the opportunity of meeting Jeffery earlier in the year, and on discovering his passion for science (particularly in the field of forensics), a few light bulbs had been set off, and an intriguing germ of an idea for an event was born; one at the suitably Bond-esque setting of the Diamond Synchrotron, just down the A34 from Abingdon:

See what I mean?

So, on a busy bank holiday Friday evening, in blazing sunshine, and despite horrendous traffic, two Bentley Continental GTs rolled up outside Diamond House (that's the square building to the left of the main synchrotron, connected via umbilical chord). Deaver - a writer who long ago acknowledged a huge debt to Ian Fleming - has reunited Bond with Bentley in the new book, hence the suitably 007-branded ride:

Jeffery was whisked up to the boardroom for a presentation from several of the Diamond staff led by Dominic Semple, and then taken on a tour of the facility itself:

Jeffery was shown the science and engineering behind the facility, and its use in everything from materials research to drug design, via food manufacture, document preservation and the potential for forensic analysis.

Meanwhile, the Mostly Books team of staff and volunteers were setting up in the atrium in preparation for the main event.

Naturally, there were drinks on arrival, and - of course - there were cocktails. "Mary Goodnight Fizz" was the non-alcoholic option, but the main drink was a Vodka Martini. There may have been instructions on how it was to be prepared...

As the guests started to arrive, it became clear that several had come from some distance: Surrey, Sussex, Manchester, Edinburgh, Tulsa OK and Las Vegas...

Guests also had a chance to to take a peak inside the synchrotron, thanks to the Diamond staff on hand giving sneak-peek tours. It's a breathtaking facility, hard to believe it's on our doorstep, with much of the research going on possible nowhere else in the world.

Jeffery had quite an entrance into the atrium, down the stairs from the main building:

There was still the link to be made in the introduction: was Bond still relevant, and why the link between research, technology and the cultural phenomenon that is Bond? Ian Fleming was one of the first to realise that conflict in the modern world would be fought - and won - by superior information, which meant superior technology. In 'Carte Blanche', Deaver brings Bond bang up-to-date, with iPhones and apps - but you can draw a line to this from Enigma in the Second World War. Laboratories are as much in the front line as soldiers when it comes to responding to the challenges of the modern world...

Far from being outdated, Bond is probably more relevant now than he ever was. Fleming created a hero whose characteristics - loyalty, duty, right action - can be applied anew in every age. (Deaver's book recognises this incidentally in the dedication to Fleming at the beginning: "To the man who taught us we could still believe in heroes").

Jeffery is a consumate speaker, and took the audience through the story of how he came to write Carte Blanche, how Fleming influenced him as a young reader, and how a 'Jeffery Deaver novel' comes to be written. (Gaskella has written a fabulous summary of his talk here).

We had questions - and then a signing afterwards. Jeffery seems to genuinely enjoy meeting readers, and I can see why his die-hard fans (or which several were in the audience) travel great distances to meet him.

As the evening drew to a close, Jeffery posed with two of the cocktail waiters:

...the adrenaline-drenched booksellers...

...and then those Bentleys whipped him away, bound for the Hay Festival the next day via an Oxfordshire Hotel.

There is a list as long as your arm to thank, but to Laura, Dominic and Patrick at Diamond - the venue performed superbly and all the staff were amazing. Mostly Books staff and helpers had a very late night, and were a stunningly dressed and hard-working team throughout. To all our guests who braved a drive out to the wilds of Oxfordshire on the cusp of a bank holiday weekend - I hope you had a very entertaining and memorable evening (and are now enjoying the book!). Thanks to Hodder in entrusting us with one of their most important authors and for giving us an amazing opportunity. And the redoubtable Katy, from Colman-Getty, now has a working knowledge of X-Ray defraction to go with her incredible skills in PR.

But mostly, our thanks must go to Jeffery Deaver himself, at the eye of the Bond-hurricane, on a strength-sapping launch schedule - all best wishes from everyone there on the evening, and good luck with the global tour...

Writing is alive and well in Abingdon library

2011-05-24T09:51:00.000+01:00

Abingdon still has its library – pretty good news by itself after the recent announcement of cuts. But Abingdon Library also recently re-opened after a refurb that has made the downstairs more open and made it easier to browse books.

One of the benefits has been the creation of a cosy new reading space and is a great place for community meetings – and this was taken advantage of by local writers on Tuesday May 17.

From life writing, through romantic fiction, travel writing and how to make money from generating web content – all was brought up for sharing as an amazing array of writers for all genres were represented.

The morning discussion was led by Abingdon Writers, and joined by two other writing groups, as well as individual writers, for a wide-ranging conversation demonstrating just what a lively writing scene is alive and well in Abingdon

Five members of Abingdon Writers gave a talk about how their writing group evolved out of a meeting of like-minds at an Oxford writers event at Mostly Books two years ago.

Now the group is 18 strong, with a waiting list and meets twice-monthly for shared critique, support and market information. The group shared some of their passions for particular writing genres, discussed the benefits of sharing and critiquing and how to get inspiration, before questions were taken from the floor.

The questions were about everything from organising your work to organising your time and there was a quick-fire swap of advice from all the writers present.

With all the bad news about libraries, it is certainly something to be celebrated that our own library is not only secure, but reaching out and finding new ways to generate enthusiasm and celebrate the joys of both reading and writing.

Thanks very much to Lynne Moores at the library and Mary Cavanagh from Abingdon Writers for organising and hosting such a great and well-attended event.

2011-05-20T13:50:00.000+01:00

Why Can’t We All Just Be Nice To One Another?

The word 'social' is hot right now. Social networking is the new dotcom boom, and everyone seems to be piling onto Twitter and Facebook in the hope of striking it rich. So when New York Times journalist and author David Brooks was asking – as he claims at the back of his book– “roughly twenty-four million people” for the title of his book, The Social Animal seems a pretty shrewd selection.

But the title definitely works. Forget narrow definitions of Internet services, humans are social animals, and we use (no, need, no, crave) social networking in order to achieve anything of any value in order to survive, thrive and be happy.

You know this of course. I know this. Each of us needs all of us, no man is an island. The American Pledge of Allegiance start with “I” and ends with “all”, etc. But the fact that there are plenty of quotes, homilies and folk wisdom for our interdependence gives us a big clue as to its fundamental place at the core of what it means to be human. What David Brooks does in The Social Animal is to show us – through stories, examples and research – exactly why this is so.

The use of the word success on the cover is also revealing. Dale Carnegie, the granddaddy of success literature, once wrote that “you and I don't need to be told anything new. We already know enough to lead perfect lives . . . The purpose of this book is to . . . kick you in the shins and inspire you to do something about it.".

And what a kick in the shins (or perhaps to a more delicate area) this book is. It is a laudable feat of concentration and discipline, as Brooks takes us through the lives of two different people, Erica and Harold, and explores what it is that made them successful, even before they were born. At the outset he explains his goals for the books – his desire to write in the style of Rousseau’s Emile, i.e. take the learnings of modern research out of the abstract, and into the concrete through the two characters he creates. That’s a very high bar to set – and we expect him to take a spill, but for the most part I reckon he pulls it off.

We follow Harold and Erica through their lives, and along the way collect fantastic pieces of insight and research in terms of how children develop, how we make decisions, the groups we fall into at school and beyond – and the ways we fall in love. The relationship between Harold and Erica doesn’t always ring true – hardly surprising given that he puts their lives through as many ‘mangles’ as possible to allow him to explore the maximum number of fields of human interaction. But you do develop a fondness for the characters, and you care enough so that the end – when it comes – does leave genuine sadness.

As a manual for living, there are gems throughout. As a parent with young boys I found myself making notes at times on issues such as resolving homework disputes, and how to encourage a lifelong passion for music. Some of the passages on Harold – his somewhat squandered adolescence, and some of his philosophies in middle age, did get a bit close to the bone (particularly a fixation on suffering, and a small but fascinating section on how we are all either 'Guessers' or 'Askers'). There’s also a mine of book recommendations scattered throughout – I’m now desperate to get hold of The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton (and I’ve ordered a copy for the shop...).

Talking of Greece, the book does have the feel of a marathon. There is a mass of research, and in covering so many areas it did occasionally get a bit too much for me – although I found it impossible to ‘skip ahead’ for fear of missing some piece of crucial research, buried in the story. I even experienced my own 17-mile ‘wall’ to break through, and this occurred when Harold and Erica get involved in a presidential campaign, which feels very shoehorned in so that the author can say what is wrong with modern politics, society in general and leadership. He talks about Hamiltonian politics, and Abraham Lincoln, familiar to anyone who (like me) has read a fair amount of US success literature in his time: he’s the ‘go-to’ president for anyone wanting to evoke all that is wonderful about presidential leadership.

It does get very US-centric, although at one point there’s a bone thrown to the Brits (or more accurately, to David Cameron) about British Society, its ills, and possible fixes. His suggestions have apparently resulted in David Brooks being invited over to talk to MPs about The Big Society. Anyone somewhat befuddled as to what the Big Society actually is might get a big clue from reading Brooks' book. As far as I can understand, plenty of Conservative (and Lib Dem) MPs are doing just that.

At times you feel the author is simply trying to make the plea “Why can’t we all just be nice to one another?”. But at least he is offering up a wealth of proof to show why we should be nice to one another – or at least respectful of our place within the social network - and how that can have a major positive impact on our lives.

But any criticisms do feel a bit small-minded and mean-spirited. This is a major work of passion and erudition, a constantly surprising distillation of someone who cares deeply about the current crisis of humanity and ways it might be fixed. As a tool for self-knowledge, I’ve not read anything to touch it in many years. Just be warned: it might make uncomfortable reading at times. This bookshop owner feels his shins are well and truly bruised – but in a good way.

An evening with Anthony Horowitz

2011-05-14T15:24:00.002+01:00

I've done some strange things as a bookseller, but walking through Abingdon carrying a large, battery-operated flashing Scorpia Rising display stand must be up there near the top.

We'd had the stand for a month, down the back of the shop, ready and prepared for the bookstall we had very kindly been asked to set-up for a charity event with Anthony Horowitz to raise funds for Helen and Douglas House. However, once we realised the stand would not fit in the car - there was nothing else for it. Luckily the venue is about a ten minute walk away from the shop. And let's be honest, it's Mr Horowitz we're talking about here. Anything to make sure he felt right at home in Abingdon...

I was understandable nervous ahead of the event - five years of selling Alex Rider books, never met the author before, and - like many successful writers - he's obviously someone who demands a lot of himself and those around him. But I needn't have worried: Anthony was a joy to meet and talk to, he was brilliant with the kids (and adults) who queued for over 90 minutes to get their books signed.

But the hour he spent talking and answering questions was a revelation. I don't know quite what I was expecting: maybe some advice for young authors, some amusing anecdotes from the peaks of bestsellerdom, perhaps measured insights into his writing process (from his children's books to writing for Midsomer Murders and Foyles War).

What we got was a highly energetic, hugely entertaining roller-coaster ride through his childhood, education, books, television, film - and with an exclusive extract from House of Silk (the new Sherlock Holmes book already completed, awaiting publication in November) read to an enthralled audience. Throw in an exclusive preview of his new ITV drama Injustice, and lots of questions answered from fans - it was a fantastic evening.

He posed for photographs, and had plenty of discussions with young readers on everything from where he got the names of his baddies from, to what to expect in "Yassen", the "final, final" Stormbreaker book (albeit one not involving Alex Rider) to be published next year.

This was Anthony with the team of volunteers from Helen and Douglas House...and below, with one of the House Guests, Josh Langley...

Now, if you look closely at the girl on the left (Harriet) and on the right (Michelle - although I may have mis-remembered their names) they are wearing home-made Stormbreaker T-shirts. I dubbed them the Stormbreaker-ettes:

...and here are Louis and Jakobi, who were first to the venue and actually got their books signed before the event started...

...and this young chap Mark managed to hurtle out of the auditorium to be first in the queue after the talk, and gets the 'Horowitz-fan-of-the-night' award...

Finally, obligatory pose with slightly overwhelmed booksellers. That's the display stand we're leaning against. He was pretty pleased to see it - so well worth the few odd looks I got from people in the town when I carried it back later, tired but happy...

Our busy couple of months continue...follow this link to find out what we've got coming up.

Why not indulge in this delicious French secret?

2011-05-09T21:52:00.000+01:00

Tatiana de Rosnay’s book arrived and with a title ‘A Secret Kept’ it went immediately onto my ‘potential treats’ pile. A book that has a secret at its heart generally gets my vote for an enjoyable read.

The cover says: ‘combines the suspense of Douglas Kennedy with the psychological perception of Maggie O’Farrell’ , thus giving the author something impossible to live up to.

So I was particularly happy when ‘A Secret Kept’ turned out to be really engaging and peopled with gorgeous French settings and characters with names like Solange and Clarisse. Better and better.

The heart of the book is a family disengaging by the minute. Antoine is covering his grief after the departure of his wife (for a photographer called Serge) and in increasing isolation as his children grow into unresponsive teenagers.

Antoine starts investigating what he begins to think is the suspicious circumstances surrounding the last family visit to the sometime island of Gois when he was a child, and the death of his mother soon after.

The story of a grand family and a buried secret could easily have descended into melodrama. But fortunately Tatiana de Rosnay hasn’t reached for cheap shock tactics or unbelievable twists to play out her story, which is firmly centred on the effect the loss of a beloved mother can have on her children and the legacy of fractures in a family. Antoine starts to recognise his own failures that have led to his family growing away from him.

The truth Antoine uncovers is not the terrible secret he has begun to imagine, but many of the best stories about secrets are those that explore the damage done by having secrets at all.

And as with all the best stories, second chances are offered, family repairs stitched up and everyone accepts that no-one is perfect.

I particularly like the fact that a lot of the tape for the patching is provided by a leather clad mortician on a motorbike, who provides the healing balm for Antoine and the wounds left by his wife, which she tends as carefully as she dresses and beautifies a dead body.

So full marks for Tatiana from me – my favourite indulgent read so far this year.

A Secret Kept Tatiana de Rosnay Pan 7.99

Fascinating St Kilda debut

2011-04-28T19:17:00.000+01:00

The island of St Kilda, 1830. Into a society still living the same ways since the days of the ancestors, comes single-minded minister, Neil MacKenzie and his new wife, Lizzie.

Neil is as full of missionary zeal as anyone going to convert native Africans to Christianity, but isn’t prepared for the discovery that such a barren part of the Empire is within his country’s own shores.

Lizzie is prepared to be fashionable and proud of her position, and is utterly unable to relate to the locals. She speaks no gaelic, finds their communal and harsh way of life far removed from her previous life on the mainland.

Swedish author, Karin Altenberg, in beautifully expressed prose (English is her second language) brings to life the shared poverty of the burrows where the islanders live, the floors full of accumulated filth that is shovelled out to fertilise the fields in spring. The hand-to-mouth lives, seabirds providing the most valuable natural resource, even to the fulmar oil to provide their lighting. No furniture and with no wood, only driftwood to provide nowhere near enough coffins.

Having myself once visited the Skara Brae on the Orkneys and found it fascinating to see the still existing underground burrows, topped with grass roofs, I longed to know how the author stumbled upon the story that these remote people were still living this life well into the 19^th century. It’s a doomed story as you recognise that change can no longer be resisted.

Expect, like Lizzie, to get drawn, in as we hear how no trees can withstand the weather and the salt, and the seabirds provide a sparse but sustainable living on the far outreaches of a country that has already seen so much change.

As her husband decides that only change will bring these souls closer to God – sanitary housing, a system of crops, it is Lizzie who finds she is learning from the locals and considers who is really closer to God.

A debut novelist that has written a really engrossing and different story.

Island of Wings Karin Altenberg Quercus 12.99

Suspicions of Mr Whicher

2011-04-21T14:58:00.000+01:00

This truly excellent detective story which is also a glorious piece of social history comes to the small screen over Easter. I am in two minds about whether or not to watch, because I loved the book so much.

I suspect that anyone watching might then want to read the book anyway, if the TV folk manage to go half-way to making such a gripping tale so well told.

Most people had never heard of Mr Whicher before Kate Summerscale’s lovely book brought him the attention he so well deserved.

In a country that has crime dramas on the telly most evenings and high sales of crime detection books, it was fascinating to discover that these English roots and obsession with trying to solve fictional crimes can be traced to a particular real life case and one detective.

Mr Whicher was the first police detective and it is difficult to believe that no-one had attempted a biography of him before or the notorious case that brought him fame in 1860. But thankfully, the biography was handled with great aplomb by little-known author Kate Summerscale. Her surprise hit grew in popularity and eventually was voted the Best Book of the Year at the national book awards.

Mr Whicher was brought in when the local police failed to solve the murder of a child who was taken out of his house in the middle of the night and killed.

Mr Whicher was able to establish that it had to be one of the family – a respectable upper-middle class gentleman, his second wife, one of the children from his first marriage, the nanny, or one of the other servants.

The interest in the case was phenomenal, with a frenzy of press and public interest. The case, and Mr Whicher himself, were the inspiration of very early detectives created by Dickens and Wilkie Collins, and the closed circle of suspects, country house mystery was born.

Publishers since have tried to capture the essence of Kate Summerscale’s book and there have been a few published reinvestigations of celebrated murders since.

But what they were missing was the fact that although the crime itself is interesting, it is the detective’s story which was is particularly fascinating – and those historic roots of real life detecting.

Kate Summerscale has researched deeply and used her research to great effect. I love the touches such as converting monetary values so you can more fully understand the historical context. Her explanation, for instance, of the social significance of the children of the first marriage sleeping on a different floor from their parents.

The mystery was never satisfactorily solved and public interest only slowly waned. Kate Summerscale tells us that when the house where the murder happened was put up for sale it was swamped with people who wanted to follow in Whicher’s footsteps, check the situation of the windows and the rooms that had led to some of Whicher’s early conclusions.

Kate Summerscale, viewing the case retrospectively and draw some pretty interesting conclusions.

In fact it makes me want to go and read the whole book all over again.

Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale Bloomsbury 7.99

A small free kiss in the dark

2011-04-20T20:40:00.000+01:00

From the sparkling opening pages, where we learn a lot about the main character, Skip, as he explores why he can’t have a friend, this endearing novel for teens is both action packed and sensitively written.

Skip runs away and pals up with long-time street person, Billy. Skip’s talent is as an artist and he sees the world in terms of shadows, the bits other people miss – but it is a talent we can see will never be fulfilled in a world that has rejected him.

But the world is about to change. Bombs hit and chaos ensues. Then the best skills to have are enterprise and ingenuity – and those skills Skip and Billy, adapted to a harsh life, have already had to learn. For them it’s normal to have no place to sleep, no regular supply of food.

Their survival skills mean they become one of the strong, the people who are able to adapt and also they become able to take care of six-year-old Max, dancer Tia with her baby Sixpence.

In a genre awash with fantasy and post-apocalyptic novels, I approached this book with a ‘here we go again’ feeling, because it is set around the time of the destruction of society after a catastrophic attack.

But what it is really is a great exploration of how individuals who don’t necessarily fit in can be excellent in extraordinary situations. It explores the meaning of family and human resilience and is a celebration of both the individual and of difference. It’s a tough and stark read in places, short, but it will not only have you turning the pages, but will stay with you for a long time.

So far my favourite children’s book of the year. The Australian author is doing a blog tour over Easter, if you want to find out more you can visit here: http://templarpublishing.blogspot.com/2011/04/small-free-kiss-in-dark-blog-tour-25th.html

A breath of fresh air for teens wanting something really well written, thought provoking and challenging.

A small free kiss in the dark Glenda Millard Templar 6.99

A Morville Treat

2011-04-17T11:42:00.000+01:00

At the end of one of the hottest April days we can remember we rounded off the day listening to Katherine Swift talking about gardening. Perfect.

Author of ‘The Morville Hours’ and ‘The Moville Year’, we at Mostly Books are certainly not the only ones who think Katherine’s views of all things gardening are a pleasure to hear about – she kindly came to give a talk in our shop shortly after a sell-out session at the Oxford Literary Festival.

Katherine took us on a ramble from spring through to winter in her garden – through the long journey from planning and imagining to finding that her books about her garden were becoming popular and how everyone has been captivated by the Morville story.

The simple joys of gardening and her particular style of gardening – finding historic plants in keeping with a particular style or era – all were conveyed, by Katherine, with enormous joy and an infectious enthusiasm.

Her writing is all about ‘looking at things we don’t normally look at’, she explained, which is why she can see so much beauty in a frost-covered garden, and appreciate the satisfaction of late evening watering, or the pleasure from the calm rhythm of mowing.

Her garden (or a series of interlocking gardens) has grown out of the research she has done of the Dower House, Shropshire. The gardens reflect the ever-changing history of the house. Open to the public, you can enjoy the formal patterns of a cloister garden (inspired from when there were monks in the thirteenth century), or the fragrant beauty of a Victorian rose garden.

We can all learn a lot, she says, through the history of gardening and there are many benefits from exploring the past, rather than constantly reaching out for the new.

Each plant has a story, and it is these stories which are part of the engrossing nature of her writing. Each plant was first spotted by someone, brought back by someone and first loved by someone, and her knowledge and research of how these plants have either become firm favourites, or lost through changes in fashion, makes a fascinating journey.

But on a peaceful spring evening the thing we will all take away is how worthwhile it is to create something both lasting and beautiful.

Mostly Cupcakes

2011-03-30T22:11:00.002+01:00

If you've been in the shop recently you may have noticed an unusually large amount of pink, paint, not to say a great smell of cake, among our usual bookish and serious activities - and wondered what it was all for.

Well, the sign next to the heater saying 'beware wet paint' wasn't anything to do with a bit of springtime DIY, but was the pièce de résistance of our secret Cupcake Window, which we can now unveil.

The twin celebrations of it being Mother's Day - and a new book from those folk at the Hummingbird Bakery - was too much to resist and we wanted to share our new window which went up today! Many thanks to Ellie and Karen for all their hard work.

Ellie's three-tier cupcake stand is the stunning centrepiece of our cupcake window. (The photo doesn't do it justice - I may have to try another tomorrow.)

Even if you've yet to be won over by the wonder of cupcakes, surely everyone likes a bit of celebratory cake.

The Hummingbird Bakery has been at the forefront of the baking trend and was the first American cupcake bakery in the UK. Their new book 'Cake Days', is a beautiful, highly photographic book packed with easy, fun cakes that are focused on those events and celebrations when people love to bake.

And our Mother's Day special offer will give you £5 off the book.

If you look closely in the bottom right-hand corner you can see Ellie's homemade cupcakes, complete with tiny hummingbird designs.

Ellie's creativity wasn't just about cupcakes - this is her home made three tier cake (book) stand, which is the feature point in our window. As you can't really tell now it is covered with books just how wonderful it is luckily I took a picture when it was still a work in progress.

Finally - if all of this has made you feel hungry for some, erm, cake - drop in on Saturday - while you are browsing for a perfect Mother's Day gift and card you can sample some of our favourite recipes as we will be serving cupcakes all day (while stocks last). And believe us, we have tried a lot of recipes over the last few weeks to find our favourite and our best!

The Fabulous Baking Memoir

2011-03-30T16:30:00.004+01:00

Anyone who has had a dream off turning their hobby into a business and giving up their day job might be interested in this story of the ups and down of starting a bakery.

There is a lot any owner of a small business would recognise – oh, the glamour of learning so many new skills – health codes, nutritional breakdown legislation, adequate packaging choices, correct storage of ingredients – all a far cry of the feel of the dough and the satisfaction of a delicately iced sponge.

Then there’s the struggle for perfection and huge worry and guilt if ever you let someone down. The beginning to wonder if you can ever take a day off and how long you can keep going at doing something you love and still pay the mortgage.

The story will have a wider appeal to as Gesine was a refugee from Hollywood, disillusioned and exhausted from listening to too many bad pitches for films and being used up as a contact with little or no recognition for the hard work if you are simply a tiny cog in a big machine. There are plenty of stories of Hollywood nonsense.

But what I found particularly heartwarming, was how Gesine discovered ‘emotional pastry needs’. Making all those delicious treats and special occasion cakes for people often put her in touch with people at their most needy and vulnerable.

Through baking she became reacquainted with her better self that had got well trampled on in Hollywood. And her journey to become a master baker was also a personal journey of reconnecting with her German roots – memories of her own mother and childhood all come flooding back as she bakes.

You would think that with all those beautiful cakes she describes they could have found a few for a picture for the cover. The current cover is a little garish and the book languished in my reading pile for a long time because I thought I wouldn’t like it. But once you get inside it’s a bit of a guilty treat.

You can’t fail to be swept up by details of the ‘Hollywood effect’. Gesine’s sister is the actress Sandra Bullock, so when big sis came to lend a hand on opening day, word got out.

Queues around the block, national news coverage – the picture of Sandy mid-pastry transaction voted Newsweek’s picture of the week – and 8,000 orders via email. The weight of orders threatened to shut them down before they’d even started. And she’d planned a quiet opening so she could learn as she went along.

Her love of baking and skill shines through every page. And there are recipes. And a conversion chart at the back. Not a bad choice if you’re stuck for ideas for Mother’s Day.

Starting over, one cake at a time Gesine Bullock-Prado Allison & busby 12.99

How to train a grown-up

2011-03-23T13:23:00.001Z

Jenny Smith's 'Diary of a Parent Trainer' is a well-observed celebration of the minutiae of family life, written partially in the form of a very funny ‘how to handle your grown-ups manual’ – a guide Katie Sutton is writing to help teenagers get on better with their parents, with herself firmly in the role of ‘expert’.

The format provides plenty of fun and young teens will find lots to recognise and chuckle at (and I did), such as the useful hints (note Katie’s stress on the importance of frequent light vacuuming in helping you generate positive response from your grown-up). I loved this imaginative format and how the story unfolds.

Grumpy mode – one of the easiest modes to identify because it is when everything in the world annoys your grown-up. Even if you asked them if you could go to London to receive a Bravery Award from the Prime Minister for saving loads of people’s lives they’d probably say no.

Katie lives in ‘the most boring village in Oxfordshire’, but her mates and her family provide plenty of fun and laughter and Katie reckons she is the best at keeping up her mum’s spirits (especially since Dad died).

And Katie certainly is pretty good at managing her mother, subtly steering her to her way of thinking, from winning approval of mini skirts to making the most of sympathy mode. Mum is pretty pliable (with often not a lot more than a bit of light vacuuming needed).

But things are about to change. The story proper opens with the fact that Katie, her sister and mates reach the age when they have a new distraction: Boys!

But the fun really starts when Mum shocks everyone by being first to find herself a boyfriend and chaos ensues.

An imaginative, light and funny read that’s also very wise at its heart.

So . . a short read and a short review this week and therefore no excuse not to go back to my kale sandwiches (we started a veggie box last week). I did wonder what Katie and her mum might make of our veggie box. My suspicions were aroused when the salesman made a particular point of asking if we ate kale (in such a way as to suggest that they might be able to offer us a very cheap deal on half a hundred weight if we were interested in helping unload it quickly). This was reinforced by the first box containing not only the expected large head of kale, but a quirky leaflet entitles ‘100 unexpectedly delicious ways with kale’.

‘Of course you can always go on line and change it,’ the salesman had assured me. Did he really think I was the sort of person who would cave in after Week One of Coping with Kale and go and click on having some of those nice pea pods freshly air-imported from Kenya instead? Surely the point is that you get into the flow of the seasons. (‘and of course we do bananas and oranges’ he also said, making me feel that there was more than a chance he was missing the point).

So. Now into Week Two and we have a kale (very likely to lead to another comment like last week from my four-year-old ‘that’s green and it’s not broccoli’), a threateningly large looking swede and a butternut squash and not a knife in the drawer that isn’t more used to the challenge of that film that covers that very tasty ready prepared ‘swede and squash mash’ we’re all very fond of.

‘We’ve given you a free gift’ chirruped a notice on the top, making me quake for a double portion of kale to inventively finely chop into recipes (it even went in the pizza last week). But no. A nice friendly box of eggs. Kale omelette anyone?

Diary of a Parent Trainer Jenny Smith Scholastic 5.99

Better than Wordsworth

2011-03-16T22:55:00.002Z

Katherine Swift is a gardening writer who can not only tell you at a glance a variety of daffodil, but is willing to take long journeys to discover a particular variety and then write about their individual beauty for a whole column - and make it not only interesting, but compelling.

This is probably because Katherine Swift enjoys sublime talents. She is a keen nature observer, has an ability to weave in snippets of fascinating history, and has a delicious way with words.

So it is hardly surprising that she has very quickly grown to become one of the best-loved gardening and nature writers of her generation.

Her story of how she created her garden at The Dower House in Morville 'The Morville Hours' was widely and highly praised, so it is delightful that there is now a follow-up, 'The Morville Year', which is based on a collection of her gardening columns in 'The Times' (and also has photos this time).

Whether discussing the relative merits of wild foxgloves over the bred variety, how a swarm of bees (hers) saw off workmen from the National Trust, or the technicalities of what constitutes a native species, Katherine Swift's 'The Morville Year' has something to engage and delight on every beautifully written page.

The enjoyment of Katherine's writing for me comes not just from the tips about 'this is your last chance to trim your wisteria'. I adore the historical details of individual fruits and vegetables. Every plant has a story.

Katherine Swift planned her garden one winter: 'I read and dreamed and cross-referred and made lists, writing my guidebook to a garden which did not yet exist. By March my imaginary garden was so real that I could walk about it and smell the flowers.'

Many have, through her books and columns, enjoyed the resulting garden and have walked with her and listened to her point out charmingly named corners such as the nuttery, while sharing her musings on everything from the wisdom of introducing vegetables into the English diet to the precision and pleasure of getting water features just right.

You can sit and read 'The Morville Year' and believe that one day your garden, too, will have old roses tumbling over a wisteria clad crumbling stone wall.

There, right there, where the compost bin currently resides against that pile of dangerously lopsided bricks your son was using as a makeshift mud pie stove.

And almost, just almost, makes you feel that next time you look at your patchy, weed-infested plot, home to slugs the size of rodents, you can dream one day you too could have smooth lawns and fragrant old roses.

Or perhaps you can just close the door quietly and sit down and read Katherine's book.
'The Morville Year' Katherine Swift Bloomsbury 18.99

(Katherine Swift will be coming to Mostly Books in Abingdon on April 6 - learn more here)

World Book Night

2011-03-10T22:26:00.000Z

Saturday night - and we had NO IDEA what to expect for our contribution to the inspirational book event / crazed social experiment that was World Book Night. Our shop is small, and our in-shop events are usually limited to thirty guests, so one might think it slightly reckless to issue an open invitation, free wine, and - more importantly - FREE BOOKS to our entire mailing list, now numbering more than a thousand local booklovers. Luckily a) we had billed it as a drop-in event over a two-hour period, and b) not everyone showed up.

Still, it did get a bit cosy at one point, but...as our customers tend to be extremely nice, friendly people our guests moved around to ensure that everyone had access to the wine and the books.

We were brilliantly supported by members of the local Abingdon Writers Group, including an extremely talented young writer, Jo, who had been to the Trafalgar Square event the night before. She has written up her World Book Night experiences here, and been far nicer (and slightly more objective) of our modest event than I could ever be.

As Jo mentions, on the evening we cajoled guests into writing their own favourite books - and guilty pleasures - on our World Book Night Board, which is now on display in the shop:

It must also be said that - for us - Saturday was manic for the whole day, but just why was this? World Book Night of course has not been uncontroversial, with plenty of booksellers, authors and publishers critical at a time when many in the industry are under the cosh from the recession, supermarkets, Amazon, eBooks and other economic and technological factors. An alternative World Book Night plan was mooted (and author Nicola Morgan deserves to become the patron saint of independent booksellers as a result).

My own feeling is that a combination of World Book Day vouchers, World Book Night, Alternative World Book Night, and simply some brighter weather on the high street all combined to form a perfect storm of awareness, enthusiasm and passion about books that brought people into bookshops and wanting to part of something special. Slightly cynically, perhaps the fact that World Book Night *was* controversial delivered the amount of press coverage it needed to gain critical mass. Who knows.

Whether this is just a temporary blip or the start of a resurgence in book sales, only time will tell. But I feel that World Book Night - in terms of an audacious concept - has delivered the goods. It will be difficult to do the same next year, but here's a thought: 50,000 copies of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" were given out, kick-starting the Stieg Larsson phenomenon. Imagine next year using the night as a springboard to launch the writing careers of 25 *new* British authors onto the national, and then international stage?

Now that might have some solid economic reasons behind it.

One thing's for sure: at our World Book Night Party, in amongst the wine and free books, we still sold a lot of books.

A huge, huge thank you for everyone who attended...

Katherine Langrish blog tour - updated link

2011-03-02T23:37:00.000Z

The Katherine Langrish interview as part of her West of the Moon blog tour can now be found here.

Robert Muchamore alert. Signing POSTPONED

2011-03-02T15:43:00.002Z

(For immediate release)

Release BEGINS:

Robert Muchamore, the bestselling author of the CHERUB and Henderson Boys books, has been incapacited by agents hostile to CHERUB, and will - sadly - no longer be able to travel to Abingdon for the scheduled booksigning at 6pm on March 3rd.

This event has had to be POSTPONED.

It will be rearranged at a future date. More information will be released as Robert's condition becomes clearer. You can follow updates on Robert's Twitter feed.
The suspicion at the moment is a toxic substance, which has left Robert with severe flu-like symptoms - and no voice. How enemy agents managed to slip through Robert's rebust security systems is, at the present time, a mystery, but new wood flooring recently installed in the author's house is the current prime suspect.

More information as we get it. We have set up a special email address http://www.blogger.com/cherub@mostly-books.co.uk for enquiries about Robert's health, and any information you may have for this audacious attack.

Release ENDS

Vikings, Trolls and Granny Greenteeth: "West of the Moon" Blog Tour interview with Katherine Langrish

2011-03-02T10:22:00.002Z

Katherine Langrish is an author we know very well here at Mostly Books, and tomorrow her new book West of the Moon is published. The book combines all the books of her acclaimed 'Troll' trilogy - Troll Fell, Troll Mill and Troll Blood - but there's a lot more to it than that...

Katherine kindly agreed to be interviewed about the new book, so let's find out more behind the project, and her life as a writer...
...
Hi Katherine, welcome to the blog.

You are a firm favourite here at Mostly Books, with the Troll series of books, and the fantastic Dark Angels – and (although you can’t see me!) I’m here holding an advance copy of West of the Moon. Essentially it’s all three ‘Troll’ books bound into one volume – but there’s a lot more to it than that: new cover design together with significant revisions and updates incorporated by you.

"West of the Moon is a fantasy set in the Viking period – around 1000 AD – and it’s the coming-of-age story of a young man, Peer Ulfsson, following his journey from ill-treated orphan boy to quietly confident young hero. Peer isn’t your typical hero-with-a-sword – he’s too poor to own one – and his experiences have left him with a tendency to be anxiety and self-doubt, but he’s quick thinking, fiercely loyal, essentially brave and good. (As one US blogger said to me, ‘Peer’s so sweet – how can you not fall in love with him?’)"

"The books begins like a tale told by a Northern fireside. I like to have a bit of everything in a story, so there’s humour and romance as well as danger and drama. And plenty of magical creatures, from the grotesque trolls, to the sinister water spirit who tries to lure Peer to his death, to the friendly but touchy little Nis (see my spot on yesterday’s tour for more about him!)"

"And Peer’s desperately in love with Hilde – but is she in love with him, or with someone else? Their adventures span continents and years, taking them from the troll-haunted mountain where they first meet, across the wild Northern seas and finally on an epic voyage all the way to Vinland (North America) on a Viking longship with a cursed captain and a murderous crew."

How does the single volume differ from the three separate books, and what changes have been made? Was this something that you always planned to do?

"To answer the last question first, it wasn’t something I could plan for, but I always hoped to be able to do it. You could call ‘West of the Moon’ my ‘director’s cut’. There are numerous small differences: I personally revised and trimmed the three Troll books for this edition – and I think it’s now tighter, pacier and an altogether smoother read. No episodes have been missed out, the story is essentially unchanged, but it now flows in a more powerful and streamlined way from the first page to the last. And of course I was able to cut all the bits of back-story which you have to put into separate sequels. (You know the kind of thing: ‘But Harry was no ordinary boy. Ever since his twelfth birthday, when an owl had delivered him a telegram summoning him to Hogwarts…’)"

You’ve been rightly praised for drawing on a variety of Norse and Celtic mythology to create the world in 'West of the Moon'. Was there anything in particular that drew you towards this area when you first started to write, or was it just something that sprang from your imagination?"

I’m going into more detail on this question later in the tour, but briefly, I’ve always loved myths and legends, as you can see from a glance at my own blog! And the Norse and Celtic stories are so close to home – the two strands of our homegrown British legends."

I couldn’t help being struck by the maps in the front of the book, in particular “Vinland”, which features prominently in the last third of the book. There seems to have been a lot of new research in recent years about the Viking discovery of North America – not to mention interest in what the arctic climate was like back then. Since writing the original books, have you received comments or feedback from readers – or has new research come to light – that you’ve taken on board in West of the Moon? How much scholarship have you had to do regarding the book, and how do you go about doing it?"

I did so much research! But no, nothing I’m aware of has come to light since the publication of Troll Blood in 2007 that would cause me to change my picture of the world of ‘West of the Moon’. I did a great deal of research over the course of the writing of the book. You have to remember the book is historical fantasy, not straight history, so in some cases I don’t mind the odd anachronism – the watermill in the first two parts of the book is not an authentic tenth century Norse mill, for example; but it would have been so difficult – and so irrelevant to the narrative – to try and explain the difference, I decided to go with the more familiar medieval variety."

"But there were some points where accuracy mattered very much indeed. I spent a week sailing a replica Viking ship on Roskildefjord in Denmark to try and make my characters’ voyage as realistic as I could. And the Native American parts of the book: settings, culture and folklore based on that of the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, took me more than six months to research – often in the Bodleian Library – and I then had it checked by a world authority on the subject. When you’re handling the myths and legends of another culture, I think you have a duty to try and get it as right as possible."

How important is reader feedback to you generally, and your ongoing writing?

"Well, it’s always nice to hear if someone has enjoyed the books! But – to my writing? No, it isn’t important at all. I write exactly what I want to write, and I never let anyone get involved in the process – in fact it’s rare for me to let anyone else even see it until it’s finished."

I’ve been lucky enough to see you ‘perform’ in front of schoolchildren – talking about modern mythology, linking it to the past – and often getting the children to act out sometimes gruesome Viking ‘events’ such as beheadings, which the kids absolutely love! I know that you started out as a ‘professional’ storyteller before becoming an author, and I wondered how important that background was to your development as a writer?

"I think it must have been very important – and the best evidence I can give is that, before I did the storytelling, I was writing stories and not selling them – and after I’d spent a few years’ storytelling, I wrote ‘Troll Fell’ and sold it, so the proof of the pudding…?"

"From oral storytelling, I think I unconsciously learned a lot about pacing and structure. And what works in a tale and what doesn’t. You hold your audience’s eyes, and you see straight away if they start to yawn!"

Your writing has been compared to authors such as Alan Garner, who has a reputation of being a challenging author (and who, incidentally, was never happy that his earlier books were ‘sold’ as children’s books). Do you write with children in mind, or do you simply tell stories and let other people worry about the age of the reader? Can children handle more complex plots and language than adults sometimes give them credit for?

"I’m very happy to be known as a writer for children and young adults, even though I know many adults who also enjoy my books. Children are more than capable of coping with complex, layered narratives. I know, because I used to be one. I honestly write the stories I want to write. I don’t worry too much about the age of the reader. Some of the best fanmail I’ve ever had has come from children and teenagers who’ve told me ‘I never read a book right through before I read yours’, and this makes me wonder – since to read my fairly literary prose, they must be competent readers – whether the adults in charge of their reading have been offering them books which are too simplistic and uninspiring? It’s just a thought."

Finally, for World Book Night we are challenging authors and readers to name one or two books that had a big impact on them when growing up, or books that they unhesitatingly recommend to everyone. Which books influenced you most when growing up, and which would you recommend without question?"

A book recommendation can never be unhesitating, because it has to be tailored to the individual reader. You have to know someone’s tastes before you thrust something at them. The books which influenced me? Many are now out of print, but – the Narnia books by C S Lewis, George Macdonald’s ‘At the Back of the North Wind’, Lucy Boston’s gentle ghosts in ‘The Children of Green Knowe’, E Nesbit’s ‘The Enchanted Castle’, ‘Viking’s Dawn’ by Henry Treece, and ‘The Mark of the Horse Lord’ by Rosemary Sutcliff, Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Books’, and ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ – Kipling is one of Britain’s most brilliant short story writers, in my opinion…

But I think I’d better stop!"

---

Katherine - you could definitely go on, those recommends are fab. Thanks very much for your time, and for (hopefully) giving readers of the blog lots to think about whether they are a reader or a writer.

West of the Moon is published by HarperCollins Children's Books on March 3rd, RRP £7.99. And of course, we will have copies in the shop...

Katherine's blog tour continues at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books on launch day tomorrow...

The Gospel According to Thursday Next

2011-02-24T13:47:00.006Z

Shortly before Nicki and I opened Mostly Books, we drew up a list of 'dream' authors who we had no chance of getting in initially, but who we would wait patiently for until an opportunity arose. Near the top of that list was Jasper Fforde, and on Tuesday night we realised our long-held ambition of enticing him to Abingdon.

It was very much worth the wait - one of the best events we've done.

We've met Jasper a couple of times, and his reputation as being one of the most more approachable, entertaining, down-to-earth guys is well-deserved. He actually talks like he writes: disarming, compelling, full of lessons if you know where to look - and slightly random at times!

We held the event in the suitably reverential St Nicolas Church, just down the road from the shop. It's a fantastic venue, and the event was meticulously planned, but (just like his books) you get the impression that with Jasper, you are never quite sure if any random events will occur to throw plans awry - and so it proved. Half an hour before the event started, workmen closed the street outside the church and started digging it up. As the street machines moved ever closer, the impression inside the church was one of a washing machine - but the ancient building proved remarkably soundproof, and the PA system was up to the job of transmitting Jasper's words to his 'congregation':

Mr Fforde slipped effortlessly into the 'english country vicar' role:

...and the packed church was treated to topics as diverse as dealing with rejection (of the publishing sort - Jasper was rejected 76 times before The Eyre Affair was finally published), the books he read as a child (and adult), whether there might ever be a Thursday Next film, and the origins of some of the more bizarre elements in the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime books.

He revealed that there is to be a sequel to both The Last Dragonslayer and Shades of Grey, and after talking and answering questions for over an hour, stayed for another hour meeting fans and signing books...

...and posing for photos of course!

A truly wonderful evening, and we are very grateful to Jasper for making it such a memorable event for his fans, some of whom had travelled all the way from Swindon to attend (and that's not a joke).

Jasper has an array of rubber stamps which he uses on different books when signing, and one of these refers to doing your 'Civic Duty'. Yours - as Jasper was very keen to point out - is to buy copies of his books, read them and get all your friends to do the same. We concur. And if you get them from Mostly Books in the next few days, they'll be signed as well...

Update: see Jasper's tour blog to see what he thought about the visit, other things he's up to...and if he might be coming to a bookshop near you!

Alex Scarrow at St Birinus: how cool is this?

2011-02-11T22:32:00.001Z

Whilst we were packing up at the end of Alex Scarrow's high-octane event on Thursday, two boys (who may have been sixth-formers at the school, it was difficult to tell) ambled up to the author, and said "man, you're possibly the coolest-looking author we've ever seen."

I have to agree.

Let's examine the evidence: left college, spent ten years in the music business. Had own recording studio. Left to become v.successful as a games designer. Has very cool rock-star looks. Has just signed huge deal with Puffin and has v.famous bestselling writing brother.

Mind you, I think he's particularly cool for other reasons: he fell out of the reading habit at 13, but re-engaged with books, reading and writing motivated in part by a son who is a reluctant reader. To kids enamoured with computer games, he offers up reading as the "alternative".

The event - our first at St Birinus School in Didcot - was an energetic, articulate and passionate affair involving awesome videos, brain-achingly hard history questions and repeated passionate appeals to the boys to read. And Alex seemed to strike home in terms of inspiring the more than 120 boys in the audience.

Alex's publicity photo looks like this:

In real life though he looks way more cool:

Aside from writing adult thrillers (which he was at pains to warn the boys off reading. They were dark, twisted, nasty - to be left alone. Yep. That should do it ;-) ) he has written three children's novels under the Time Riders banner.

Simply put, Time Riders involves a super-secret organisation, with isolated cells operating around the world, watching for people messing with time, and then working against the odds (and the clock) to change it back. These books are epic in scale, and you can only imagine the fun Alex has had in imagining different scenarios: what if the nazis had won WWII? What if dinosaurs hadn't died out? The books contains elaborate and complex plots and timelines, there's genetic engineering and artificial intelligence, atomic weaponry and digressions on big philosophical issues. Oh, and Nazis invading Washington DC. What's not to like, as the saying goes?

The books are gripping and, yes, violent in places. But it's comic book violence, and (largely) any characters that do meet grisly ends (and in book one this certainly happens) the great thing about fixing time is that (mostly) everyone gets to come back. Mostly.
Alex split the boys into two groups, rooting for teams in his high-octane history quiz. There were prizes, there were Millionaire-style lifelines...

...and even a quick-fire general history round at the end with a proper table-top press-bell thing...

There was some shameful examples of help being shouted out by various teachers present, but despite this the quiz was a close-run thing. And we all learned that the battle of Stamford Bridge was not fought in WWII...

Prizes were awards, books signed, and we got into all kinds of trouble by over-running into subsequent lessons, but the headmaster was on hand to gamely step in. We also had some very good questions at the end.

Our big thanks to St Birinus for bending over backwards to accomodate Alex (given the hall was set up for The Wizard of Oz and we were warned on pain of death to stay off the yellow-brick road) but huge thanks also to Alex for dropping in on a tortuous week of events all over the country. Time Riders is a cracking series, huge fun, with strong male and female characters and all the elements of page-turning thrillers to keep kids reading. Come and discover them in the shop...and watch the trailer here below. It's very, ahem, cool...

Viking Myths, Pirate Facts, and the Offside Rule for Girls - a day with Julia Golding

2011-02-10T16:29:00.003Z

The annual Abingdon School's joint author event is a wonderful tradition amongst the town's schools, and it's a real privilege to be invited along to do the bookselling. Last year we spent an awe-inspiring day in the company of Marcus Sedgwick, and this year we spent the day in the company of Julia Golding - who has also recently started writing under the name of Joss Stirling (more about that in a mo).

Julia is an author we have been desperate to meet for ages. When we opened the bookshop in 2006, she had only just published her first book (The Diamond of Drury Lane which was in our opening stock), and as the years have gone by, we've become increasingly in awe of her, particularly the Companions Quartet and Darcie Lock books). Readers - particularly girls - rave about her, and though I'm bound to say many of her books do appeal to boys, it's great to see strong writing that most definitely appeal to girls.

Julia did three sessions throughout the day - two sessions were aimed at year eights and above, and one session was for a slightly younger age range.

Children's authors have to increasingly be part performer, ringmaster and even stand-up comedian, and Julia pulled this off brilliantly by talking about her books, and interspersing readings with insights into the writing process. She also got the kids up on stage to take part in a various games, pirate dressing up and even a Viking quiz...

...where we learned that Vikings didn't have horned helmets (a Victorian myth apparently, copied by Hollywood) and the Viking king "Harald Bluetooth" - who united parts of Sweden, Denmark and Norway - gave his name to Ericsson's ubiquitous, cable-free 'unification' of PCs and mobile devices. How cool is that? (even better: the Bluetooth icon is actually the Nordic runes for his initials, H and B. Now that's a pub quiz-winning question if I've ever heard one...).

So, here's the obligatory picture of bookseller and author, but...notice the signed copy I'm proudly holding. This is Julia Golding writing as Joss Stirling for teenage readers. What do we think of the book in the shop? I'll leave the last word to Julia (that's Mostly Books' Julia, not the author!) who loved this book:

"Sky, forced to move to America from England with her adoptive parents, thinks that she'll never find her soul mate, her other half. But when she meets Zed, the local bad boy of Wrickenridge, that's exactly what happens. On one level, this is a beautifully-written book for teens about love and friendship which touches on the potency that comes with adolescence. But it's also a book with plenty of action and thrills, and some very sinister gangsters who take a special interest in Sky, and her 'gift'..."

There's a neat running joke in the book about 'soccer' and a nice comment about the off-side rule for girls which has taken on a slightly more contemporary resonance since the book was originally published...

It was a great event, and it's given us a great excuse to have a nice big display of Julia's books in the shop...

Buried Thunder: The Very Dangerous Tim Bowler

2011-02-08T22:56:00.001Z

Tim Bowler gives the impression of being a very dangerous individual. His books - often masterful psychological thrillers aimed squarely at teenagers - are frequently dark, menacing and subversive, the opposite of a safe read. Multi-layered with troubled characters, wild and remote settings, he plays with words like a poet to inject plenty of raw emotions, and hints of darker forces floating just below the surface.

So I was expecting someone a bit more menacing when we welcomed Tim to Abingdon for two school events today, but he was quite the opposite. Friendly, generous and utterly passionate about writing - I defy anyone to spend five minutes in his company and not come away wanting to start to write.

But Tim is in no way 'safe'; he is definitely a very dangerous and frightening individual. That much passion and energy, barely contained, frequently seems to charge up and fly off like an electrical spark, challenging you to throw caution to the wind and write. He was throwing plenty of advice (and even the off Ernest Hemingway quote) about, and - at the first event of the day at Abingdon School - had 13 year olds reading their creative endeavours out in front of their mates. Casting my mind back to school days, that's the kind of activity which would have scared most of us witless:

The workshop he ran - short, intense and very effective - elicited some cracking prose from the boys, and Tim used the start of his new book, Buried Thunder, as a starting point for the exercise.

Having finished the book last weekend, I found Buried Thunder a simply brilliant and utterly compelling book. It opens with a very unsettling (and gruesome) start and then - a few pages in - there's a genuinely scary supernatural twist that makes the hairs on your arm stand up - and there you are, hooked right through to the race-against-time climax. In terms of the unsettling mood created, I was reminded of Alan Garner's The Owl Service (a book I read when I was about 14, and one that I remember vividly at the time in terms of the way it made me feel)

After signing some copies for the boys, we were able to have a relaxing lunch (at the wonderful Wells Stores) - although the subject matter stayed scary (eBooks and the future of the High Street). We then headed over to Larkmead School, for a daunting talk in front of about 90 year eights...

Cue a range of questions, ranging from 'why are your book titles often oxymorons', to 'do you feel for trees that are cut down to make your books'...

And then more signing, and some impromptu advice for students looking to get started on their own stories:

All in all, a busy but thoroughly enjoyable day spent in the company of a true great of English children's writing (learn more on Tim's website). As time goes on, I increasingly feel that the best children's writing is subversive, and after today I may add 'dangerous' to that as well...

The only thing we have to fear is...

2011-02-05T16:34:00.001Z

We may have given the impression over the last few months that our independent bookselling experience has become one long round of schmoozing, travelling to exotic locations and generally hanging around with famous publishing people. This really isn't the case, and most mornings you can still find us sweeping the front of the shop in the morning, juggling the competing (and often contradictory) priorities of a small business - and doing what we love, placing great books in the hands of our customers.

Last night we held a wonderful book launch in the shop, and for me - this is what independent bookselling is all about. Bringing together an author, readers, a great book and making it all happen right in your own bookshop. This happens at any event, but a book launch is particularly special as you are there right at the start of the story.

We first did an event with Andrew Rosenheim almost four years ago, and - having read the proof of the book before Christmas - it was fantastic to be able to launch 'Fear Itself' at Mostly Books last night.

Andrew's latest novel is (IMHO) a significant step-up in terms of ambition and scale. Fear Itself is a powerful 'what if' thriller set mostly in the US in the years leading up to - and then during - the second world war. Focusing largely on aspects of loyalty and trust within the German-American community (and there were approximately 40 million Americans who could point to German heritage) the novel features a young FBI agent Jimmy Nessheim investigating the pro-Nazi Bund organisation. and a potential plot that could alter the direction of the US and World War II.

What really raises this book up as a superior thriller is the way Andrew brings his trademark style to bear on the plot: superb and vivid characterisation, and an ability to get right inside the American psyche in all its multicultural hues. Whether it's the transatlantic relationship, or the growing pains of a young country dragged reluctantly into a global conflict, this is compelling storytelling during an already fascinating period of world history. Real individuals are brought onto the stage to anchor the fiction, and remind you that this really might have happened. A notably figure is J Edgar Hoover and - incredibly - you do get an appreciation of his unique (if slighly creepy) abilities, and probably the only person who could have made the FBI as effective as it was, with the resources available.

It was a delight to host the launch, and we obviously congratulate Andrew and his publishers in what deserves to be a very successful book. And of course, we have signed first editions on the shelves when you next pop into the shop...

Dubai Another Day: Jeffery Deaver and Carte Blanche

2011-01-17T14:45:00.004Z

By a series of unlikely (and fortuitous) events, I was very lucky to be invited to attend the official unveiling of the title and cover design for the new Bond novel, commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate from thriller writer Jeffrey Deaver.

"Carte Blanche" was launched this morning here in Dubai, and it's been interesting to watch the spread of the official press release around the Internet on various news sites. The BBC's take on the story is here. Hodder have also launched an official website to coincide with the book.

I don't know how long they agonised over the title and the cover, but it's a blinder. The title is simple, foreshadows well and leaves lots of room for the Bond fans to speculate on before the book launch. The use of the smoke is also interesting: I'm thinking cigarettes (almost a taboo now in the West) so immediately there's a hint of the illicit. Cover design is such a perilous process, Hodder deserve big congrats for doing a fine job (and that's not just me being a bit of a suck-up BTW, I genuinely think it's fab).

(What I would say though to Hodder is test the cover material - it would be a shame if we got into Ottolenghi 'Plenty' territory here, with lots of books going back as damaged having picked up dinks and scrapes - white covers seem unforgiving within the book trade's supply chain...)

Anyway, just in case anyone is in any doubt, Bond is BIG, and there is huge interest in Ian Fleming's creation, which has become something of a global cultural institution. What has been more interesting to me (as a bookseller) is to understand a bit more about Jeffrey Deaver's involvement and motivation in taking on the mantle of 007.

It turns out that Fleming was instrumental in forming the writer that Deaver became, and Jeffrey devoured all of the Ian Fleming novels before he had even seen a single movie. He credits Fleming with teaching him about how to keep readers turning a page, how to write suspense (and to do it without the need of gruesome acts or extreme violence). And unlike Sebastian Faulkes, Jeffrey is very much setting Bond in the here and now, with Dubai as the setting for part of the action.

I guess that's as it should be. Bond - and the world - have evolved and become way more complex than when Fleming originally created him. But having someone like Deaver in control now - who genuinely has Fleming running through his literary veins - has got to be good news for anyone who appreciates top notch thriller writing when the book is released at the end of May.

It's obviously been a fantastic experience for a little bookseller. I've had the opportunity to meet and get to know some great authors (not to mention other booksellers) - and there have been plenty of suitably Bond-esque touches to the trip, from vodka martinis on arrival, to 007 nibbles in the hotel rooms. A huge thank you to Hodder and their sponsors for making the whole thing happen (and I now have to convince other members of staff that I was doing lots of serious work out here, and not just taking advantage of a shameless freebie. This may be a big ask, as the saying goes)

The details of the plot are being kept well under wraps, so I've been speculating as to where the Dubai action might take place. Mmmm, what chance a baddy or two being hurled off the Burj Khalifa?

Blink, blink...

2011-01-14T13:22:00.001Z

...golly, it can't be half way through January already?

In past years, January has been partially a 'slump' in more ways than one, mostly us slumping over the computer and recovering from the craziness that is Christmas. But this year, we feel reasonably rested and relaxed, having navigated safely through the festive season (and it's weird weather) and have been beavering away on our events programme as we hurtle through January.

In July this year, we will be five years old, which is somewhat hard to believe. Nicki and I feel that we should be organising some suitably super events around that time to celebrate. For the moment however, please take a look at our events pages - or the latest issue of our newsletter for a few tasty treats coming up in February.

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to Jasper Fforde coming. This event has been a long time in the coming, with a couple of potential events in the past not quite getting off the planning board. This one is definitely happening and I'm quivering in anticipation...

Toby, King of Shops

2010-12-16T13:33:00.000Z

On Monday, someone turned up at our shop at lunchtime, asking if we needed any help. I'm always up for extra help at this time of year - particularly if the person doesn't need paying - so I heartily agreed. He also stated that he had some 'trade experience', so - after taking off his coat and accepting a cup of tea - he set to work.

The visitor, of course, was Toby Mundy of Atlantic Books, and we had 'won' him for the day courtesy of a brilliant initiative from the Faber Alliance entitled "Hire a CEO". So how did it work out?

Well, Toby was hard-working, friendly and - I have to say - a crackerjack salesman. We had what might euphemistically be termed a 'busy day' on Monday, and there were plenty of people seeking help for gift ideas - and Toby was very happy to help out.

It turns out that he comes from a family of retailers, which definitely showed itself in the easy way he assisted customers in their purchases.

Toby also kindly stayed around, and we ran an evening event in a packed shop. He talked about the origins of Atlantic, the ethos (and philosophy) of independent publishing, and the opportunities that now exist for indie publishers as an unexpected consequence of the end of the Net Book Agreement (amongst many other things). As always, Gaskella has written up a vastly superior account of the evening on her blog, which I would suggest should be essential reading for anyone interested in publishing, retailing, or indeed anyone 'in the biz' if only as a refresher for things you *think* you know already...

For me, however, the chance to spend a day in the company of someone with such experience and perspective in the books industry was both hugely enjoyable, instructional - and absolutely priceless. During the course of the day Toby had comments to make on different aspects of the shop, from merchanising and stock selection to the and potential directions for the business in the future. All of these were made obliquely, and offered up with a genuine desire to help us do better. Nicki and I have already made some changes to the shop, and these have been having an impact.

For us, it was a bit like having a visit from "Mary Queen of Shops", and I hope this marks the start of a lasting relationship between us and Atlantic...

Extra staff in the shop this Monday...

2010-12-12T15:02:00.000Z

We're very much in the thick of the Christmas season now, and a few early 'runners' have emerged during December in terms of our Christmas bestsellers. Here's a top 10 from the past 4 weeks or so:

History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil Macgregor (and that's despite not being able to get hold of copies for a while at the start of the month)
I Never Knew That About the River Thames by Christopher Winn (we're on the river here!)
Help by Kathryn Stock (several local bookgroups have been reading this I believe)
F in Exams by Richard Benson (the big stocking-filler hit of the year for us, and easily the book causing the most laughter from casual browsers...)
Golden Acorn by Catherine Cooper (by dint of having done an event with her a few weeks ago)
One Day - David Nicholls (mmm, can't imagine why that's there...)
Four Tales - Philip Pullman (a gorgeous collection of four of his 'fairy tales' and a very Christmassy-looking book to boot)
Do Nothing, Christmas is Coming - Stephen Cottrell (the third year running this has featured in our top ten!)
Top Gear - the alternative highway code (I'm slightly ashamed to say)
Steve Backshall's Deadly 60 (cometh the hour, cometh the 'wild' man...we waited almost two months for these to come in, and we're expecting big things of this title over the next couple of weeks...)

An interesting list, as always. Now, a bit further down (at about #17) is Anne Holt's 1222, one of our big crime recommends this Christmas. Published on Dec 1st, it promises to introduce Norway's biggest female crime writer - already huge in other European countries - to a wider UK audience.

But more interestingly, it's a title published by Atlantic Books, and - courtesy of a fantastic initiative from members of the Faber Alliance - we have Atlantic Books CEO Toby Mundy working in the shop tomorrow (Monday Dec 13) from lunchtime onwards, assisting customers as a Mostly Books staff member. It's going to be a great opportunity to come and get some (additional) expert advice from a hugely respected figure in the publishing world, so if you are in Abingdon tomorrow afternoon, do stop by.

Toby will be staying on in the evening to talk about his experience in publishing, and the books they publish. Officially, we are now full for that event, but there is a waiting list and we will try to squeeze you in. Tickets are £3, and include suitably festive refreshments into the bargain...more details here.

Last Dragons, Rare Species and Priceless Objects: The Last BBC Oxford Bookclub

2010-12-02T22:34:00.000Z

All good things must come to an end, and I am very sad to be giving up my monthly bookclub appearance on BBC Radio Oxford, which I have really enjoyed doing over the past year. However, the bookclub itself is in safe hands, as Patrick Neale of the wonderful Jaffe and Neale bookshop in Chipping Norton will be taking over later this month.

For the last show, I managed to pursuade Jo to pose for a shot inside the studio - she's holding a copy the marvellous Coconut Unlimited, one of the shortlisted Costa first novels:

Here are the six books we discussed on the show - which, as always, can be listened to on iPlayer for a week or so (fast forward 1hr 8minutes):

A History of the World in 100 Objects - Neil MacGregor (HB, Penguin, £30)
This is one of those books destined to become a household treasure, such is the thought, effort and care that has gone into this stunning book.
Following exactly the tone and style of the radio series, Neil MacGregor has put together this book of the objects from the British Museum that shows - in his opinion - the objects that best demonstrate how humans have shaped the world since the dawn of humans on Earth. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want Santa to bring them a copy!

1222 - Anne Holt (HB, Corvis, £12.99)
1222 metres above sea level, a train careens off iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force. Passengers know they will be trapped for days. They decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel, but as dawn breaks one of them is found dead. With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen investigates and tensions rise.
Anne Holt is huge in Scandinavia, Germany - and this book is set to make her a big name here. It's a taut mystery - with a subtle political message and a mischievous twist at the end.

Fifty - 50 years 50 species (HB, £17.95)Fifty of the most interesting wildlife species to be found throughout Berks, Bucks and Oxon are captured in photographs and text in this beautiful new book, which also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the local wildlife trust. With stunning and imaginative photographs, what better way to support your local trust, but also get to know the precious local wildlife in your area?

The Last Dragonslayer - Jasper Fforde (HB, Hodder, £12)This is Jasper Fforde's first children's book, a wonderful creation of a magical world where magic is disappearing! Once magic was powerful, unregulated: sorceror's advised kings and brought down kingdoms. But after centuries of creeping regulation and restrictions, magicians work as plumbers and even magic carpets deliver pizza. Jennifer Strange is a 15-year-old acting as manager for an employment agency finding odd jobs for sorcerers and soothsayers, but everything changes when the death of the Last Dragon is predicted...a great morality tale, and just the merest hint of satire on our health and safety-obsessed world...

Four Tales - Phillip Pullman - £14.99 (HB, Doubleday, £14.99)
A beautiful collection of modern fairy tales, delightfully illustrated throughout. Bringing together for the first time four of Pullman's earlier classic stories - The Scarecrow and his Servant, Clockwork, I was a Rat! and The Firework Maker's Daughter. They are perfect examples of Pullman's unique imaginative talent and will delight and amuse readers of all ages. An absolute gem of a book, perfect for a cold winter's night!

The Iron Man - Ted Hughes (HB, Faber / Walker, £15)An impressive and striking new edition of Ted Hughes' popular children's classic The Iron Man. Part modern fairy tale and part science fiction myth about the unexpected arrival in England of a mysterious metal giant.
Accompanying the text are stunning visual images. These dramatic and exciting illustrations lend themselves perfectly to the story. A stunning gift edition, perfect for Christmas.

Costa First Novel award: the books that nearly made it

2010-11-28T23:19:00.001Z

At the beginning of November I travelled to London for an intense - and at times gruelling - six-hour meeting to decide the shortlist (and winner) of this year's Costa First Novel award. Having already whittled the original long-list of 94 submitted novels down to just twelve, we then proceeded - over the course of the day - to fine-tune this selection down to just four, with one overall winner.

It has been quite an experience to be involved in the awards, but at the moment I feel like a marathon runner, elated at having crossed the line, but hobbling a bit (metaphorically) on sore reading feet, wondering if I would ever do it again (I secretly suspect that I would, but not perhaps for a while...).

I am extremely proud of the four books we eventually selected, but I will forever look at the shortlists from other prizes and fully appreciate just how much hard work has gone into the selection of the books!

Reading over 40 debut novels since mid-Summer has been challenging (particularly spliced between my regular bookshop reading). Many of the books I greatly enjoyed reading, several of them I definitely didn't. But I do feel slightly guilty ('judging remorse' anyone?) that in making my own shortlist, several books were close to making the cut, and missed out for reasons which now appear less obvious. I can't help wondering that if I had read the books in a different order, or at a different time during the Summer, they might have been selected instead.

I know - as a bookseller - how difficult it is as a debut writer to get off the ground. Without sounding pompous, I did feel that there was a big responsibility on you to make the right selection, simply because of what it will mean - in terms of sales, visibility, etc. - for those authors on the shortlist. It's a tough life for the newly published; rarely do book buyers come into a bookshop specifically to try out a new author. It is not uncommon for readers - particularly men - to want to try a new writer *only* if they have several books published. A friend of mine explained it thus: "I don't get much time to read. Therefore, if I'm going to invest time and effort in trying a new author, I need to know that - if I like him or her - there will be other books to read by them." That's tough to hear if you are a new author, what chance does that give you?!

Which brings me to the point of this post: to mention, in dispatches, those novels that very nearly made it into the selection, and certainly books I would recommend (with perhaps a few provisos) when choosing your next book.

Most importantly - they are all authors to watch. They are definitely worth your time and effort to try, they could all have made my personal shortlist given different circumstances. They are listed in the order I scored them during the judging process:

Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile

To me, this was my stand-out read of the entire list, and I have been championing the book in the shop, and two of my bookgroups have had the book foisted upon them. It is a stunning - and breathtaking - debut novel which takes a difficult and taboo subject (a woman embaarking on a sexual relationship with her father) but treats it with such sympathy and strong writing, you quickly push past your reservations, judging the characters on their own terms and examining your feelings. Although you know it won't end well (and it doesn't) it is still a book that lives long in the memory, and - like all great art - pushes you well out of your comfort zone to see the world in a slightly different way. Ultimately the book probably didn't make it onto the shortlist because of its subject matter - but Anne Peile's novel has made a big impact on me, and readers in the bookshop. Oh, and I loved the cover...

Saraswati Park by Anjali Joseph
A simple tale, elegantly told, which links together both the old and the new in India. It tells the story of Mohan, who is one of a dying breed of 'letter writer' - a once-proud profession, writing letters to order for a variety of customers, and now a victim both of modern technology and spreading literacy. Into the life of Mohan and his wife Lakshmi comes Ashish, forced to repeat his final year in college. We thus follow, slowly and compellingly, the hopes, fears and desires that exist within a very small cast of characters. It is strikingly different from many other Indian novels, and - in terms of the quality of the prose - easily the best novel I read. (Poor cover incidentally, but looks like they are remedying that on the mass market paperback).

Sabra Zoo by Mischa Hiller
Powerful debut set against the backdrop of the real-life shocking massacres at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut in 1982. Whilst not shying away from details of the event, I found it ultimately a life-affirming story written with a lack of polemic. Through the eyes of translator Ivan - an 18-year old Danish-Palestinian who hangs around and assists a variety of Lebanese, Palestinian and Western medical volunteers in the camps - we watch events unfold with a grim inevitability. This book ultimately shows that ordinary people with courage, even in the midst of atrocity, can plot a path to a more hopeful future. I loved this book, but the details of the massacre are very shocking.

Making Shore by Sara Allerton
This so very nearly made my final list - and perhaps it should have. It is based in part on a remarkable true story of survival at sea, and in that regard the writing is dignified yet compelling. Having survived the torpedoing of his boat during WWII, young wireless operator Cubby Clarke endures a terrible ordeal with other survivors from the boat, and even when they reach land, their ordeal is not over. But the reason for the power of this novel is its framing within a relationship between one of his shipmates and his fiancee, which packs an enormous emotional wallop and raises this far above a standard wartime survival story. The book deserves to reach a wide audience.

The Reluctant Mullah by Sagheer Afzal
This is the book David Lodge might have written if he had been a British Muslim. A cracking set of characters (my favourite being a Confuscious-spouting, foul-mouthed but endearing Muslim builder) with Musa, recently kicked out of his North-London Madrasaha, and looking for true-love, being the most compelling and sympathetic. I felt I learned a lot about British muslim life, not to mention aspects of the Koran that were surprising and accessible. A solid - and fresh - debut.

The Clay Dreaming by Ed Hillyer
This is a great novel, but its sheer length counted against it - wouldn't have been surprised to have seen it on the Booker longlist though, as it is that good. Set against the backdrop of a real (and forgotten) Australian Aboriginal cricket tour that took place in England in 1868, Victorian London comes alive in a way Dickens would've been proud. Genuinely gripping - the tour may or may not succeed financially, and the Aboriginies cannot be trusted to behave 'properly' - I really enjoyed this book, and hope it does well.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Hats off to Gollancz - a publisher I admire - for submitting a hard SF novel to the Costas. As someone who always champions SF to anyone who will listen, I wanted to select it, didn't think I could get away with it, but I loved it and I hope it wins loads of SF awards. It's a smart, fast-paced thriller set in the far-future but with loads of literary references from SF staples to Sherlock Holmes.

Quilt by Nicholas Royle

This book is bonkers. Experimental in the correct sense of the word (as opposed to the over-excited PR pumped out to accompany 'C') as first I wondered if I should even read this book (one chapter is a list of alphabetised words). But as a study of a father and son relationship, and as the dissembling of a once-sane individual, the imaginative use of language is startling, and I've never read anything even remotely like it. I don't trust my own critical faculties enough to pronounce whether this is a great book - or whether it even works - but I found it compelling and it's one of the books that has stayed with me from earlier in the Summer.

So there we go. Eight books which might have made it but didn't. It was interesting reading some of the press response to the shortlist. Boyd Tonkin was perplexed by the choice of books, and makes some good points about the chosen novels which are fair enough. The only point I would make to him is that all of us unanimously loved Neel Mukherjee's "A Life Apart" and had it not been disqualified on the ground of having been published previously under a different title, would probably have made the shortlist. I hope that makes him feel slightly better...and I'm keen to see how RobAroundBooks does on his reading through the shortlist as someone is a self-professed lover of debut novels (and they are in short supply, I can tell you...)

Finally, some interesting observations about the 'snapshot' of new writing that my reading threw up. Not many generalisations, but although "Creative Writing MA" increasingly crops up in author biographies in the shop, there was little evidence of that in the debuts. The strength of Asian writing (and issues) is notable (and The Times of India thought it worth commenting recently as well).

But to me the most striking aspect was the background of the authors. Many had already achieved a measure of success in other creative fields, such as poetry, non-fiction, screenwriting, journalism. Whether this had given them the inspiration - or the contacts - to break into the publishing field is an interesting point to debate. Either way, I think it's a healthy sign that 'living the writing life' (and spending a life writing) might be the best way to end up being a fiction author...

The Death of Booksellers? Discuss.

2010-11-11T23:42:00.000Z

Yesterday I had the great privilege of talking to students on the MA Publishing course at Oxford Brookes about the bookshop. My talk slotted into talks by other industry figures and so I gave my talk the rather upbeat title of “The Death of Bookselling?” (obviously the question mark is key, and I hope that by the end of the talk I had successfully argued that, whilst hard and rapidly changing, bookselling – and independent bookselling – is still very much alive and kicking).

Anyway, part of the talk was to stress that, to make a modern bookshop work, there are a large variety of different events that go on around the core retail operation, so (to any of the students visiting this page) this blog post is sort of a ‘refresher’ to the main part of the talk.

To start with, here are the students themselves who gamely posed for a photo during a talk about our experience of blogging (and the proof that I never miss a chance for something to put on the blog):

and of course their fine lecturers lurking in the corner:

It’s always a bit daunting doing this sort of thing, particularly after lunch (referred to colloquially as the ‘graveyard shift’ on the lecture/conference circuit, making my talk title doubly appropriate), but the 75 students (who I understand hail from 24 different countries) were a very attentive and engaging audience, and it was a lot of fun to prattle on about my favourite subject (Mostly Books) for nearly an hour – and answer questions afterwards.

It was an interesting week to give such a talk. Two week’s previously we had had our fun-packed, white-knuckle ride of an event with Gervase Phinn, and last Monday (by way of a bookgroup meeting or two) I had had an extremely intense meeting in London, the climax to nearly four months of a debut novel-reading marathon, being a judge for the Costa awards this year. The four-book shortlist that we decided on will be announced on Front Row next Tuesday (16th Nov), but all three of us are hoping that the list represents a diverse and engaging collection of the best new writing, and a snapshot of the state of new novels in the past year. It was a huge responsibility choosing books from the list of over 40 books that I received, knowing that selection may mean the difference between a new author 'making it' or not.

(Once the shortlist is out BTW, there are other books that deserve an honourable mention from the books that I read, and I look forward to breaking silence on these next week.

Then last Saturday, we were very honoured to be invited along to run a bookshop at the Storyteller’s Conference, at the (it has to be said, gorgeous) offices of OUP in Oxford, organised by the Oxford Children’s Book Group.

Having never been to OUP before, I was utterly charmed by the place. With its white walls, and the oasis of calm that greets you on entering the 'quad', it almost seemed like a kind of bookseller version of heaven (with the state-of-the-art security system on the front acting as a kind of eye-of-the-needle to get your camel through, or in this case, a Ford Focus, which I was using to deliver the books):

Speaking and signing copies of their books were the children's illustrators Sarah McIntyre and Layn Marlow...

and it was very exciting to meet one of our shop-favourites Mary Hoffman (author of the extranvaganza series, amongst many other fab books).

Philip Pullman gave a cracking talk on the elements of storytelling, and having met Philip briefly at the Larkmead Literary Festival earlier in the year, it was great to do another event with him. Random House Children's Books have produced a gorgeous bind-up of four of Philip’s tales in one book (Four Tales, naturally), which looks splendid and Christmassy – and if you are lucky we may have some signed copies in the shop for a few more days:

Sunday: day off. Monday and Tuesday was spent preparing for the return of the Mostly Bookbrains Literary Quiz. We held this last year, and this year the quiz was held to raise money for the Friends of Abingdon Museum restoration appeal, and we had teams from the council, local schools, book bloggers, our own bookgroups and customers competing to be Mostly Bookbrains 2010, and a motley collection of wine, chocolates and books that we had rustled up for prizes.

The Friends of the Museum ran a bar and raffle, and the youth group acted as car park attendants and waiters for the evening. Thanks to the great support from the town, and The Friends, and not forgetting the brilliant efforts of quiz-meister Annabel, we believe we have raised over £600 towards the appeal.

And finally today I had the opportunity to travel to Foyles in London, for a meeting as part of the build-up for a very exciting country-wide book event next March (more on that in the next few weeks). Suffice to say that I did spend a few minutes walking around this iconic and wonderful bookstore, breathing in great gulp-fulls of rarefied bookselling air in what is a magical building for books…

The trick with all of this activity is not to detract from the running of the bookshop. So, my final question to the students on the course. Is bookselling dead? Discuss...

Fluorescent jelly, vengeful angels and a new world history: BBC Oxford Afternoon Bookclub October 2010

2010-10-28T15:37:00.000+01:00

Sadly, we're well into Christmas present territory now, but I was really pleased with the selection of books on today's show. Click to listen on iPlayer, then forward to about 1 hour 11 minutes into the show.

Here are the books reviewed:

Who’s Hiding – Satoru Onishi (Gecko Press, PB, £5.99)This is a simple idea ingeniously delivered. On every page an assortment of different animals, of different colours, appear – but with the judicious use of colour, the question is “Who’s Hiding?”. Other subtle (and increasingly complex) changes happen as the book progresses. And pre-schoolers absolutely love it. Great for an older sibling to read to a younger one too...

Angel – LA Weatherly (Usborne, PB, £7.99)This is the first in a brilliant new series of books – published by Usborne, who have moved into the young adult fiction market for the first time. It’s a superbly conceived world in which people see angels – but they are most definitely *not* what they seem. As the book progresses we follow Willow, a young girl who seems to have special powers, and a boy named Alex (an angel-hunter) who initially wants to harm Willow, but eventually is forced to join her as they face a threat which has huge ramifications for the entire world. A stunning book and a natural successor to the ‘Twilight’ world. Angels are the new vampires!

Mirrors – Eduardo Galeano (Portobello Books, PB, £9.99)This is one of the most addictive books I’ve read in a long time, so be warned if you think you’ll just have a few minutes to ‘dip in’ (particularly at night, and I speak from experience) as you may be some time. At its simplest, ‘Mirrors’ is a history of the world written in a thousand short ‘pieces’, in the form of an anecdote, event, biography or some other interesting story which makes this book one that can be dipped into at almost any point. But when read together, they form a genuinely original history of the world, often with key moments told from very different vantage points – and with connections and themes strung together. By the end of the book your view of the world – and the human experience – is subtly, but radically transformed.

The Extraordinary Cookbook: Make Meals Your Friends Will Never Forget – Stefan Gates (Kyle Cathie, HB, £19.99)Cookbooks are a staple of the Christmas publishing 'fayre' (no pun intended), but this year, forget Nigella, Jamie and Hugh, and instead plump for this, one of the most unusual and, yes, extraordinary cookbooks to have been published in recent years. Stefan Gates is best known for presenting Gastronuts, and he has brought out books in the past on eating unusual food. But here, he collects together 'real' recipes for you to cook extraordinary meals for friends which will "flatter their intelligence and feed their appetite for adventure". From flourescent jellies and roasted fish heads, to inviting your friends to make sushi and roasting fish heads, this is a cook book like no other...

Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will - Judith Schalansky (HB, Penguin Books, £25.00)This is one of those wonderful books that is beautifully conceived and executed, making both a lovely gift and genuinely useful in terms of a reference book. The collected stories which serve to illustrate each island are by turns funny, gripping...but often poignant, rooted as many of them are in the history of discovery and colonisation. One of my big Christmas recommends this year for difficult-to-buy-for men, particularly those with an interest in maps! But it will appeal to a far wider readership than that...

The Mighty Phinn

2010-10-27T23:04:00.001+01:00

Four years ago (October 2006) we hosted our first ever author event at Mostly Books. Upon setting up the event, our initial joy in celebrating the fact that we had convinced an author to come to the shop was soon tempered by the realisation that no-one had ever heard of the author, and thus the tickets weren't exactly flying out of the door...

A few days before the event, and desperate to round up an audience, I accosted one lady in the shop, gave her one of my best 100 watt bookseller smiles, and endeavoured to lure her to buy a ticket. She declined, but said "You know who you should get for an event? That Gervase Phinn. He'd be fab."

"I'll see what I can do" I said.

And so (because these things can take some time to pull off) four years later we welcomed the legend himself to the Guildhall in Abingdon. And what a night it was...

Gervase's own website declares that "you can always tell a Yorkshireman, but you can't tell him much" and it was clear from the outset that there was only one man calling the shots in terms of how the evening was going to be run.

As befits someone who has a reputation as one of the country's best raconteurs and after-dinner speakers, Gervase had the audience in the palm of his hands, with stories, anedoctes, observations and poems on everything from the use of language and modern life, to his passion for education and family life. It was a virtuoso performance.

Having decided to do an impromptu signing before the event, he then continued to sign and chat afterwards as well.

He seemed very happy with the whole event - particularly the response from the audience. So a big thank you for everyone who came - we hope you had a great evening.

Rumour has it that Gervase's next project is his first fiction novel, and when it gets published I will do my best to lure him back to Abingdon for a repeat performance. And hopefully it won't be another four years...