3 4 Friday - the joy of strips, or how we embraced graphic novels

When I was a teenager, I spent an awful lot of time reading comics: mostly a British comic called 2000AD. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but I was reading stories by authors and illustrators who would go on to be some of our best-known and loved tellers of stories, such as Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.

As I got more into Science Fiction, I stumbled across a different kind of comic - 'Watchmen'. The book was a revelation: sophisticated, not (as with other comics) to be enjoyed in one sitting, and with characterisation and plot as rich and thrilling as any novel I'd read.

The Graphic Novel had arrived. And people have being arguing over the difference between comics, graphic novels and literature ever since...

We've carried Graphic Novels in the shop for some time - but this week we expanded our Science Fiction space to accommodate a broader range - and we've taken the (controversial?) decision to include a few comic books in there as well.

Independent Bookshops are not so hidebound to stick to 'traditional' categories anyway - but like more things we try in the shop, rapid evolution based on customer feedback is the order of the day...

Here's a few of the titles we have on the shelf to give you a bit of an idea of what we're trying to do...

Firstly, I've recommended and ordered this book for may customers over the year - but 'Pride of Baghdad' has now got a space on the shelves. Written by Brian Vaughan and illustrated by Niko Henrichon, it's based on the true story of four African lions who escaped Baghdad Zoo after its bombing during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

As a metaphor for the rights and wrongs of the war, it works well, but as a thrilling and hugely moving story in its own right, it's storytelling perfection. It also happens to be a great introduction to concepts such as war, freedom and liberty for teen readers.

Straight comic books have languished for many years, until the arrive of the DFC (short for the 'David Fickling Comic') in 2008. When the DFC closed, it was replaced by The Phoenix Comic in 2012 - still going strong.

We know the team at David Fickling well, and we're big supporters of the newly-independent publishing company, with favourite recent titles including 'Shadow of the Wolf', 'The Murdstone Trilogy' and 'Thirteen Chairs'. Within Fickling, we're rather known as 'the independent bookshop that stopped stocking The Phoenix' but actually we were so passionate about it, that I think we actually got everyone signed up to a subscription...

But the DFC Library gives us a great opportunity to relive some of the best strips from the DFC - and jostling for position amongst 'Bunny versus Monkey' is the genius that is 'Corpse Talk'. Anyone who likes 'Chatty Deaths' on Horrible Histories will understand the idea, but the format and pacing of the comic strip really allows the subjects to (no pub intended) 'come alive', and there's a surprising amount of history packed in there . And some truly awful jokes...brilliant.

We're into Season 2 now - I wonder what Guy Fawkes thinks about the current crop of MPs?

Finally, you'll notice Emma Chichester Clark's 'Plumdog' in there. Any review we do could not do justice to 'Read It Daddy''s brilliant analysis - so we'll hand over to him for why this is so brilliant.

But we are keen to learn. What other graphic novels should we get? What is a graphic novel anyway? We'd love to hear from you...

Chasing the past, a stolen child, and shadows in Sherwood Forest - the BBC Radio Oxford Afternoon Bookclub

My three picks for today's BBC Oxford Afternoon Bookclub were three books with strong local connections (authors or publishers), all by significant publishers, all with strong, bold or innovative covers.

This is the whole jacket laid out -
front and back mirror the different points of view.

 'Mother Island' by Bethan Roberts (Vintage, HB, £14.99) has two storylines and two voices - but one child. Controlling, career-minded new mother Nula employs her contrasting cousin, Maggie, to look after her baby. When their childcare approaches clash too much, Maggie decides to take the child. But has she misread how much Nula will care? A dissection of motherhood and how the lasting subliminal effects of your own parents can have on your approach to your own children.

Bethan - born and raised in Abingdon, now living in Brighton - is sublime in subtly showing how love can bring out the worst in people. But she also shows how it can act as a force for reconciliation and healing. We loved Bethan's previous book as well - 'My Policeman' - inspired in part by the personal life of EM Forster, and the lives of two people - one male, pne female - fighting over the same man.

'After I Left You' by Abingdon author Alison Mercer (Transworld, PB, £6.99) is another absorbing and powerful novel of love, friendship and secrets, following her critically acclaimed debut 'Stop The Clock'.

The story follows Anna, who has not been back to Oxford since her last summer at university, seventeen years ago. She tries not to think about her time there, or the tightly knit group of friends she once thought would be hers forever. She has almost forgotten the fierce sting of betrayal, and the secret she carries around with her, the last night she spent with them all. A chance meeting on a rainy day in London means Anna is forced to remember the events of that summer and the people she left behind.

(You can listen to Bethan Roberts at Mostly Books, at an event on July 31 - and Alison Mercer will be launching the paperback of 'After I Left You' at the shop on Thursday Aug 7.)

Finally, in 'The Shadow of the Wolf' by Tim Hall (David Fickling Books, HB, £10.99) you'll be forgiven for thinking you know nothing about Robin Hood, in this dark and dramatic re-imagining of a legend. This is an exciting debut by the newly-independent David Fickling Books, and reflects their aim to publish ambitious children’s books that have a strong appeal to adults as well.

Robin Loxley’s parents disappear when he is seven years old. Learning to fend for himself, and living on the outskirts of his village, he strikes up a deep and intense relationship with the Maid Marion – and then events wrench her from his life. Following an ever darker path in Sherwood Forest, his experiences there transform him, and the legend of Robin Hood emerges…

Nigel's choices included YA book 'Replica' by Jack Heath, Emma Chapman's 'How To Be A Good Wife' and a brilliant new voice from the wonderful Serpent's Tail 'After Me Comes the Flood' by Sarah Perry.

Click on the link, and fast-forward 1 hour 7 and a half minutes to listen to the show.

(If you start four minutes earlier, you'll hear Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street'. Coincidentally, this was a song inspired by a book: 'The Outsider' by Colin Wilson)

A Boy and His Unicorn: five questions with Simon Rae

On Thursday April 30 we took Simon Rae - author of Keras - to Cholsey School and Our Lady's Abingdon. At both schools he received a very enthusiastic welcome, and some of the best questions I think I've heard children ask an author.

Simon is a poet, broadcaster, biographer and playwright. His first novel - Unplayable - was a book about cricket, but Keras (published by David Fickling Books) is a very different beast altogether.

We've loved recommending the book in the shop. It's the story of a young boy, Jack, who discovers an incredible secret in the local landowner's woods - a unicorn. The story that unfolds is one that appeals equally to boys and girls, and is an exciting twist on the unicorn myth.

The book itself is a thing of beauty, a smaller-format hardback that just cries out to be read thanks to the wonderful artwork on the cover.

Simon's story as an author is one that started with a bookshop. As a boy, his parents ran a bookshop in Canterbury, so he grew up surrounded by books (and of course disappointed his parents by not following them into the business).

He started out reading two extracts from the book - and then settled in to answer a wide range of questions from the children: which books did he like as a child, does he base the characters on any real people, why did he become an author in the first place?

We then Whisked Simon back to Abingdon, where - unusually (because typically we're on a tight schedule) we were able to bring Simon to the shop and give him some lunch.

Cue shot of author proudly standing in front of bookshelf with book on display (partially obscured by author's elbow...)

Then on to Our Lady's Abingdon, where it transpired Simon might have become their English teacher four year's previously...

 ...before more storytelling and questions from the young audience...

 ...and a few very pleased purchases of Keras, signed by the author...

Inevitably we asked Simon a few questions before letting him return to north Oxfordshire.

Five questions with...Simon Rae's Writing Life

1.    What are you working on at the moment? 

The next book for David Fickling called 'The Stone Butterfly'. I'm delivering it next week for publication in February.

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

Use as few adverbs as possible. (I pressed him on this, but why?). The advice of Stephen King, in his book 'On Writing' is that he likens them to dandelions on the lawn. They increase slowly until your lawn is covered with them...

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

I haven't found a bad thing about writing for children yet. The best thing is being able to write a novel and not have to include adult "stuff".

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

Coffee!

5.    What was your biggest breakthrough?

Probably being born! I have had a number of career lurches, and time will tell whether this novel is the breakthrough... 

Birthday the second

Two years ago we opened the doors of mostly books - it was a scorcher, and I was in my shorts. Last year we celebrated our first birthday, and the weather couldn't have been different - it hoiked it down all day.

Today is was nice and sunny for our second birthday. Which was nice.

We had a very low-key day. Our first birthday was an important milestone (and fell on a Saturday) but we had a big celebration recently for the award, and besides, Nicki and I (and everyone else for that matter) have been involved in a lot of events, activities and planning recently - and we're a bit shattered. So as I say, low-key.

Lots of good stuff to tell you about though.

Yesterday I had the very good fortune to meet the wonderful David Fickling (he of David Fickling Books) at his offices in Oxford. The offices are just what you'd expect of one of the country's most dynamic and fun children's book publishers - bookcases everywhere crammed with books, posters everywhere, The whole place - and David himself - oozes a passion and love of reading for kids, I've never quite visited a place like it.

I can't say too much about the meeting at this stage, but I did have the opportunity to find out all about this:
The DFC is now in its fifth week - and as someone who was brought up on The Beano and 2000AD, the comic is a revelation and everything you'd expect from a project which involvs (amongst many others) Philip Pullman and Nick Sharratt. Imagine being a kid and getting this through your letterbox once a week. Fab. Having had to 'dispose' of various cheaply-printed, nasty-plastic-toy-mounted rubbish which has, from time-to-time, been bought for Alex from supermarkets, etc, having a comic printed on quality paper, with literate stories from exciting new artists - utterly brilliant. Its sales deserve to go ballistic...

Anyway, that was yesterday. For our birthday proper we welcomed Helen Rappaport to the shop for an utterly compelling evening event which (given the fine weather) we did in the garden.

For those who don't know, Helen Rappaport is an extremely talented historian, Russianist (and Russian speaker) and a very fine writer. Her previously book on women serving in the Crimea was critically acclaimed, but tonight she spoke about her latest book: Ekaterinburg - the last days of the Romanovs.

I'd finished this on the bus back from Oxford the day before - and (genuinely) missed my stop, so engrossed was I in the final part of the book. Even though you know what's going to happen, Helen does such a good job of making you intimate with the Romanov family, that you feel compelled to read about their brutal (and it is exceptionally, and unflinchingly, horrific) assassination.
The book focuses on the final 14 days of the Tsar and his family, a period which becomes increasingly desperate and claustrophobic as the Romanovs - incarcerated in a city under siege - increasingly become not just a political problem, but a threat to the whole Bolshevik revolution - a problem that eventually can have only one solution.


For me, there's lots of parts that I found fascinating - particularly the entreaties made to the then US president Woodrow Wilson to interceed on Russia's behalf. The feeling was that the arrival of US troops would mean a people rising spontaneously up and toppling the Bolshevik dictators. Mmm, sound familiar?

And what of the role of our own Royal Family (and George V) in refusing asylum to their cousin? Here, Helen explains the complicated situation that existed in this country at that time:



Helen (as befits an ex-actor) is a wonderful and passionate speaker, but this evening you got a sense of the emotional attachment she has to the Russian people and to how the almost-cult of the Romanovs is closely wrapped up in Russian identity and post-communist culture (the entire family are now saints and have been canonised in the Orthodox Church). It's a moot point about just how much of paradigm shift the assassination of The Romanovs represented in terms of the bloodshed of the 20th century, but with Russia a resurgent - and increasingly assertive - nation once again, it does us well to remind ourselves about this particular bloody episode in its history. Helen's book is an excellent place to start, and I really thank her for coming along and making it such a memorable evening