Children's Illustration Workshop with Rob Jones: Monday 19th August

Children’s illustrator Rob Jones will be providing summer holiday entertainment by teaching children

how to draw people and pets! Come and join us in the shop for this fun interactive workshop plus book reading.

This event on Monday 19th August at 10am is aimed at children aged 4-8 years old.

Tickets cost £6 per child and include all drawing equipment, tea and biscuits for accompanying adults and £1 redeemable against one of Rob’s books.
  

Tickets available from Eventbrite or in shop.

Local illustrator Rob provided the illustrations for the The Funny Life of Pets and The Funny Life of Teachers

Funny Life of Pets by James Campbell, illustrated by Rob Jones

Uncover the sidesplitting life of cucumber scaredy-cats, non-stop pooping hamsters, exploding fish and everything in-between (and some things that have nothing to do with pets but are still ridiculously funny). This hilarious book answers all the big questions, like: do sausage dogs eat sausages? Why has my cat done a poo behind my wardrobe? And how can I persuade my parents to get me a pet? For real-life pet facts, imaginary stories, and a generally laugh-so-hard-snot-comes-out-your-nose read, this is the only pet book you'll ever need!

This is a book with outrageous facts, hilarious jokes, insanely funny online videos and brilliant stories all about pets, the author, and all sorts of other things.

Funny Life of Teachers by James Campbell, illustrated by Rob Jones

Ever wondered what teachers do when they're not in the classroom? Are they undercover detectives, champion roller-blade dancers or do they spend their evenings playing with their 576 cats?

This face-achingly funny book will also teach you why you should carry an emergency banana with you at all times, how to fart in class silently without anyone knowing it was you and how to catapult yourself to school by building a medieval style catapult in your back garden! 

But be warned – these are NOT normal books. You can read it forwards, backwards, sideways and in approximately 861,000 different ways in between. Whichever way you read it, look no further for fantastic real-life teacher facts, incredibly funny illustrations, imaginary stories and an impossibly silly read!

Robert Harris in Conversation - Monday 9th September

Bestselling Robert Harris will be in conversation with broadcaster and book fanatic, Howard Bentham, at the Amey Theatre, Abingdon, on Monday 9th September.  

Join Robert Harris, author of bestselling novels such as Fatherland, Pompeii and Munich, as he talks about his new book, The Second Sleep, which will be published on 5th September.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts - coins, fragments of glass, human bones - which the old parson used to collect.

Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? As Fairfax is drawn more deeply into the isolated community, everything he believes - about himself, his faith and the history of his world - is tested to destruction.

Tickets are £20 and include a copy of The Second Sleep (RRP £20).  Tickets will be available from the Amey Theatre Box Office from 5th June.

Doors open at 6.45pm for a 7.30pm start. Robert will be signing copies of his book after the event.  Refreshments will be available to purchase at the Amey theatre bar. 

The Amey Theatre, Park Road, Abingdon OX14 1DE.

Cooking Demonstration with Kumud Gandhi - Friday 5th July 2019

Join us for a live cookery demonstration and tastings with 'The Spice Queen' Kumud Gandhi at Dream Doors, Stert Street, on  Friday 5th July at 7:30pm (doors open 7:00pm).

Kumud's book 'A Cupboard Full of Spices' takes readers through the myriad of different spices, explains their benefits and to how to incorporate them into a range of delicious dishes.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many spices in Indian cooking?  And has it put you off trying a recipe?  Well you're not alone! This book is a compendium of 'spices' designed to help you really get to grips with their characteristics, health benefits and their practical uses in cooking.  So if you have an interest in real Indian food, then look no further.  This book will teach you to 'cook like an Indian'. 

Kumud Gandhi is a food scientist, author, public speaker and broadcaster based in Hertfordshire, UK.  She is the founder of The Cooking Academy cookery school in Rickmansworth and the author of  'A Cupboard Full of Spices'.

Ticket £15 available from Mostly Books and Eventbrite, to include a drink on the night, tastings and £2 redeemable against Kumud's book.

Dream Doors, 28 Stert St, Abingdon OX14 3JP

IBW Bookshop Party and Author Takeover - 15th June

Come along to Mostly Books to help celebrate the start of Independent Bookshop Week.  There will be cake, bubbles, authors, giveaways and a general party atmosphere!

Over the course of the day, the team will be hosting a range of authors who will be taking over our tills and social media, chatting to customers, signing books and generally causing chaos!

No booking required, just turn up and enjoy the fun!

IBW Event: Kim Sherwood - Testament - 18th June

Come along to Mostly Books on Tuesday 18th June to hear Kim Sherwood talk about her critically acclaimed first novel, Testament. The event will be taking place during Independent Bookshop Week (IBW).

Of everyone in her complicated family, Eva was always closest to her grandfather. She is making a film about his life. She is with him when he dies.

It is only when she finds the letter from the Jewish Museum in Berlin, hidden in his painting studio, that she realises how many secrets he kept. As she uncovers everything he endured in the Holocaust - and what it took to learn to live again - Eva is confronted by the lies that haunt her family, and a truth that changes her own identity. Kim Sherwood's hope-filled first novel is a powerful portrait of survival echoing through the generations; a testament of love, legacy, and all the important questions we leave unasked.

Kim will be visiting Mostly Books as part of a tour to celebrate the paperback publication of Testament.  Doors will open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.  Tickets £5, to include a drink on the night and £1 redeemable against a copy of Testament.  Tickets available from Mostly Books or on Eventbrite

----

Testament - *Longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize * Winner of the Bath Novel Award * Shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award *

IBW Event: Ben Aaronovitch Book Signing - 20th June

We are extremely excited to be welcoming legendary author Ben Aaronovitch to Mostly Books on Thursday 20th June from 12pm.  

Sunday Times bestselling author of the Rivers of London series, Ben Aaronovitch, is embarking on an exclusive tour of Independent Bookshops to celebrate Independent Bookshop Week and to coincide with the release of his new novella, The October Man.  Ben will be visiting Abingdon as part of the tour.

Trier is famous for wine, Romans and for being Germany's oldest city. So when a man is found dead with, his body impossibly covered in a fungal rot, the local authorities know they are out of their depth. Fortunately this is Germany, where there are procedures for everything.

Enter Investigator Tobias Winter, whose aim is to get in, deal with the problem, and get out with the minimum of fuss, personal danger and paperwork. With the help of frighteningly enthusiastic local cop, Vanessa Sommer, he's quick to link the first victim to a group of ordinary middle aged men - and to realise they may have accidentally reawakened a bloody conflict from a previous century. But the rot is still spreading, literally and with the suspect list extending to people born before Frederick the Great solving the case may mean unearthing the city's secret magical history.

. . .

so long as that history doesn't kill them first

Email us to pre-order your copy of The October Man.  

Ben Aaronovitch was born in London in 1964 and had the kind of dull routine childhood that drives a man either to drink or to science fiction. He is a screenwriter, with early notable success on BBC’s legendary Doctor Who, for which he wrote some episodes now widely regarded as classics, and which even he is quite fond of. After a decade of such work, he decided it was time to show the world what he could really do, and embarked on his first serious original novel. The result is Midnight Riot, the debut adventure of Peter Grant.

Register for free via Eventbrite.

Ben will be signing books at Mostly Books from 12pm on Thursday 20th June. Please arrive in good time for the signing to ensure you get the chance to meet Ben, he is a very popular author and we expect a crowd.  Please note that registration for the event cannot guarantee meeting Ben.

IBW Event: Katherine Rundell in Conversation with Lucy Mangan - 20th June

Award-winning author, Katherine Rundell, will be at Mostly Books on Thursday 20th June talking to Guardian journalist and author, Lucy Mangan, about why we should be reading more children's books. 

In 2016, Katherine Rundell - Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and prize-winning author of five novels for children – found her understanding of the world she lived in upturned: by Brexit, Trump, a sweep across Europe towards nationalism and insularity, terrorist attacks.  Literary fiction did not help her understanding, so instead, she turned to old narratives, told for the benefit of children and adults and anyone who would listen.

This Independent Bookshop Week (IBW), join Katherine Rundell – author of The Good Thieves, Lucy Mangan, Journalist and author of Bookworm; a Memoir of Childhood Reading, for an inspiring conversation about how children’s books ignite, and can re-ignite, the imagination; how children's fiction, with its unabashed emotion and playfulness, can awaken old hungers and create new perspectives on the world.

Katherine Rundell is the bestselling author of five children's novels, for which she has won the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize amongst many others. She spent her childhood in Africa and Europe before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. As well as writing, she studies Renaissance literature; and is learning, as a direct result of writing her new stunning adventure story The Good Thieves (June 2019), to fly on the flying trapeze.

Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.  Tickets are £12.50 and include a drink and a copy of Katherine's essay written exclusively for IBW called Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise.  

Copies of The Good Thieves and some of Katherine's backlist plus Lucy's new book, Bookworm; a Memoir of Childhood Reading will be available to purchase on the night.

Tickets are available from Mostly Books and from EventBrite.

Book Club Event with Claire Fuller - 30th May 2019

Claire Fuller’s latest book, Bitter Orange, is published in paperback on 2nd May and we think that it will make a great book club read.   Claire will be at Mostly Books at 7.30pm on Thursday 30^th May primed and ready to talk about her book. 

Jellico is dying. A man who calls himself the vicar visits, hoping to extract a deathbed confession.

He wants to know what really happened that fateful summer of 1969, when Frances - tasked with surveying a dilapidated country house - first set eyes on the glamorous bohemian couple, Cara and Peter. She recalls the relationship they forged through sweltering days, lavish dinners and elaborate lies, and the Judas hole through which she would spy on the couple. Were the signs there right from the beginning? Or was it impossible to avoid the crime that split their lives open like rotten fruit?

Everyone is welcome - whether you’re already a member of a bookclub or just fancy the idea of a one-off bookclub-style event.    Come along and join in the discussion.

Tickets are £10 and include a copy of the book plus a drink on the night.  Copies of Bitter Orange can be picked up in advance so that you have plenty of time to read the book.

Tickets are available on EventBrite or at Mostly Books.

Kate Clanchy in conversation - 8th May 2019

Hear Kate Clanchy in conversation with Mostly Books’ owner, Sarah Dennis, as they talk about Kate’s new book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me on Wednesday 8th May at 7.30pm. 

‘Thirty years ago, just after I graduated, I started training to be a teacher. As far as I remember, it was because I wanted to change the world, and a state school seemed the best place to start. Certainly, it wasn’t a compromise or a stopgap career:

I had no thought of being a writer, then…’

Kate Clanchy has taught in state schools for nearly thirty years. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me is an extraordinary memoir, detailing a life’s work spent teaching in a national institution. The book is made up of stories; stories of the children she’s taught, some of the teachers she’s worked with and some of the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Recommended by Philip Pullman  who says it is “The best book on teachers and children and writing that I’ve ever read.” this event is not to be missed.

Kate Clanchy is a writer, teacher and journalist. She’s the recipient of several awards for her writing. In 2018, an anthology of her students’ work, England: Poems from a School, was published to great acclaim and in the same year she was awarded an MBE for services to literature.

   

The event will be taking place at Mostly Boks.  Tickets are £6 and include a drink plus £2 redeemable off a copy of the book.  Tickets are available on EventBrite and in the shop.  Kate will be signing copies of her book at the end of the event.

Isadora Moon Party - Saturday 23rd February

Isadora Moon has a Sleepover is out soon and, to celebrate, the Mostly Books team are hosting not one, but two Isadora Moon parties on Isadora Moon Day (23rd February).

Join us for Isadora Moon themed cake decorating, pass the parcel and a reading from the new Isadora Moon book (don’t forget your sleeping bags or favourite Blanket for story time, it is a sleepover after all!).  Come in your best fairy vampire costume, dust off your pair of wings and fly down to the shop.  Prizes will be given for the best costume and the winner of pass the parcel will win an Isadora Moon prize.

Copies of Isadora Moon has a Sleepover will be available for sale on the day.

The parties will take place from 10am – 11am or 3pm – 4pm.  Tickets are £3 and include £1 off a copy of an Isadora Moon book on the day.  Tickets are only required for the children attending, adults do not need to purchase a separate ticket.

There are lots of Isadora Moon fans out there so tickets are likely to sell fast - Book your spot today.  Tickets can be booked in the shop or via email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or EventBrite (10am Party or 3pm Party).

Destination Moon (Again?): 50 Years after Apollo, how does Science Fiction imagine our future in space? - 19th March 2019

Mostly Books will be selling books at this ATOM event at Our Lady's Abingdon on 19th March.

This year will see lots of celebrations to mark fifty years since the first Apollo Moon Landing (#Apollo50). And on Tuesday, March 19th @ 7pm, four award-winning science fiction authors gather together to debate the impact of Apollo on science fiction - and how science fiction predicts our future in space in 'Destination Moon (Again?)'.

Abingdon-based science-fiction author (and space aficionado) Ben Jeapes chairs a panel with acclaimed science fiction authors Simon Morden ('Metrozone' series, 'One Way' and 'No Way'), Gareth Powell ('Ack-Ack Macaque' and 'Embers of War') and Justina Robson ('Quantum Gravity' and 'Salvation's Fire: After the War').

They will be analysing the legacy of #Apollo50, and attempting to predict the future. Will we ever return to the Moon, will it be Mars next - and should we even bother going into space at all? After all, what better way to get to the heart of our future in space than through individuals who have already explored space in the best way possible: in their imaginations...

An Sci-Fi event is a first for ATOM, and Mostly Books will be running a book signing after the event, which takes at OLA Abingdon.

Tuesday 19th March at Our Lady's Abingdon.

Doors open at 18:30 Talk begins at 19:00.

Tickets £5 adult & £2.50 for under 16s.  For more information and tickets, please go to the ATOM Festival website.

Dr Hannah Fry: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine (ATOM Event): 22nd March 2019

Mostly Books will be selling books at the ATOM event with Dr Hannah Fry at the Amey Theatre on 22nd March.

On Friday March 22nd @ 7.30pm, BBC science presenter Dr Hannah Fry will be at The Amey Theatre to talk about Being Human in the Age of the Machine. Dr Fry is one of the rising stars of science communication, from BBC Horizon documentaries to Tomorrow's World Live. She'll be talking about the computers and apps that increasingly rule our lives - and how we can hold on to what makes us human in the face of the machines.

A brilliant speaker, we're delighted that Dr Fry will be signing copies her book after the event. We are even more thrilled that we have special, early-release copies of the paperback of her book 'Hello World' for sale on the evening. 

Doors open at 19:00 Talk begins at 19:30.

Tickets £12.00 adult & £6.00 for under 16s.  For more information and tickets, please go to the ATOM Festival website.

Crime Author Panel – 17th May 2019

17th May is Crime Fiction night and have we got a line up for you!

Come along to Mostly Books for a spine-tingling night out with best-selling crime writers Cara Hunter, J.P. Delaney, Olivia Kiernan and William Shaw.

This event is an absolute must for Crime Fiction fans.

Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.  Tickets are £7.50, including a drink with £2.50 redeemable against a purchase on the night.  Tickets are available from Mostly Books and from EventBrite.

Ruby Wax: How To Be Human - 8th January 2019

Join successful comedian, TV writer and performer, Ruby Wax, as she talks about her latest book How to be Human at the Amey Theatre, Abingdon on Tuesday 8th January.  

This book is about how to be human.  Why we haven't figured this out by now, I do not know.

Tickets are £22.50 and include a paperback copy of How to be Human and a glass of wine or soft drink on the night.

Copies of Ruby's previous book, Frazzled, will be available for sale at a discounted price.

Doors open at 6.45pm for a 7.30pm start.  

The Amey Theatre, Park Road, Abingdon OX14 1DE.

Buy tickets online here. 

National Poetry Day Competition - 6th October 2018

Write us a poem to put up in the shop on the 6th October and be in with a chance of winning a £5 book token!

There are three age groups: 

• 5-8
• 9-12
• 13-17

Simply write a poem, put your name, age and contact on the back, and the Mostly Books team will choose the winners on 6th October.

Email (books@mostly-books.co.uk), Call (01235 525880) or Tweet (@mostlyreading) for more info.

Discover Isadora Moon with Author Harriet Muncaster - 18th October 2018

Harriet Muncaster is the creator of a shop favourite part fairy, part vampire, Isadora Moon.  Harriet will be at the shop from 4pm on 18th October, introducing children to the latest of her fabulous books, Isadora Moon Makes Winter Magic, with an interactive event and book signing.

Expect plenty of wings, fangs and lots of laughs.  The Isadora Moon books are extremely popular so this event will sell out fast.  Book today to avoid disappointment!

Tickets are £3, including £1 redeemable off the price of Isadora Moon Makes Winter Magic on the day.  Available from Mostly Books and on EventBrite.

Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott (Book Club Event) - 13th November 2018. Non-members welcome

Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott will be at Mostly Books at 7.30pm on Tuesday 13th November talking about her dazzling literary debut, Swan Song.  

Kelleigh will be talking about her novel and the inspiration behind it; Truman Capote.  Based on ten years of research, compulsively readable, Swan Song follows the rise and self-destructive fall of Capote and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his swans.  The event will take the form of a book club with guests being encouraged to read the book before attending.

Having reached the pinnacle of literary success after In Cold Blood’s wild acclaim, Truman Capote is society’s darling. But in 1975 he drops a literary grenade which, overnight, will make him persona non grata.

Suffering from writer’s block, and with a crisis in confidence mounting, he decides to publish excerpts from his savage roman à clef Answered Prayers, inexplicably betraying the confidences of his inner circle of the wealthy and powerful elite of mid-twentieth century society – the women he called his ‘Swans’.

Told from the collective and divergent perspectives of taste-makers Babe Paley, Slim Keith, C .Z. Guest, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli and Lee Radziwill, Swan Song spans three decades of friendships, and the gossip-riven world its characters inhabit.

Tickets are £5 and include a drink and £2 redeemable against the purchase of Swan Song prior to the event.  Tickets and copies of Swan Song are available from Mostly Books.

Sarah Dunant at the Abingdon Arts Society - 21st November 2018

Getting Under their Skins - Finding Character and Story in Renaissance Art

Sarah Dunant will be speaking at the Abingdon Arts Society at 10.30am and 2pm on Wednesday 21st November.  The event will be taking place at Trinity Church, Conduit Road, Abingdon OX14 1DB.

International bestselling novelist of the Italian Renaissance, Sarah Dunant, shares the secrets of her trade in this richly illustrated lecture.  Sarah visited churches, archives, museums and art galleries all over Italy to recreate the past as a living and breathing place. During her travels she discovered how the decoding of old paintings, alongside the work of the most modern historians, helped her to penetrate hidden worlds inside the Renaissance and find wonder and drama in the ordinary lives of the period.

Mostly Books will be present with a pop-up shop selling Sarah's books which she has kindly agreed to sign.

Non Members of the Abingdon Arts Society are welcome, £6.00 incl tea or coffee.  Tickets available from Mostly Books.

Elys Dolan and Santa's Wonderful Workshop - 24th November 2018

Hugely talented children’s author and illustrator, Elys Dolan, will be at Mostly Books on 24th November at 11am.  

Elys has written a wide range of children's books including Knighthood for Beginners & Steven Seagull Action Hero and will be at Mostly Books to talk about her new picture book, Santa's Wonderful Workshop.  Get your children excited about writing and illustrating in the build up to Christmas by meeting a fun and inspiring author.   

After the event, Elys will be creating a winter themed window display for us which we will keep in the run up to Christmas - Keep your eyes peeled to see her wonderful creation!

Tickets are £3 with £1 redeemable off the price of Santa's Wonderful Workshop.  Tickets available at Mostly Books or on EventBrite.

National Poetry Day Competition - 6th October 2018

Write us a poem to put up in the shop on the 6th October and be in with a chance of winning a £5 book token!

There are three age groups: 

• 5-8
• 9-12
• 13-17

Simply write a poem, put your name, age and contact on the back, and the Mostly Books team will choose the winners on 6th October.

Email (books@mostly-books.co.uk), Call (01235 525880) or Tweet (@mostlyreading) for more info.