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Welcome to our February and March events newsletter.
We have started to return to activity after the post-Christmas lull – though the shop has been reasonably busy since the break.
There have been a few moves round… horror/science fiction/fantasy have all been separated out and given more space, translation has grown with mini-sections in masses of languages, politics has a bit more display space, as has music. Art, alas, is one of the losers and no longer has a unit of its own. Have a wander round to find your favourite section and ask us if you can’t spot it – there’s always the possibility we will know.
There’s a distinct Irish element to our events in March in support of the local St Patrick’s Festival. There’ll be more down the line, celebrating important parts of the Irish calendar, some storytelling and – let us know if you are interested – a slow reading group discussing James Joyce’s Ulysses. Meantime our monthly Irish book group (for which you don’t have to be Irish) is thriving. On the book group front, our Pagan group is now Witchcraft and Paganism, and we are trying generally to have the dates of all our book groups sorted well in advance and on our website. There are lots of external bookstalls coming up at events organised by others too – Simon Armitage, Hollie McNish (sold out at Metronome), Yael van der Wouden and Sacha Coward, Katy Watson, Claire Hubbard Hall, Danny Scott. Email us if you can’t find the details.
In the news…
Like you, we have watched American politics with mounting concern. We have sent a message of solidarity to the eighteen (!) independent new and secondhand bookshops in Minneapolis/St Pauls. Several of them have been actively and publicly involved in resisting the occupation of the Twin Cities by ICE: fundraising, striking, demonstrating, and protecting vulnerable people. Locally, many of our customers have been involved in Stop Trump activities, and there will be a gathering this Saturday at 1:00 pm at the Brian Clough Statue. At the first such gathering, we heard from Minneapolis citizens currently resident in Nottingham.
Five Leaves Publishing
We are sorry to hear that David Ablitt died a few days ago. Dave was the author of our book Sneinton People, which comprised interviews with residents of Sneinton over forty years ago, which were first published in Sneinton Magazine at the time. These ranged from someone who fought in WW1 through to a refugee couple who fled Iran after the 1978 revolution. As this note suggests, Dave was active in community issues for many years, but we also knew him from his days as a young political activist in Nottingham in the 1960s, the period covered in our Winter in the Bookshop memoir by Sylvia Riley. Our condolences to his friends and family. Let Ross at the bookshop know if you would like information on the funeral – though we imagine word has got round well already.
Finally, congratulations to CJ DeBarra, author of our two-volume Queer Nottingham history – she will be given a Rainbow Heritage Award for this work in February by Notts LGBT+ Network. The second volume will be available in a few days to catch a couple of events – the launch date will be announced soon.