In association with Nottingham Trent University Radical Print Summer School

Ross Bradshaw worked at Mushroom Bookshop in Nottingham, from 1979-1995, setting up Five Leaves as a publisher the year he left, and opening Five Leaves Bookshop in 2013. Along the way he has been involved in a number of other radical bookshop projects.

In this illustrated talk, Ross will dig deep into radical bookshop history in Nottingham and elsewhere, discussing what radical has meant to bookshops, and revisiting the highs and lows of this corner of the booktrade. These include the Communist Party book chains, the counterculture of the 1960s, police raids, seizures of lesbian and gay books by customs, attacks by fascists, huge international bookfairs and, sometimes, significant commercial success. He will also look at how outsiders have seen radical bookselling, which is almost as hilariously critical as we have sometimes described ourselves.

At a time when the radical booktrade is seeing significant expansion – there are, for example, more LGBT+ bookshops now than at any time in history –  and independent bookselling is also again thriving, the talk will end by discussing whether the label “radical” is still relevant when our views are shared by so much of the commercial trade.

The ticket money for this event will be donated to Nottingham Refugee Forum

Light refreshments provided