Category: book shops
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Winchester Writers’ Conference and the End of the World
How long ago was it? It feels like a hundred years, and just last year. Hang on, Terry Pratchett gave the plenary speech … When did he die? I picked up a book in the library and it reminded me of something important. It was … Okay … it was well over a decade ago.…
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No, this is the best feminist book … no, THIS is… No, wait…
We were sitting around cabaret tables, at the end of the main conference day. In front of us, a promising array of glasses and cutlery and other shiny things. At the top of the room, on the other side of an expanse of empty carpet that would no doubt soon be full of activity, long…
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All human life
All human life on the planet is born of woman – Adrienne Rich That quote introduces the editor’s column in the latest edition of The Radical Notion which I intended to lose myself in, but people just kept lending me books, and suggesting I read books, some of which were immediately irresistible and so the…
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What do puberty blockers and statins have in common?
The book Why We Eat (Too Much) is three years old now, but there’s a recent edition with an added chapter about COVID. The book tells how the author, Andrew Jenkinson, a surgeon who, after working in a bariatric clinic (specializing in last-ditch treatments for obesity), decided that our medical world doesn’t know enough about…
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Battles for the moral high ground
(by fair means or foul) My life ran to sublime chaos last week. I was determined not to read all the Strike books – it’s not just that they’re huge, it’s that they are huge and they are compulsive page-turners, so they guarantee you a week at least of putting your keys in the fridge…
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The woman in white
An addition to my occasional series in which I have fun reviewing old books — in this case because I’ve realised that for me, and anyone else who’s discovered real feminism or anti-racism in recent years, it’s well worth looking again at books you read years ago – it’s amazing how they change, in the…
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Is your bookshop hiding anything from you?
In the last few weeks, Hannah Barnes’ new book, Time to Think has been eagerly awaited. Anxious parents are concerned about schools being told to keep secrets from them, and about what their children are learning about sex and gender on TikTok. In political circles, the existence or otherwise of ‘innate gender identity’ is a…
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Come on in, it’s what you’ve been dreaming of…?
It sets off as a second person narrative, and doesn’t give you a name. He’s wading through a typical day which may or may not be the same as yours, but you’ll relate to the wading. And then something weird happens. I think everyone from H G Wells to David Nobbs has written this story…
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Earlyworks Press and Circaidy Gregory Press have left the Creative Media Centre
But they have not disappeared! This is a catch-all message for anyone I didn’t manage to notify individually (sorry!). The press is still running, and the books are still available but we will no longer be using the Creative Media Centre address. For now, if you need to get in touch with me, or have…
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I’m on strike – Cormoran Strike
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith If anyone asks, I don’t like detective novels – same way I don’t like spy novels. For one thing they’re menz stories set in a menz world, however many dynamic women you put in them (yes, yes, I saw all the innovative series about females acting like the eternal private…
Kay Green 