Category: book shops
-
Bother! Trouble!! Emergency!!!
S P Moss has a family background in the RAF, and loves classic children’s adventure stories every bit as much as classic cars, planes and kids’ books so, when she won the Earlyworks Press novels for children competition back in 2011, we knew we were in for some good, old fashioned fun. The Bother The…
-
Hibakusha – never forget
Joycelyn Simms’ extraordinary poems about the Hibakusha – those affected (in so many terrible ways) by the nuclear detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were inspired by ‘a thousand paper cranes and lanterns floating on the river Ota’, and by John Hersey’s book, Hiroshima – and then, when the poem Grapple Y was published by the…
-
Fish heads are still flying
It’s a contentious thing, being a feminist. There are always plenty of vocal people wanting to loudly disapprove of you. Not least of the obstacles that need to be addressed is that of class. I read a story recently about a woman who told those less well off than herself to save money by cooking…
-
The Key to the World Beyond The Gate
There couldn’t possibly be another Timothy’s Gate novel, could there? I mean, in the first book, Timothy found the magical world of Challenrah behind a mysterious gate in the garden of the Grey Lady pub, near where he used to live – but now, he’s moved right across the world and will never see the…
-
Coming back to Holst
I always do. In the last few years, politics and COVID and financial troubles left little time for contemplating music but sooner or later, it had to happen. I sat down and listened to Mars, and thought yes, that’s how it is, and felt better. Then I listened to Jupiter, and rallied my internal troops…
-
Really useful feminism
Why we should all read Julie Bindel’s new book I’ve been wondering why feminism grabbed me so much the second time I looked, but not the first. I remember feminism going on around me when I was a teenager. I had a vague idea it involved a lot of arguments about whether you should shave…
-
Books in times of lockdown
Well, here we are in lockdown again and among the trials and tribulations, our beloved bookshops are closed once more. If you’re in Hastings, please remember Bookbuster and Printed Matter still have ordering systems in place, and other shops around the town – and everywhere! – are offering their titles through online stores. Here’s a…
-
Have *you* ever heard of the Froggicorn?
Giants, unicorns, mermaids, dragons… They’re very famous, everyone knows what they are, even though (shh!) they may not quite… exactly… er… exist. But no-one has heard of the Froggicorn. Why is that, when the Ancient Teller of Stories thought the Froggicorn was The Loveliest Mythical Beast of them All? I read this every day for…
-
Beauty is still dying
When I read Sheri S Tepper’s ‘Beauty’ back in the early ‘90s, I thought she had done me an injury. I enjoyed it, but the Ending (not the ending of the book, The Ending) was just too dark. Not fair. I just read it again, here in 2020 and, when I got to the bit…
-
In the Absence of Hard Evidence
In the absence of hard evidence of a divine engineer in the sky, I’d say the patterns in your mind are who you are. This is my thought for the day because it became necessary to clean and decorate the back room, and to do that, it was necessary to move two wallfuls of books,…
Kay Green 