bookshops

  • This post is just a quickie to say that I’ll be appearing at the Callander Poetry Weekend (7 to 8 September) this year as part of the Split Screen and filmpoem events on the Saturday afternoon. The weekend is free, and there is a lot going on. The full programme can be found here. Despite

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  • Pure Golden

    On Friday 25th, I’ll be back at Blackwell’s to read at the launch of The Golden Hour Book ii, an anthology of poetry, prose and music (it comes with a CD) by writers and musicians who have appeared at the eponymous literary cabaret, held in The Forest Cafe. It should be a good evening. The

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  • Sales of poetry books are down screamed the BBC news website on Wednesday last week, before exhorting us all: but one way to reinvigorate this traditional art form could be to make it functional and going on to suggest that we could re-engage the public with the art of poetry by turning the instructions on

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  • I was jealous that Rob Mackenzie had got his books yesterday, so I just had to get up early this morning and zip down to the postal depot to pick up my author copies of The Ambulance Box, which the postman had failed to leave in our designated “safe place” yesterday. I wasn’t quite banging

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  • Just seen this in an e-mail newsletter from Edinburgh International Book Festival. Looks like a great idea but, unfortunately, it finishes today! Blackwell’s Bookshop on South Bridge, Edinburgh, are working with City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh Women’s Aid and Edinburgh Young Carers to help make Christmas a little better for disadvantaged local children. The Children’s

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  • As yesterday’s Sunday Herald reports, Edinburgh has a new book festival this year in addition to the established Edinburgh International Book Festival. It’s called the West Port Book Festival, and it’s all free! You can find out more here. The programme doesn’t launch until 11th July, so I can’t tell you any more, but from

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  • On a brief visit to Waterstones at the West End of Edinburgh’s Princes Street yesterday, I was very pleasantly surprised to see quite an interesting poetry section. Instead of being populated by the usual suspects with one or two token others thrown in, it included a few American imports and a healthy selection of small

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  • Interesting piece in today’s Sunday Herald about independent bookshops in Scotland. It seems Hugh Andrew of Birlinn is branching out into bookstores. This has to be a welcome development for writers and readers in Scotland, given the dominance of identikit chain book stores, but the big challenge is how independents will not just survive but

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