Bookshops in the UK and Europe Our bookshops A-Z View all The diary is filling up. Please keep checking for more and more details. Oh and it makes absolute sense that for some of the events there will be another author there too. It makes it more interesting for us all. Saturday 18th March at Eccleshill Library 2pm-4pm. The event is free but ticketed to track numbers (for tea and cakes!) A contribution for the refreshments on the day would not be turned down. Or ring the library on 01274 431544 to secure a place. Saturday 25th March at Keighley Library 2pm-4pm. As above, it’s free but ticketed. Book here or ring 01535 618212. Thursday 4th May – 12pm lunchtime, Chronicle Bookshop, Church Street Barnsley. BOOK LAUNCH DAY – If you haven’t been able to get tickets to my launch party on 5th then feel free to pop along here and buy a book and get it signed. (Or buy and leave one and I’ll sign it for you.) Friday 5th May – 6pm- about 9pm – Mapplewell Village Hall – the GRAND LAUNCH PARTY.
Tickets are all sold so this is just here as a reminder for that who are coming. Doors will open at 5.15pm for early bird signing before the 6pm start. Both the new book and the previous ones will be available for sale. If anyone wants to bring a raffle prize with them – please do. All proceeds on the night to Yorkshire Cat Rescue and our lovely WELL which looks after cancer patients. Saturday 11th May – tbc Waterstones, Argyll Street, GLASGOW – It’s a double event with master crime writer Craig Robertson. Even though we write very different sorts of books, we are very alike in personality. I am a HUGE fan of his books and he’s a great mate (and wit) so it will be a smashing event, one I can’t wait for. So Helloooo at last Glasgow!!! More details as we get them. Monday 15th May – 7.30pm – 9.30pm, Denby Dale Library tel: 01484 222904. Friday 2nd June at 7pm – Holiday Inn, Barnsley – I am guest speaker at the Royston Animal Welfare 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner.
(The Facebook link is here) Tickets for this event are £25 each which includes a 3 course meal and coffee. They are limited so get yours early to avoid disappointment. Contact Gill on Email: gillpartington@blueyonder.co.uk or ring 07874 945689 Tuesday 6th June – 7pm-8.30pm. It’s free but you will need to book so they know how many lobsters to cook (joke).Bookmarks Bookshop's Top 5 Reads PLUS ***Free Books*** For Independent Bookshop Week we've teamed up Zed and Pluto, as well as seven of our favourite independent radical booksellers, to give away radical-book-filled tote bags! All you need to do is visit their bookshops on the Independent Bookshop Crawl on Saturday 25th June. Full details are here!For independent bookshop week we're profiling five radical bookshops AND we've asked them to give us their top 5 radical reads. First up this week is... Bookmarks Bookshop!1 Bloomsbury St, London WC1B 3QEBookmarks Bookshop have been selling radical books from their London-based shop for over forty years, as well providing bookstalls at events across the country.
They maintain close ties with Ruskin College, which was originally established to provide university-standard education for the working classes. You won’t miss Bookmarks if you pass them during a demonstration based in London as staff will always deck the shop front with flags and banners, offering solidarity to local strikers and marchers.You can visit them online here, and if you pop into Bookmarks on Saturday 25th and buy a book you can pick up your own TOTE BAG filled with ZED, PLUTO and VERSO GOODIES! More info here)Bookmark Bookshop's top 5 radical reads:The Truth About Our Schools by Melissa Benn and Janet Downs (Routledge, 2015)A book that every parent will want to read, Benn and Downs challenge all the key myths about education. If you think that comprehensive education has failed, that local authorities control and hold back schools, or that academies raise standards or teachers don’t need qualifications, prepare to have those beliefs shaken by this brilliantly informative book.
It’s time to take back our schools.Detroit ‘67 by Stuart Cosgrove (Stuart Cosgrove, 2015)Twelve chapters, arranged by month, take you on a turbulent, yearlong journey through the drama and chaos that ripped through Detroit in 1967. The Motor City was torn apart by personal, political and inter-racial disputes just as Motown, the most successful African-American music label ever, was facing its own internal struggles with the break up of the Supremes and personal tragedies. This is a wonderful read; keep your eyes peeled for Memphis ‘68 and Harlem ‘69, coming soon!A Very Capitalist Condition by Roddy Slorach (Bookmarks, 2016)Slorach, who is an active trade unionist and campaigner, writes about the history of disability and the ways in which people have fought and organised around this. Rather than viewing people as victims, this book examines the origins and development of disability, highlighting the hidden history of groups such as disabled war veterans, deaf people, and those in mental distress.
It shows how capitalist society segregates and marginalises disability, turning our minds and bodies into commodities – and generating new impairment and disability as it does so.1916: Ireland’s Revolutionary Tradition by Kieran Allen (Pluto, 2016) AND A Rebel’s Guide to James Connolly by Sean Mitchell (Bookmarks, 2016)In this anniversary year, Allen’s book is one of our favourites on the events of the Easter Rising. He shows how the radical visions of Pearse and the socialist James Connolly are now an awkward encumbrance on an Irish state that has its roots in the counter-revolution of the civil war, and which has since emerged as a haven of economic neoliberalism. The slight but mighty Rebel’s Guide provides a fantastic introduction to the revolutionary politics of Connolly, so often brushed under the carpet.Martha’s Story by Tony Barnsley, (Grosvenor House, 2015)A fantastic book for younger readers which tells the story of the Chainmakers strike from the perspective of 11-year-old Martha Wood.