Tag: bookshop books

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The RSC

veritywilde

Happy Saturday everyone. Today I have another post in my occasional series of shops that do a very specialised selection of books as part of their offer: namely the Royal Shakespeare Company’s gift shop at their theatre in Stratford Upon Avon. As you know I was there a couple of weeks back to see Twelfth Night – which ended its run last weekend, so there may have been a little tweakage by now, but I suspect in the main the book selection is fairly consistent – although clearly other bits of the shop will change with the shows.

Lets start with the lovely collection of books about Shakespeare, about acting in Shakespeare or about theatre in the era of Shakespeare. There are a few exceptions but that’s basically the theme of this whole bookcase – among them there’s Judi Dench’s book about her experience being in lots and lots of Shakespeare which is pretty well known and Simon Russell Beale’s book about his experiences – which is less well known. There’s the Bill Bryson books, plus Harriet Walter’s new-this-autumn book about what the women of Shakespeare’s plays might have said.

Next up we have this case of novels that are Shakespeare related in some way and the start of a very large selection of play texts and books about teaching Shakespeare. If you’re a student whose got to study one of the plays or you’ve got to teach it, this would be a great place to have a look at the options.

Because there are so many. So very many. And of course there are also play texts for other shows that the RSC has put one – the Christmas show in the Swan theatre this year was The Red Shoes, and you can also so that they’ve got Marlowe’s Edward II there which is currently in rehearsal ahead of a run starting in late February.

And then there’s books about acting, and a bit of a general miscellany of books that don’t really fit anywhere else but are sort of related to the Shakespeare and acting. Basically if you’re interested in Shakespeare and/or acting, this is probably the best selection you’re going to get outside a really giant specialist bookshop near somewhere with lots of students (like Blackwells or Heffers)

And finally they’ve got loads of other stuff too, but I really did love the baby clothes – they may be too young to go to the theatre themselves yet, but there’s no reason you can’t start them on there way with a babygro with an appropriate quote!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Book of the Week, holiday reading, new releases, romance

Book of the Week: The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts

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Such an easy decision for BotW this week – I absolutely loved Annie Darling’s Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts.  It is so much fun, and ticked so many of my book buttons.

Posy Morland loves her job at Bookends – a crumbling bookshop tucked away in a Bloomsbury mews.  But when the shop’s owner, Lavinia, dies and leaves the shop to Posy her life is turned upside down.  Posy’s got  lots of plans to turn the ailing bookshop around, but she’s also got to contend with Lavinia’s autocratic grandson Sebastian – nicknamed The Rudest Man in London by one of the papers, and seemingly searching for the national title.  With her friends and co-workers to help her, can Posy turn the shop around as well as dealing with Sebastian’s machinations?   And why is she having lurid fantasies?

Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts proof copy.
  Isn’t my proof copy gorgeous? I do love a good cover – and the proper cover looks lovely too.

The back of my proof copy says it’s for fans of Georgette Heyer (waves) and Jenny Colgan (waves) and for people who’ve dreamed of opening their own bookshops (falls over waving so hard) and I would totally agree.  Posy is a great heroine – she’s likeable, a little bit damaged and totally relatable.  It was great fun reading about her figuring out what to do with the bookshop and trying to stand up to Sebastian.  It’s also crammed full of gems for the romance reader – whether it’s obvious ones (like name checks for historical romance authors) or more subtle ones (not telling, find them yourself).

This whistles along at a tremendous pace, with twists and turns and heaving bosoms in empire line gowns (you’ll understand if you read it).  I was cross it was over so quickly – because I could have spent another 200 pages with Posy and her band of misfits at the  bookshop and as there’s an ad at the end for a sequel, my wish may yet come true.  The back of my advance copy also has the author’s top five novels in it which include Heyer’s Regency Buck – which I adore – Pride and Prejudice (ditto) and a Courtney Milan.  What’s not to love.  And on top of that it has a bookshop list which includes not one but TWO name checks for my beloved Chalet School so basically I think Annie Darling and I would really get on.

I got sent an advanced copy by a publicist who I chat to on Twitter – who had spotted that I love Georgette Heyer.  It’s not out in paperback yet (August 25th) – but it is out in Kindle (£2.99 at time of writing!) and you can pre-order the paperback on Amazon and Waterstones and Foyles will email you when they get it in stock.  I suspect as it’s published by Harper it may make it to the supermarkets too.  I would’ve saved my ravings for closer to the time, but as the Kindle is out and I think that this would make a great beach read I thought I’d alert you all now. Go forth and read it!