Will Cohu drops in

Yesterday, the final day of Independent Booksellers' Week, Merle was fetching a copy of Will Cohu's book from the office for a customer when who should pop in to the shop but ... Will Cohu!

We don't always time things so neatly...

Julia Blackburn's talk

I can't think of a better way of celebrating our seven years of running The Woodstock Bookshop than the talk given by Julia Blackburn in Woodstock Town Hall on Wednesday. Her book, Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske is beguiling and wonderful and if you missed her speak about it have a look here and here. As I sat listening to Julia describe and read from the book, and go on to talk very movingly of her husband's death and her own need to carry on working and writing, I felt so lucky to have been able to open and run the bookshop and to have had such extraordinary writers here to talk. 

(Julia Blackburn in her garden and, below, at home)

A huge thank you to all our customers for making this all possible.

Edmund de Waal - The White Road

Yesterday I went with a group of booksellers to Edmund de Waal's studio for tea (he served the most delicious cakes) and a tour of the studio. He talked to us about The White Road: A Pilgrimage of Sorts, the book he has written about porcelain, coming out in September. And he made two pots for us while we stood handling the little lumps of slightly damp, almost floury porcelain clay he had given us, and marvelled: a bowl and a jar appeared, each of which sat briefly on the wheel glowing almost like a mirage before he wired it off and crumpled it back into a clump of porcelain clay. There is little more magical than watching someone make a bowl on a wheel - using, as he pointed out, nothing but clay, a small knife, a piece of wood and a length of wire. You can see him in the photo below - I am the headless person in the middle.

I am reading the book - a beautifully written and at times very funny account of his journey to discover many aspects of porcelain - the places where it began, the people who invented it, a journey of inspiration and obsession, the most wonderful book. If you liked The Hare with Amber Eyes you will almost certainly love this. 

Congratulations to Patrick McGuinness!

Other People's Countries has won the Wales Book of the Year! It is out in paperback - read it...