Has your reading been as wild as the weather lately? No? Well we can go someway to redressing that with our next event.

We are very pleased indeed to welcome, all the way from Australia (though we suspect he didn’t travel only to pop in and speak to us) Michael Winkler, author of Grimmish. He will be joining us in the shop on Tuesday 8th August at 7pm. Tickets are available in store or via our website here.

I read Grimmish earlier this year and found it to be a wildly inventive, thoroughly enjoyable novel, with perhaps unexpectedly deep reserves of humanity. The book wears its oddness on its sleeve (quite literally, in the form of a quote from J. M. Coetzee, who declared it ‘The strangest book you are likely to read this year’) and while it fulfils on that peculiar promise, it is also a hugely affecting book. If it is strange, it is because we humans are unendingly so.

We are greatly looking forward to hearing Winkler’s thoughts about the novel and the man behind his extraordinary character, Joe Grim. Grimmish is the kind of book that causes an unending stream of questions to pop into the reader’s head – at least it did for me – so I am particularly looking forward to directing some of those questions Winkler’s way!
Pain was Joe Grim’s self-expression, his livelihood and reason for being. A superstar boxer who rarely won a fight, Grim distinguished himself for his extraordinary ability to withstand physical punishment.

In this wild and expansive novel, Michael Winkler moves between the present day and Grim’s 1908–09 tour of Australia, bending genres and histories into a kaleidoscopic investigation of pain, masculinity, and narrative.

Pain is often said to defy the limits of language. And yet Grimmish suggests that pain – physical and mental – is also the most familiar and universal human condition; and, perhaps, the secret source of our impulse to tell stories.

Praise for Grimmish

‘A powerful blast of literary ingenuity and originality.’ – Lloyd Jones

‘I lurched between fits of wild laughter, shudders of horror, and gasps of awe at Winkler’s verbal command: the freshness and muscle of his verbs, the unstoppable slow of his images, the bizarre with of the language of pugilism – and all the while, a moving subterranean glint of strange masculine tenderness.’ – Helen Garner

‘All the makings of a cult classic. It’s grotesque and gorgeous, smart and searching.’ – The Guardian

We are delighted to announce our second event of the autumn. Mick Herron, bestselling thriller writer, and creator of the Slough House series, will be joining us in the beautiful reading room of the Bristol Central Library, to discuss his new novel The Secret Hours.

The award-winning author will be in conversation with acclaimed writer & friend of the shop, Charlotte Philby, whose novels include Edith and Kim, The Second Woman and A Double Life.

7pm, Wednesday 6th September, at Bristol Central Library
Tickets are available here.

Published by Bristol-based imprint, Baskerville, The Secret Hours is a standalone spy thriller with a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin at its heart.

Two years ago, the Monochrome inquiry was set up to investigate the British secret service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out misconduct, allowing the civil servants seconded to the inquiry, Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, unfettered access to confidential information in the service archives.
But with progress blocked at every turn, Monochrome is circling the drain … Until the OTIS file appears out of nowhere.

What classified secrets does OTIS hold that see a long-redundant spy being chased through Devon’s green lanes in the dark? What happened in a newly reunified Berlin that someone is desperate to keep under wraps? And who will win the battle for the soul of the secret service – or was that decided a long time ago?
Spies and pen-pushers, politicians and PAs, high-flyers, time-servers and burn-outs . . . They all have jobs to do in the daylight. But what they do in the secret hours reveals who they really are.

This is a wonderful chance to spend time in the company of the writer Val McDermid calls “the John le Carré of our generation.”

Praise for Mick Herron:

‘I doubt I’ll read a more enjoyable novel all year. The Secret Hours has it all: thrilling action scenes, crackling dialogue, characters to infuriate and beguile, and a neatly intricate plot. And through it all cuts Herron’s acerbic wit, its effect heightened by the glimpses he allows us, from time to time, from his world to ours.’ Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

‘Great Britain has a long, rich history of how-it-really-works espionage fiction, and Mick Herron – stealthy as a secret agent – has written himself to the very top of the list. If you haven’t already been recruited, start with The Secret Hours – all Herron’s trademark strengths are here: tension, intrigue, observation, humour, absurdity . . . and pitch-perfect prose.’ Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels.

‘The Secret Hours is wonderful. Mick Herron at his best’ Michael Connelly, author of Desert Star.

‘Mick Herron is one of the best writers of spy fiction working today’ Martin Cruz Smith, author of Gorky Park.

‘Herron is at the summit of a new golden age of spy fiction.’ Sunday Times

‘Mick Herron is an incredible writer and if you haven’t read him yet, you NEED to. I read the Jackson Lamb books one after the other and am already desperate for the next one. They are smart, darkly comic and hugely addictive.’ Mark Billingham

Mick Herron is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House thrillers, which have won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, two CWA Daggers, been published in 20 languages, and are the basis of a major TV series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. He is also the author of the Zoë Boehm series, and the standalone novels Reconstruction and This is What Happened. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

Charlotte Philby is the author of four novels, the latest of which, Edith and Kim, was a best book of 2022 in The Times, The Sunday Times, New Statesman, Literary Review, and elsewhere. Since leaving the Independent in 2014 she has worked as a contributing editor at Marie Claire, and written freelance for publications including New Statesman, Tatler, and the Guardian. Charlotte lives in Bristol.

We are very pleased to announce that we have been able to agree a new date for our event with Kieran Yates for her book All The Houses I’ve Ever Lived In. We had to postpone this one from the original date in May, so it’s great to be able to go ahead. The new date is 7pm Tuesday 18th July, in the bookshop.

All The Houses I’ve Ever Lived In is both a very personal memoir, and a polemic about the state of the housing crisis in this country – something with which Bristol is accutely familiar.

More info & tickets can be found on our website here.

The celebrated journalist and broadcaster, Kieran Yates is coming to Gloucester Road to talk about her essential new book, ‘All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In’.

We’ve all had our share of dodgy landlords, mould and awkward house shares. But journalist Kieran Yates has had more than most: by the age of twenty-five she’d lived in twenty different houses across the country, from council estates in London to car showrooms in rural Wales.

In prose that sparkles with humour and warmth, Yates charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent navigating the chaos of the housing system. Drawing on interviews with marginalised tenants across the country and the stories behind our interiors, she explores the unexpected ways we can fight back – finding beauty in the wreckage of a broken system, friendships in cramped housing conditions, and home even in the most fragile circumstances.

‘All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In’ is at once a rallying cry for change, a gorgeous coming-of-age story and a love letter to home in all its forms.

Kieran Yates is a London-based journalist, broadcaster and editor who has been writing about culture, technology and politics for over 10 years. She’s written everywhere from the Guardian, FADER, VICE, The Independent and beyond, had an acclaimed monthly column at VICE titled ‘British Values’, was nominated for Culture Writer of the Year in 2016 and regularly hosts events and panels discussing issues across music, politics, and news.

Kieran contributed to the award-winning book of essays, The Good Immigrant in 2017 about immigrant stories in the UK, where she wrote about ‘Going Home’. In 2015 she started a fanzine called ‘British Values’, a political satire and culture magazine that celebrates immigrant communities in the UK. She is the co-author of ‘Generation Vexed: What the English Riots Didn’t Tell Us About Your Nation’s Youth’.

We hope to see you there!

Happy reading all,

Tom, Leah & Joe

We are nearly overwhelmed with delirious excitement to announce that we will be welcoming to Bristol one of the 21st century’s most acclaimed, discussed and celebrated writers.

Yes, Zadie Smith will be appearing in Bristol to discuss The Fraud, her first novel for 7 years in what will be one of only 5 UK events.

We are delighted to announce our first ever book event for children!

Sean Taylor will be with us on the morning of Saturday 8th July, at 9am, for some dino themed picturebook fun. The event is free, but places are limited as space is tight. Book your place here. Suitable for 3-6 year olds. All children must be accompanied by an adult (but you only need to book places for kids, don’t worry about counting the adults!).

Join Sean Taylor for a lively session of riddles, rhymes and picture book fun featuring his latest book: When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth. And you may even get to sing a song about being eaten by a Gigantosaurus!

After the event Sean will be signing copies of When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth.

Sean Taylor is the award-winning author of over 60 books for young readers. These include picture books such as Hoot Owl Master of Disguise, How to Be Cooler Than Cool, Monster! Hungry! Phone! and his collection of poems for bedtime, The Dream Train.