We were very excited when one of our favourtie authors
Cornelia Funke came into the shop recently to sign all her books for us. Not only was she charming, but also very smart and quick witted! Cornelia took some time to answer our short questionnaire all the way from Moscow and it throws some new light on this amazing author of the Inkheart series and her new book, Reckless.
Q: What was your favourite book when you were young?Tom Sawyer, the Narnia books and Michael Ende's JIM KNOPF books
Q: Do you have a current favourite book , author or illustrator? If yes, who?
Neil Gaiman is my favourite at the moment. I listened to his books while I was illustrating Reckless and loved every second of it. I'm not even able to decide which of his books is my favourite!
Q: Which of your characters did you most enjoy writing?I enjoy writing all my characters. Otherwise I wouldn't put them in a book. They are of course all fun in very different ways. Some make you laugh, others make you feel adventurous or curious about them. And in some ways they are all part of me.
Q: Did you always want to be a writer and illustrator?No, at 11 I wanted to be an astronaut and then later on a pilot. I was a social worker and recorded my own audio books, I also worked on movies but being a writer is for me still the most magical thing and much more wonderful than anything I ever imagined to do.
Q:If you weren't a writer and illustrator, what would you want to be and why?I have no idea, I guess I would first of all get my pilot's license :)
Q:Are you working on anything new at the moment?Of course :) I can't live without writing. I am deep into Reckless part 2.
Q: If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be and why?I think I would choose to be a dragon. I don't think I have to explain to anyone why. What can feel better than flying with the wings and strength of a dragon?
Q: You have twenty-fours hours to do whatever you want. What would you do?Write :)!
We hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year festivities!
We had the best time when author and illustrator of Charlie and Lola, Lauren Child came to the shop for a busy, busy, busy, booksigning!
This chilly weather is a great time to get out the jigsaw puzzles for fun indoors and we have a fabulous selection from the French company Djeco. Working alongside some wonderful illustrators and designers, they have some lovely puzzles. Perfect for Christmas gifts this year!
We have taken a new delivery of these beauties! We now have in stock Bernard Bee, Harley Ladybug, Tipu Tiger, Blue Terrance, Pink Trixie and our favourite The Gruffalo.
We had a brilliant, brilliant 15th birthday party last Saturday! Thank you to everyone for coming along to enjoy the stories, activities and mulled wine (just for grown-ups!). We had a great time and really appreciate the great community of local customers we have here.
We were very excited when one of our favourtie authors Cornelia Funke came into the shop recently to sign all her books for us. Not only was she charming, but also very smart and quick witted! Cornelia took some time to answer our short questionnaire all the way from Moscow and it throws some new light on this amazing author of the Inkheart series and her new book, Reckless.
From Google racing to geo-caching, from code breaking to filmmaking to robot baiting, it's bursting with over 200 new, exciting and creative ideas, for rainy days and sunny afternoons, for children's parties and car journeys, for the few minutes before bed or the whole weekend, and for all ages from 3 to 103. 
Oliver Jeffers visited the shop last Friday for a book signing and it was busy, busy, busy! He was wonderfully charming and a hit with everyone. Thank you Tiffany and the team at HarperCollins for arranging everything.
Here are some of the wonderful little monsters and their proud creators at our Halloween event this year. Darcy was so pleased with hers that she also wanted to have her monster's photo taken with her grandpa!
We had a brilliant Halloween storytime and craft event on Saturday, where we enjoyed the books Spookyrumpus, good old Funnybones and The Witch's Kitchen. Thank you to the very enthusiastic crowd (young and old!) for the excellent ghostly sound effects.
Wow! We were overwhelmed with the wonderful entries in our Halloween colouring competition this year, there were so many great submissions that they filled our entire window.
We were lucky enough to get an invitation from Oxford University Press, to an evening celebrating their best new dark fiction! We had a preview of two new titles due to be published in the new year by William Hussey (Gallows at Twilight) and Rhiannon Lassiter (Ghost of a Chance) and the dark teen novel out now by Joss Stirling (Finding Sky). We loved the hairy spider William had perched on his shoulder!
Are you looking forward to the spooky season? Join us in the shop for a fun storytime and a simple craft activity on Sat 30th October at 4pm. Places are limited to 15 children, so please book your spot! Suitable for 3-6yrs.
We have been very lucky to have worked with Julia Golding recently on some school events and we took the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her writing and who is her favourite fictional character...
Now in its fourth year, the festival is bigger and better than ever. Kicking
Do you have a Little Miss Sunshine or Mr. Messy in your life? Pop into The Golden Treasury to pick up one of our new Mr. Men and Little Miss Keyrings. Each classic character keyring is available for only £3.99. Our Little Miss Helpful will be happy to help you make your selection!
