T-shirt Trio

Sorry to inflict this on the good folks of Moreton-in-Marsh but with nearly eight weeks still to go, the Cotswold Bookstore team are walking billboards for the new Panama Oxridge book, Thyme Running Out.

The date and Thyme for the book signing  are Saturday 10 September at 11am.

Before that though, we have the signing for James Aitcheson with his Sworn Sword on Saturday 13 August at 10.30 am.

There might even be some traditional Norman fare - honey cake and mead.

Sworn Sword missing

Finally, here's the castle where it was always intended to go.

However, we were going to have some copies of Sworn Sword, by James Aitcheson, with it.

I promise - they're on their way.  I'll take another photo then.

Also looking for a sword - anyone?

Don't forget. The signing is 10.30 am on 13 August.



Author's note -

“The Norman Conquest was a time of rapid change on a scale that’s difficult to imagine today, and I’ve been fascinated with it for many years. But while the tale of 1066, King Harold and Hastings has been recounted many times before, what happened in the years that followed is less well-known.

I wanted to capture a sense of what it must have been like to live through that turbulent age.”

Jamie

Look, I know we have more dogs on our blog than books but we just love dogs, OK!

Jamie here was particularly loveable and reminded us of one of our favourites - Barney.

Both are rescue dogs and both are collie cross something.

And both like our biscuits!

Events

Gutter Bookshop pointed me to this piece '...on why bookshops & booksellers matter by @R_Nash'

Click here to see the whole thing.

 http://t.co/UFZqYPT

I thought it a very interesting piece and homed in on this paragraph.

'Not all bookstores have gotten on board with the transition from being a place where books await customers to being a locale of social and cultural exchange, which happens to support itself in part by selling books. The brilliant Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has noted that the less a retail experience is focused on selling stuff and the more it is about something else -- an event, an occasion, a vision -- the more a store will sell.'


Well, we've got quite a few events coming up, haven't we.
13 August James Aitcheson with Sworn Sword
10 September Panama Oxridge with Thyme Running Out
17 September Rebecca Tope with her Thea Osborne Cotswold series
AND
Phil Rickman with The Secrets of Pain and his previous Merrily Watkins titles.

Beats TV

OK. So it's finished.

Very relaxing.

Like a 3D jigsaw with added glue.

I quite miss doing it.

A little most mornings and evenings.

Beats reality TV.

However, does anybody know what we're going to use it for yet?

New Link - James Aitcheson

  www.jamesaitcheson.com

Because he's our next signing.

10 am Saturday 13th August!

More a launch really.

His first ever signing!

What did those Normans drink in those days?

Perhaps we'll lay some on.

Top Three

The big sellers at Cotswold Bookstore  are very different.

The Fort, Bernard Cornwell's tale of the American War of Independence centred on Fort George, is as popular as the 'Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister', that is Wait for Me by Deborah Devonshire or, as she appears on the blurb, 'The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire - Debo to friends'.







Both are rushing ahead and I don't know which is in the lead.










Third place is definitely occupied by The Confessions of Katherine Howard by Suzannah Dunn. 'The duties of a Queen. The secrets of a woman ...'





The one that surprises me is GCHQ by Richard J. Aldrich which is subtitled The uncensored story of Britain's most secret intelligence agency'.

The surprise is that, despite being almost on the doorstep of '...the successor to Bletchley Park' we have hardly sold any.

 To me, it looks the most interesting read of the four!

 Just read the back blurb and you'll see what I mean.

And it's £3.00 off!