VERY special copies of TRO

Panama Oxridge has recently announced that there are some very special copies of Thyme Running Out available.

See his blog http://tartanofthyme.blogspot.com/

As if a plain, regular, ordinary, common-or-garden, run-of-the-mill, everyday copy isn't special enough!

Nina spent most of today trying to use an Enigma Machine to decipher some of the clues and codes in her copy.

We hear that Lesley Cookman now uses hers as a talking point by leaving it in easy reach of guests.

A regular customer, today, saw a copy of Thyme Running Out on our desk and told us she thought Justin Thyme 'Brilliant!'.

Wait till she finishes TRO!

Literary Fiction (mostly!)

As some of you may know, I was recently on the other side of the world, on holiday*. While away, Nina and David set about doing some of those things that have needed doing for some years. Dusting, for instance.

The main change was to try to collect most books by local authors in one place on a bookshelf. There we now have Henry Porter, Jane Bailey, Rebecca Tope, Veronica Stallwood, Anne Grangerand guest author, Lesley Cookman, as well as books of local interest.

Of course, that left M C Beaton's Agatha Raisin books rather hidden in comparison so we devoted four shelves to her books where they were easier to see. (Room enough for her Hamish Macbeth series and the two new sets of books by her too)

This left space for us to order in some more 'literary' novels to be grouped together. Such titles as Snow Geese by William Feinnes, Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, A Life of Pi by Yann Martell and Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky as well as works by Hemmingway, Cormac McCarthy and Arundhati Roy and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. We have called this book case'Literary Fiction (mostly!)' so please feel free to disagree with our choices.

* nzhols.blogspot.com

Lesley Cookman Book Launch.

Lesley Cookman's signing went off without a hitch apart from her excursion to a few pretty villages on the way to the shop. We could tell what a lovely lady she is, long before she arrived, as waiting for her was a shop full of her friends, many of them authors.

The photo shows just some of them - Susan Alison (the illustrator of the map in Lesley's books), Gilli Allen, Adrian Magson, Lesley Cookman, Katie Fforde, Jane Gordon-Cumming (her sister) Hazel Cushion (the publisher who kindly bought a generous supply of wine and nibles). There were others too - we couldn't fit them all in. It was quite a party atmosphere. We hope you will all come again.

Many thanks to Lesley and Hazel and all their friends (Hazel's daughters too). To all our customers who came along too. We hope you are well into Libby Sarjeant's mysteries by now and we're sure you will soon be back for more.

Sky Arts and us

We know somebody who knows somebody who saw us on the Sky Arts program last night! Were we any good?

They were good enough to do us a write up and put up a couple of photos of ours. Thanks Helen.

Link to 'our' page.

Pity they didn't mention our book signing for Lesley Cookman. However, they might be doing something about Justin Thyme sometime in the future (or the past - never sure which with that book)

Lesley Cookman Event

I'm back into the swing of things after a week's recovery from our Justin Thyme signing so this evening I've been really busy.

Our next signing is to launch Lesley Cookman's latest Libby Sarjeant murder mystery entitled Murder Imperfect. I'll see if I can cadge a proof copy and come up with a review soon. Meantime, do call into the shop where we have a special leaflet about the signing.

However, the bare details are as follows. Lesley will be signing any or all of her books between 11 am and 1 pm on Saturday 23 October. We are able to offer a very special price on the day and there will be a glass of wine or a cuppa on offer. Biscuits too, but no banana cake!

These are light, easy reads yet totally involving and Lesley's characters are believable whilst being just over the top enough to be fun. If you like your murder mysteries with humour and romance, come and meet the author and give them a try.