The Bookery, Author at The Bookery

Review: Inside the Wave

September 8, 2019January 31, 2018 by The Bookery

On 30th January at the Costa Book Awards, Helen Dunmore’s collection Inside the Wave posthumously won Book of the Year 2017. As only the second person to posthumously receive this prize, the award was received by Helen’s husband Frank Charnley and their two children Patrick and Tess. Inside the Wave reflects on the poet’s cancer diagnosis and looming death with immense honesty and bravery. Including poems that range from heartbreaking to humorous, the whole collection is a meditation on mortality with … Read more

T. S. Eliot Prize Winner Announcement

August 5, 2019January 27, 2018 by The Bookery

Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong Front Cover

On 14th January 2018, the T. S. Eliot Prize Winner was announced. Ocean Vuong’s astounding debut collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, traces the aftermath of war across generations. In a video about his collection he says “a lot of the poems in the collection attempt to navigate history through a rewriting, or rather a recasting, of history into a mythology”. Vuong is the first literate person in his family and has certainly mastered his words in poetry – one … Read more

Interview: Claire Barker

February 3, 2021January 12, 2018 by The Bookery

Claire is author of the Knitbone Pepper books, a series about a funny, friendly family of ghost animals who reside at crumbling Starcross Hall. Claire and Knitbone recently won the Simply Books X Factor award, voted for by 2,000 children, and were shortlisted for the Sainsburys Children’s Fiction Award in 2017. We’ve recently been visiting schools with Claire, who read to over 1000 children in just 3 days, and ran a hugely successful writer’s workshop at CCB. We asked Claire the … Read more

Costa Book Awards 2017

July 26, 2019January 5, 2018 by The Bookery

Book-world always begins the year promptly, as on the 2nd of January the Costa Book Awards 2017 category winners are announced. There are awards for five categories; First Novel, Novel, Children’s Book, Poetry and Biography. The Costa Book Awards have been running since 1971 and in 1985 an overall winners award was introduced. Last years winner, Sebastian Barry, was the first author to win Book of the Year twice for 2016’s Days Without End. The overall winner will be announced on … Read more

Review: St Martin’s Island

September 8, 2019December 18, 2017 by The Bookery

St Martin's Island by Todd Gray & Sue Jackson Cover

The disastrous fire which destroyed the Royal Clarence Hotel in October 2016 shocked Exeter and received widespread dramatic coverage. The historic hotel made up one corner of the block of buildings between St Martin’s Lane and Broadgate, many of which are ancient constructions and for which still exist rich historical documentation. Todd Gray and Sue Jackson have mined this rare concentration of archival and architectural information to produce a fascinating and commendably approachable history of the buildings so recognisable to … Read more

Review: Blue Planet II

September 8, 2019December 8, 2017 by The Bookery

Written by two BBC producers of the show, this book contains varied content across the series alongside stunning photography. Each chapter brings to life a different habitat in the ocean and explores creatures from the disturbing bobbit worm to the unbelievable pod of spinner dolphins. Captivating images and interesting information make this a lovely Christmas gift to any fan of Blue Planet II or perhaps the perfect coffee table book. Narrated by David Attenborough, the new Blue Planet series has … Read more

Review: In Our Hands

September 8, 2019December 1, 2017 by The Bookery

The business dictionary defines community businesses as ‘self-organised networks of people with common agenda, cause, or interest, who collaborate by sharing ideas, information, and other resources.’ In Our Hands by Steve Wyler explores the history and early origins of community business, delving into the creation of medieval guilds, seventeenth century radicalism, friendly societies and early co-operatives to the present day. Steve examines how, generation after generation, people have turned to community business, whether in response to the social evils of … Read more

Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2017

August 14, 2019November 24, 2017 by The Bookery

This week, in a ceremony hosted by BBC News presenter Mishal Husain, the annual Books Are My Bag Readers Awards were announced. From the incredible shortlist, book-lovers across the country have voted for their favourite. The Readers Choice Award went to Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctors, which also won the Non-Fiction award. After winning the Non-Fiction award in 2016 for Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig appears again winning Popular Fiction with How To Stop … Read more

The Surprising Power of Books

July 26, 2019November 17, 2017 by The Bookery

Books are entertainment, information and stories. But how do they affect us? We’ve taken a look at the surprising power of books: Reading is Therapeutic You may have heard of the term ‘bibliotherapy’. If not, it is used to describe the use of books as a therapeutic tool. Now there may seem like some obvious examples of this: self-help books. Self-help books provide a whole realm of benefits – they provide information, coping strategies and positive methods for a variety … Read more

James Ravilious: A Life and The Recent Past

July 12, 2019November 10, 2017 by The Bookery

CCB is excited to host ‘Recording Country Lives with Robin Ravilious’ on Thursday 30th November. She will be showing slides and talking about individual images and the engaging and gifted man behind the camera, James Ravilious. To find out more about this event, please visit our Events page. On 2nd November, Wilmington Square an imprint of Bitter Lemon Press published two keenly-awaited books about Devon photographer, James Ravilious. James Ravilious: A Life is a beautiful biography and memoir written by … Read more