Features

For the first session of our Spring sessions of Afternoon Author events we were delighted to welcome local poet and friend of The Bookery Michael Hartland, who opened his talk inviting the audience to recall a memorable experience from the natural world and to think of a word or phrase to describe this experience. Before proceeding to read extracts from acclaimed poets that have inspired his own poetry Michael explained that he would be building in some moments of silence … Read more

For the final session of our winter Afternoon Author events we were delighted to welcome local author Jonathan Crofts, who was joined by Monica, his wife and editor of The Portsmouth Connection. Jonathan provided us with some fascinating insights and stories that he unearthed during his time researching the history of the Eggesford Estate and the Earls of Portsmouth. Jonathan began by introducing Monica, describing a little bit about her 40-year career as an editor. He then went on to … Read more

To welcome in the joys of spring with glorious sunshine we were delighted to welcome on World Book Day award-winning author and university lecturer Dr Michael Malay, who was joined in conversation by the Bookery’s ‘resident’ interviewer Alison Sweatman. From Alison’s carefully prepared questions we learnt the importance to Michael of relationships and connections. It was fascinating to hear about his childhood growing up in Jakarta, before moving to Australia where he experienced a completely different culture with his first … Read more

For the second of our winter Afternoon Author events, we were delighted to welcome local historian Tony Gale who provided our audience with a fascinating audio visual presentation based on his book Crediton & the Great Fire 1743. Tony took us through the period before, during and after the fire revealing many intriguing stories about life in the 18th century in Crediton. Using a unusually detailed map of the town that was drawn up for the Lord of the manor, … Read more

For our first evening author event of the year we were delighted to welcome the award-winning crime author and journalist Holly Watt, who was joined in conversation with The Bookery’s own interviewer Alison Sweatman. The Last Truths We Told was published on the 16th of January 2025 and having been reviewed in the Sunday Times last weekend, we were privileged to have Holly with us so close to the launch of the book. Holly Watt is an award-winning investigative journalist … Read more

In the first of our Afternoon Author events that we have launched for the start of the year, we were delighted to welcome author, sound artist and scholar Ellen Wiles to The Bookery who was joined in conversation with Mary Morris the Director of Arvon, the UK’s home of creative writing. Arvon have creative writing houses in Devon (where Mary is based) , Shropshire, Yorkshire, and a virtual house – Arvon at Home. Recognising that during the long, dark and … Read more

We really enjoyed having our Hub buzzing on a Saturday morning, by hosting an amazingly creative Book Making workshop. It went really, well with all of those attending enjoying the opportunity to make and take away with them at least two beautiful books! Jenny Perry, who ran the session, had positive feedback and an enthusiasm for running more of her workshops in the future. One participant commented: ‘I was pleased to discover  some very useful tips I didn’t know about … Read more

For our final event of the year and to support the Crediton Late Night Shopping initiative, we were joined by excited puzzlers eager to help us complete the 500 piece puzzle of The Bookery. We were delighted to partner with All Jigsaw Puzzles for this event who are based Hatherleigh and most grateful to Clare and Sara who helped create our unique puzzle and where on hand to help the puzzlers and present the young puzzlers with their prizes. The … Read more

We were delighted to be joined at The Bookery last week by the legendary storytelling duo Sarah McIntyre & Philip Reeve who were with us to design our shop window, celebrate their latest Adventuremice book and for Philip to discuss the return to his award-winning Mortal Engines series. Our shop window is now all set for Christmas having been Adventuremice-d! It was fabulous watching Philip and Sarah in action, seeing the Mice appear as they transformed the window with their beautiful … Read more

Chloe Savage, author of The Search for the Giant Artic Jellyfish, winner of the ‘Waterstones Best Illustrated Book 2024’ joined our Schools Team last month to visit two Primary schools. Chloe led a session at each school reading from her book, asking the children questions, demonstrating how to draw a jellyfish and then asking the children to do their own drawings. Chloe signed copies of her books and as a part of The Bookery’s outreach programme we ensured that every … Read more