Features

Annette Shaw is a freelance writer and a book group organiser, and has a regular column in Devon Life, sharing her pick of brilliant books with Devon connections. With her reputation for championing books and authors around the county, we’re delighted to have the opportunity to showcase her reviews here. Adrift by Tracey Williams What would a green dragon be doing at Bigbury Bay? This quirky tale, which is true, explains all. It began on Thursday 13 February 1997 when … Read more

In 2022, Picador celebrates its 50th anniversary and the launch of the Picador Collection, a new list of contemporary classics taken from and inspired by the last fifty years of Picador’s agenda-setting and boundary-pushing publishing. Sonny Mehta first launched Picador as an imprint in 1972 with the aim of publishing outstanding international writing. The Picador Paperback Originals quickly became known for their iconic white spines, which were the mainstay of many readers’ bookshelves. These books were known for being challenging, … Read more

Bookery volunteer Tilly Lander Williams was at the heart of the Exeter Literary Festival this year, and sends us this report: Have you spotted the banners in Princesshay celebrating Exeter’s UNESCO City of Literature status? Seeing them recently, I felt a mixture of pride and nostalgia (when Exeter was first recognised as a ‘Creative City’, I was writing about it pre-pandemic). If anything, the past 18 months have proved Exeter’s love for literature even more. From the success of Libraries … Read more

The Bookery’s Cliff found himself with reader’s block in 2020 – how did he cure it? Last year was not a normal year, I think we can all agree. Amidst chaos and change, I found myself with…time on my hands. And, in common with many book lovers, I thought that a long fallow period would allow me to perhaps attack some of those long and difficult doorstops which had been stacking up on the pile just out of my eyeline. … Read more

As a social enterprise, The Bookery actively seeks to help people within our community. Many of our projects focus on health and wellbeing including reading to residents in care homes and dementia cafes, promoting national campaigns about books on health, community engagement activities and supporting individuals through employment and volunteering activities. Loneliness is seen by many as one of the largest health concerns we face and evidence suggests loneliness is one of the feelings millions have experienced during the coronavirus … Read more

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best sci-fi novel published during the previous year. Since celebrated author Arthur C. Clarke gave a grant to establish the award in 1987, notable past winners have included Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, Colson Whitehead and Emily St. John Mandel. Always interesting and diverse, the shortlist serves as an excellent primer for the latest, most exciting titles in the genre. The winner will be revealed in September. The Infinite … Read more

With the country once more in the grips of football fever thanks to the Euros, now is the perfect time to seek out some of the more interesting and possible overlooked books which show the economic, social and psychological angles of our most beloved national sport.   Africa United: How Football Explains Africa by Steve Bloomfield Travelling to twelve countries across the vast continent, Steve Bloomfield tells the story of modern day Africa through the lens of it’s obsession with … Read more

Ernest Hemingway was one of the most important and divisive literary figures of the twentieth century – ahead of a major TV documentary series on his life, Cliff looks at his works and influence: Around fifteen years ago, I decided I would spend an entire month devoted to Ernest Hemingway. I’ve always enjoyed setting myself peculiar goals, and this was borne out of the fact that, apart from reading The Sun Also Rises as a precocious teenager, I hadn’t really … Read more