Independent Bookshop Week 2017

Posted on June 25, 2017

Every week should be Independent Bookshop Week.

To celebrate the week and her wonderful career Nicola Davies, until now more commonly known for her words than her images, has produced, with the help of her publisher, Walker Books, the most wonderful, colour-filled window for Book-ish in Crickhowell.

I love Nic. She is an inspiration to children everywhere, she is an inspiration to adults. She’s been an amazing roll model for my children as they grew into adults. She can tell you a story that will make your mind’s eye dazzle with images and she can sing. And boy can she paint and draw.

Years ago I illustrated texts for writers. I never dreamed that I could write. Nicola, Vivian French and James Mayhew were three writers who really supported my transition into author illustrator. I think it’s harder to do it the other way round, but there is such joy, and such delight in these images that I really hope that Nicola will write a text for herself. I really really want to see a beautiful book full of such life and colour.

Nicola is offering the window to other bookshops who would like it for a while, along with signings, so contact her through her website, or her publishers, if you’ve a window that needs to shine.

I think it’s so funny that the one thing that isn’t in the window is a copy of one of her books. The Pond was reviewed in The Guardian the other day. Lots and More and Perfect and King of the Sky are all recent, all beautiful. Nicola will be doing an event at Book-ish for King of the Sky, illustrated by Laura Carlin, so go along and listen. Thursday 29th, in Book-ish at 4pm. Wish I could be there.

Had a great few days away. More on that soon. Happy, now, to be home.

 

 

2 responses to “Independent Bookshop Week 2017”

  1. Bernie Bell says:

    Nothing to do with independent bookshops – I just saw the hand-print in your tweety-thing – here’s something wot I wrote, some time ago – may be of interest –

    “Hands

    I went to see a performance of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’, which was very good. At the end, everyone clapped enthusiastically, including me. Then I thought “Why do we do this? Why do we put our hands together in this way to show appreciation?”. This then led to my thinking about hands.
    Think of all the things we do with our hands, and what these things mean. We shake hands when we meet someone, this is a small exchange of energy, and often tells us something about the nature of the person whose hand we are shaking. We hold hands, in many different ways; because we love or are fond of someone; to help someone and guide them, maybe across a road or along a rough path; and also to give reassurance – if someone is upset or bothered about something, we will hold their hand and maybe say “It’s O.K., don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine”. But, what’s happening when we do this? We’re connecting with that person and their energy field, and, with good intentions, exchanging energy and life force to help them.
    So I come back to the clapping of hands. I decided that, possibly, we do this to literally send energy to the people who have pleased or inspired us. As we bring our hands together and apart when we applaud, we send surges of energy to the performers. Similarly, we wave “Hello” to greet someone, or “Goodbye” as they leave. Are we opening our hand and sending life force to them to welcome them to come to us, and to protect them as they leave our sphere of influence?
    I then moved on to considering the hand prints placed on cave walls by some ancient peoples. They blew pigment round their hands to make outlines. Was this because these people were so much connected with the life force that it was part of their daily existence? They lived its presence rather than seeing it as a separate thing from themselves. They, and we, tend to feel the energy mostly, or most easily, in our hands. Maybe that was why they placed images of their hands on the walls with the images of the animals which they hunted, in the belief that painting the animals made a connection with the spirit of the animal, which made for a greater understanding of the animal, and so made it easier to hunt. Not a line of thought which we might be happy with today, but life was harder then, and they had to eat! I also wondered if it’s possible that one of their main forms of medicine was healing – people with healing hands. So, again, they made imprints of something which was very important to them. Is it even possible that people who needed healing would then place their hand in the imprint to call on the residual energy left there by a Healer?
    Once you start to consider the importance of hands, and the possible implications of the direction of energy through hands, it opens up many interesting lines of conjecture.
    I also read Paul Devereux’s book ( ‘Stone Age Soundtracks’) in which he mentions how hand-claps in certain Neolithic sites set up reverberations which can be recorded. The patterns made by the recordings resemble the carvings on some of the stones at some ancient sites, either spirals or jagged ‘crest’ shapes.
    Then there’s pointing your finger at someone, and wagging your finger at someone, either in disapproval or to pick that person out for a certain purpose.
    It all comes down to hands, and how much our energy flows through them to others. It’s a thought. “

  2. Bernie Bell says:

    And – most definitely to do with independent bookshops – here I will blatantly plug Tam’s bookshop, in Stromness, Orkney.
    If your’e in Orkney, and in Stromness, do have a browse in Tam’s bookshop. V. small, v. packed with good stuff. And if they don’t have what your looking for, they’ll order it for you.

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