Friday 5th April. The UK book launch of Leonard And Hungry Paul with Ronan Hession and Bluemoose books.
Thursday 11th April. Poetry launch of Zebra by Ian Humphreys with support from Zaffar Kunial and Natalie Burdett. Five Arches Press.
Thursday 18th April. Launch of Built On Sand by Paul Scraton, Influx Press.
Happy New Year. We want to start by thanking all our wonderful customers for their support in 2018 which culminated in us winning Independent Retailer of the Year at The Halifax Courier Business Awards. It was a fantastic way to end our first year of trading and we want to thank everyone who played a part in getting us there. We are a very passionate, dedicated team and it was a proud moment for us.
We were overjoyed that our Halifax Festival of Words partner, The Grayston Unity also won an award that night for Independent Bar of the Year.
Thank you for keeping us super busy throughout December. We hope you all had stacks of books to open on Christmas Day and plenty of time to read them in.
We had several great events in November and December.
Andrew Bibby did a book signing for his non-fiction English landscape book Back Roads Through Middle England.
Horatio Clare came to talk about his latest book – The Light in the Dark:A Winter Journal.
Martine McDonagh did a book signing for her latest title Narcissism For Beginners.
Local author Ben Myers is moving publishers to Bloomsbury so we had a farewell evening and book signing with him and his current Hebden Bridge based publishers Bluemoose Books. The Gallows Pole is our best-selling title, we sold 244 copies in December alone!
The Quality Street Girls by Penny Thorpe was our second biggest selling title in December with 180 copies sold. Penny came in to meet her readers and sign some copies.
This pile features our best-selling titles from our adult fiction, non-fiction and poetry sections. Lots of people must have unwrapped a copy of John Cooper Clarke’s latest collection on Christmas Day as we sold 51 copies.
There was a lovely range of children’s Christmas books to choose from.
We are working on our programme of events for 2019, keep checking here for news, as well as on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
We are very excited to announce the dates for the second Halifax Festival of Words , 4th – 6th October. Get the dates in your diary!
Two weekends ago we had the enormous pleasure of co-hosting the inaugural Halifax Festival of Words with The Grayston Unity , a local, independent, award winning bar and live music venue. We are immensely proud to have been part of bringing this fantastic event to Halifax.
Taking place across 3 venues in Halifax it included punk poetry, a suffragette choir, a T.S.Eliot prize shortlisted poet, a dragon egg trail, a guest appearance by a sheep dog, live music and a whole list of fantastic authors.
On the Friday night we had a really interesting event on how to get into publishing with Kevin and Hetha Duffy of Bluemoose Books .
On Saturday morning we had a great event for Bookworms with Harry Heape and his Shiny Pippin series.
We were delighted to be hosting the launch of local author Liz Flanagan’s brilliant new book Dragon Daughter. We had a trail around the Piece Hall to find the last four dragon eggs and then Liz read from her book whilst we made dragon masks and ate dragon buns.
Our next event was a discussion between Sarah Dunnakey and Linda Green on A Sense of Place: How the Calder Valley Shaped Our Writing. The conversation was fascinating and the audience was really engaged.
Our big Saturday night event was Turn The Page 8, a regular poetry/spoken word/open mic night hosted by Katie Atkinson. It was a celebratory event as it was the first birthday of Turn The Page. There was a wide variety of wonderful speakers and musicians.
Sunday morning started with a reading for Bookworms from local author Cathy Calvert and star of her book Ned.
Marilyn Gwizdak Greenwood gave a talk about her novel The Whistler in which she discusses her Polish family’s experiences in the second world war. The choir Marilyn is part of sang which ended the event beautifully.
Suffrage historian Jill Liddington gave a fascinating talk on how local suffragettes helped win women the vote in Halifax, and what they did with it afterwards.
Our event for closing the festival was Poetry Night featuring wonderful readings from a number of poets: Vicky Gatehouse, Mark Pajak, Gaia Holmes, Keith Hutson, Sarah Corbett, Zaffar Kunial and the host Ross Kightly.
We also had a lot of support from Halifax council, who helped bring live music, programmed by The Grayston Unity, to the local market for the first time in 30 years.
The Grayson Unity held a range of events including: We Are Willow project, The Story of Barmcake Magazine, Embrace and Merlin Kalanovic, Jim Ghedi and Toby Hay, Amit Dattani and Anne-Marie Sanderson.
On Saturday 20th we held our final festival event for this year, Burning Brightly – Northern Voices in YA with Liz Flanagan, Mark Illis, Danielle Jawando and Melvin Burgess who talked about Northerness and diversity in Young Adult fiction.
One of the best things about the weekend was how many local people got involved, it had a genuine grassroots (or should that be urbanroots) feel and celebrated the amazing heritage of the town against the stunning back drop of the Victorian market hall and the architectural gem of the Piece Hall.
We had an unbelievable amount of support from local writers, publishers and musicians, who got on board with the vision with a huge amount of enthusiasm. It has been wonderful promoting their work and raising the profile of some of the amazing talent in the Calder Valley.
We are proud to have carried this through from the germ of an idea to a vibrant and exciting celebration of homegrown northern talent.
We are pleased to announce that there will be a second Halifax Festival of Words on the 4th-6th October. For the full programme, please visit the Halifax Festival of Words website.
The Book Corner and The Grayston Unity wish to thank everyone who supported the very first Halifax Festival of Words. It was a buzzing weekend filled with poetry, music, books, impromptu dancing and great chat. It was a pleasure and a privilege to share it with so many brilliant locals in this fine old town.
The Book Corner (Piece Hall) and The Grayston Unity have joined together to organise & curate the first ever Halifax Festival of Words. It will take place in the town between the 11th & 14th October. It’s a festival that celebrates the use of language through books, music, spoken word and illustration.
In 1817, Branwell Bronte was born a few miles from Halifax. His sisters were to achieve worldwide fame, but Branwell had poems published in Halifax long before they went into print. By no means as successful as his sisters in the literary field, he showed great talent; but what went wrong? David takes a look at this talented but flawed young man, and invites you to discover his acquaintances in the Halifax area. Tickets from The Grayston Unity
Join us for an evening of publishing advice from multi-award winning independent publishers Kevin and Hetha Duffy from Bluemoose Books.
SOLD OUT, SORRY!
Limited capacity. Tickets £5 (all monies going to a charity of Hookworm’s choice) available from The Grayston Unity. One of the stars of BBC 6 Music in conversation with Hookworms, a band flying high after the release of their latest album Microshift. Tickets from The Grayston Unity
Happy Heads DJ set with a leftfield selection of indie, funk, reggae & soul, all on vinyl records, in our back room.
Bookworms! Join us for a reading and signing from Harry Heape, author of the Shiny Pippin series. ‘Pippin’s just an ordinary little girl who lives with her ordinary little granny in the ordinary little town of Funsprings. Or so she thinks.
Harry Heape is an artist, a visionary and a very successful none of your businessman. When he was a little boy, Harry dreamed of being a writer, and a Police dog. A shy and quiet man, Harry lives and writes in deepest, darkest Hahahahalifax.’
A day and evening of talks, poetry, q&a’s and live music in the Albany Arcade within Halifax’s Victorian Borough Market. There will be a pop up can/spirit bar and street food & pop up book shops. The line up…
12.30pm Festival Opening… The Landlubbers – we may be 70 miles from the sea but expect shanties Halifax style.
1:45pm We Are Willow – A Different Light film – spoken word – music UK art collective We Are Willow has teamed up with mental health charity Manchester Mind to contribute to continued awareness of male mental health issues, with proceeds from the project going to the charity. The work features four film commissions and a new 12 track album release of songs, spoken word and remixes officially launched on World Mental Health Day October 10th 2018. Halifax Festival Of Words showcases the four film commissions featuring tracks from the album along with a live performance by two of the spoken word artists Ben Mellor and Jackie Hagan.
2:45pm Embrace in conversation with Merlin Kalanovic.
Approaching the 20th anniversary of their classsic debut album, members of Embrace will be in conversation with Merlin, local resident and tour manager for The Charlatans, Klaxons, Divine Comedy & Embrace.
3:45pm Singer Songwriters Born of the Valley – the area’s best singer songwriters brought together on one stage to take turns in performing their own material. Gareth Scott, Jess Thristan, Craig Fee & Dave Gaunt
4.45pm Rook & The Ravens Music. From the Derbyshire hills, this great band know a tune or two with the lyrics to go with them too. They’ve just finished recording their third album and have toured the UK & the USA extensively over the past 10 years. Expect Neil Youngesque vocal harmonies & searing keyboards and guitars.
6.15pm James Endeacott in Conversation. James Endeacott in conversation with Chris Dyson. Talk. James is something of a legend within the music industry. He worked for Rough Trade A&R The Strokes, discovered The Libertines and owns 1965 Records. A regular on 6 Music, expect stories galore from his time spent in the industry. His Rough Trade pamphlet has just come out too http://roughtradebooks.com/editions/the-tall-short-stories-of/
7:15pm Keiron Higgins. Kieron Higgins is a poet/ranter from Halifax, West Yorkshire. Over the years which seen him build up a prolific CV of been a musician, DJ and artist he became a poet in 2012 after seeing the likes of Hebden Bridge based Punk Poet Cayn White. His work in which he supported former Crass frontman Steve Ignorant, New York based Anti-Folk musician Jeffery Lewis and Punk poet Attila The Stockbroker he has published two volumes of poetry since 2016-2017. His style is sometimes political, funny and poignant with references to the likes of Seething Wells and John Cooper Clarke.
8:00pm James Endeacott DJ set. A dj? In the Borough Market. Why not? Expect some right tunes. Finishes 10pm back to the Grayston for drinks.
A DIFFERENT LIGHT film will be shown in the back room of The Grayston Unity prior to the performance at The Albany Arcade in Borough Market. Limited capacity. First come first seated (free).
Taking place in the back room of The Grayston Unity. Free entry. Get there to get a seat.
Barmcake Magazine is magazine which aims to provide ‘entertainment for the middle aged’. It’s all very much the idea of founder, editor, writer and publisher Dave Griffiths. Come along to hear the story of this great little magazine.
Bookworms! Can you find the precious dragon eggs that are being kept safe within The Piece Hall? Come to The Book Corner and we’ll send you on a special mission…
Bookworms! On the island of Arcosi, dragons and their riders used to rule the skies. But now they are only legends, found in bedtime stories, on beautiful murals and ancient jewellery. Then servant girl Milla witnesses a murder and finds herself caring for the last four dragon eggs.
Liz Flanagan writes for children and young adults. She teaches creative writing and lives in Hebden Bridge with her family. lizflanagan.co.uk.
Jim Ghedi and Toby Hay both make music so deeply entrenched in a sense of place – such as their homes in Rhayader and Moss Valley – that the landscapes of those environments runs through their records like gushing rivers or rolling hill tops. But what happens when one is removed from such a sense of place? Plucked away from the dark skies, savage weather and isolation of a Welsh town or the community at the heart of a village on the border of South Yorkshire and North East Derbyshire, and onto an open road of hours spent in cars and dining in service stations, when life on tour brings about a new sense of place daily? The answer for the pair was to make a record about it.
In The Grayston Unity’s 18 capacity back room. Get there in good time to get a seat.
Sarah Dunnakey and Linda Green have both written novels set in the Calder Valley. They will be discussing how the local landscape and its people have inspired and shaped their fiction.
Sarah Dunnakey writes and verifies questions for several TV quiz shows including University Challenge, Mastermind, Fifteen to One and Pointless. Her work, especially researching the Specialist Subjects on Mastermind, has been a rich source of ideas for her writing. Her short story, ‘The Marzipan Husband’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The Companion is Sarah’s first novel. It won a Northern Writer’s Award and was selected for Read Regional 2018. Originally from Teesside, she now lives in Hebden Bridge. sarahdunnakey.com
Linda Green is the bestselling author of eight novels. Her latest novel, After I’ve Gone, published by Quercus, is a top five Amazon kindle bestseller. Her previous novel, While My Eyes Were Closed, was the fourth bestselling novel on Amazon kindle in 2016, selling more than 450,000 copies across all editions. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and son. linda-green.com
To book your tickets, please click here.
Turn The Page is a Poetry and Spoken Word night in The Piece Hall, founded and hosted by Katie Atkinson. We are very excited to be celebrating the one year anniversary of Turn The Page, as part of the Halifax Festival of Words.
To book your tickets, please click here.
Bookworms! Come along and hear local author Cathy Calvert read her story Ned go to bed. Ned is a very busy dog. He has fun every day. Will Mum ever get him to go to bed? VIP Ned will be making a special guest appearance.
THIS EVENT IS NOW CANCELLED. SORRY FOR ANY DISAPPOINTMENT
Rachel is a runner and author from Halifax. A funny, heartfelt and inspirational story of one woman’s marathon journey through mental illness. Suffering from depression but desperate for ‘normality, she found herself in failing relationships, the wrong career and a reliance on alcohol and chocolate to get her through each day. Stuck in an endless cycle of mental misery, she put on a pair of old trainers.
For runners and non-runners alike, Rachel talks about issues relating to her own experiences.
Tickets are free. To register your interest, please click here.
Live in the back room (the UK’s smallest music venue). Free entry. Get there early to get a seat.
Having played guitar, banjo and lap slide guitar in a number of roots bands across the Midlands, Amit has recorded a solo album (garnering airplay on BBC Radio 6 and BBC Radio 2) – a collection of stripped back songs with just guitar and voice, and has shared the stage with the likes of Charlie Parr, John Smith, Blind Boy Paxton, Willy Vlautin, Kathryn Williams and Mark Morris.
“Echoes of John Fahey and Leo Kottke” – Roots and Branches
“A fantastic picker!” – Charlie Parr
Join local author Marilyn Gwizdak Greenwood as she discusses her harrowing true story, The Whistler.
Never knowing the fate of her Polish grandfather, the author received a copy of a death warrant bearing his name in the mid 90’s. She knew her family held many untold secrets of their past – something she felt should be revealed. What she eventually discovered after much research was shocking and unbelievable – it is now referred to as “The Unknown Holocaust”. This is not only the story of the fate of her family, but of a further 2 million Polish people. It is a story shared by descendants of survivors who, as with the author’s family, are now dispersed throughout the world.
To book your tickets, please click here.
Playing our back room (the UK’s smallest music venue). Free. Get there early to get a seat.
Anne-Marie Sanderson’s voice is evocative of birds in flight – soaring, gliding, swooping – and it finds its home among the tall trees of her deft guitar work. Describing Anne-Marie’s distinctive indie-folk music in these terms is apt; she is an artist who casts a careful eye and an attentive ear to the natural world, alternating between wide-eyed wonder and wry observation.
With two EPs already released into the wild, Anne-Marie’s “Book Songs Vol. 1” EP, a collection of songs inspired by books, is due in April. Anne-Marie will be appearing in libraries, bookshops, music venues and festivals across the UK and Europe throughout 2018.
Recent performing highlights include being selected to open for Ralph McTell at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, and opening the Acoustic Stage at Manchester Pride 2017. After a decade spent living all over the map, Anne-Marie has recently returned to her native Cumbria, where she now lives in Kendal.
For fans of Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan, Lisa Hannigan and books.
In December 1918, women could for the very first time go to the polls to elect their MP. Votes for Women was won only after a long and bitter struggle. In Halifax, suffragettes had marched, endured prison, and boycotted the government’s 1911 census. Among them was Laura Willson, a working-class girl who became a weaver, and Lavena Saltonstall, a tailoress in a clothing factory. How did they help win the women the vote in Halifax – and what did they do afterwards?
Jill Liddington is a suffrage historian. Her books include One Hand Tied Behind Us (1978), Rebel Girls: their fight for the vote (2006) and Vanishing for the Vote: suffrage, citizenship and the battle for the census (2014).
To book your tickets, please click here.
Wonkypuss are a scrappy DIY duo from Sowerby Bridge. Singing shit songs about seagulls, Bonnie Tyler and jelly babies, you will be encouraged to sing along and join in.
Come and listen to the words of talented local poets and celebrate the end of the festival with us. Featuring Sarah Corbett, Vicky Gatehouse, Gaia Holmes, Keith Hutson, Ross Kightly and Mark Pajak.
To book your tickets, please click here.
Mark Illis in conversation with Melvin Burgess, Liz Flanagan and Danielle Jawando. Join them for a discussion on writing for young adults and themes in YA fiction.
Melvin Burgess knows how to write for teenagers – he was one of the first, and best, to write unashamedly and specifically for young adults. He blazed into national consciousness with his 1996 Carnegie Medal-winning novel Junk.
Liz Flanagan writes for children and young adults. She teaches creative writing and lives in Hebden Bridge with her family.
Danielle Jawando screenwriter and associate lecturer at Roehampton University. Danielle has previously worked as a storyline writer on Coronation Street. And The Stars Were Burning Brightly is her first YA novel, and will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2020.
Mark’s Young Adult novel The Impossible was published in 2017. The sequel, The Impossible on the Run, came out in July 2018. He writes for TV and radio, has written a prize-winning screenplay and has published five novels for adults.
To book your tickets, please click here.
This much loved classic children’s book was first published in 1968 and is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year. Telling the story of Sophie and her hungry and thirsty tea time guest it is a perfect book to read aloud and also great for a child who has just learnt to read by themselves.
Along with the children’s book shop in Huddersfield we successfully bid for an opportunity to hold a tiger tea party and to have a visit from the tiger!
Yesterday we held two well attended tea parties. We read the story, had drinks and buns (before the tiger could eat them), coloured in masks and did some puzzles and then had a visit from the tiger.
The children enjoyed meeting the tiger and having tiger cuddles and their photos taken.
Many thanks to everyone who came along and special thanks to the tiger for coming to visit us.
