#BookstoreoftheWeek – Winstone’s of Sherborne and Sidmouth

Three year old Winstone’s has already made it’s mark as a must visit for all booklovers in Dorset, Devon and beyond. Owner Wayne Winstone and Helen Stickland, supported by family, bring a wealth of experience in making their bookshops as welcoming and enjoyable as the books inside.

The first Winstone’s bookshop opened in Sherborne and is home to over 9,000 titles covering all the popular genres with a particular strength in children’s books.

Wayne Winstone says, “As a bookseller there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a child engrossed in a book……we want to develop in children a life long love of books and reading.”

We hear you, Wayne!

In two years, Winstone’s has been twice named the South-West Independent Bookseller of the Year at the Bookseller Industry Awards. Last summer, the lucky town of Sidmouth got a Winstone’s to call their own. Both shops enjoy Winstone’s continuous effort to engage with the community through a strong local events programme, support for schools and events with writers and artists. Just this month, the Sherborne shop is hosting an event with the Antiques Roadshow’s, Marc Allum!

Winstone’s is also a venue for book clubs and societies or those who just want to curl up with a good book, a locally-sourced cake and a great cup of coffee.

“Our coffee is a blend of South American Arabica beans from carefully selected farms in Costa Rica and Brazil (which gives the coffee a hint of hazelnut). To these we add some Arabica from Ethiopia which helps give your coffee a fully rounded taste. We also blend in a small amount of the best Robusta beans from Uganda. This gives the coffee a great “crema” as well as an earthy red wine type of flavour.”

We need some now!

The staff of both stores have a background in book-selling, coming from Waterstones, Blackwells, Booklore and Ottakar. They know a good book when they see one and will be happy to recommend if you find yourself a bit overwhelmed with their wonderful selection! Make sure to take a look at their We Are Currently Loving… on their website. If you have something in mind, you’re sure to find it but if not, they will order it and usually have it to store for you within 24 hours.

Winstone’s – bringing together communities and their favourite books since 2012.

Winstone’s Sherborne

8 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT93PX

01935 816128

winstonebooks1@gmail.com

Winstone’s Sidmouth

10 High Street, Sidmouth, Devon EX10 8EL

01395 579969

winstonebooks2@gmail.com

Twitter @winstoneSid

Opening Times

9.00-5.30 – Monday to Saturday

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Secret Sidekicks

 

The Who, The What and, The When -A love letter to the unsung heroes of history. Including some literary geniuses…

Ever wondered who inspired Roald Dahl’s stories?

SOFIE MAGDALENE (HESSELBERG) DAHL 1885 – 1967

ROALD DAHL’S MOTHER

An old, wrinkled grandmother fills out every inch of an armchair, chewing with relish on a foul-smelling black cigar, in the Witches, one of the many popular children’s stories written by Roald Dahl. Smoke encircles her large body as she tells the young main character the “gospel truth” about how to identify witches. “She was a wonderful story-teller and I was enthralled by everything she told me,” the character narrates.

The description purposefully echoes how Roald thought of his own mother, Sofie. He based the grandmother’s character on her in a tribute to “undoubtedly the absolute primary influence on my own life,” Roald says in More About Boy, an expanded version of his memoir of his earlier years.

The Norwegian Sofie married Roald’s father, Harald, in 1911, and she moved to Wales to be with him and his two children from a previous marriage. She had three children of her own, two girls and Roald, before her seven-year-old daughter, Astri, died from appendicitis in 1920. Only three weeks later, Harald also passed away from pneumonia, leaving a pregnant Sofie alone to raise her soon-to-be five children.

Rather than return to Norway to live with her parents, she respected her late husband’s wishes that she stay in Wales and have her children educated in British schools. And despite her children’s mischievous activities while growing up, she was “a rock, a real rock, always on your side whatever you’d done,” Roald noted. “It gave me the most tremendous feeling of security.” Roald was her favourite child, and although the family called him “Boy,” she also called him “Apple.”

To entertain the children, Sofie told tales, pulling creative inspiration from folklore from her home country. “When we were young, she told us stories about Norwegian trolls and all the other mythical Norwegian creatures that lived in the dark pine forests, for she was a great teller of tales,” Roald wrote in More About Boy. “Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten.”

Roald reciprocated this creative storytelling when Sofie enrolled him into boarding school when he was nine years old. He started writing letters to Sofie, telling stories about his life that meant to entertain and amuse.

In one letter in 1929, after Sofie gave him a pair of roller skates for his birthday, Roald tells his mother about skating in his school’s yard. “At one time I had eight chaps pulling me with a long rope, at a terrific lick, and I sat down in the middle of it,” Roald wrote. “My bottom is all blue now!”

From those very first letters until Sofie died thirty-two years later in 1967, he wrote her at least once a week whenever he was not home, including his time in school, when he worked with the Shell Oil company in Africa, and when he flew with the Royal Air Force in the Mediterranean during World War II.

Sofie secretly collected every single letter, amounting to more than six hundred from 1925 until 1945, into neat bundles with green tape, according to Roald. Only one term’s worth of letters are missing: the fall of 1928, which were damaged in a bombing in 1940. At the bottom of each letter, he signed his love with his given name—all except his first semester at boarding school, when he simply wrote “love from Boy.”

written by JACKI E LEAVITT

www.jackie-leavitt.com

illustrated by J ENSINE ECKWALL

www.jensineeckwall.com

The Who, The What and the When: 65 Artists Illustrate the Secret Sidekicks of History, reveals 65 people you’ve probably never heard of, but who helped shape the word as we know it. Muses and neighbours, friends and relatives, accomplices and benefactors, such as Michael and Joy Brown, who gifted Harper Lee a year’s worth of wages to help her write To Kill a Mockingbird. Or John Ordway, the colleague who walked with Lewis and Clark every step of the way. Each eye-opening story of these unsung heroes is written by a notable historian and illustrated by a top indie artist, making The Who, the What, and the When a treasure trove of word and image for history buffs, art lovers and anyone who rejoices in unexpected discovery.

Want to find out more? Follow the #SecretSidekicks hashtag!

Five Questions Monday

Image ©Bogie Uram

Star of today’s Five Question Monday is Andrea Beaty, the wonderful author behind Rosie Revere, Engineer; Iggy Peck architect and the brand new Happy Birthday Madame Chapeau!

1.  How do you like your eggs in the morning?

At a diner booth watching the drizzly world go by as I sip hot coffee and riddle over a storyline.

2. What’s your favourite joke?  

The Reverse Knock Knock Joke. You start …

3. What film character are you most like?

The Cowardly Lion. If I only had the noive.

4. What is the first book you ever read?

Dick and Jane. I am old.

5. Would you rather have to greet everyone with a high five or a fist bump for the rest of your life? (imagine fist bumping in an interview!?)  

I would prefer to greet everyone with interpretive dance.

Thank you Andrea, we would LOVE to great everyone with interpretive dance!

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…

It is that time again…

It’s time for Bookstore of the Week! 

This week we are celebrating a little North London gem; Picked Pepper Books.

A specialist children’s bookshop,cafe and events space in the the village like Crouch End, they host daily pre-school events and after school groups; like their Young Illustrators and creative writing groups.They also have a a fantastic book group!

This little store is the place to be for little readers this half-term they even have a Halloween special Once Upon a Story Time! *Spooky*

We think that Pickled Pepper Books deserves a huge round of applause for the work they do to encourage and create young-readers. They go above and beyond the scope of such a little space. So for being small but mighty Picked Pepper we are giving you a massive HIGH FIVE!

SO grab your grown-up and take a stroll to discover storytelling, make and do, film screenings, author/illustrator events (psst…Mum & Dad they also do great recommendations…)

But if you can’t make it there be sure to sign-up to their newsletter and follow them on twitter! They can also be found on Facebook.

Find them at 10 Middle Lane, Crouch End, London, N8 8PL

http://pickledpepperbooks.co.uk/

Five Questions Monday

We asked the lovely Molly Idle to take our little Five Questions Monday Quiz, we laughed maybe a little too hard at the joke…

1.       How do you like your eggs in the morning?

Scrambled or sunny side up! Come to think of it, those two terms describe the two most common states of my mornings too…

2.       What’s your favorite joke?

A man walks into a bar… Ouch.

3.       What film character are you most like?

Hmm…. I’ve frequently been called Mollyanna, because I’m an eternal optimist. So, I’d say I’m most like Hailey Mills portrayal of, Pollyanna… ever playing the Glad Game.

4.       What is the first book you ever read?

All by myself? I believe it was Cinderella. My mom still tells the story of how dramatic and distressed my recitation became when the stepsisters shredded the dress the mice made for Cinderella.  “They tore off the trimmings and ripped off the sash and her dress was RUINED!”

5.       Would you rather dance with a Penguin or a Flamingo?

I would rather see a Penguin dance with a Flamingo!

Thank you Molly! We would also like to see a Penguin dance with a Flamingo, we reckon it would look akin to a ballroom dance competition.*

*Penguins look like they wear tuxedos & flamingo pink is a great colour for a ballgown….

Tales On Moon Lane.

Tales On Moon Lane may already be the winner of the Walker Children’s Independent of the Year and have been voted one of London’s Top Five Bookshops by timeoutlondon, but NOW it is A&CB’s bookstore of the week!

This incredible little shop in the heart of Herne Hill has window displays publishers fight over and events that knock the socks of authors, parents and, most importantly, kids!

Their website is a source of inspiration for parents with recommendations for all ages – from two year old’s to Teens. Our very own Michael Buckley’s Sisters Grimm Series has the privilege of being named in their essential reading list for 7 to 10 years.

This little space is PACKED with personality and we LOVE them. Go and take a look for yourself!

A South London Gem.

 

We, at A&CB headquarters, have been thinking, long and hard, about our favourite bookstores and have come to the conclusion we simply CANNOT pick just one.

To overcome this difficult, yet beautiful, conundrum we are going to spend the rest of the summer showing off our favourite bookstore of the week!

If you have a bookstore (or library!) that you love send us your suggestions, we are ALWAYS looking for a new book haven!

What is your pick this week I hear you cry! Well of course it is the WONDERFUL Ottie and the Bea. We LOVE this little treasure in South London for it’s charm, book clubs AND the fact it WON the ivy & Bean window display competition a few years ago.

Ottie and the Bea we SALUTE YOU!