Tracey and her bed

The second YouCaxton literary lecture is scheduled for 6.30 pm Tuesday 2nd October at the YouCaxton Shop in Bishop’s Castle – except it’s not quite literary. Abstract artist and art historian, Phillip Woolley, will be expounding on the subject of  ‘Tracey Emin and her bed’, Phillip will be looking at the development of conceptual art in its social and historical context using Tracey’s bed as a leitmotif. He will discuss the process by which the art of the Britpop artists developed and how their work became so lucrative for a small number of them.

Scandinavian criminals criticised

The first YouCaxton Literary Lecture took place on Tuesday 14 August in our shop on Bishop’s Castle High Street and was well attended by those with a literary turn of mind and perhaps by one or two local criminals in search of insight although we can’t be certain.

Paul Binding, an expert on matters Scandinavian, was fascinating on the background to the recent boom in Scandinavian crime fiction. He related the worlds of Wallander and others to Inspector Morse and also to social trends within the Scandinavian countries with particular reference to the assassination of Olaf Palme in 1986 and the recent horrendous tragedy at Utoeya in Norway. The discussion which followed was informed and in itself very interesting.

Scandinavia

Why have the Scandinavian countries produced, in under twenty years, crime fiction that has mesmerised the world – Mankell’s Wallander, Nesbo’s Harry Hole novels and on T.V. The Killing and Borgen, watched by millions?

Paul Binding will be giving a short talk (around thirty minutes) in the YouCaxton shop in Bishop’s Castle on:

SCANDINAVIA AND ITS CRIME FICTION

6.30 pm Tuesday 14th August on:

It’s free and all are welcome. Wine will be available – with contributions gratefully accepted – or bring your won refreshment. Hope to see you there.

Grand Opening

The opening of the new shop in Bishop’s Castle was a went very well, attended by the intellectual cream of South Shropshire (those who made it and there were enough of them to down most of the wine).  We failed on the drumroll and the portrait of Caxton went AWOL but Steve was admirably wise and knowledgeable about matters technical and Bob was oracular about developments in publishing.

Grand Opening

Our new shop at 23 High Street Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, will be officially opened at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 1oth July, wine will be sipped, caxton-biscuits nibbled and there will be a drum roll followed by a libation poured in honour of a portrait of William Caxton, Britain’s first self publisher (and printer of course). Bob will give a short  talk about changes in the publishing industry and new technologies and their impact on writers.

Book Launch

The launch of Richard Jopling’s book at Newport Grammar School last Tuesday went off without a hitch, about forty people attending. Bob Fowke and then Richard spoke briefly before Richard donated copies to people who had helped with this ambitious project – which started life almost ten years ago – after which wine and canopés were tucked into with gusto.

Ludlow Market – different day

We now changed our market stall to Wednesdays and have just completed the first Wednesday of the new arrangement. Mondays were interesting but Wednesday proved to be even more so. An astonishing range of writers visit Ludlow Market which has acquired some of the characteristics of a literary festival secreted among the fruit and veg, a tribute to the eccentric and varied interests of people from round about. We held conversations with, among others,  a writer who has completed the translation of a religious work into French, a writer who specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of M.E., a poet, a writer who has completed a parodical children’s book and a writer with an interest in things sportive. Not all the projects discussed will come to fruition, but it’s a great privilege to experience the democratisation of publishing at first hand in this way, and in beautiful Ludlow of all places.