Our story

In 2023 we welcomed back the award-winning children’s authors David Macphail and Pauline Tait and real-crime and mystery author Mark Bridgeman for another hugely intriguing Trial by Jury evening (I didn’t get that verdict right either!). We were also greatly entertained by Merryn Glover, talking about her book of Cairngorm discovery Hidden Fires, followed by Iain Maloney, with his quest in search of The Japan Lights, and L.Bruce Keith, entertaining us with stories of milestones, drawn from his brilliantly titled book Are We Nearly There Yet?.

Our Book Blether continued a pace – adding in a couple of theme evenings to round out an eclectic mix of books. We continue to meet at the bookshop on the first Wednesday of each month at 7pm, it’s informal, open to all and the coffee is good (Ralph makes it). You can find a list of the books we’ve read and are planning to read on our Good Reads page.

We once again cloned ourselves in October to support the marvellous BOOKMARK festival. Day one – busy, busy, AND we got to listen to some wonderful authors talking about their books and subjects. Day two – disaster, when the town was cut off in one of the first storms of a very wet Autumn, and authors, interviewers and audience couldn’t get here! Fortunately, many of the authors due to appear have signed up for the 2024 Festival and I can’t wait to see who else is coming on the 5-6th October.

We rounded out the year with a bookshop wassail, when we were joined by BOOKMARK chair, Gail Wylie, with two wonderful poems of journeys (including Robert Frost’s, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’), Meg the Midwife (aka Lynette Downie) with her scary stories of local ogres, and a trio of wonderful musicians: fiddlers Duncan and Mike Lean and harpist Patsy Seddon. The music and words flowed, as did the sloe gin.

None of this would have been possible without our enthusiastic and loyal customers and bookshop friends. THANK YOU!

Here’s to continuing the fun in 2024 – if possible, with a few less storms!

Kate and Ralph