Sat 18th September Book signing with local author Jacky Gray Kenilworth Books 11am

Friday 1st October   Morning Coffee with Helen Castor   Rose and Crown   10am WW

Friday 1st October   The Real Jane Austen   Unitarian Chapel  3pm WW

Monday 4th October   An Evening with John Sutherland and John Crace  Bridge House Theatre 7.30pm WW

Friday 8th October   An Evening with David Crystal   Bridge House Theatre  8pm WW

Saturday 9th October  Nella Last : A Modern Pepys?  Northgate Methodist Church Hall 10.30am WW

Sunday 10th October   ‘Keeper’ with Andrea Gillies  Bridge House Theatre  3pm WW

Wednesday 27th October  ‘Never Eat Shredded Wheat’ with Christopher Somerville  Warwick Library 7pm

Wednesday 3rd November  ‘Shakespeare On Toast’  with Ben Crystal  Lord Leycester’s Hospital 7pm

Wednesday 10th November  ‘A Shilling A Day’ with Peter Rhodes  Kenilworth Library  7pm

Wednesday 17th November ’Outlaw: India’s Bandit Queen and Me’ with Roy Moxham Warwick Library 7pm

Please note tickets for all Warwick Words events (WW) must be booked through Warwick Words.  All other events can be booked at Warwick Books or Kenilworth Books. Tickets for the Library events can also be booked at Warwick Library or Kenilworth Library and are free but should be booked in advance.

‘We can get you buggers for a shilling a day, but the horses cost eighty quid each.’ Knee-deep in mud and slush, covered in boils and lice, this was what his sergeant-major told one of the interviewees in this extraordinary and moving series of accounts of lives lived in the service of king, queen and country The author, Peter Rhodes, a regional newspaper journalist, has built up a unique collection of interviews with war  veterans and now had his work published in book form.

He built up his compilation of nearly 200 pieces over the course of 25 years, and the book begins with an interview with 110-year-old John Evans recalling the death of General Gordon in Khartoum in 1885 and ends with the killing of a Midlands soldier in Afghanistan more than 120 years later.

What an important and fascinating talk this promises to be. Tickets will be available shortly from the usual places…Kenilworth Books and Warwick Books, and the libraries at both places.

Jane Austen’s world was revolutionary in every sense. The American colonies, then France, overthrew their kings and established republics, and revolution as well as refinement  was the background to her writing.  Egalitarian ideals were also reflected in the fashions of the period, which adopted designs inspired by the period of classical democracy: light, flowing and diaphanous.

Paula Byrne, who is an acknowleged expert on Jane Austen will talk about her new biography The Real Jane Austin, which is due out in 2012, and Sarah Jane Downing will give an illustrated talk on how fashion was shaped by the cultural ideals of the time. A super afternoon for all Jane Austen fans.

The event takes place on Friday 1 October at the Unitarian Chapel at 3.00pm.

Tickets £8 (Includes afternoon tea).

Forget love….I’d rather fall in chocolate.

Join us for a chocolate evening at Kenilworth Books, Talisman Square, on Thursday 26th August at 7.00pm.

There will be a short talk on the history of chocolate, followed by a chocolate-themed quiz.   Of course, there will be plenty of chocolate and wine to keep us going for the evening too!    And, if that doesn’t get your mouth watering, you will also get a 10% discount on all full-price merchandise on the evening.

Tickets are ₤2.50, and are available in the Kenilworth shop. Places are limited so come and see us or phone 01926 855 784 to reserve tickets. We look forward to seeing you.

Frances, Lulu and Tamsin Kenilworth Books

 The group was very split, some enjoying the book and others finding it hard going.  Most people who perservered with the book found the second half  more enjoyable than the first part.  The arrival of a new character, Monsieur Ozu, a wealthy Japanese businessman lifts the book from a group of essays on life, philosophy and the use of language to a real story.

 The book is told from the point of view of  Madame Michel(Renee), a concierge in an exclusive building of apartments.  Renee lives a life of subterfuge, pretending to be the person the tenants expect from a typical concierge, dour and not terribly bright.  In some ways she is almost invisible, she does her job and watches her tenants, but secretly she is in fact a woman of excellent taste, cultured and well-read.  Her only friend, Manuela, knows and understands her.

 The story is also told from the point of view of Paloma, the twelve-year-old daughter of wealthy parents, tenants in Renee’s building.  Paloma is convinced that life as an adult will be so unsatisfactory and dull that she has decided to kill herself on her thirteenth birthday by setting fire to her flat.  Her sister, Colombe, is a grade A student, studying philosophy, Paloma does not think much of her true intellect.

 The two voices are very distinct, and the musings entertaining.  It is slightly remeniscent of Sophie’s World.  Paloma is studying Japanese at school, so is very keen to get to know Monsieur Ozu.  Between them they realise that there is more to Madame Michel than meets the eye, and M Ozu, not being French, is able to flout convention without causing offense.  He gets to know her as a person and from here, the story really takes off with some funny moments, particularly an incident with a musical toilet.

 Two of the group read the book in the original French, and the rest of us were sure that much must be lost in transaltion.  We do not have concierges in the same way as the French, and much of the pholosophy of language is about structure and grammar with subtleties of meaning which just are not translatable.

 We thought that some of the philosophy was just to show how clever the author is rather than the character, and the choice of a Japanese businessman was partly to make him as exotic and un-French as possible. Teresa felt that he should have been considerably less scrutable!

 Would we recommend this book to a friend?  Frances, Inge and Denise probably would, the other members of the group were not so sure.

 Our next book is ‘The Lacuna’ by Barbara Kingsolver and we will meet at the Punch Bowl again on Wednesday 1st September at 6.0pm

Jeremy Duns writes: ‘It was a pleasure and a delight to visit Warwick Books to launch my latest novel, Free Country, the second part of my Cold War spy trilogy. Keith and his team looked after me and I chatted to several very interesting and, I hope, interested customers, about my inspirations and ideas for the novels, all the while soaking up the atmosphere of a real bookshop – I also took the opportunity to buy several books for research! So thank you, Warwick Books, for their hospitality and for making the event a success. I hope to return one day soon!’

Eight pupils from years 4, 5 and 6 gathered excitedly at Warwick Books on June 22^nd for the launch of their historical fantasy ‘Time Trap’, together with co-author and editor, established local children’s writer Meg Harper, their parents and teacher and representatives of the King Henry V111 Endowed Trust, who generously provided the funding to employ Meg to work with the pupils and to publish enough copies for all the pupils and for the school.

The pupils started working with Meg in January and have each been through the full author experience from coming up with the initial idea, developing the plot and characters, doing basic research and then getting down to the drafting, re-drafting and editing process – with the added complication of working collaboratively with 8 other people!

The resulting book is a credit to them and is highly suitable for readers of their own age group, set in the Warwick of Victorian times and the present day. The copies we ordered for the launch sold out within the day but more can be obtained from Warwick Books at a cost of £3.50 per copy.

Other schools interested in similar projects with Meg should contact her via her web-site www.megharper.co.uk or phone her on 01926 403424

So what is so good about ‘The Hunger Games’?

Essentially, it’s very gripping and the concept is both clever and disturbing. The Hunger Games are a game-show that is compulsory viewing for the citizens of Panem, the remnant of the USA after devastating troubles. Each district of Panem has to send two teenage contestants to the games in which the aim is simple – to be the last one left alive – it is kill or be killed. The heroine, Katniss, volunteers to take the place of her little sister who, very unluckily, is selected. Some of us felt that it was a disadvantage that it was obvious in a first person, present tense narrative that she has to survive. The tension is in how she does and the plot ducks and weaves to the very last page. There is a romantic love triangle built in and some very moving moments alongside gruesome killings and the very chilling interference of The Gamemakers. It’s a very thought-provoking read about the game show gone very dark indeed, used as a means of controlling and intimidating the populace. That it also entertains is perhaps most disturbing of all.

Slight quibbles included that it was difficult to warm to Katniss as she comes over as quite a tough customer at times. Despite all she does to avoid murdering anyone and her love for her little sister, she still seems somewhat unapproachable. Some of us also felt quite cheated by the ending. There are big ideas here and we can quite see why a trilogy form has been chosen – but we wanted a little more closure at the end of book 1 and not that awful feeling that the reason we are stopping here is to get us to buy the next book! We have done and we want to read it – but are still mildly grumpy about the ending of book 1.

Scores were all 10s apart from Meg’s measly 9.5 (she withheld a half-mark out of her dissatisfaction with the ending.)

We’ll meet again at 4.15 on Tuesday 7^th September and will read ‘The Hunger Games – Catching Fire’ by Suzanne Collins. When the film comes out, remember you read about it first here!

Are you struggling for things to do with the children this summer? Starting this week, join in the fun to find the clues to the “Sunflower Trail” giving you an opportunity to win a great prize to the value of £80.00 donated from local shop owners. From Saturday we will have a Sunflower hidden in the shop as part of the Sunflower trail.  Our Sunflower has a letter with it.  Children have to go to each of the shops/websites taking part to find the individual letters.  They then have to make the letters into a word and all the correct answers will be entered into a prize draw. The prize is a selection of gift vouchers from the participating shops.

Entry forms can be picked up in Beading Crafty, Costa Coffee, Kenilworth Books, The Little Clothes Horse, Crazy Kiln or downloaded from www.sunflowerpa.co.uk or www.sallyevansphoto.co.uk/blog

All completed forms to be posted in the boxes found in each of the shops. The closing date for the competitition is Saturday 4^th September. The prize winner will be contacted by phone and invited to collect their prize from a local celebrity on Wednesday 8^th September 2010.

We are delighted that well-known author and TV presenter Christopher Somerville is coming to Warwick as part of our ‘Meet The Author’ series to talk about his new book ‘Never Eat Shredded Wheat: The Geography We’ve Lost and How to Find it Again’. Perhaps best-known for ‘Coast’, ‘Somerville’s Travels’, ‘100 Best Walks’ and his regular columns in The Daily Telegraph, Christopher is an enthusiast as much for for the delights of gentle country walks in soft English countryside as adventurous treks around the world. He has spent 25 years writing and broadcasting about country walks (and tougher hikes), life in remote rural and island communities from Scotland to Crete by way of the Faroes, music-making in Irish pubs, festivals from Spain to Sweden, and the pleasure and delight of telling stories and weaving yarns. And now in his new book he wants to remind us of something that is in danger of being lost…our awareness of the geography of our own Isles.

Bognor Regis…Aberystwyth…Glasgow…Can you place them on a map? Most people can’t, these days. What kind of countryside do you pass through on your way to the Cairngorms, or the Fens, or Northumberland? What’s north of the Pennines? And what’s it like when you get there? Most folk wouldn’t have a clue. Increasing numbers of us don’t have a basic geographical notion of these islands. Blame it on a decline in formal geography teaching, or Sat-Nav and other ‘A to Z and nothing in between’ devices that make us lazy — we are becoming the best travelled and least well orientated Britons ever seen. Christopher presents the basics of what belongs where, which counties border one another, and what lies beyond the Watford Gap. He reminds us of the watery bits, the lumpy bits and the flat bits, and gets to grips with the smaller islands surrounding Britain — and much more. Never Eat Shredded Wheat is a reminder of all the fascinating British geography once learned at school – geography that brings our islands vividly to life – geography which we have forgotten, or never even knew……