Join us tonight for this month's Weighty Tomes and Tasty Foams!
630-930pm, Birdhouse Brewery, Herne Hill
(and if you can't tonight, we're there roughly once a month)
We are delighted to announce the opening of The Book Hotel in Ramsgate! The bookshop will open inside The Falstaff Hotel from early March, and we will celebrate the full launch of the new-look literary hotel with a week-long non-fiction festival.
Details to follow...
Graphic featuring my face, the lovely Amber's face, and the Owlcrate edition of The Sleepless. 'Jen Williams, February 12th @ 12pm ET, YA Fantasy, Romance. Hosted by Amber.
Next week I'll be chatting with the lovely people at Owlcrate about The Sleepless, so if you fancied listening in, go to thenest.owlcrate.com and sign up for a free account to watch the live feed, or catch the replay afterwards 😁
February 12th, 12pm EST, 5pm UK time!
"Shared reading in the very early years is the most impactful way to build a lifelong love for reading."
Our Director of Partnerships Julie Hayward shares the difference supporting families to get reading from the earliest days can make in this super article 👇
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
I've seen some articles in the last few weeks about 'performative reading'
Seems to be a few journalists who have convinced themselves that (younger) people don't read, so they must be pretending to
NONSENSE
People are reading more fiction, and there's a real enthusiasm around - its a good thing!
TonyInterruptor is out now (hardback, £16.99)
"Is this honest? Are we all being honest here?"
So good x
TONIGHT!
630pm - 9pm
Come join us at the Birdhouse Brewery (SE24 9AJ) Thursday 7th August! Pints are £3.50 when you buy a book!
#booksky
A pile of hardback copies of The Sleepless, on top of the author’s desk, which is looking remarkably tidy today
The Sleepless is officially out in the UK today! 🐉🐉🐉
This book has been a wild ride, from writing the first draft in a loved up haze to celebrating its existence with lovely foreign publishers in Bologna 💖 It’s my twelfth published novel (can you believe??) and I’m feeling very proud today.
A brown and white bunny stands upright on its hind legs, reaching for books on a shelf with various books lined up neatly.
Thank you!
(For signing the book, and also for saying such nice things about us)
x
We are disappointed but not surprised that Meta has used millions of pirated books to develop its AI systems.
As a matter of urgency, Meta needs to compensate the rightsholders of all the works it has been exploiting.
But what can authors do? Read here:
societyofauthors.org/2025/03/21/t...
Children’s writer and author of the award-winning Crongton series, Alex Wheatle MBE, has died of prostate cancer at the age of 62. 👇 #BookSky
Writers, musicians, actors & other creators strongly oppose upending copyright law to favour AI companies, as suggested in the UK's AI Opportunities Action Plan.
As Kate Mosse says, seeking economic growth "cannot be on the basis of theft of our work".
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
tech bros: we built a machine that can tell you stuff loudly and confidently!
us: cool. is it right about stuff?
tech bros: we cannot stress enough how loud and confident it is!
AI is a big complicated subject, and obviously we’re not experts - but - we choose our stock very carefully, and we will always do it ourselves.
AI can do a lot of things - pattern recognition, plagiarism & fraud seem like the main ones
We will never stock anything we know to be AI-generated
Happy New Year, everyone! Thank you for all your support & tremendousness, and here's to an excellent 2025
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Thank you to all of our lovely customers, have a wonderful holiday, thank you for all your support throughout the year x
Heading rapidly towards the weekend-before-Christmas!
We're here every day up to, and including, Christmas Eve
Hope everyone's enjoying December & looking forward to the holidays
(or, you know, coping with December & looking forward to the holidays being over - that's ok too)
x
Hope everyone is having a good December - two weeks until Christmas Day! That doesn't sound right, does it?
We're here every day up to & including Christmas Eve - and we can still order in for you - often for next day - do ask if you want something we don't have on the shelves!
We will too!
Eliza Clark event at Clapham Omnibus on Saturday 7th December - we’ll be there selling the books!
Word of the day is ‘librocubicularist’: one who loves nothing better than reading in bed.
(Not easy to say, but I’m glad to know it exists).
Never forget: READING FOR PLEASURE has the biggest positive impact of any factor on children's life chances. So never stop sharing books with kids. Never stop reading to them, and helping them to read. Never stop changing lives. #literacy #kidlit #books
Thank you! Lovely to meet you!
Today's thought by Tania:
"I have to say, one of my favourite things that happen in bookshops is to see full grown adults, with no kids with them, giggling away whilst reading/perusing the childrens section."
So, I'd like to know, which is your favourite children's book and why?
A comic of two foxes, one of whom is blue, the other is green. In this one, Blue is sitting on his computer, turning to look at Green, who is looking at a book laying open before him with delight. Green: Time for me to delve into a new book! Blue watches quietly as Green transforms into a cloud of abstract liquid energy, flowing into the opened book. Minding his own business, Blue turns back to his computer. Some time passes. Blue turns towards the book again, looking at Green, who peeks out of the book, looking somewhat disoriented. Blue: When were you coming out of there? It's 7 pm. Green: What year is it?
