A Moving Story – 19 August 2023

On this day last year, I found myself ringing a phone number unsure of who would pick up. Perhaps, I thought, a man running such a good scam that he did not even have to cold call people; they rang him. Perhaps someone whose phone number had been left on a website some years ago and who would be annoyed at an unexpected interruption from an overenthusiastic booklover. Or perhaps it was someone with the literal key to something I had long wanted.

As it was, the third option was realised. (Also, partially, the second option.) The voice on the other end of the phone, accompanied by the sounds of an all-day party in Spain, offered two units for rent in the Clifton Arcade. I took my pick, resigned from my job and ordered a lot of books. My father moved in with us to build bookshelf/table mutants. My mother delivered accountancy lessons in response to my attempts at a budget. Josh reinvented himself as a tech wizard and built a website. We all drank a lot of coffee and talked about the logo and how to use Instagram. Six weeks later, Heron Books opened for business.

Today’s newsletter began life as a piece gushing that we were due to move premises. There was a plan in the works, as some of you will know, to expand a little and see if herons can fly outside of the Arcade. Alas, this has not come to fruition. This is sad news for various reasons. Yet, looking back to a year ago when there really was no plan, just a name and a lot of people prepared to roll with the idea, I can’t help but think that we are very lucky to be here, that the Arcade comprises a great gang, and that we look forward to staying here until we are truly ready to stand, on one leg, elsewhere.

Onto the real news: books.

Fiction

I am always fascinated by enclosed spaces – locked rooms or secluded locations – which can appear both utopian and hellish. For those of you who like your novels set on an island featuring a girl who has never left, her sister and a beloved donkey, may I offer Strangers at the Port by Lauren Aimee Curtis.

Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle is a novel written in similarly lyrical prose, this time exploring the life of Artemisia Gentileschi. Brilliant research has been poured into evoking 17^th century Italy and bringing to life the extraordinary painter.

If you love short stories or if you are yet to be converted, I recommend Open Up by Thomas Morris, a collection which explores parenthood, particularly fathers and sons, how we connect with each other and the effects of loneliness. It’s a beautiful book and you’ll want to read the stories together and apart, feeling their connections and smiling at the hope they can offer.

Non-fiction

Fiction and non-fiction blend seamlessly in Once Upon A Prime by Sarah Hart, in which the Birkbeck professor explains how mathematical concepts are laced through the greatest works of literature. Hart skilfully and humorously explodes the opposition of science and art, showing that they are both reaching for the same truth.

High Caucasus by Tom Parfitt recounts the author’s experience of reporting on the Beslan school siege in Russia in 2004, and his subsequent 1,000 mile trek through the Russian Caucasus in an attempt to understand the divided region and its millennia of history. A fascinating insight into an overlooked land and the conflicts that are becoming ever more central to the modern world.

The scope of Beastly by Keggie Carew is even broader, taking in the tens of thousands of years of history that humans and animals share. Mixing anecdote and analysis, Carew examines the impact of animals on our social, scientific and cultural development, and what their role might be in the future.

Poetry

Newly published in the UK, though arranged by Mary Oliver herself before she died, Devotions brings together fifty years of her moving, carefully woven verse. A personal favourite is After Reading Lucretius, I Go to the Pond. And not just because it features a heron.

I suppose I have American poets on the brain as I have also been reading The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón thanks to a recommendation from a friend. It too is sensitive and teeming with stunning nature descriptions but also full of joy and warm colour.

Finally a couple of our favourite picture books of the moment:

The Thunk by Michelle Robinson and Deborah Allwright: What is a thunk, I hear you ask. Well, you’ll have to join Hector Voltaire on the hunt for one in order to find out.

Blobfish by Olaf Falafel: Blobfish loves telling jokes but he needs a friend to share them with. Can he find one in the deep sea? Ideally one that isn’t a plastic bag…

May your weekend be full of island stories, art, poetry and thunks.