Heron Books

The earth converses herewith the attentive heavens;memory overwhelms heramongst these noble mountains. Sometimes she seems surprisedthat we listen so well—then she reveals her whole lifeand has no more to tell. From The Valaisian Quatrains by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Martyn Crucefix. We will welcome Martyn to the shop this evening to hear him read from Change Your Life, his translation of Rilke’s poetry. The poems are filled with surprise and wonder, as well as with ripening fruit, people like trees and trees like people, green sunlight, joyous roses and glowing hearts – all will fill the Arcade this evening. They evoke change and attentiveness to it and invite the…

Jellyfish Have No Ears is a title it is hard to resist. My fingers had pressed the order button before I had processed what the novel may be about. When it arrived, I met a character in No Man’s Land, a woman whose lifelong deafness has grown suddenly worse but who is not deaf enough to be part of Deaf culture. “You’ve built a whole life as one of ‘them,’” a life-long profoundly deaf sign language teacher tells Louise, since she has verbal language and has taken extensive speech classes in order to sound ‘normal.’ With the deterioration of her hearing, Louise is asked whether she wants a cochlear implant.…

Dive in with Deborah Levy. Join John Cheever. Take a plunge At the Pond. It’s time to linger at the pool with David Hockney, to take to the sea, should Neptune allow it, to delve into the depths with Martin MacInnes or just roam By the River. No need to ask Emma Cline’s creation: The Guest will be there, uninvited. I wouldn’t leave your belongings unattended if she’s nearby though. Or your wits. We are going swimming.* Last week I wrote about Ralf Webb’s extraordinary book, Strange Relations, examining masculinity in the art and lives of Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin and John Cheever. It is a book which…

‘Have you ever seen tree roots bubbling up from beneath concrete, or flowers bursting through cracks in the pavement? The jolt of recognition, that beneath the drab mundanity of the everyday the organic is all around us, striving to break through, up from the earth and into the light? In its design, the first edition of Leaves of Grass creates a similar feeling. Everything about it indicates organicism, spontaneous and natural growth. Everything about it seems alive.’ Slow, careful reading is required for Strange Relations by Ralf Webb. Webb’s writing, rich in detail and style, asks that you afford it the same attention with which he has turned to his…

As I begin to write, the sun is glittering through the glass roof of The Clifton Arcade. Books with sunflower yellow covers must be moved inside for protection. By the time I send this, the forecast suggests we’ll be enjoying thundery showers. The national picture is warning of gales. Correction: warning of Gail’s. Gail’s Bakery can’t function thanks to the Microsoft/Crowdstrike kerfuffle. Remember where you were when Radio 4 accidentally failed to broadcast the Shipping Forecast? (30th May 2014, M’Lud.) Some think this is bigger. I suggest veering west: the independent bakeries and coffee shops of Clifton are operating at full force. Fortunately, reading is an all-weather activity. And physical…

As Alice falls down the rabbit hole, she has time to look about her and wonder what will happen next. She falls past cupboards and shelves, looks at maps and picks up a jar labelled ‘Orange Marmalade.’ The jar is empty, otherwise one imagines that she would have tested the truth of the label and tried its contents. She wonders what will happen if she falls right through the earth and comes out the other side. In The Annotated Alice, Martin Gardner offered an answer to this question, though he is flummoxed, not unfairly, by trying to answer why a raven is like a writing desk. It was this scene…

I have been reading Passiontide by Monique Roffey. What starts as a detective story following the death of a young woman at a carnival on a Caribbean island becomes a rage-filled uprising against violence, patriarchy, police, political strictures, sexist media… There’s a vast cast of characters, including the voice of the murdered woman, an inspiring energy and a Lysistrata-esque protest, both funny and poignant. I’ll write a newsletter where I recommend what to read based on your voting preferences, I thought. Passiontide is for supporters of the Women’s Equality Party. No, hang on: it is more importantly for everyone else, everyone yet to support their cause. I toyed with the…

When I was a child, before we went on holiday there were two things I loved doing. One was fetching items from my mother’s extensive packing list: we never travelled without at least two teapots. The other was the trip to the library to choose our books. A week’s holiday meant we each needed a sizeable stack. Packing the car was a challenge: it required diagrams. A small child could be left behind in favour of another Just William book. This early training has proven invaluable. I am very good at using all the nooks in a car boot, proficient when it comes to the selection of books for a…

As part of our Independent Bookshop Week partnership with And Other Stories, we held a flash fiction competition, in honour of their commitment to and our love of exceptional short fiction. Writers were invited to submit 400 words on the theme of ‘independence’. The submissions were brilliantly varied, from the realist to the surreal to the fantastical, with many interpretations of the theme. We are delighted to announce first and second place and to publish their stories below. First place: Sublimation by Adrian Bridget Second place: 11 Easy Steps to Stealing a Humbug by Lou Curran Sublimation When I was a schoolchild in Brazil, not long after they stopped asking…

An eight-day week later, we have had a brilliant time partnering with publisher And Other Stories and championing their books. And Other Numbers:One poetry reading (two poets), two book groups, one flash fiction competition (lots of entries, five shortlisted).Five hundred temporary tattoos, some glasses of wine (accurate data not found), many towers of AOS books, (too?) many social media posts.One argument between booksellers about a tote bag, one argument between booksellers settled by publisher arriving with second tote bag.Three heavenly herons now adorn the shop’s windows, flanked by more AOS books.Zero accidents when putting up bunting (four close calls).Myriad lovely customers.I think Independent Bookshop Week has been rather wonderful. And…