The Aardvark Blog

Through the fog, poetry and much more beside
3/10/2015

Saturday opens with heavy fog blanketing most of the country, and Herefordshire is no exception. My morning drive was very beautiful and as autumnal as all can be. As I reached the bookshop the familiar forms broke through and I recognised our great glass windows and the shop beyond.

Last night was the first of the great Arcadia music concerts and I am still buzzing from hearing the Beethoven Late Quartet Opus 131.  A truly extraordinary piece, which Tom Bowes said afterwards that he had wanted to play all his life. How amazingly lucky we are in this area to have such talented musicians with the courage and energy to mount such spectacular events. Tonight in Kingsland Church the festival continues with a programme that includes work by the rarely heard composer Louis Spohr - a giant of his time now sadly neglected.

Meanwhile this afternoon at Aardvark we have another event in the festival, a poetry reading by Pele Cox of her poetry cycle 'The Mistress Account'. This begins at 3pm and tickets are £4 on the door. I am very much looking forward  to hearing her read and I hope that you can join us.

Meanwhile this week work in the bookshop has continued and we have now pretty much finished our re-organisation of the Bookburrow. We have now separated young fiction, from Young Adult Fiction, which should make it  easier for fans of both to find what they are looking for. Many thanks to Katy for her hard work on this project, which is one of a number of improvements to be made in the Bookburrow over the next few weeks.

Elsewhere in the bookshop the giant re-organisation of the biography section continues. This will take some time to accomplish, but when finished should be much easier for browsers to find what they are looking for ( we are organising by subject rather than by title).

New books continue to flow into the bookshop and I have bought some more good detective stories - including green penguins - some art and design books, and some more railway titles. October is a month when I always make huge amounts of purchases, so expect the bookshop to be GROANING with stock next time you visit.

Meanwhile we are now full for the October Brocante with more stalls than ever. This looks set fair to be our best Brocante ever, so I would recommend putting the date of the 25th of October in your diary and turn up promptly at 10am.