We are now fully open again! The recommended guidelines are in place to ensure customer and staff safety; counter screens, fan assisted ventilation, social distancing by limiting the number of customers in the shop at any one time and of course FREE DISPOSABLE GLOVES to enable the best experience of browsing and shopping in our bookshop!

Look out for some ‘welcome back’ special offers too.

Open 10am till 5pm every day, except Sunday

Face masks are mandatory – no mask, no entry.

Please don’t come if you have any Covid 19 symptoms – think of others, not just yourself.

We are delighted to reveal the sixteen books on the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021

The sixteen will be whittled down to six on the 28th April.

It’s not too late to book your place at the virtual author event with Kazuo Ishiguro on  Tuesday 23rd March at 7pm. This is exclusive to independent bookshops and will only be available to customers who have bought the book from us or Bookshop.org. If you haven’t already got your copy, ring 01298 938 166 with your card details before 3pm on Tuesday, our price is £16.99.  We hope you will join us!

Klara and the Sun, from the bestselling and Booker Prize winning author of Never Let me Go and The Remains of the Day, This  stunning new novel – his first since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature – asks, what does it mean to love? A thrilling feat of world-building, a novel of exquisite tenderness and impeccable restraint, Klara and the Sun is a magnificent achievement, and an international literary event.

Sweep says:

Girl A by Abigail Dean

The girl who escaped. If anyone was going to make it, it was going to be you.’ Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors.

And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped. When her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her six siblings – and with the childhood they shared.

Beautifully written and incredibly powerful, Girl A is a story of redemption, of horror and of love. RIGHTS SOLD IN 29 TERRITORIES SOON TO BE A TV SHOW DIRECTED BY JOHAN RENCK (Chernobyl) ‘Terrifyingly gripping’ SUSIE STEINER ‘Beautiful’ ADELE PARKS ‘Incredibly well written, devastating in a good way, and intriguing to the last page’ LIZ NUGENT ‘I was obsessed by it.

We are delighted to announce a zoom ‘In Conversation’ event with ‘Girl A’ author, Abigail Dean on Friday 26th February at 7pm. Please contact us the via email, this website or facebook, or ring if you would like to join us.

Abigail has taken the book world by storm with this, her debut novel.  Haunting and powerful with a pitch perfect ending, Girl A is already a Sunday Times Bestseller and Top Ten New York Times Global Bestseller.

Abigail was brought up in Hayfield in the Peak District and we are chuffed to be able to call her one of own!

                              WIT – WOO FREE BOOKS !

Go to our World Book Day page for details of this year’s books and how to get yours!

Changing lives through a love of books and shared reading

The NEW Jan/Feb issue of booktime is out now. If you haven’t had your free copy with your recent order, call at the shop on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday between 11am to 4pm. Packed full of forthcoming books for adults, teens/YA and children.

‘Research has shown that reading can strengthen your brain, increase your empathy, reduce stress, lower blood pressure and fight the symptoms of depression.’  Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor

Say no more – grab a book PDQ!

IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING
The story of spoken English by CHARLIE HAYLOCK and illustrated by BARRIE APPLEBY

The author Charlie Haycock, is due to appear on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme later this week, discussing his role as dialogue coach to the actor Ralph Fiennes for the new Netflix film The Dig, which recreates the events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo

In a Manner of Speaking is a fun and fascinating exploration of spoken English that will answer these questions and many more. Following history
from the time of the Roman conquest through to the days of the British
Empire, chapters explore the beginnings of spoken English, how each
invading force brought different sounds to the language, and how the English
tongue has evolved over time.
This is not a manual on English grammar. It is about how we came to speak
our modern English, and why, even in the country of its birth, there are so
many variations on the way the language is spoken. Witty, interesting and
easy to read, In a Manner of Speaking is also superbly illustrated by Barrie Appleby.

An excellent way to start the week, thanks to Ros & Steve, local bookworms!

We are continuing with direct Home Delivery and Click & Collect for all your booky needs!

Do your children need any revision books, reference books or reading books for their home schooling? If so we can supply you with all their educational needs.

After all that learning have you got a good read to settle down with for ‘you time’?

Have a look at our Book News page for some suggestions or click on Bookshop.org for more.

Our collection days at the shop are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 11am – 4pm.

We will ask you to pay in advance by card over the telephone or make a bank transfer payment, please wear a mask when you come to collect – knock on the door and we will have your order ready, no customers are permitted to enter the premises.

Thank you all for your support and understanding, we will do our very best to help in any way.

Go to Book News page for details

. . . . and the winners are –

Costa First Novel Award

Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud

Meet the Ramdin-Chetan family: forged through loneliness, broken by secrets, saved by love. Irrepressible Betty Ramdin, her shy son Solo and their marvellous lodger, Mr Chetan, form an unconventional household, happy in their differences, as they build a home together.

Costa Novel Award

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

Set in a tiny Caribbean village in the 1970s, this charming yet clear-eyed romance begins with a fisherman, David, lazily awaiting his catch only to snare a centuries-old mermaid, Aycayia, cursed by women jealous of her beauty. She’s drawn to the sound of the guitar he’s strumming; he wonders if he’s been smoking too many spliffs.

Costa Biography Award

The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence

On 28 September 1985, Lee Lawrence’s mother Cherry Groce was wrongly shot by police during a raid on her Brixton home. The bullet shattered her spine and she never walked again. In the chaos that followed, 11-year-old Lee watched in horror as the News falsely pronounced his mother dead. In Brixton, already a powder keg because of the deep racism that the community was experiencing, it was the spark needed to trigger two days of rioting.  But for Lee, it was a spark that lit a flame that would burn for the next 30 years as he fought to get the police to recognise their wrongdoing.

Costa Poetry Award

The Historians by Eavan Boland

Her final volume, The Historians, is the culmination of her signature themes, exploring the ways in which the hidden, sometimes all-but-erased stories of women’s lives can powerfully revise our sense of the past. Two women burning letters in a back garden. A poet who died too young. Boland listens to women who have long had no agency in the way their stories were told.

Costa Children’s Award

Voyage of the Sparrowhawk

From the bestselling author of The Children of Castle Rock. In the aftermath of World War One, everyone is trying to rebuild their lives. If Ben is to avoid being sent back to the orphanage, he needs to find his brother Sam, wounded in action and is now missing.

Regrettably, due to the whole of the country placed in lockdown , we will not be able to open the shop again until further notice.

We will however, continue to offer direct home delivery. Just contact us directly via email, telephone, this website or facebook, if you require some escapism, mental stimulus or just plain want to have a laugh! By ordering direct you will be giving us the best support you can – but using bookshop.org is the next best!

We hope you have all kept safe and well over the Christmas period, but now is the time to STICK TO THE LOCKDOWN RULES, it’s just not worth the risk. This is the only way to get things back on track again, for everyone.

Take care, Lyndsay & Sue x

Bookshop.org is the new, ethical alternative to Amazon.

Unlike Amazon and most high-street book chains, Bookshop was established to boost sales at local, independent retailers, rather than entice customers away.

Of course after lock down we would like it best if you came to the shop, however if you are unable to come THIS IS THE NEW ALTERNATIVE

Click on the link and see what it’s all about https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/readingmattersbookshop

Chapel en le Frith Takes Aim is an account of the history of the local Rifle Volunteers, Territorials and Home Guard between the 1800’s and WWII. Compiled by Elizabeth McCormick with plenty of photographs, Liz felt these important roles undertaken by the men of Chapel had to be documented before the information is lost and forgotten forever.

Proceeds from sales will go directly to the Royal British Legion.

The books are £10.00

Welcome back Booktime! This is a new, bumper edition which highlights some brilliant books for adults and children coming out this Autumn. Available in the shop NOW. Collect yours before we run out – when they’re gone, they’re gone :o(

Features include an interview with Maggie O’Farrell, Sarah Perry and also Michael Wood with his epic history of China.

The next edition of Booktime will be in February 2021

Published in collaboration with the National Trust, this beautiful book compiled by Fiona Waters and illustrator, Britta Teckentrup, ‘is a poetry anthology all about animals. A glorious collection of as many animal poems we could find, with one for every day of the year, that a child or parent or carer or friend could dip in and out of as they pleased. Poems and reading matters more than ever but so does the natural world. if this book can nurture a love of the animal kingdom, then maybe it will also help create conservationists of the future’ Louise Bolongaro Nosy Crow Publishers.

In stock now £19.99 (RRP £25.00)

Tiger! Tiger!  burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?    William Blake

Call in and see us for some indie goodies and offers on Saturday 3rd October and remember ‘ to keep us on your High Street – use us’

Our first virtual author event via zoom on Tuesday 28 July, was a great success, our thanks to both Olivia and William and all of those who took part. We will try and get another scheduled again soon.

Meanwhile the books below are available at special discounted prices.

Grave’s End the third crime thriller from William Shaw, featuring DS Alexandra Cupidi. The most riveting and atmospheric novel so far, Grave’s End confronts the crisis in housing, environmental politics and the protection given to badgers by the law.

If Looks Could Kill by Olivia Kiernon, is a superior crime thriller filled with fascinating characters and laced with dark wit. The ending was both shocking and satisfying. Superbly plotted,

If you would like to join in contact us by email, facebook or twitter and details of password etc. will be sent to you nearer the time. Our guests will answer submitted questions at the end, Don’t delay  . . . .  get in touch, from Friday 24th July.

Out in June/July/August 2020

Place an order now, in advance of July/August publications, and get 10% off

Visit Book News page for more

We are all managing with the gloves and sanitiser thing! So THANK YOU EVERYONE, great to be back and be your ‘little bookshop with heart’ once again.

Friends and regulars Lissa and Nik Cook with their beautiful dog

This family moved into their new home in Chinley just       before lock down and couldn’t wait to come to the bookshop!

Your Visit (for those of you who haven’t been yet)

Customers can collect some gloves as they enter the shop, this means they will be able to handle the books safely – for themselves, other customers and us. We simply don’t have the space, or the quantity of stock, for it to be put in ‘isolation for 72 hours’ I hope you will understand. There will also be hand sanitiser available to use on leaving. We would like you to bring your own mask if you wish to, there will be a screen on the desk at checkout. We can still offer help to anyone who asks, just at a safe distance. Only 1 or 2 people will be in the shop at any one time, in different rooms. Unless they are from the same household.

Home Deliveries

We shall continue with home deliveries indefinitely for those who don’t feel safe coming to the shop, or who are unable to.

Our thanks again, and continue to keep yourself and your loved ones safe and well.

Lyndsay and Sue x

Another book to download for children about understanding the corona virus pandemic. This time it’s Winnie and Wilbur up to tricks at home.

See Younger Children page for more details

For Younger children

The Racehorse who Learned to Dance by Clare Balding

Charlie’s racehorse has certainly earned the name Noble Warrior: he won the Derby against all odds and bested a bunch of nasty kidnappers. But now Noddy is facing his greatest challenge yet . . Strictly for horses . . . ? Whatever next!

PESTS by Emer Stamp

Meet Stix, the tiny but heroic mouse who might be living behind your washing machine. But is he naughty enough to join the PESTS? Stix is the size of an egg cup, can jump the width of a dog’s bottom, and LOVES cheese. Riotously funny, with enough expressive drawings and poo jokes!

Perdu by Richard Jones

The moving, beautifully illustrated story of a little lost dog and his search for a place to call home. This poignant gem, with an important message about kindness at its heart.

Claude Comic Capers by Alex T Smith

Meet Claude – the ordinary dog with an extraordinary life.Join Claude and Sir Bobblysock and all their Pawhaven friends in their first ever comic book!

My Monster and Me by Nadiya Hussain

A touching story about a little boy whose worry monster follows him everywhere he goes. How can he escape his worries? Having suffered with panic disorder herself for as long as she can remember, Nadiya wrote this heartfelt story to help give children and parents the tools they need to talk about worries and anxiety, to ensure that no child suffers in silence.

Teen & Y/A

Nightshade the NEW Alex Rider novel by Anthony Horowitz

Alex is sent by MI6 Special Operations to infiltrate a new and sinister organization known only as Nightshade. Alex is on his own, with the fate of thousands of people resting in his hands!

Deeplight by Francis Hardinge

The gods of the Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Now the gods are dead, but their remains are stirring beneath the waves. On the streets of the Island of Lady’s Crave live 14-year-old urchins Hark and his best friend Jelt.

Drowned Lives by Stephen Booth

For those of you who were waiting for this to come out in paperback – now is the time!

Continue reading “Drowned Lives Out in Paperback” →

See Younger Readers page for more new releases

Test your powers of observation, have a look in the children’s window this week and find the odd one out.

Just released by Nosy Crow Publishers a free information book explaining the Coronavirus to children, illustrated by Gruffalo illustrator, Axel Scheffler.

Go to our Younger Readers page

Don’t forget, during this difficult time for us all, we will take your book orders and have them home delivered to your doorstep. Whether it’s books for children or adults, we will do our best to get them to you as quickly as we can . . .  we know what it’s like to run out of books to read to the children, or not to have anything for yourself to read. While we are ‘staying at home’ or ‘self isolating’ just phone, email or contact us via this website and get yourself some books!

A huge thank you to all our customers who are supporting us and done just that! xx

Keep safe and well everyone.

Go to the Younger Readers page for the Dinky Donkey Story!

‘Elevenses’ David Walliams is reading a short story at 11am everyday.

Adults: Make a cuppa and settle down with the children and share!

Children: Make sure your responsible adult is sitting down with you and enjoy some hilarious fun with David Walliams!

click on the link https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/https:

From Tuesday 24th March we are regretfully having to close the shop, to comply with the latest Government  guidelines.

However, we will continue to take orders for books which will be sent directly to your home.

Please place orders via the telephone (our shop phone will be redirected to a mobile) by email or via this website. Remember to leave a telephone number for us to contact you for card payment.

Please use us before you use Amazon!

REMEMBER MOST IMPORTANTLY, SOCIAL DISTANCING. NO LESS THAN 2 METRES APART IF YOU ARE NOT IN YOUR OWN GARDEN!

Foraging with Kids by Adel Nozedar

Our Price £9.99  RRP £12.99

In today’s world of increasingly sedentary lifestyles and a growing detachment from the food that we eat, it has never been more important to encourage children to put down their screens, get outside and engage with the natural world around them. Foraging with Kids is a fun, practical book for parents to work through with their children that encourages families to interact with their environment and gain knowledge and practical understanding of the natural world through exploration and play.The projects are based around 50 easy-to-identify plants.

Play the Forest School Way by Jane Worroll

Our Price £9.99 RRP 12.99

This is the first book to share Forest School games, crafts and skill-building activities with families, its magical illustrations and simple instructions drawing children easily into a world of wonder. Be a fox tracking its prey, a moth evading a bat, a rabbit fleeing a forest fire! Make a working bow and arrow, spectacular headdresses, beautiful woodland jewellery, magic wands – all with materials gathered from the forest floor or your own garden. Learn wilderness survival skills: build a shelter, make fire, forage and cook wild food.

IF, for any reason, you are unable to visit the shop we will be happy to deliver your books to your door! Just give us a call on 01298 938 166 or email readingmatterschapel@gmail or contact us via this website.

We can take card payment over the telephone or cash on delivery.

MAKE SURE, FOR HEALTH REASONS, YOU STOCKPILE BOOKS –

THE BEST MEDICINE FOR YOUR MIND, BODY AND SOUL!

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. OUT NOW our price £18.99 (RRP £25)

The final novel in Mantel’s trilogy of historical novels about the life of Thomas Cromwell. The long-awaited novel will cover the final four years of Cromwell’s life, starting with Boleyn’s execution in 1536, and moving to his own execution for treason and heresy in 1540.

The author said she had been on a “long journey” with her protagonist, and hoped her readers would follow her with him to the end of his life.

Listen to the interview with Hilary Mantel by Andrew Marr on Radio 4’s Start the Week

Click here Hilary Mantel

The Noughts & Crosses series are still my favourite books of all time and showed me just how amazing story-telling could be’ – Stormzy’

Starting on BBC TV on Thursday 5th March. Before you get hooked on the TV adaptation READ THE SERIES FIRST!

Always so much more in the book!  Buy all five books for special price of £29.99  (RRP £40)

Voted as one of the UK’s best-loved books, Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses is a seminal piece of YA fiction; a true modern classic. Mallory is a former Children’s Laureate.

World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.

World Book Capital this year is the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur..

Follow the link for more information World Book Capital 2020

FANTASTIC books for World Book Day Thursday 6th March!

All these titles will be in the shop from Thursday 27 February till Sunday 29 March, bring your WBD voucher and collect your FREE book!

Have a listen to Beth Reekles author of The Kissing Booth Road Trip click on the link  The Kissing Booth

Former Moss Side detective James Ellson, with his debut novel

‘The Trail’ 

 “intelligent and pacy thriller . . . a taut, keenly-observed tale of revenge, perseverance and the struggle against injustice.”  (Paula Hawkins, Girl On The Train)

“The Trail is a stunning debut from an exciting new addition to the world of crime fiction.” (Stephen Booth, Cooper & Fry crime series)

Go to the Book News page for a Q & A with James

Where the Crawdads Sing By Delia Owens out now

For years, rumors of the ‘Marsh Girl’ have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Celeste Ng.

The multi-million copy bestseller soon to be a major film A Number One New York Times Bestseller ‘Painfully beautiful’ New York Times’Unforgettable . . .

          RETURN TO THE HUNGER GAMES 19.05.20

 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuvre his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

‘The world still thought Coriolanus rich, but his only real currency was charm’

Pre-order now for £15.99 (RRP 18.99)

The overall winner of the Costa Prize 2019 is

The Volunteer: A True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather 

In the Summer of 1940, after the Nazi occupation of Poland, an underground operative called Witold Pilecki accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands of people being interned at a new concentration camp on the border of the Reich. His mission was to report on Nazi crimes and raise a secret army to stage an uprising. His reports from Auschwitz were to shape the Allies response to the Holocaust – yet his story was all but forgotten for decades. This is the first major account to draw on unpublished family papers, newly released archival documents and exclusive interviews with surviving resistance fighters to show how he brought the fight to the Nazis at the heart of their evil designs. The result is an enthralling story of resistance and heroism against the most horrific circumstances, and one man’s attempt to change the course of history.

‘Totally gripping’– Simon Sebag Montefiore. ‘Pilecki is perhaps one of the greatest unsung heroes of the second world war … this insightful book is likely to be the definitive version of this extraordinary life’ — Economist. Would you sacrifice yourself to save thousands of others?

On sale now £8.99

The  Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Out on 6th February 2020

Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Arctic town of Vardø must fend for themselves.

Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa.

Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, The Mercies is a story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization.

‘Beautiful and chilling’ Madeline Miller, author of Circe BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick 2020 

We have the following hardback books on HALF PRICE SALE this month.

Continue reading “JANUARY SALE” →

The 2019 Costa Novel Award Category Winners

Continue reading “Costa Book Awards 2019” →

The Chapel en le Frith Local History Group are delighted to introduce the first of their ‘Occasional Papers’.

Chapel en le Frith’s Ancient Tracks compiled by Tony Gloster and Industrial History of Chapel en le Frith Parts 1 and 2 compiled by Nigel Watson.

Now on sale at the shop, price £2.50 each Continue reading “Local History Group” →

‘Doesn’t time fly when you’re enjoying yourself’

We celebrate our 7th birthday this week and just can’t believe it! We have met such lovely people since we opened the shop on the 1st December 2012 and would like to say a huge thank you to all who have supported us and become friends as well as loyal customers. We look forward very much to continuing to provide a friendly and helpful personal service to you all.