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

Our First Week Back 

On Monday 22 June at 10am we opened the door again to customers. It felt quite strange at first remembering the process of preparing the shop, the A board out across the road, blinds up, walking sticks out, lights on, computer on, checking emails, and COFFEE! But we didn’t have to wait long for the first customer, a lady was already waiting across the road to come in. Then the ‘new normal’ process started, please maintain 2metre distance (now down to 1metre plus) please take a pair of gloves if you wish to handle the books while browsing (well of course you do) that’s part of the whole experience when you visit a bookshop, oh and card payment only. Many of our regular customers have been in to say hello and how lovely to see we are open again – so many warm and friendly greetings we felt truly missed and appreciated.

The whole week has been very busy and we have all managed 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 lockdown and couldn’t wait to come to the bookshop!

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

Customers will collect their 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 xx

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.

The next meeting is on Wednesday 4th March 2020 in the shop at 7.30pm. This month is a free read as such – you have your ‘Secret Santa’ book to read!

See you next month :o)

Go to Book News page . . . . . .

We are delighted to have been invited this year to decorate a Christmas tree at Lyme Park. There are about 10 trees down by the Timber Yard cafe and shop, all decorated by local organisations and businesses. The minimalist look or a work in progress!

!       

Come in and see our half price shelf of Christmas children’s books. Grab a bargain while stock lasts!

Boo!

The eagerly awaited second book in this new Philip Pullman series, The Secret Commonwealth, is out now and on sale in the shop. 

Lyra, now twenty years old, and her daemon Pantalaimon, are forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined and are drawn into the complex and dangerous factions of a world that they had no idea existed. ‘High-octane adventure accompanies ingenious plotting’ The Times.

Click on the link  Philip Pullman interview (30.44 mins in)

Continue reading “Book of Dust Vol 2 OUT NOW” →

It’s Bookshop Day tomorrow, call in and see us with your BAMB tote bag, or book related bag you had from us, or your loyalty card have a lucky dip for a special present from us to you to celebrate Bookshop day 2019!

Click on the link and see the many, many well-known faces who want bookshops on our high street to survive and thrive:

Books are my Bag – BAMBassadors

Competition: How many can you name? Write them down and come in on Saturday with your list. The one with the most will win a £10 RM Gift Voucher.

Also the Loyalty Card Draw will take place with a £10 RM Voucher prize. Make sure this week to use all your ‘nearly filled’ cards to be in time for the draw! (Remember to put your name and contact number on your card)

Buy one poetry book and get another for HALF PRICE. 3rd – 5th October.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Ducks, Newbury Port by Lucy Ellmann

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

The Orchestra of Minorities by Chicozie Obioma

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

10 minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak

Winner announced on the Monday 14th October Continue reading “Booker Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2019” →

Did you know the best way to support us (and your high street) is to

PLACE YOUR ORDER DIRECT WITH US IN THE SHOP, VIA EMAIL, TELEPHONE OR THIS WEBSITE? 

and not use a third party. Use any of the search engines to find your books, music CD’s or vinyls then send us your order to MAXIMISE the benefit to our shop! If you would like YOUR ORDER DELIVERED, we can do that too! – free of charge within a radius of  5 miles from the shop. Just ask for details and we will do our best to provide you with a first class service. WE ARE COMING UP TO OUR 7TH BIRTHDAY and we would like to have many, many more – with your help!

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

With The Testaments, the wait is over. Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story more than 15 years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead. `Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.’ Margaret Atwood.

 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019. The literary event of the year.’ Guardian. ‘It’s terrifying and exhilarating.’ Judges of the Booker Prize 2019  Out on Tuesday 10th September, our price £16.99

Same but different? Stephen Booth’s latest book Drowned Lives is the same quality psychological crime thriller he does so well; different because there is no sign of Ben Cooper and Diane Fry! Are they (or Stephen) just on a break?

If you missed the book signing on Saturday 31st August, we still have some signed copies of Stephen’s book on sale at £16.99

   This is young Alex White who is on a quest to get more people out enjoying nature. Illustrated throughout by Alex’s stunning photographs, this book will appeal to young and old alike. It suggests when and where to get out there; what to go looking for; how to do it; what to take… and a host of other tips. Get Your Boots On on sale here SP £13.99.  Thank you Alex – cracking book! Continue reading “Young Alex, Wildlife Champion” →

Come and meet Martyn next Saturday 27th July from 12 midday to 1.30pm, if you are into all things flying – well planes!. This is a book of ‘firsts’ in the aviation world dating from 1933 to 2018, a comprehensive reference charts many of the world’s most important airliners and commercial aircraft through their first flights.

Martyn is an experienced aviation photographer with over 40 years experience in documenting the changes in aviation over the decades. His work has appeared in publications around the world. Martyn lives locally.

Did any of you hang Airfix model planes from the ceiling in your bedroom when you were a child? I bet Martyn did! Come along and ask him . . . . .

From 15th – 22nd June.  More details to follow

The much-loved  children’s author, Judith Kerr has died at the age of 95. Judith Kerr OBE was a British writer and illustrator. She created the both endearing and enduring picture books the Mog series and The Tiger Who Came to Tea as well as acclaimed novels for older children such as the semi-autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which gave a child’s-eye view of the Second World War. She was born in Berlin in 1923 and fled to Britain with her family in 1933.

Emily Maitlis remembers asking Judith if the Tiger symbolised the 60’s sexual revolution where normal and suburban life became upended by this wild and exotic creature? She told me no, it was just a story about a tiger coming to tea!  I love this. . . .  thank you Judith from all the children who have enjoyed your books over generations.

The latest news is that Hilary Mantel’s next novel The Mirror & the Light will be published in March 2020, the final novel in the trilogy which started with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Hilary Mantel became the first British author and the first woman to be awarded two Man Booker Prizes.

 The Shortlist 2019

Fiction written by women for everyone

On Tuesday 19^th March 2019, the eight-strong shortlists for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest book awards for children and young people, are revealed. Selected by volunteer Youth Librarians from longlists of 20 books per Medal, these titles reflect the very best in children’s writing and illustration published in the UK.

See Younger Readers page for more details.

Feminist Book Fortnight 2019 will run from Saturday 4th – Saturday 18th May 2019

In 2018  a group of radical and independent bookshops around the UK and Ireland launched Feminist Book Fortnight, a celebration of feminist books. Independent bookshops around the country highlighted the diversity of feminist books over the two weeks with displays of books and lots of events. Participating bookshops reported lots of full events and a “thirst” for discussion of feminist issues as well as celebration of feminist achievements.

See Events page for more details