I’ve written before about supporting local bookshops and booksellers, so, having had a very booky couple of days, I thought I’d tell you about a couple of events and a couple of bookshops.

So, bookshop number one is Warwick Books in, to no great surprise, Warwick. Now I don’t go into Warwick nearly as much as I should – it’s a lovely town and just 20 minutes down the road from me – but Warwick Books is a brilliant example of a bookshop that is always worth a visit. While it’s not desperately big in terms of floor size, the shelving is arranged creatively to provide as much variety as possible and the crime fiction section – obviously the most important section – has an amazing variety of authors packed into a single shelf. And they put on great events.

I’ve been to talks both in the shop and in a local hall for authors such as Elly Griffiths, Lindsey Davis and Sarah Ward – and had to miss the one with M W Craven and Mark Billingham together, iirc – but on Friday, the shop was playing host to A J West, the award winning author of The Spirit Engineer, The Betrayal Of Thomas True – next on the blog btw – and his new book, The Deadly Inheritance Of Everest Macdonald, interviewed by his friend and author of Thornby Manor, Stephanie Bramwell-Lawes. A J is a fascinating speaker, talking about everything from inspirations, background research, the life of a writer, ghost-writing (he doesn’t do it), eye-infections and Rylan. It was an enthralling insight into the life of a writer, including the hardships, and I’m really looking forward to reading Everest Macdonald, once I’ve discovered the fate of Thomas True, that is. Many thanks to Mog and the team for putting these events on. I don’t know about you, but getting a first-hand insight into the work put in to create a book really makes me more inclined to read it…

And then yesterday, Saturday, I packed up my bag and headed off to Cambridge for the first time in forever for Crime And Nourishment, organised by Richard Reynolds and the team from Bodies In The Bookshop. I’d not been to the shop before, but obviously it as my first stop when I got off the Park and Ride bus. I would say, if you go in, don’t miss the upstairs section. I was pretty impressed with the downstairs, but the stairs weren’t that obvious to this old so-and-so, and upstairs is a treasure trove of delights. Again, making amazing use of space, there’s more Green Penguins than I’ve ever seen, lots of second hand classic crime, a lot of it for a very reasonable price, and an impressive array of new crime fiction, historical crime fiction, translated crime fiction… I could go on. I restrained myself to buying a Paul Doherty title that I only had an electronic review copy of, primarily because I knew the event in the afternoon would result in me buying more books.

Crime and Nourishment is an event of the sort that I’ve not seen before. Ten authors, two hours, and the second hour is basically signings and free cake. The authors in question – deep breath – were Heidi Amsinck, E C Bateman, Mark Ellis, Peter Grainger, Kate London, Hugh Morrison, Mandy Morton, Nicki Thornton, Nicola Upson and A J West (again). They have five minutes each – there is a stop-talking bell – to plug their books. I was only really aware of two of the authors before – Nicola and A J – but having imposed a budget on myself of three books, I was impressed with the authors’ passion for their books and the stories behind the writing. I’ll not go into details but I thought I knew which three authors I would be buying books from. At least one author persuaded me to change my mind. A tip for next time – I can’t speak for everyone, but I thought spending the five minutes reading from the book was far less effective than simply talking about the genesis of the book, the themes, the characters, etc. And did I mention the free cake? It was nice to have a quick chat with a couple of the authors and with Richard himself.

All in all, it was a lovely event. It’s a bit of a drive for me – and not a very interesting one, unless you’re a big fan of the M6/A14 combination – but it’s the chance to hear from a collection of authors who I haven’t met before, and that’s something that I won’t pass up.

So, big thanks to Warwick Books and the Bodies In The Bookshop. If you’re passing either of those, then please do pop in and buy something. In fact, if you’re passing any bookshop, why not do exactly that? Authors and booksellers alike will appreciate it.