Bookshop Day Saturday 14 October 2023

The Booksellers Association (BA) has revealed additional plans for the annual celebration of bookshops big and small across the country.

Image by Anastasha Gorbacheva from Pixabay

BOOKSHOP EVENTS

Author events and activities taking place on Bookshop Day across the UK include:

Waterstones Liverpool invite children to come along for an interactive Isadora Moon story time. Kids will get the chance to create their very own Isadora Moon Crown, Wings and Wand in an engaging craft session. They will also be reading part of the newest adventure in this series; 'Isadora Moon and the Frost Fair'. The event will happen on Bookshop Day at 1:30pm.

Manchester Literature Festival, the renowned performer, activist, and critic, invites Linton Kwesi Johnson to do a reading and discussion of his work produced over the past decades. The event is hosted by Jackie Kay, who will be speaking to Linton about his achievements, contributions to Black British culture, and his body of non-fiction which, for the first time, has been compiled into one volume Time Come: Selected Prose. The event will take place at Contact Theatre on Bookshop Day at 7:30pm, with books provided in partnership with Waterstones.

DRAKE – The Bookshop (Stockton on Tees) to host Fiona Erskine; Matson Taylor; Lisette Auton; Andy Ruffell and others as guest booksellers on Bookshop Day at 9:30am – 5:00pm. Just turn up, buy a book and be served by an awesome author.

Waterstones Middlesbrough will host story time sessions on Bookshop Day at 11:am – 3:00pm.

Waterstones Liverpool will host a book signing with Miriam Margolyes on her new book Oh Miriam! on Saturday 14 October at 11:00am – 12:00am.

Waterstones Manchester will host a story time session with fun-filled activities, featuring some special guests on Bookshop Day at 11:00am. More info here. You can also meet Geri Halliwell-Horner (Manchester Arndale) on Bookshop Day at 12:00pm to celebrate the release of Rosie Frost & the Falcon Queen. Tickets cost £7.99 and include a copy of the book. More info here.
Cogito Books (Hexham, Northumberland) are inviting their children’s book group members to become booksellers for a day, working the till, unpacking book deliveries, chatting to customers about recommendations and serving delicious Bookshop Day cake.

Featherbed Books (Tyne and Wear) will hold a joke-telling session where children tell jokes led by Martin Ellis from Zymrgy Publishing, who compiled The Little Book of Jokes for Kids of All Ages. This will take place on Bookshop Day at 12:00pm - 1:00pm.

House of Books & Friends (Manchester) will hold a one-day in-store residency for local authors on Bookshop Day. They will be working in the bookshop for a period of time throughout the day, showing what they do and how they write. Members of the public can ask questions and the authors will be signing stock. Andy Spinoza, author of Manchester Unspun (published in early November) will be in the bookshop from 1:00pm - 3:00pm.

The West Kirby Bookshop (Wirral) are partnering with one of their favourite independent publishers, Daunt Books for Bookshop Day and will be offering ‘three for the price of two’ on all Daunt Books Publishing titles, giveaways, competitions and refreshments, and a store-wide 10% discount on all other books. This will take place on Bookshop Day from 10:00am - 6:00pm.