Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Not a Book Shop But a Blog. . .

Cornflower Books is a wonderful blog about books, it's well worth a visit; as is Becca & Bella.

We're off to St Andrews for the weekend so I'm looking forward to checking out the bookshops in the town. I shall be blogging about them next week.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Loch Croispol Bookshop, Restaurant and Gallery

Midlothian publisher Lang Syne and Durness based Loch Croispol Bookshop, Restaurant & Gallery are working together to ensure that Lang Syne products have a wider distribution in the Northern Highlands.

Lang Syne, owned and run for 30 years by Ken Laird, produces a series of popular clan and family histories which include most of the more famous Scottish and some Irish names, as well as an extensive range of inexpensive Scottish non-fiction. Its list includes collections of folk tales and oral history from different parts of Scotland, histories and biographies and reprints of classic works such as Alexander Mackenzie’s “Highland Clearances”, John Buchan’s “Massacre of Glencoe” and “Prophecies of The Brahan Seer”. Lang Syne also produces an extensive range of DVDs and quality Scottish-themed gifts, including fine art clan prints, watches, boxed mugs, crest coasters, teddy bears and a wide range of popular souvenirs.

Kevin Crowe of Loch Croispol said: “In the ten years we have been in business in Durness, we have gradually expanded. Five years ago we were founder members of an on-line co-operative of independent booksellers, called World Book Market, a co-operative that now has over 50 members in ten countries and four continents, and the internet is now a major part of our business, with us mailing books every day to all corners of the world. Two years ago, we moved to new and larger premises, enabling us to stock more books, serve more customers in the restaurant and have a small art gallery. We have always sold Lang Syne books, and know how popular they are, so this is a natural extension of our business.”


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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Brown Mouse by Frank Jennens

To say I've been delinquent in posting would be an understatement. All I can offer in my defence is the fact that I've been busy trying to write books to fill the bookshops we love so much. I'm prompted into action by BBC Scotland's Radio Cafe who have a new feature starting on April 6 which I think we can all relate to.

It's called the Book Detectives and it's going to be a search for books that people have read and now cannot find. The first is a book by Frank Jennens, a children's book illustrator and author in the 1920s and 30s who wrote 'Brown Mouse'. A friend of the show's producer even thinks there may have been a sequel. She thought she had tracked down a copy to a bookshop in Australia but it subsequently turned out that they didn't have it.

So does anyone out there know where to find a copy of Brown Mouse by Frank Jennens? If you do get in touch or leave a comment.