Independent Bookshop Week Birmingham
Programme 16th
24th June 2023 Discover the joy of Birmingham’s independent bookshops
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How to Book Tickets
Each bookshop is hosting their own events. The event description makes it clear which bookshop is hosting each event.
Please note: some events are free to attend. Check the event descriptions for information on whether you need to reserve a free space or whether you can just drop in.
Simply pick the event you wish to attend and book directly through the following booking platforms:
Voce Books: linktr.ee/vocebooks
The Heath Bookshop: linktr.ee/theheathbookshop
The Bookshop on the Green: bournvillehub.com
Bear Bookshop: bearbookshop.co.uk
How Brave is the Wren: howbraveisthewren.com
What a year 2022 was for independent bookshops in Birmingham!
Summer 2022 saw Birmingham play host to the Commonwealth Games and, suddenly, all eyes were on our quirky and endlessly fascinating Second City.
Then three new indie bookshops opened in Autumn 2022 and suddenly the collective of indie bookshops doubled in size almost overnight! There is a real buzz in the air around independent bookshops in Birmingham and it’s been a joy to witness.
Independent Bookshop Week is a national celebration of all that is wonderful about independent bookshops. The warm welcome you will find, and their deeprooted connection to their local communities. Each independent has its own independent character. Independent bookshops are often both a place to escape to for a moment of calm, and simultaneously the place where you can find the most interesting events and stimulating conversation. Logically it shouldn’t be possible for one place to be able to do all of this, but then independent bookshops are rather special.
So, for Independent Bookshop Week 2023, five independent bookshops in Birmingham have come together to showcase what we do by curating a fantastic and varied programme of 18 events for both adults and families. We’ve been mindful of cost and some events are free to attend. The topics covered is as wide-ranging and varied as the independent bookshops hosting these events. As you flick through the pages of this programme, we hope you will discover new books, new authors, new places and, above all else, new communities where you can belong.
We all look forward to warmly welcoming you to our bookshops and our brilliant events. Together with you, we will celebrate the power of books and independent bookshops as a force for good here in Birmingham.
With our very best wishes, Birmingham independent bookshops
As our thank you for your support we will all be giving out High 5 vouchers during Independent Bookshop Week. You can redeem these for a £5 National Book Token to spend back in an independent bookshop.
THANK YOU!
Independent Bookshop Week Birmingham wouldn’t be possible without the support of a wide variety of people. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the authors, publishers, speakers, Booksellers Association and venue partners involved in our programme. Most of all THANK YOU for all your support of independent bookshops!
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The Heath Bookshop
Units 3&4 Kings Court, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7JZ
The Heath Bookshop is owned and run by Catherine Gale and Claire Dawes – two friends that met in October 2021 through a love of books. After spending lots of time together, drinking coffee and visiting other bookshops, they finally found the perfect premises, down Kings Court in Kings Heath; a wonderful courtyard full of other independent shops. They opened in September 2022.
Catherine and Claire set out to create somewhere beautiful where everyone is welcome to come and sit with a coffee and browse the shelves. The Heath Bookshop sells new books, specialising mainly in adult fiction, but also sells young-adult titles. There are also small well curated non-fiction sections which include LGBTQIA+, well-being, history, travel, and environmental and gardening. Catherine and Claire curate a varied programme of events each month, including author events, fashion talks and music gigs.
There are four book club meetings per month and to find out more you can join their mailing list by emailing hello@theheathbookshop.co.uk
Catherine and Claire are loving running a bookshop together and were recently featured in The Guardian in an article about female friends opening bookshops together.
Email: hello@theheathbookshop.co.uk
Phone: 0121 444 3958
Instagram & Facebook: @theheathbookshop
Link to tickets: linktr.ee/theheathbookshop
Voce Books
The Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham
B5 5TH
Voce Books is a new independent bookshop with a focus on the vibrant & boundary-breaking independent publishing scene, the site of the most eclectic & future-focused writing. Located at The Warehouse in Digbeth & run by Clive Judd & Maria Lomunno Judd, we stock fiction, translations, poetry, books on culture & politics, magazines, zines, & a little bit of art.
Originally from Worcester in the West Midlands, Clive began his bookselling career at Waterstones Birmingham in 2009 before moving on to London’s Charing Cross Road to work for Foyles. Clive is also a writer and theatre director. His debut play ‘Here’ won the Papatango Prize for Playwriting in 2022.
Hailing from Bari in Southern Italy, Maria joined Sheffield-based independent publishers And Other Stories on a publishing scholarship in 2012. Moving to Foyles in 2014, Maria soon became a Head of Department, where she developed her extensive knowledge of contemporary bookselling. She speaks three languages and writes for the Italian book blog, Letterevive.
Website: vocebooks.com
Bookshop.org: uk.bookshop.org/shop/ vocebooks
Phone: 0121 633 5530
Instagram / Twitter / Facebook: @vocebooks
All tickets on Eventbrite
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How Brave is the Wren
4 York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7RZ
How Brave is the Wren is a children’s book shop. We stock beautifully-crafted books created by authors and illustrators that appeal to the young and the young at heart. Our range caters for new-borns up to young adults and everything in between.
Founded by Jenny Moore, How Brave is the Wren started life as a mobile shop at Just So Festival in 2015. Operating from a converted caravan we toured the country visiting markets, festivals and schools fully stocked with a fantastical range of adventures ready to inspire young minds.
We opened as a permanent shop in Kings Heath in September 2022 and now have plenty of space to host a wide range of events, story-times, author visits, reading, writing and craft activities for all ages.
Website: howbraveisthewren.com
Email: hello@howbraveisthewren.com
Instagram: @how_brave_is_the_wren
Twitter: @Bravewren
All tickets on Eventbrite
Bear Bookshop
588 Bearwood Road, Smethwick, B66 4BW
My name is Jenny McCann and I own the Bear Bookshop on Bearwood Road. I love books and reading (and always have) and live in Bearwood with my husband, 3 children and two cats. Before bookselling I taught English for 15 years and loved it, but I made the decision to realise my dream of being a bookshop owner in 2020 and I love that even more!
Bear Bookshop is a children’s bookshop (although we do carry a small number of adult titles). We love to stock books that are fun, educational, engaging and beautiful. We regularly hold story times and events for children, and work with many community groups and other local businesses to create a really fun and engaging book space in Bearwood.
Website: bearbookshop.co.uk
Phone: 0121 794 1959
Instagram: @bearbookshop
Twitter: @bookshop_bear
Tickets: bearbookshop.co.uk
All Week
Bear Bookshop will be running a prize draw for all our customers during Independent Bookshop Week. A bag of books for one lucky winner!
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The Bookshop on the Green
27 Sycamore Road, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 2AA
The Bookshop on the Green is located opposite Bournville Village Green and is run by social enterprise Green Heart Books CIC founded by Sarah Mullen, a multiple award-winning Arts Producer and Director.
Warm and welcoming, The Bookshop on the Green sells a wide range of carefully curated titles for both adults and children, along with beautiful cards, and puts on wonderful and memorable events throughout the year. It also provides pop up bookstalls for festival and theatre events including for Birmingham Literature Festival.
The Bookshop on the Green was shortlisted as Midlands Regional Finalist for Independent Bookshop of the Year 2020 and has recently been nominated for a Muddy Stilettos Award 2023 for Best Bookshop in Warwickshire and the West Midlands!
Website: greenheartbooks.co.uk
Phone: 0121 472 7989
Instagram: @thebookshoponthegreen
Twitter: @BookshopOTGreen
Facebook: The Bookshop on the Green Tickets for all events available through bournvillehub.com
Gruffalo on the Green!
hosted by The Bookshop on the Green
Friday 16th June Bournville Village Green
10.00am – 10.45am
Oh help! Oh no! It’s the Gruffalo!
Join us for a very special outdoor Story Time on Bournville Village Green with local storyteller Anna O’Brien and the Gruffalo!
Ticket price includes Axel Scheffler’s How To Draw The Gruffalo and Friends and a beautiful pack of Staedtler colouring pencils (RRP £9.99).
Tickets: £10 per child with accompanying adult. Booking essential.
With thanks to
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FRIDAY 16TH JUNE
The Gruffalo © Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, 1999 - Macmillan Children's Books
SATURDAY 17TH JUNE
Bournville Hub
Children’s Nearly New Book Swap
Saturday 17th June
Bournville Hub
27 Sycamore Road, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 2AA
9.00am – 11.00am
Bournville Hub are running a FREE book swap at The Bookshop on the Green. Just bring a pre-loved book in good condition and swap it for another one – no money or booking needed!
Living History Day at Selly Manor Museum
with a bookmark trail ending at The Bookshop on the Green!
Saturday 17th June
Selly Manor Museum, Maple Rd, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 2AE & The Bookshop on the Green
10.00am – 4.00pm
Discover the rich history of two of Birmingham’s oldest buildings in this fun-packed event. With something for the whole family you can get to grips with hands-on history, with trails, crafts and exploration.
Enjoy performance, costume, music, dance and so much more.
The bookmark trail will end at The Bookshop on the Green where there will be further creative activities for children.
Full details and tickets: sellymanormuseum.org.uk
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Campfire stories with Ian Douglas
Saturday 17th June
How
Brave is The Wren Various Times
Join us around the (fictional) campfire to listen to How Brave is the Wren’s favouritest ever storyteller. Ian Douglas is a storyteller and theatre maker who works extensively across the British Isles. With over 20 years of experience delivering storytelling at venues across Britain, he has developed an approach that mixes sensitivity, comedic energy and wit. Ian is also the author of Story & Truth the first book to be published by How Brave is the Wren.
After spending many happy evenings listening to Ian at the wonderful Just So Festival and Timber Festival, I’m very excited to finally welcome him to our new(ish) home in Kings Heath. This event will run at various times throughout the day. See How Brave is the Wren’s website.
Tickets: Free.
Fashion Talk
Arts & Fashion Historian Sally Chidlow talking about Mary Quant
Saturday 17th June
The Heath Bookshop
5.00pm – 6.00pm
The Heath Bookshop’s third fashion talk, curated by the brilliant local art and fashion historian, Sally Chidlow. Sally will be talking about the late Mary Quant.
One of the very early exponents of the revolutionary mini skirt, Mary Quant spear-headed a fashion youthquake in ‘Swinging London,’ forever launching London and the UK as a centre for youth fashion and cutting-edge style: an image that has endured and continues to this day.
‘It is impossible to overstate Quant’s contribution to fashion’ – Jenny Lister, V&A curator of the Mary Quant exhibition.
An early adopter of the logo, her black daisy motif, and her fashion line Ginger Group became synonymous with everything modern, young and cutting edge.
As Quant built her empire, London positioned itself as the new world fashion city. An outstanding innovator, her designs are a constant symbol of this optimistic period and the energy and the huge changes it heralded.
In this talk, Sally Chidlow will tell the story of Mary Quant, her contribution, and the significance of 1960s British fashion.
Tickets: £4.
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Deluded Dreams of a Dark Age Deritend:
A Guided Walk with Ben Waddington
Saturday 17th June
Voce Books
5.30pm – 8.00pm
Strike out into the dark heart of Dertiend & Digbeth, on a guided walk with historian of hidden Birmingham, Ben Waddington. Taking us on a trip to some of the sites in his new guidebook 111 Places in Birmingham That You Shouldn’t Miss, Ben will draw out the overlooked stories hidden between the folds of our designed environment, encouraging us cast our eyes towards the locations & landmarks, obscure & otherwise that make us the city around us.
Then, Ben will be doubling-back with the group to Allison Street to unfold the narrative further alongside Voce Books co-owner Clive Judd. Together, Ben & Clive will delve deeper into the selection process for the book, the recurring motives & motifs in Ben’s work, &, of course, the greater story of our great city: Birmingham.
Tickets: £13.99 book, ticket & walk; £5 talk only (reservation price redeemable against the price of the book).
SUNDAY 18TH JUNE
The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19½ Front Gardens
hosted by The Bookshop on the Green
Sunday 18th June
Selly Manor Museum, Maple Rd, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 2AE 2.00-3.30pm
Award-winning writer and head gardener Ben Dark in conversation with Sarah Mullen.
Beyond the garden wall lies a wealth of cultivated plants, each with a unique tale to tell. As Ben writes, in those small front gardens ‘are stories of ambition, envy, hope and failure’ and The Grove is about so much more than a single street, or indeed the plants found in its 19 1/2 front gardens. It’s a beguiling blend of horticultural history and personal narrative and a lyrical exploration of why gardens and gardening matter.
‘The best gardening book of 2022’The Telegraph
‘A testament to the secret communal power of a front garden’ - Alice Vincent, New Statesman
Tickets: £9.99 with a signed book
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MONDAY 19TH JUNE
TUESDAY 20TH JUNE
Books, Reading and Writing at Winterbourne House and Garden
Monday 19th June
Selly Manor Museum, Selly Manor Museum, Maple Rd, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 2AE
7.30pm – 8.30pm
A talk by Winterbourne curator Henrietta Lockhart (with The Bookshop on the Green).
Winterbourne House in Edgbaston was built by people who loved to read, and we continue to acquire books for Winterbourne’s collection today. This talk will explore books that were read and written at Winterbourne, books with hidden treasures like bookplates and prize labels, books with fabulous illustrations, books that influenced the very design of Winterbourne.
Please note: this event will take place at Selly Manor Museum, not at Winterbourne House and Garden
Tickets: £5.
Music in the Bookshop
from Call Me Unique
Tuesday 20th June
The Heath Bookshop
8.00pm
We are so excited to have singer/songwriter & guitarist Call Me Unique back at The Heath Bookshop! Call Me Unique infuses the sounds of jazz, soul, futurebeats, and scat-singing.
Born in Manchester and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, she always portrays an honest and heartfelt performance to any willing crowd. She has been officially highlighted as ‘Sound of 2019’ by BBC West Midlands. She was nominated for best RnB/Soul 2020, nominated and won Best RnB/Soul Artist 2019 as well as nominated for Best Music Video 2019 & Best Female 2019 by the Birmingham Music Awards. Call Me Unique has graced the stages of UK festivals such as Glastonbury, Latitude, Strawberry Fields Festival, Secret Garden Party, Mostly Jazz Fest, Simmer Down, Oxjam and many more within Europe.
Please note: This will be an intimate event with the audience sitting on the floor, you are welcome to bring cushions or blankets.
The bar at the entrance to Kings Court, ‘La Sante,’ will be open to purchase drinks to bring to this event.
Tickets: £8.
‘An itch to read has come over me’:
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WEDNESDAY 21ST JUNE
Midsummer’s Day Literary Lunch
Wednesday 21st June Chapter Restaurant, 5-6 Greenfield Crescent, Edgbaston Village, B15 3BE Noon for 12.30pm
For book lovers, art lovers, and food lovers. 3 courses | 3 authors | Followed by book signings
Could there be a more winning combination than delicious food, art and books?
Join us for a delicious Literary Lunch with bestselling authors Jo Browning-Wroe, who wrote A Terrible Kindness, and Ned Palmer, cheesemonger and author of A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles and A Cheesemonger’s Compendium of British & Irish Cheese.
Tickets: £45 per person.
Chapter is the independent neighbourhood restaurant and bar celebrating superb seasonal British produce in the heart of Edgbaston Village. With a glorious sun soaked front terrace and back patio they’re open Tuesday to Saturday from 9.30am for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and on Sundays for breakfast and lunch. They can be found at chapteredgbaston.co.uk or at @chapterbham on Instagram and @chapter_bham on Twitter.
Lux Gallery is an independent contemporary fine art gallery & photography studio in Edgbaston Village, Birmingham. Lux Gallery represents a wide range of international, British and local artists. Each of their artists are exclusive to Lux in the area. Look out for their monthly exhibitions and special events. Winner of ‘Art Gallery of the Year 2022/23’ in The Midlands. They can be found at luxgallery.co.uk or at @luxgalleryuk on Instagram and Twitter.
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Jointly hosted by The Bookshop on the Green, Chapter Restaurant and Lux Art Gallery
Jeremy Cooper & Adam Scovell: Brian
Wednesday 21st June
Voce Books
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Join us for an evening with Jeremy Cooper –author of the heartachingly moving part-Sparkhillset novel Bolt from the Blue – as he talks to writer & film-maker Adam Scovell about his new paean to art & film Brian
Hear from Jeremy as he takes us on journey into the life of the eponymous Brian – a quiet & solitary council worker whose familiar footprint is disturbed when a visit to the BFI brings the joy of world cinema into his life. Together Jeremy & Adam will explore how the cinema of venerated directors such as Yasujirō Ozu, Federico Fellini & Agnes Varda inform the books narrative, & the ways in which film, art & the communities fostered by our cultural interests, provide us with pathways to meaningful friendship.
Tickets: Free – reservation required.
Please sign up via the Voce Books Eventbrite page – accessible through the link at the beginning of this programme.
THURSDAY 22ND JUNE
A Morning with Mantle and Malone
Thursday 22nd June
Bear Bookshop
11.00am
Join acclaimed actor and author Clive Mantle for an informal Q&A session on everything from Casualty to Game of Thrones, Vicar of Dibley to Thomas the Tank Engine!
He will also be reading from his fabulous series of children’s books The Adventures of Freddie Malone and signing copies.
Tickets: Free.
Story Time
Thursday 22nd June
How Brave is the Wren
4.00pm
Join us for our weekly after school story time. This session is aimed at 5-8 yrs but all ages are welcome. We read 3 books per week and are always happy to take requests!
Tickets: Free / drop in / no booking required.
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Nine Arches Press Presents:
Isobel Dixon, L. Kiew, Gregory Leadbetter & James McDemott
Thursday 22nd June
Voce Books
7.00pm – 8.30pm
Celebrating their 15th year of publishing some of the most exciting new & emerging poets, the wonderful Midlands-based Nine Arches Press invite you to join us for an evening of poetry exploring all the kaleidoscopic ways human life collides with the natural world. The event will feature readings from the following acclaimed Nine Arches Press poets Isobel Dixon (A Whistling of Birds), L. Kiew (More Than Weeds), Gregory Leadbetter (Maskwork) & James McDermott (Wild Life).
Tickets: Free – reservation required.
Please sign up via the Voce Books Eventbrite page – accessible through the link at the beginning of this programme.
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METAMORPHOSIS: A Life in Pieces
Natalie Haynes in conversation with Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, hosted by The Bookshop on the Green
Thursday 22nd June
The University of Birmingham School, 12 Weoley Park Rd, Birmingham, B29 6QU
7.30 – 9.00pm
Metamorphosis is a darkly comic and moving reflection on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain, by the award-winning Oxford Professor of English Literature Robert Douglas-Fairhurst who will be in conversation with his former student and now friend Natalie Haynes.
‘We all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time... But sometimes we are unlucky. My own trapdoor was hidden in the consulting room of an Oxford neurologist,’ writes Robert.
When the trapdoor opened for Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, he plummeted into a world of MRI scans, a disobedient body and the crushing unpredictability of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. But, like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, his fall did something else.
It took him deep into his own mind: his hopes, his fears, his loves and losses, and the books that would sustain, inform and nourish him as his life began to transform in ways he could never have imagined. From Kafka to Barbellion, this is a literary map of the journey from the kingdom of the well to the land of the sick, and forwards into a hopeful future. It’s an ode to great writing, to storytelling, to science and to the power of the imagination.
Tickets: £12.50 ticket only, £18 ticket with signed book.
FRIDAY 23RD JUNE
Story Time
Friday 23rd June
How Brave is the Wren 10.15am
Join us for a weekly Friday morning story time this session is aimed at 1-4 yrs but all ages are welcome. We read 3 books per week and are always happy to take requests!
Tickets: Free / drop in / no booking required.
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SATURDAY 24TH JUNE
Claire Fuller
The Memory of Animals
Hosted by The Heath Bookshop
Saturday 24th June
All Saints Centre, B14 7RA
6.00pm – 7.30pm
The Heath Bookshop is absolutely delighted to welcome Costa-Winning, Women’s Prizeshortlisted author of Unsettled Ground, Claire Fuller to Kings Heath!
‘Claire Fuller is such an interesting and original writer, and she has produced another literary page-turner. Compulsive and thoroughly convincing. Terrific!’ – Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
Neffy is a young woman running away from grief and guilt. When she answers the call to volunteer in a controlled vaccine trial, it offers her a way to pay off her many debts and, perhaps, to make up for the past. But when the London streets below her window fall silent, only Neffy and four other volunteers remain in the unit. With food running out, and a growing sense that the strangers she is with may be holding back secrets, Neffy has questions that no-one can answer.
Does safety lie inside or beyond the unit? And who, or what is out there?
While she weighs up her choices, she is introduced to a controversial technology which allows her to revisit memories from her life before: a childhood divided between her enigmatic mother and her father in his small hotel in Greece. Intoxicated by the freedom of the past and the chance to reunite with those she loves, she increasingly turns away from her perilous present. But in this new world where survival rests on the bonds between strangers, is she jeopardising any chance of a future?
Tickets: £5 ticket only, £19 ticket with book.
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Afternoon Tea with Mike Gayle
Hosted by The Bookshop on the Green
Friday 23rd June Selly Manor Museum, Maple Rd, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 2AE 3.00pm
Join us for Afternoon Tea with bestselling author and all-round great guy Mike Gayle as we celebrate 25 years of Mike publishing wonderful books.
Mike lives in Birmingham and is a great friend and supporter of independent bookshops so we’re delighted to celebrate with him in style!
Ticket price includes tea, scones and homemade cakes. The Afternoon Tea will be held in the beautiful garden at Selly Manor if weather permits. In the event of rain, we will be inside in the equally charming Minworth Greaves.
Mike will be in conversation about his publishing journey followed by a book signing.
Tickets: £7.50
With thanks to