Mar. 11th, 2022 at 7:00 PM
Blue Bear Bookshop & Farnham Literary Festival 2022
This week Philip Reeve and I travelled to Farnham in Surrey to visit Blue Bear Bookshop and take part in the inaugural Farnham Literary Festival. And what a beautiful bookshop it is, right in the heart of the old market town!
Here's the Blue Bear of the shop's name:
And some of the wonderful team who looked after us! From left: owner Sylvia Schüller, our main contact person Khira Standley, and intern Han (who had coffee and cake with us from their lovely cafe).
It's a beautiful shop, in some ways more of a beautiful museum of books, with a large percentage of the books turned face-out, so they can catch the eye of people coming for the cafe. It was intriguing to see how Sylvia had designed it and selected the slightly unusual stock, and I bought a great book of Calvin & Hobbes I'd never seen before.
The first event was my solo Grumpycorn event (featuring the space sequel Don't Call Me Grumpycorn) at South Farnham School. Khira from the bookshop brought us and introduced us to the Head, Esther Whitbourn (pictured). I read to them from the book and we all drew Grumpycorn - they did a great job!
In the evening, Blue Bear Bookshop hosted Philip Reeve for a sold-out public event, featuring his new book Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep. It was a great cosy evening and it was fun seeing a wide range of readers who came along - children, parents, teachers and fans of his various books.
The next morning we visited William Cobbett Primary School, where the librarian Caroline Clary made us feel so welcome. Philip and I led an assembly featuring Kevin vs the Unicorns, and after we signed lots of books, Caroline showed us the Illustrator Corner in the library. I was so chuffed to see that she'd bought one of the pieces of original book art I'd sold during Lockdown!
When she showed me the back, I remembered writing the dedication, and it was so great to see the art in situ, along with artwork by Chris Mould and other illustrators I admire. Thank you, Caroline!
She also took a photo of Philip and me with the 'Libearian', so hopefully we'll appear on this wall with the other illustrious authors.
The area around the Blue Bear Bookshop is lovely! Here's a drawing after we signed a huge stack of books.
If you're ever near Farnham, absolutely stop by Blue Bear Bookshop for coffee and cake and a look at their beautiful shop - you won't be disappointed!
You can follow them on Twitter at @BBbookshop and Instagram as blue_bear_bookshop. Thank you to the bookshop team, our publicist Liz Scott, and Oliver Cluskey from Farnham's town council for all your work making this festival happen!
Here's the Blue Bear of the shop's name:
And some of the wonderful team who looked after us! From left: owner Sylvia Schüller, our main contact person Khira Standley, and intern Han (who had coffee and cake with us from their lovely cafe).
It's a beautiful shop, in some ways more of a beautiful museum of books, with a large percentage of the books turned face-out, so they can catch the eye of people coming for the cafe. It was intriguing to see how Sylvia had designed it and selected the slightly unusual stock, and I bought a great book of Calvin & Hobbes I'd never seen before.
The first event was my solo Grumpycorn event (featuring the space sequel Don't Call Me Grumpycorn) at South Farnham School. Khira from the bookshop brought us and introduced us to the Head, Esther Whitbourn (pictured). I read to them from the book and we all drew Grumpycorn - they did a great job!
In the evening, Blue Bear Bookshop hosted Philip Reeve for a sold-out public event, featuring his new book Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep. It was a great cosy evening and it was fun seeing a wide range of readers who came along - children, parents, teachers and fans of his various books.
The next morning we visited William Cobbett Primary School, where the librarian Caroline Clary made us feel so welcome. Philip and I led an assembly featuring Kevin vs the Unicorns, and after we signed lots of books, Caroline showed us the Illustrator Corner in the library. I was so chuffed to see that she'd bought one of the pieces of original book art I'd sold during Lockdown!
When she showed me the back, I remembered writing the dedication, and it was so great to see the art in situ, along with artwork by Chris Mould and other illustrators I admire. Thank you, Caroline!
She also took a photo of Philip and me with the 'Libearian', so hopefully we'll appear on this wall with the other illustrious authors.
The area around the Blue Bear Bookshop is lovely! Here's a drawing after we signed a huge stack of books.
If you're ever near Farnham, absolutely stop by Blue Bear Bookshop for coffee and cake and a look at their beautiful shop - you won't be disappointed!
You can follow them on Twitter at @BBbookshop and Instagram as blue_bear_bookshop. Thank you to the bookshop team, our publicist Liz Scott, and Oliver Cluskey from Farnham's town council for all your work making this festival happen!