coddie

  • Writer In Residence (Jane- no longer tame)

    A blog. Written by customer and friend of Red Lion Books, Jane Herd Jane- no longer tame Writer in Residence- Red Lion Book Shop, Colchester High Street, 5 th to 23rd August 2025 As Jane- no longer tame I am a feminist writer. My nom de plume arose spontaneously at the end of one of […]

  • Hopeful Artwork coming to Red Lion Books

    Written by customer and friend of the shop, Eve Paterson who can be found on Instagram @e.f.paterson Some of the best stories are the ones we write with others. The ones that wrap you up like your favourite jumper. The ones that kindle joy and hope for what might be… Well, the Coat of Hopes […]

  • The Final Curtain, on ‘Wise Children’ by Angela Carter

      https://www.theliteraryunderdog.com/_files/ugd/a0b156_c4e0aed82fc84c9483a6ca540dd9695f.pdf This article was written by Louise Prior, Red Lion Books and published in Underdog Lit Mag. Published in UNDERDOG, Literary Magazine, Issue 3, 2025 Louise’s article is Page 12.  The Final Curtain – On Wise Children by Angela Carter

  • The Cocoa Bookclub Reading List

    Hello Lovely Reader! The Cocoa Bookclub established itself in 2023 and has been growing ever since. If you scroll down, you can take a look at the books we have read previously. This list will be updated regularly to feature the most recent book club read. September 2025 – Piranesi August 2025 – The Invisible […]

  • Is Colchester an anomaly in the decline of young readers?

    This article was written by Lily Locke, one of the Newsquest Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.   Is Colchester an anomaly in the decline of young readers? A recent Guardian article reported that, […]

  • A year in the life of a customer, book by book

    Some books what I have read in 2024 This year, I saw the phrase “nourishing seepage” in an online book preview – on the first page, in fact. I ordered it (The Girls, by John Bowen) immediately. First published in 1986, you can only get it second hand in the UK, but this “wry, macabre […]

  • Eat Me, Drink Me, Love Me

    How We Use Cannibalism as a Metaphor for All-Consuming Love Louise, our youngest member of staff, has recently had her writing published in the Literary Magazine, THE LITERARY UNDERDOG We are very proud of her. As you may ascertain from the title, the subject matter may not be palatable for everyone (see what we did […]

  • What Am I Doing Here

    What on earth am I doing up here? Autumn 2024 You may not know who I am – I’m a part time Red Lion bookseller. I’m the one who rambles on about children’s books and often recommends contemporary fiction, as well as nature writing, a bit of high fantasy and occasionally, historical fiction. Right now […]

  • Here Comes The Fun

      We were delighted to welcome Ben Aitken to the woods this summer for our Words In The Woods day festival.   Ben is bestselling author of Here Comes The Fun: A Journey into the Serious Business of Having a Laugh (Icon, July 2024). Perhaps you have read The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of […]

  • How Small Changes Can Make A Big Difference to Teachers

    Blog post by author Michelle Auton In teaching there is always so much to do, so why do we want to be worrying about wellbeing as well? With over a fifth of teachers leaving the profession in the first two few years of their career and stress and workload being cited as the main reasons […]