Event Musings

  • Dave Rowntree from Blur visits the book club he knew as a child

    Click here for Ben Howard article

  • Wild Essex Imaginarium

    Wild Essex Imaginarium University of Essex – 27 September 2025 This event will appeal to academics, art practitioners, heritage workers, activists and policy makers. The Wild Essex Imaginarium aims to re-engage/re-enchant the relationship between the arts and conservation practice in Essex over the next five years of this ‘critical decade’. We begin by asking how […]

  • Rivers, Bodies, Stars with award winning poets

    We are thrilled to have an event scheduled with award winning poets, Rebecca Goss, Emily Hasler and Joanna Ingham   Amongst other accolades, Rebecca is the winner of the Sylvia Plath award 2022,  Joanna won second place in the BBC Wildlife Poet Competition and Emily received an Eric Gregory Award.  Their new work is strongly focussed […]

  • Local poet, Ricci Read, preaches

    Being a poet is a lifestyle. It is a commitment to being your rebellious, authentic self. I preach that poetry shouldn’t follow any rules! I hope to inspire others to find and use their voice to tell their own stories. Of course, it can be fun to write a haiku or a sonnet. It can […]

  • To read or not to read?

    Blog note:  Author Regina Lopez Puerta’s first language is Spanish, not English. This is why we have retained the American spelling of realised   Incidentally, Regina will be hosting Spanish classes at Red Lion Books. Please email us@redlionbooks.co.uk for more information.   There’s a piece of advice my Dad gave me when I was little […]

  • Back to School

    I’ve just had a conversation with Jo, the manager here at Red Lion, where the C word was mentioned. How is it not even the end of Summer and we’re talking about Christmas? But that’s how the pages turn in a bookshop, we’re always looking ahead. Whether it’s the new Kate Atkinson (Shrines of Gaiety), […]

  • Eyes on the Prize

    At this  time of year, we have a gaggle of students popping into the shop, each clutching one of our tokens, which they’ve been awarded as a school prize.  We like to play a little game here at Red Lion Books by trying to guess what subject the student won their prize for, based on the […]

  • Eye of Boudica Event at Red Lion Books

      The Eye is all-seeing, all-consuming, always being watched and judged for good or bad actions. Big Brother is Watching you, as Orwell said. People correct themselves when they’re aware an eye is on them. Crime decreases, and people clean up their acts, behaving themselves as the ever-present Eye observes them closely. It makes sense […]

  • April 2022, We’ve got it covered

    It’s the end of April.  I’m writing that opener almost like it’s a slightly bewildered revelation rather than a statement of fact. A third of the way through my bookshop year and it hardly feels like a week has passed, let alone all the seconds and minutes I’ve spent at the coalface of indie bookselling. […]

  • Meeting Ben Aaronovitch

    A blog post from Louise, our ‘newest and youngest’ member of staff’.   Friday the 8th of April, 2022, was my first time working an event for Red Lion Books, and it was a biggie.  The first book in the Rivers of London series, aptly titled Rivers of London, came out when I was 11, […]