Musings
A collection of stories, thoughts and news
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Love letter to a book
Which book will you choose? Anyone submitting a letter will be entered into a prize draw for a FABER 2026 Diary (winner announced on 20th Feb) Handwritten letters are the best sent and the best received.
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Death Club
A press article in the Metro Newspaper featured our Death Club. Read more HERE
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Bibliotherapy
The Power of the Page At Red Lion Books, we believe that every story has the potential to soothe, inspire, and transform. Discover the practice of bibliotherapy—the art of using literature to support your mental and emotional well-being. More than just a quiet pastime, reading serves as a powerful tool for self-discovery and healing. This
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Loyalty Cards
You can earn loyalty points from your first purchase. A £5 purchase gives you 1 point. Once you have accumulated 20 points, we give you a £5 voucher to spend at Red Lion Books. You will be pleased to know that we have tweaked the system to round numbers up in your favour; i.e. a £9.99
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Dave Rowntree from Blur visits the book club he knew as a child
Click here for Ben Howard article
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The Appetite Book Club Reading List
Established in 2007, the Appetite Book Club continues to grow. There are evening and daytime options, meeting over supper twice a month or in the morning, on the last Thursday of the month, to discuss our book choice over a cuppa. We wonder how many of our book choices you have read and enjoyed? Or
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Local Authors
Your Books, Our Shelves We are proud of our history of supporting authors from our area and carry a wide variety of self-published, small press and print on demand titles. Locally published books often feature amongst our best selling titles each year. Books that sell particularly well are non-fiction titles with a strong local interest.
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Giving Children the Freedom to Choose Their Next Story
Guest writer Brogan Tuxford, Primary School Teacher at St Mary’s School for Girls I was an avid reader as a child. I went to Narnia and to Hogwarts. I travelled back in time to solve mysteries and visited places far, far away (places that I now understand may not actually exist!). The pursuit of discovering
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Christmas in Colchester: “Surprising Mrs B” – the story continues
This is the conclusion to a story published in Christmas in Colchester 2025 magazine. If you would like to read the story from the beginning, click here. Otherwise the story continues here: ….After tea, Cally lay on her bed digesting and scrutinising Fleabags, who was sitting beside her cleaning himself vigorously. He was a long-haired
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| Musings
How Did I Get Here
Hello, I’m Lucy. This is the story of how I got to be holding a copy of my book, in Red Lion Bookshop It’s been a strange time, and while I might look calm on the outside, I can assure you that my insides look a lot more like this: First, some background. I’m a
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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
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Renaturing
Contributor: Author James Canton So, just for a moment, imagine your most idyllic literary festival event… a marque packed full of an intelligent, wise and interested audience, a fellow speaker who fits perfectly, a chair who coordinates the chat with wit and ease. Then throw in a castle as venue, a little over two miles
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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
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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
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| Musings
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
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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
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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,
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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
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| Musings
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