Musings
Four Weeks in a Mezzanine
In the bookshop, you may have noticed a flight of wooden step that lead to gloomy apartments above. It was my happy task to bring order...
Hearts and Minds: Poetic Response vs. ‘Review’
Poetry examines feeling. There are other ways to do this of course, the objective/empathetic practice of the therapist immediately comi...
What is the Difference between Poetry written for Performance and Poetry written for the Page?
A few thoughts – making reference to Spoz’ 2019 publication Sometimes Angry.
I don’t have an issue with performance poetry. I have see...
What is it about Saturday Books?
It’s me, I guess. I say this with absolute humility: the fact that serious books have been sold now in Dudley for fourteen years, more-...
Thriller writers, you need a house
If you're about to start writing a domestic thriller or a horror story you should be thinking about the role of the house. And whatever...
A New Definition of ‘Local’
Saturday Books has been generously assisted by both publishers and writers in setting up a Local Authors Room. After a year the collect...
What are public spaces for?
Dudley’s reconfigured marketplace was incomplete when Saturday Books moved from Stone Street to Tower Street, some ten years ago. The r...
Travels in France 2023
Sunday 26th March
Waking in Dieppe, after a night of ferry-crossing in high seas, I look out to see rain and then wonder about takin...
A bookseller’s poem
Love Lane
Are you Mr Sheppard, son of the head of such-and-such, long-dead, of Stourbridge?
I turn from sorting piles of ancient book...
Coming Home to Books
My grandparents were idealistic Edwardians who having received an education maintained that education throughout a lifetime. From this,...