On reflection, and to correct some misreadings here, I must make it clear that I was getting the MOT done and this heron was absolutely not.

It's June and #IndieBookshopWeek is fast approaching. Join us in Grasmere Village Hall on Wednesday June 17th to hear us talk with Katie Clapham about her bookselling life, and owning a small indie, through her shiny new book 'Receipts from the Bookshop'. Tickets here!

Getting the MOT done in Workington again.

The next event in our Cultural Landscapes series is a free talk by @whitbyabi.bsky.social on Anne Lister and her 1824 tour of the Lake District. The talk will take place on Tue 14 April (6.30pm) at our Ambleside campus. For further details & to book a place see www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/per...

Join us on Wednesday 14th at 5pm on zoom! #DorothyWordsworth #Droste #Romanticism #DisabledWriters #QueerHistory #DisabilityHistory

New Year Grasmere Rook

This morning's heron

I call this photo Workington, home of the best kestrel AKA getting the car serviced on a windy day

My cozy fantasy novel inspired by my love (and fear…) of Scotland’s mountains, misadventures in academia, and time spent adventuring in Dungeons and Dragons, will be out next July!!

Love this. Also, how does it all work?

Solid Grasmere heron content

Tomorrow morning I'll be on BBC Three Counties radio answering questions on the ouevre of Will Smith. Classic wireless content.

We're delighted to announce Rory Stewart will be launching new book Middleland in conversation with James Rebanks at Westmorland Hall, Kendal on Tuesday 28th October, 7pm. Buy your ticket and pre-order signed copies of Middleland to collect on the night: betterboxoffice.co.uk/westmorland-...

Another sunny day in Grasmere...

Your daily Grasmere heron

Amazing to see a photo with vivid childhood memories. This is the side of the Entwistle Cup, which I recall as being *the* hotly contested trophy (for children in Suffolk) at what used to be the Barrow and District Horticultural Society Show... @jessasatomp.bsky.social is that you on there too?

I spent £4.20 on @theobserveruk.bsky.social and Erica Wagner’s comment piece on Raynor Winn is missing its last sentence. Can I get any money back? (from the Observer not Raynor Winn which is obviously less likely)

Last night's Northern Lights over Grasmere #undertheaurora

Book tip! This diary of a Lakeland Dr turned RAMC Lieutenant is fantastic on the disconnect between the intimate violence & filth of the trenches and surrounding countryside, and also deeply moving w fragmentary glimpses of two men trying to rekindle a love affair against the backdrop of war (1/2)

Very proud to be a regional finalist for the Independent Bookshop of the Year once more. It may be #TheNibbies 35th anniversary year, and Sam Read Bookseller's 138th, but it is judged on @likewinterblue.bsky.social and @pollyrowena.bsky.social's 1st full year of stewardship, so extra special to us.

RUMER HAS IT that these amazing Virago Modern Classic editions are published today! Rumer Godden's novels with excellent cover illustrations by Joanna Lisowiec. www.samreadbooks.co.uk/s/search?q=%...

SO excited about Ella Risbridger's In Love with Love: The Persistence and Joy of Romantic Fiction, published in November by @sceptrebooks.bsky.social #SceptreSalon25

Enjoying the life stream of this salon! Wolf Moon by @arifa.bsky.social sounds great and of course super excited for #TheParallelPath by fabulous @jennashworth.bsky.social. Also for Ella Risbridger's new one and all the EM Forster reissues (always a Forster stan).

I'm loving this evening's #SceptreSalon25, packed with exciting books for the year ahead but also brilliant for programming a simple livestream for booksellers outside of London to watch too.

Happiest of publication days to Neko Case and her memoir The Harder I Fight The More I Love You out today from @headlinebooks.bsky.social. Available now from our shelves in Grasmere or in our online shop, as modelled here by our four-footed marketing trainee. www.samreadbooks.co.uk/product/neko...

Publication day for an incredible book! Free OA download for Women Booksellers in the Twentieth Century: Hidden Behind the Bookshelves by Prof Samantha Rayner www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Amazing night sky in Grasmere

Visited a short-eared pal this afternoon. #Owls

A book stack of 2024 bookshop bestsellers! These books have been flying off the shelves in Grasmere this year. The top two spots go to Cumbrian book royalty @herdyshepherd.bsky.social and Helen Rebanks.

We saw three deer come bellowing in on Christmas Day in the afternoon.

Am about to begin a reread of this gem (for book club) ECR Lorac’s Fell Murder. Set right outside my village. So grateful to @samreadbookseller.bsky.social for introducing me to Lorac.

Moniack Mhor, a beautiful writers centre in Scotland is running a gothic writing course starting in January, all online. Lots of residential, day and online courses on their website too. Check it out. www.moniackmhor.org.uk Please share

A seasonal passage from EM Ward's wonderful 1941 novel of Grasmere life, #ForestSilver, which echoes across the years in the winter village. We have loved sharing this new British Library Women Writers edition this year! samreadbooks.co.uk/product/e-m-...

This week the boy cat - who was feral and so scared of everyone until two months ago today - discovered the joy of: lounging on an unoccupied bed; lounging on a friendly knee. #BeMoreCat #CatLife

Not long now until they spill the beans... really looking forward to the Nero Book Awards shortlist reveal!

Love your linescapes @fellranger.bsky.social - as well as this fab indie bookshop! @samreadbookseller.bsky.social @likewinterblue.bsky.social @pollyrowena.bsky.social If anyone has copies of playscripts or programmes for the Grasmere Dialect Plays (or other info about them), please get in touch

The strangeness of a new platform that will not know Nala. I've been snuggled on the sofa by fire with the boy cat, remembering her. She loved to sit by the fire on a day like this as much as she loved a walk in the sun. I realised it was 9 years exactly yesterday that she 1st ate in our house.

Reminder that I'll be @westwoodbooks.bsky.social in Sedbergh talking The Company Of Owls with @katiescribbles.bsky.social tomorrow evening, Friday 22nd Nov. Do come along if you can! www.westwoodbooks.co.uk/collections/... #BookEvent #CumbriaCulture #LiveLit

he called it the "Sherlock Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence" project, or, for short, SETI@Holmes qwantz.com/index.php?co...

Grasmere Book Group's May 2017 read as I like to think of it... #CanLit

A wintery blast in Grasmere

This morning's heron.

Not a bad day in Grasmere

Another wonderful autumn day in Grasmere at the bookshelves punctuated by author visits, phone calls from authors and a few bookbuyers too.

Last night's northern lights over Keld in Cumbria

Grasmere in peak autumn sunshine

Join me online for a celebration of #MovingMountains anthology of nature writing, with Carol Donaldson & Louisa Adjoa Parker, hosted by @pollyrowena.bsky.social at Sam Read Books on 27th October. #NonFiction collection #poetry #prose #essay 💙📚🪲🌿🐌🦋 www.samreadbooks.co.uk/product/MMLa...