Last Wednesday evening, saw a gathering in The Forest Bookshop in Coleford, to celebrate the bookshop’s award for Best Independent Bookshop in the South West & Wales. Kick off was at 7pm, with drinks and nibbles kindly provided, and a rather frisky beer barrel threatening to dowse anyone who stood near it. By 7.30, the place was heaving, and it was really great to bump into old friends, but also to make new ones. The Forest Bookshop does tend to engender a community atmosphere.
At around 8pm, local crime author Andrew Taylor presented owner, Doug McLean, with the noble certificate, and children’s author, Shoo Rayner , presented him with a new bookshop cat (not a real one this time) and a bottle of bubbly “to crack open when The Forest Bookshop wins the national prize”.
On the subject of local authors, my daughter, Lucy, loved Shoo Rayner’s beautifully illustrated books, when she was younger. However, I had not read any of Andrew Taylor’s work until I opened “Bleeding Heart Square” last week. My husband being away, I had a strict timetable to ensure that this time on my own was usefully used to wrap up various tasks, such as last year’s accounts. Sadly, as far as my plans went, Andrew Taylor has produced a real page-turner, and for anyone who has not read any of his work, may I suggest that you hot-foot it to your local independent bookseller, preferably, The Forest Bookshop, to redress the situation – or you can order it on line from The Forest Bookshop.
Andrew presents the South West and Wales Regional Winner certificate to Doug
Photograph by Caroline Silverwood Taylor (c)2009
Click here for other photos of the event.
The national prize will be awarded on 1st June, so we are all keeping our fingers crossed until then.
