Coming up at Backstory
KIDS EVENT: Alasdair Beckett-King, Montgomery Bonbon: Death at the Lighthouse
THIS THURSDAY 2nd November, 4pm
Are you a keen detective in the making? Do you have a sharp eye for detail and a nose for hidden clues? Then come and meet Alasdair Beckett-King at Backstory! Alasdair invites you to meet Montgomery Bonbon, the world's finest detective. (And Bonnie Montgomery, his ten-year-old alter ego.) Find out how to walk, talk, and detect like a world-class sleuth, and discover mystery and adventure in the world of Montgomery Bonbon! This kids event is free, but you do need to book.
KIDS SIGNING: Anna James, Pages & Co: The Last Bookwanderer
Sunday 12th November, 11.30am
Bring the kids to Backstory for a book signing with the author behind the Pages and Co. series. It is open to all, but we recommend reserving a space. You can buy Anna's new book Pages & Co.: The Last Bookwanderer and pick it up on the day to have it signed by Anna.
Janice Hallett — The Christmas Appeal
Wednesday 29th November, 7.30pm
Meet the “Queen of Cosy Crime”. The author of The Twyford Code and The Appeal discusses her new festive mystery.
Wednesday 6th December, 7.30pm
The award-winning cartoonist for the Telegraph discusses drawing the world's ups and downs which he always does with a gentle humour, never malice.
Paul Caruana Galizia — A Death in Malta
Wednesday 13th December, 7.30pm
The very inspiring investigative journalist Paul Caruana Galizia joins us to discuss A Death in Malta, his book about the assassination of his mother Daphne, a campaigning journalist in their native Malta. It’s an astonishing story about one family’s quest for the truth, and about the fight against corruption in a modern European country.
Coming up at the Non-Fiction Book Club: Caroline Knowles (Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London), Christina Lamb (Our Bodies, Their Battlefield)
Coming up at the Fiction Book Club: Bobby Palmer (Isaac And The Egg), Andrew O’Hagan (Mayflies)
SOLD OUT: Prisons: Inside and Out (1st Nov), Jonathan Coe (8th Nov), Jeremy Bowen (15th Nov) and James O’Brien (22nd Nov)
Gift ideas: history
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing gift ideas from different corners of the shop. Pop into the shop to browse or buy, or click on the links to order from our website with free UK delivery.
David Mitchell applies his trademark panel show technique to this tale of England’s monarchs: making you giggle so much you forget you’re actually learning something too. This story of “uncivil wars and at least one total Cnut” is a historical hoot.
TV’s favourite classics professor looks beyond the usual tales of nasty Nero and calculating Caesar to ask what power Rome’s emperors really wielded.
Beyond the Wall by Katja Hoyer
In this impressively researched history of East Germany from 1949 to 1990, Hoyer explores what ordinary life was actually like behind the Berlin Wall.
Divine Might by Natalie Haynes
Backstory favourite Natalie Haynes, the author of Stone Blind and Pandora’s Jar, takes us on a guided tour of the goddesses in Greek mythology in this beautifully presented book.
Already flying off the shelves at Backstory, this is a proper yarn about imperial ambition, a missing British ship in the mid-1700s and the highest possible stakes: the death penalty awaited whoever was found to have been lying about the ship’s fate.
ONE OF THE SPEAKERS at this year’s Booksellers Association conference boasted that “booksellers were the original influencers”. Of course, this went down a storm in a hall packed, to one degree or another, with luddites.
But she had a point: though reading can be a solitary experience, there have always been some books that are simply too good not to be shared. The pace may be somewhat gentler than the average Twitter storm, but still, one word-of-mouth recommendation at a time, every snuck glance over the cover on the Tube, each passionate brunch plot dissection partly overheard, it is going viral.
So it was among the Backstory team with In Memoriam, Alice Winn’s debut novel about two young men who fall in love in 1914 but don’t realise their feelings are reciprocated until their bucolic world is upended by the outbreak of war.
Amy read it first and began suggesting – gradually more insistently – that everyone else read it. I finally took the hint and immediately regretted not doing so earlier. “LOVING In Memoriam,” I texted her. “Started last night so no spoilers please but wow!” By the time Winn dropped in to the shop to sign some copies, Amy and I were in full fangirl mode:
Then came Denise and Rory, who complained of struggling to get into books for a while after because “In Memoriam was so effing good”. By this point, the buzz was growing exponentially: an ex-colleague of mine who visited the shop seemed a little reluctant to take “another book about WW1” but didn’t want to spurn my recommendation; within days, he was on Twitter and Instagram telling anyone who would listen to read the thing.
Our families were sent copies, whether they wanted them or not. Mum has been telling her friends it is the best book she has read for years. I fear I’ve set a high bar for myself: I’ve given her others since, some of which she tells me she enjoyed, “but it was no In Memoriam”.
Darby and Megan can be relied upon to resist a fad, but they too eventually succumbed. “Help needed,” Megan posted on our team WhatsApp. “Still have 50 pages of In Memoriam to go and can’t stop crying. How did you all do it? This book is my new nemesis, I possibly hate it.”
In a somewhat olde worlde version of live-blogging, Amy dug up a WhatsApp I had sent her months previously when I was at exactly the same juncture: “Oh ffs Amy I’m back to crying on the train! 50 pages to go.”
Picking our book of the month is sometimes difficult: occasionally we each feel strongly about different books; sometimes we don’t feel particularly moved by any and need to continue the search until we do. With this one, there was no debate: it was obvious from early summer that In Memoriam would be Backstory’s first ever book of the year... congratulations, Alice!
So do yourselves a favour and pick up this tragic but beautiful book – about war and love, beauty and horror, men and the things they do to one another. We implore you to read it. In part, because it is an excellent book. But mostly so you can come back and join in our conversation. We’re desperate to talk to you about it.
Pop into the shop to grab your copy, or order one online here, with free delivery to anywhere in the UK (and inexpensive delivery anywhere in the world!). If you’ve already enjoyed it, why not treat a friend to a copy?
Tom