Books of the month

There you can enjoy browsing some preview copies of new titles and have a few minutes away from the Market Place bustle.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our monthly Book Club which will run the first Tuesday of every month from October with a launch event on September 26 with special guest Author Matson Taylor, who wrote one of last month's Kemps choice ‘The Miseducation of Evie Epworth’ - a lovely Yorkshire summer read.

For more details ask in store or check out the event page on our website.

Enjoy this month’s recommendations.

Book Lover's Bucket List

Caroline Taggart’s travelogue is an absolute treat for book lovers. Bound in a beautiful pictorial map of the UK, her book encourages us to visit places we know and places we don’t on the book lovers’ map – sometimes because they have literary or sentimental value to readers, but sometimes simply because the places are of great interest in their own right, citing Horace Walpole’s ‘ridiculously over the top Gothic villa in Twickenham,’ as a prime example.

She begins her tour in London, at Westminster Abbey – asking ‘what better place to start a literary voyage?’ She explains that many of Britain’s most famous writers have a connection to it; illustrious names such as Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales and poet Edmund Spenser are buried there, alongside lexicographer Samuel Johnson and novelist Charles Dickens. Others are memorialised in the abbey, including Jane Austen, William Blake and the Bronte sisters – and many more.

Unlike many books of its kind, Taggart’s gives the reader pinpoint detail on getting the best out of each literary location, complete with historical and architectural details to bring each writer’s history and achievements to life.

Beyond her own commentary on the places of historical interest she has chosen (don’t miss the section on The Sherlock Holmes pub in London – complete with culinary connections explored), modern writers such as Bernardine Evaristo and Philip Pullman also have their home territories of London and Oxford featured.

The book is helpfully organised by UK region, meaning that you can dip in and out whilst travelling, as well as revisiting literary treasures close to home. A real treat for planning a summer of book lovers’ visits!

Published by The British Library

ISBN 9780712353243

PB £16.99

Small Pleasures

Despite the subject matter being quite unlikely for a modern novel, Clare Chambers’ most recent work is a triumph from start to finish. Small Pleasures is a compelling story for anyone who likes their mid-summer reading to offer great literary merit (it was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction) and plenty of intrigue.

In Small Pleasures, Chambers introduces us to Jean, a local news reporter in Kent – a woman who is mainly invisible to those around her. She’s the only woman in the editorial team at the newspaper where she works, describing herself as a ‘features editor, columnist, dogsbody.’ As readers, we are led to believe that the potential excitements of life have passed Jean by, and she is destined to live quietly, caring for her elderly mother and tending her garden.

Her life takes a different direction when, in a team meeting at work, Jean is the last to get a pick of the reporting jobs and she is handed a mysterious letter from a local reader who claims that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. As none of her colleagues are remotely interested, Jean follows up the story and is surprised by what she finds.

Upon meeting Gretchen Tilbury, the virgin birth claimant, Jean finds an instant connection with her and gradually becomes close to the family. Her involvement with them shows Jean (and us) that life still holds a great deal of possibility. As readers, we also become her sidekick in her quest for truth in Gretchen’s claims about her daughter’s birth.

In her afterword, Chambers explains her inspiration for the novel – a 1955 newspaper competition to find a virgin mother – a shocking idea in itself. At its heart, Small Pleasures is a beautifully written tale of loneliness, desire and longing.

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

ISBN 9781474613903

PB £8.99

Witch Child

This is a young adult historical fiction classic by Celia Rees currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity with the issue of its 20th anniversary edition. Despite the years since it first surfaced as a modern classic, the story of teenager Mary Newbury’s life as an outcast and exile to The New World is a subtle and adept work of storytelling.

In a time when women were both valued for their skills as healers and herbalists but also persecuted for their association with witchcraft, Mary finds herself alone in the world with a family background that must remain her secret. Her 17th century world (set after Cromwell’s death and before the return to the throne of Charles II) is dominated by those who find and persecute women accused of witchcraft. She hopes to escape the suspicion surrounding her identity by travelling to America and relying upon the kindness of strangers who leave England to escape religious persecution and travel to their new promised land of religious freedom.

After a perilous voyage, Mary finds friends amongst her new community – both amongst the pilgrims and the native Americans who live close by. Nevertheless, her innocent actions in helping her neighbours again draw suspicion and Mary’s self-reliance is put to the test.

Published by Bloomsbury

ISBN 9781526618481

PB £7.99

Heroes

Heroes – Inspirational People and the Amazing Jobs They Do is a brilliant compendium of information about real life heroes through the ages especially designed for youngsters aged 7+. The author, Jonny Marx, explains in his introduction that ‘not all heroes wear capes’ and that we can learn about the ‘professions, passions and pastimes’ of the heroes included in his book, and find out more about their contribution to our world.

The book organises the heroes into a series of jobs youngsters will recognise. The author includes explorers, scientists, athletes, artists, activists, engineers, writers, inventors and many more. Each section covers at least a double page spread and gives information about a type of hero – scientists, for example, over time. Funky illustrations support informative captions about the heroes, all set out in a colourful, engaging and easy-to-read style.

The hero explorers’ section includes everyone from the Vikings and their early attempts to land in the Americas to 16-year-old Laura Dekker who sailed solo around the world in 518 days in 2012 – and lots of famous names in between, including Captain Cook and Captain Scott.

The ‘inventors’ chapter tells how Thomas Edison invented not only the lightbulb, but held a staggering 1,093 patents in his lifetime, plus his role in enabling electricity to be applied to household appliances in the 19th and 20th centuries is explored. Innovations such as 3-D printing are given a spotlight, as are engineers such as Elon Musk and his range of modern technological innovations such as the Tesla and SpaceX programme.

The book provides a perfect introduction to key people who have changed the world for the better, and whose names young people will benefit from knowing throughout their lives.

Publisher - Little Tiger Press Group

ISBN 9781848578739

HB £14.99

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