Nina Stibbe’s Trip to Leicester for #IBW14
In celebration of Independent Booksellers Week 2014 (happening RIGHT NOW until Saturday 5th July) LOVE, NINA and MAN AT THE HELM author Nina Stibbe has gone on a bookshop odyssey through Leicestershire, the county in which she grew up.
I’m back in Leicestershire where I grew up.
I’m here to celebrate my sister Vic’s wedding to Adriaan. The wedding is going to be on Saturday 5th July. There’s no chance of either of them backing out or jilting the other because they already did the paperwork in Zurich a couple of weeks ago and Vic became Mrs Goldberg. Vic is very much in Love with Adriaan and tells me quite often how wonderful he is. This morning they were messing around with their hens and one of them laid an egg. In Vic’s hand. That’s what it’s like at the Goldberg house.
I’ve arrived in Leicester a few days early because Vic’s local bookshop Kibworth Bookshop – owned by the fab Debbie – has asked me to do a little reading of Love, Nina. I’m thrilled to be asked. It’s a wonderful shop (I went to high school in Kibworth and some of my family have lived nearby ever since) and I love Debbie and Debbie loves me.
My talk at Kibworth Bookshop is to be on Tuesday night (1st July). I gather lots of people are coming. I know this is because I’ve tweeted and talked about the event a lot, in particular the fact that Vic will be appearing with me. I can’t wait. I predict that Vic will be grumpy and slightly self-conscious for ten minutes and then she’ll love it and we won’t be able to shut her up. I’ll also give a little preview of Man at the Helm, my novel.
Later in the week, on Thursday, I’m going to meet up with the Penguin Rep, Neil Green. and we’ll race around in his Vauxhall Cavalier and visit bookshops armed with proof copies of my forthcoming novel and boxes of jam tarts. Sadly these will be Mr Kipling’s and not home-made in a country kitchen. I did phone my mum to ask if she could make a few dozen assorted jam tarts to celebrate Indie Booksellers Week but she claimed I was ‘breaking up’ and the phone went dead. So, Neil and I will deliver exceedingly good jam tarts with the proof copies on Thursday afternoon.
I’m very excited about this.
Our tour will include:
Leicester University Bookshop
Kibworth Bookshop
Quinn’s Bookshop
and many more…
I just know Neil’s going to enjoy my reminiscing about my days as a sales rep!
While I’m here, I’m also visiting scenes from Man at the Helm with my friend Jon (also from Leicestershire). We’ll go to Fenwick’s of Leicester which features in a couple of important scenes in the book and Brucciani’s coffee house which only people from Leicester will know.
Look out for tweets from me about Indie week, Vic’s wedding week and Leicester in general, by following #IBW14 and #TheTripToLeicester
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe is out now in paperback. Man at the Helm, Nina’s highly anticipated first novel, will publish on 28th August in hardback. Why not follow her on Twitter?
Support your local bookshop, join us in celebrating Independent Booksellers Week 2014.
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