Wine in Literature. A Tasting Experience with Oddbins

Thursday February 25th - from 7.00pm

Wine in Literature. A Tasting Experience with Oddbins.  

£12. BUY TICKETS HERE

“Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.” – John Keats

 

Well, we can’t guarantee the serenading of music or the fine weather for that matter but we think John Keats was on to something with the books and wine.

 

Which is why we’ve teamed up with the lovely people from Oddbins to offer you a series of five very special wine tasting events throughout 2016. Each of these tastings has a relationship with the world of wine. Whether it takes centre stage, sets the scene or aids the course of the story, these books would not be the same without it.

 

Each of the tastings explores a different theme and you will have the chance to sample some of the most delicious wines from Oddbins’ vast selection.

 

 

 

Run by Angela Cosgrove, from Oddbins, they will be held every two months at the bookshop, on the last Thursday of the month, starting on Thursday February 25^th.  They’ll kick off at 7.00pm and each will finish around 8.30pm. There’ll be a chance to purchase extra bottles of the featured wines at discounted prices on the night too!

 

Tickets for these events are just £12 per person (HERE), per event, but if you‘d like to come along to all five, we can offer you a discounted price of just £50 (HERE).

 

FEBRUARY’s event is entitled;

‘Setting the Scene’

The settings of these books are characters in themselves and the imagery told conjures the beauty of the wine producing land within which goes hand in hand with the quaffing of the local wines.

 

This will be followed by;

APRIL

'Classic Authors’

We know their names but did we get the significance the role of wine (and a little beer...) plays in these novels and short stories.

 

JUNE

‘Modern Literature’

Food and Drinks has been part of culture since time began but now it is often found playing a role that shapes who we are and our characteristics. The protagonists in these books have shown how consuming the world of wine can be in their life choices and relationships.

 

AUGUST

‘Winemakers Memoirs’

These books all reflect the romance and struggle of cultivating vineyards and the labour of love in producing wine, from ‘flying’ winemakers to beginner’s luck the wines and how they make them are told and reflected in those tasted.

 

OCTOBER

‘Wine Mysteries’

 These books all tell the tale of murder, corruption and foul play in the world of wine. From detective winemakers to spilt Claret in the vineyard it seems wine and crime go hand in hand.

 

Tickets for February’s event are available at just £12 HERE.

If you want to book ALL FIVE tastings you can purchase a ticket for just £50 HERE. 

Music Quiz with Chris Salewicz

Friday February 26^th. From 7.00pm

MUSIC QUIZ

Join Chris Salewicz for a Very Special “Dead Gods” evening. 

£5 a team - BUY TICKETS HERE

Please join us for a brilliant evening with author, music journalist and all round legend Chris Salewicz as we host a MUSIC QUIZ to coincide with Chris’ new book “Dead Gods”.

 

Robert Johnson. Brian Jones. Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Jim Morrison. Kurt Cobain. Amy Winehouse.

 They were inspirational, controversial, talismanic and innovative. They lead lives full of myth, scandal, sex, drugs and some of the most glorious music that has ever heard.
Though each of their lives were cut tragically short at the age of 27, they would all leave the world having changed it irrevocably. Chris Salewicz tells, in intimate detail, the stories behind these compelling figures. From Robert Johnson and his legendary deal with the devil, to Jimi Hendrix appearing like a psychedelic comet on the London scene, through to Amy Winehouse's blazing talent and her savage appetite for self-destruction.

 

The quiz will focus on each of the artists in the book and throughout the night Chris will be reading and discussing the book. 

 

Traditional quiz rules apply.

·         Maximum teams of 4 people (you can be a team of one if you like, of course).

·         Teams cost £5 (payment in advance HERE please).

·         Refreshments will be available, but feel free to bring your own.

 

The book will be available to purchase on the night and Chris will be happy to sign copies and answer any of your questions about these incredible artists.

QUIZ TONIGHT - TWO PLACES LEFT

Hello,    A final reminder about or quiz tonight, with Redemption Brewery beer and Wildes Cheese.  We've had two teams pull out, so if you want to come along, you still can.  It's £15 for a team of four (this price includes 4 bottles of beer and a cheese platter courtesy of Wilde's Cheese).  If you don't think you'll be able to get together a full team, don't worry. You can either join another team, or you can be in a team of 1, 2 or 3. We will charge you £3.75 per team member.  THE WINNING TEAM WILL GET £50 TO SPEND ON BOOKS! It starts at 7.30pm and your quiz master is illusive Twitter legend Greg Stekelman (@TheManWhoFell).  There's also a special 3 for 2 on all books for everyone who turns up tonight!! All the information about the quiz can be found HERE. Please call us (020 8881 6767) or email (enquiries@biggreenbookshop.com), if you want to come along.

Civilised Saturday

This year, a number of Bookshops are holding what is being described as "Civilised Saturday", which is being sold as "an antithesis to Black Friday.
Now, I'm all for a bit of civilised behaviour, but as a business, i'd be absolutely delighted if the shop was completely mobbed out with customers all day on Friday, picking up lots and lots of brilliant books.

(artist's impression)

I kind of understand the idea of "Civilised Saturday", which is why we're holding Sausage Saturday (a chance for people to spend lots of money here and also enjoy some lovely food supplied by local businesses), but I think that any opportunity should be taken advantage of.
Sorry if this seems a bit greedy, but as well as being a lovely bookshop that tries to support and celebrate its local area, we are also a shop who wants to be profitable and BUSY.
So maybe, just maybe, we'll be offering a few tasty little bargains on Friday too.
Shoot me (don't shoot me).

Email Vouchers Available from us.

Email Vouchers

Available at the Big Green Bookshop

 

 A Big Green Bookshop Email Voucher.

Just get in touch with us, let us know how much you'd like to give and we can send that special someone an Email Voucher. The lucky recipient will get an email from us telling them that you've bought them a voucher to spend at the Big Green Bookshop. They can then choose books and we'll get them and post them (FREE P+P in the UK), whenever they choose to redeem it. 

 

What a treat, eh? 

 

Telephone; 020 8881 6767

Email; enquiries@biggreenbookshop.com

Recommend a book for us to stock at Christmas (please) and WIN BIG!!!

Hello.

You like books, yeah?
Excellent. So do we.

We want the shop to be chockablock with gorgeous books this year and we'd really appreciate it if you could help us to choose some of them please?

We've started displaying a load of fantastic books that we think our customers will love, but we'd like you to help us improve our selection.

Is there a book you'd like to get this Christmas? 
Is there a book you think people should be buying this Christmas?

If so, please get in touch with the title of the book and a very short review (less than 30 words if possible). We'll then use your review to advertise the book in the Bookshop on one of those little recommends cards. You will even be name checked on the card (yes, you will be FAMOUS!).

A bit like this

Email us at enquiries@biggreenbookshop.com
Tweet us at @biggreenbooks

Not only that, but ONE lucky person who sends us a review will win £20 (that's twenty pounds) to spend at the shop! (if you don't live nearby, we'll post your books to you).

We'll be taking suggestions until the end of November.

Ta very much.
x

Wood Green Calling BIRMINGHAM, Come in Birmingham

                                 

We need help. 

Are you, or do you know anyone, who's based near Birmingham and would you like to work from 10.30am-4.30pm on Friday November 6th-Sunday November 8th? 

If so, please read on.

Next weekend, from November 6th until 8th I (Simon) will be at Birmingham NEC selling books at Cake International, one of the UK's biggest baking and cake shows.
We've done a few cake shows and, believe me when I say they are BUSY. Last year at Birmingham, around 20,000 turned up to watch decorating demonstrations, meet celebrity chefs and generally get all cakey. It's lots of fun and I love doing it.
Now then. Yesterday, I got a phone call asking if we could be the official bookshop at another event in London, on the same weekend.
Of course, I said yes. Because if you're a little bookshop in Wood Green, the opportunity to sell books at events like this are few and far between and we need the dosh!

Are you still with me? Good.

We need TWO people at Cake International in Birmingham and TWO people at this other show.

It's going to be a lot easier for us to cover the other show, as it's in London and we have magnificent customers locally, who will hopefully be able to help.

Birmingham however, may prove tricky, which is why I'm asking if you can help. I'll be there, but I need someone else to help me.

If you are friendly, sensible and can help me out, that'd be amazing. It'll be about 6 hours work a day and we're happy to pay you £150 for the weekend. It's pretty full on, but it's also quite a good laugh.
                                              

If you're interested, please give us a call on 020 8881 6767.

THANKS!

Calais Jungle Library - HELP!

OK then. We've been raising money and collecting books to donate to the "Jungle Library" in the Calais refugee camp. 

It's been pretty epic...

So far, we've raised over £2,500 and we have a ton load of books kindly donated by people from all over the country. We're still getting around twenty parcels a day with books to take to Calais. 

Here are three things;

1. We need help sorting the books out. If you are free tomorrow (Thursday) and can spare an hour or two, please get in touch. 020 8881 6767. 
2. We spoke to Mary Jones, the person looking after the Library and she is currently in the position where she's got plenty of fiction and kids books (in English) at the library. A lot of what's been donated is fiction and kids stuff, so we suggested to her that we have a mammoth sale of all the second stuff we've got and add that to the money that we're raising for her. She LOVED this idea, so we are having a....  

PAY WHAT YOU LIKE ON ALL OUR SECOND HAND BOOKS

From Friday 18th September until Sunday 20th September

you can choose up to 6 books and pay as little as 1p for each (YOU MONSTER). You could pay a tenner for each too, but that's up to you.
We have well over 3,000 secondhand books here all looking to go to good homes.
We're hoping for sunny few days so that we can get the tables and boxes outside.

     3. I'm going to Calais on Monday 21st September to deliver the books we have and also to meet Mary and to give her some dosh. We've persuaded the lovely people at ZIPCAR to let us have a van, and we've (I think) persuaded the BBC to let us borrow a camera, so we can film our journey. 

Neither Tim or I drive, but the lovely Mark White, aka MarkyMarket is very kindly giving up his time and is going to help me get the books to Calais. 

This is all very exciting and I can't wait to meet Mary. Our aim is for this not to be a one-off thing. We'd like to keep our link with the library in Calais and continue to work with  Mary to ensure that at the very least, there is always a well stocked library at the camp. 

Thank you. 

The Suffragettes. A panel discussion. Thursday October 15th - 7.00pm

£3 – BUY TICKETS HERE

 

We're delighted to be able to put on a fantastic panel event at the shop to coincide with the release of the new film "SUFFRAGETTE", starring Helena Bonham-Carter, Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan.

We have three amazing authors here, who will be discussing the suffragette movement and the importance it played.

The authors are;

 

Lyndsey Jenkins

Lyndsey's book, 'Lady Constance Lytton: Aristocrat, Suffragette, Martyr' is a fascinating look at the life of one the more unlikely suffragettes. Daughter of a Viceroy of India and a lady in waiting to the Queen. She grew up in the family home of Knebworth and in embassies around the world…

 

Katherine Connelly

Author of 'Sylvia Pankhurst: Suffragette, Socailist and Scourge of the Empire'. In this vivid biography Katherine Connelly examines Pankhurst’s role at the forefront of significant developments in the history of radical politics…

 

Fern Riddell

Fern is the author of 'The Victorian Guide to Sex', An exciting factual romp through sexual desire, practises and deviance in the Victorian era. The Victorian Guide to Sex will reveal advice and ideas on sexuality from the Victorian period. Drawing on both satirical and real life events from the period, it explores every facet of sexuality that the Victorians encountered.

 

There will be a discussion and also a Q+A, followed by a book signing.

Refreshements will be available.

 

Tickets for this are just £3, redeemable on any book on the night. 

An Evening with Sarah Winman - Thursday October 8th - 7.00pm

£3. BUY TICKETS HERE

We’ve been trying for some considerable time to sort this out and now finally, we are delighted that Sarah Winman will be joining us at the shop.

Sarah’s first book, ‘When God Was a Rabbit’ published in 2011 is a brilliant story looking primarily at the intense relationship between Elly and her older brother Joe. It’s a dark , funny and very moving novel, which I suggest you purchase right now…Oh, but before you do, you ought to know that Sarah’s new novel, ‘A Year of Marvellous Ways’ has just come out. Another triumph, this is a beautifully constructed novel telling the unlikely friendship of 90 year oldMarvellous Ways and a young soldier Freddy Drake.

Sarah will be here to read and discuss her novels and to answer any questions you may have. Here books will be available on the night to buy and Sarah will be happy to sign copies for you.

Tickets are just £3, redeemable on either book purchased at the shop.