Rossiter Books

Monday 4th June, Rossiter Books, Ross-on-Wye.   7pm Ticket – £3



The most rewarding travel experiences do not depend on our destination or the length of our journey, but on our levels of awareness. A short walk can compare with an epic journey, when we take the time to focus on the things that dramatically enrich each journey. Combining the work of the some of the most insightful travellers of the past two thousand years with his own experience, Tristan Gooley, author of THE NATURAL NAVIGATOR demonstrates how it is possible to connect profoundly with the lands we travel through. Exploration is no longer about hardship or long distances, it is about celebrating the sense of connection and discovery that is possible in all our travels

Tristan Gooley has led expeditions in five continents, climbed mountains in Europe, Africa and Asia, sailed small boats across oceans and piloted small aircraft to Africa and the Arctic.

He is the only living person to have both flown solo and sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Royal Geographical Society.

Prior to setting up a natural navigation school, Tristan gained extensive experience in the travel industry and is currently the Vice Chairman of Trailfinders.

Tristan has appeared on TV and radio programmes in the UK and internationally, including The Today Programme, Countryfile, Excess Baggage, Country Tracks, Ramblings, Open Country and All Roads Lead Home.

Tuesday 19th June, Rossiter Books, Ross-on-Wye at  7pm Ticket – £3(full session)

&

Wednesday 20th June, Rossiter Books, Monmouth at Noon, Free (playing while we trade)

The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books, and perform them at themed literary evenings held at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, in Bath (Independent Bookshop of the Year 2008 / 2011). The  collaboration was started as part of a plan to help Mr B’s rejuvenate its traditional ‘author evenings’.. The band would read the forthcoming author’s book in advance and write two songs based upon it, to be performed at the start of the evening. Their performances are inextricably linked to the books themselves, as the members of the band take it in turns to describe where the inspiration for each song came from.

After the first season the band recorded and released their first CD,
Travels From Your Armchair. Despite only being available in the bookshop itself, word soon spread and they were picked up by radio DJ Tom Robinson who played them on his national Introducing show on BBC 6Music. More recently the band had a 10 minute feature on Kirsty Lang’s culture show, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, and the band appeared on BBC 1 as part of a news feature on Britain’s independent bookshops. Over the course of the year, they have completed 18 author events, and written 36 songs inspired by 21 diverse books, from Andrew Miller’s “Pure” (2011 Costa Novel of the Year) to China Mieville’s acclaimed science-fiction novel “Embassytown” and from Edmund De Waal’s multi-award winning “The Hare with the Amber Eyes” to “Death and the Penguin” by the master of post-Commmunist Ukrainian satire, Andrey Kurkov.

The band is made up of three British musician / songwriters, Ben Please,
Poppy Pitt and Beth Porter. They struck up a friendship whilst playing with their respective bands at UK music festivals in 2010, and decided to
collaborate after Mr B’s proposed the idea in late 2010. Beth has played
with Peter Gabriel and currently tours with Eliza Carthy. She has also
recorded for Newton Faulkner, The Unthanks, and Maximo Park. Ben is part of indie-folk band Urusen, who have recently recorded an album at Peter Gabriel’s Realworld Studio with platinum-selling producer Steve Osborne (KT Tunstall, The Happy Mondays, U2, Doves). Poppy Pitt is an artist and sculptor, and tours with her own band, Poppy and Friends. The Bookshop Band also produce music for films, most recently with Ben writing, and Beth involved in recording, the orchestral score for a short animation called The Eagleman Stag, which won the 2011 BAFTA for Best Short Animation.

Click on the picture below to be taken to a website where you can see & hear them play for yourselves.

Wednesday 20^th June, Rossiter Books, Monmouth. 7pm

Archie Miles brings an illustrated talk, taking the audience on a journey through the ancient Welsh countryside to visit the country’s most remarkable trees. Steeped in history, surrounded by myth and legend and full of cultural and historical significance, these trees dominate the Welsh landscape. Packed with colour photography, directions for visiting the trees and detailed maps, this book tells the story of Wales’unique and diverse collection of heritage trees. Ideal for those interested in history or nature of any age. Published in association with the Tree Council.

Wednesday 27th June, Bishopswood House, Bishopswood near Ross-on-Wye.   7pm Ticket – £5



Chris Cleave will discuss the inspiration behind his new novel Gold.
‘London, the subject of all my fiction to date, won the right to stage the 2012 Olympics on the day before my first novel, Incendiary, was published in tragic circumstances. I knew then that I would cover my city’s Olympics one day – not as a reporter but as a novelist, shining a more enduring light on subjects that disappear all too quickly from other media. In Gold I uncover the private lives of athletes – their darkness, hope and doubt in the long unseen twilight that frames the single fortnight every four years when the world’s cameras turn upon them.’

Chris Cleave’s debut novel INCENDIARY was a prize-winner and international bestseller and his second novel, THE OTHER HAND has found phenomenal success both in the UK and abroad, hitting number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

Thursday 2nd August, Rossiter Books, Monmouth.   7pm Ticket – £3

1576. Five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo. A man more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers into Piazza San Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from Constantinople. Within days the city is infected with bubonic plague – and the Turkish Sultan has his revenge. But the ship also holds a secret stowaway – Feyra, a young and beautiful harem doctor fleeing a future as the Sultan’s concubine. Only her wits and medical knowledge keep her alive as the plague ravages Venice.

Thursday 29th November, Rossiter Books, Monmouth. 7pm

Soon after his arrival at Warburg PoW camp, British army officer John Buxton found an unexpected means of escape from the horrors of internment. Passing his days covertly watching birds, he was unaware that he, too, was being watched. Peter Conder, also a passionate ornithologist, had noticed Buxton gazing skywards. He approached him and, with two other prisoners, they founded a secret birdwatching society.

This is the untold story of an obsessive quest behind barbed wire. Through their shared love of birds, the four PoWs overcame hunger, hardship, fear and stultifying boredom. Their quest would draw in not only their fellow prisoners, but also some of the German guards, at great risk to them all. Derek Niemann draws on original diaries, letters and drawings, to tell of how Conder, Barrett, Waterston and Buxton were forged by their wartime experience into the giants of post-war wildlife conservation. Their legacy lives on.