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David Shukman – Reporting Live from the End of the World

David Shukman will be talking about his book, Reporting Live from the End of the World on Thursday 29th July at 7pm at Blackwell Bookshop in Oxford.

When frontline BBC news reporter David Shukman switched beat from world affairs to environment in 2003, he feared he might be in for a dull life. He couldn't have been more wrong. His new job has taken him to every corner of the earth: journeying up the fabled North West Passage in the Arctic, chasing after loggers in the Amazon and battling through plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean, getting trapped in Siberian blizzards along the way.

Wonderfully written and often very funny, Reporting Live from the End of the World charts Shukman's extraordinary adventures, in the process providing a fascinating eye-witness account of the state of the planet. We follow Shukman through a series of vivid experiences - such as seeing how the Greenland ice sheet has been turned grey by soot from factories thousands of miles away - and observe his gradual, somewhat reluctant, conversion to the environmental cause.

Tickets cost £2 and can be obtained by telephoning or visiting the Customer Service Department, Second Floor, Blackwell Bookshop, Oxford. 01865 333623.

Kate Brown – Spider Moon

Join us on Friday 6th August at 7pm for Kate Brown's launch of Spider Moon.

Spider Moon is a "luscious eco-fable" published as one of the first in the DFC library series of comic novels. With gorgeous artwork and stunning underwater scenes, it features a strong, feisty heroine, Bekka who is determined to put up a fight in the face of a mysterious and ominous prophecy.

This is a free event and all are welcome.

Julia Donaldson - Book Signing – Cave Baby

Come along to the Children's Department at Blackwell Bookshop and meet Julia Donaldson, who will be signing copies her new book, Cave Baby.

Julia Donaldson is one of this country's most celebrated children's writers and her books are deservedly well known. From her tale of a misplaced duckbill in Tyrannosaurus Drip and the adventures of a brave little stick in The Stickman, to the bestselling story of a clever mouse in The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson continues to create imaginative and popular books.

Cave Baby is a pre-historic adventure of a hairy mammoth and a mischievous baby as they roam a moonlit landscape populated by a sabre-toothed tiger, a leaping hare, a laughing hyena and even, just maybe, by a big brown bear. But where are they going? And what does it have to do with the baby's scribbles on the cave wall?

Non-Fiction Reading Group

Would you like to join our Non-Fiction Reading Group? We have few spare places, so if you're interested, then please do get in touch as soon as possible!

Our Non-Fiction Reading Group here at Blackwell Bookshop has only been in existence for a couple of months. So far, we have read Straw Dogs by John Gray and Never Had It So Good by Dominic Sandbrook. The group's next book will be Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin (Wed 30th June).

We meet once a month to discuss non-fiction books and we aim to read across a variety of disciplines from History to Science, from Philosophy to Economics, from Politics to Religion, and other subject areas besides.

If you would like to find out more, then please send an email to oxford@blackwell.co.uk with 'Non-Fiction Reading Group' in the title field. Please also include your full name and your daytime and evening telephone numbers, and we will contact you to confirm your registration.

Walking Tours of Oxford

We offer three different Walking Tours led by our experienced guide.

On Tuesdays at 2pm and Thursdays at 11am, join the Literary Tour and discover the University and city where such authors as Graham Greene, Dorothy L. Sayers and Lewis Caroll lived and learned. Please note that this tour involves climbing stairs which may be unsuitable for some guests.

On Wednesdays at 11:45am, join the Inklings Tour, where fans of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien can see the favourite haunts of these two famous authors including the Eagle and Child pub situated in Saint Giles, as well as those of their fellow group members, including Charles Williams and Nevill Coghill.

On Fridays at 2pm, you can take the Chapels, Churches and Cathedral Tour. Learn about the beautiful ecclesiastical buildings that grace the city, and the famous people who have visited them.

Tickets are £7 for Adults, £6.50 for Students and those over 55. For the Chapels, Churches and Cathedral Tour, tickets are £9 Adults (includes entrances), £8 for Students and those over 55.

Tours commence from our Oxford Shop, 53 Broad Street, Oxford. OX1 3BQ. All tours last an hour and a half.

To book, call 01865 333606 or email oxford@blackwell.co.uk. Booking in advance is recommended.

Tours run from Tuesday 13 April until Friday 29 October 2010 inclusive.

Heffers Crime Reading Group, "Crimecrackers"

We meet on the third Wednesday of every month in Heffers Bookshop, 20 Trinity Street from 6.00pm until 7.00pm.

If you would like to join our Crimecrackers Reading Group, please contact Richard Reynolds in the Literature Department, Heffers Bookshop, 20 Trinity Street: Telephone: 01223 568521, email: literature@heffers.co.uk

Heffers Fiction Reading Group

The Heffers Fiction Reading Group meets in Heffers Bookshop, 20 Trinity Street, Cambridge on the last Wednesday of each month, 6.00pm until 7.00pm. Why not come along and enjoy a complimentary glass of wine and discuss some of the best books in contemporary fiction.

To join the reading group, please contact David Robinson on 01223 568522 or email: general@heffers.co.uk.

The Blackwell Book Quiz: Book Festival Edition

Join us for our special Book Festival edition of the quiz!

Do you know your Waugh from your Peace, or your Meyer from your Heyer?

Then join us for Blackwell Bookshop's monthly BOOK QUIZ. We will quiz you on anything from Classics to current Bestsellers, Booker Prize winners to Celebrity Biographies.

Teams of up to five people can take part.

It is FREE to enter, but seats are limited so please come early to secure your place. There are no tickets required for this evening of fun!

For further information please contact James Anderson on 0131 622 8201 or james.anderson@blackwell.co.uk

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New Scottish Writing 28: Stone Going Home Again

Join us to celebrate the launch of the latest volume of New Scottish Writing. New Writing Scotland is the principal forum for poetry and short fiction in Scotland today. Every year it publishes the very best from both emerging and established writers, and lists many of the country's leading literary lights among its past (and present) contributors.

Edited by Alan Bissett and Carl MacDougall, Stone Going Home Again is the latest collection of excellent contemporary writing, drawn from a wide cross-section of Scottish culture and society.

There will be readings from a number of contributors to the volume such as Patricia Ace, Dorothy Alexander, Graham Fulton, Tracey S. Rosenberg, Gerda Stevenson and Ryan Van Winkle on the night.

This is a FREE event but a ticket is required. Tickets are available from the front desk at Blackwell. For more information please contact Ann Landmann on 0131 622 8206 or events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk.

Blackwell Writers at the Fringe

Now in its third year Blackwell Writers at the Fringe brings you once again the best in Scottish writing.

Every Thursday during the Festival we invite a selection of Scottish performers to give us a taste of their work. New and unpublished works of literary art stands alongside established novelists, with any and all genres free to be expressed - from Scots poetry to cutting edge drama, from folk music to contemporary fiction, and all that is found in between.

This year we are delighted to welcome the following performers:

Thursday 5th August
Ewan Wilkinson & Sandy Brechin - Traditional and new folk music
Tessa Ransford - The Grand Dame of Scottish Poetry
Philip Paris - The Enchanting Tale of the Italian Chapel in Orkney
Sara Sheridan - Botanist Robert Fortune's adventures in the Far East
Alan Spence - The writer of poetry, plays, novels and much more
Stuart McHardy - Writer and Storyteller Extraordinaire

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Thursday 12th August
Jane & Phil Brook - aka P.J. Brooke, crime writers under the Spanish Sun
Morelle Smith - Get caught up in the Time Loop
Christine de Luca - A journey to the far north with Shetland's finest poet
Sue Peebles - Captivating debut novelist from Fife
Millie Gray - Post-war life, love and laughter
Paul Cuddihy - Victorian Glasgow - A fugitive, a priest and a prostitute

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Thursday 19th August
Sue Rulliere - Losing and finding yourself in Paris
Jim Sinclair - Poems from the heart's recesses
Moira Forsyth - Two sisters haunted by a third
Monica Pittman - a new voice in Glasgow poetry
Ron Halliday - A harrowing look at Edinburgh after Dark
Stuart Campbell - Robert Louis Stevenson in love

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Thursday 26th August
Liz Ashworth - Delicious Orkney
J.F. Derry - Discovering Darwin in Scotland
Craig Weldon - A Walker's Tale
Brian Johnstone - A pillar of Scottish Poetry
Maggie Craig - The men of the '45 exposed
The Wild Myrtles - Beautiful voices sing us out

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These are FREE events but tickets are required. Tickets are available from the front desk at Blackwell. For more information please contact Ann Landmann on 0131 622 8206 or events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk.

Burke & Hare: Graphic Novel Workshop with Insomnia Publications

Get an exclusive look behind the scenes of the bestselling graphic novel Burke & Hare.

Join writer Martin Conaghan and artist Will Pickering for an interactive workshop to learn more about publishing's most innovative medium - from the conception of the story to the script to the artwork.

Insomnia Publishing is an independent Edinburgh-based publisher for Graphic Novels founded in 2006 by Dundee University graduate and former DC Thomson employee Crawford Coutts.

In 2007 as one of its first titles Insomnia started the critically acclaimed anthology Layer Zero, a showcase for new talent. Burke & Hare is the first Graphic Novel published under the Vigil imprint, which specializes in historical Graphic Novels.

This is a FREE event but a ticket is required. Tickets are available from the front desk at Blackwell. For more information please contact Ann Landmann on 0131 622 8206 or events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk.

Blackwell Book Group

Who says reading is a solitary pursuit? Not us! Come and join the Blackwell Book Group for lively, friendly book chatter. No previous experience required! We will meet monthly to discuss a wide range of books - fiction and non-fiction, classic and contemporary, prize-winners and cult heroes - in short, whatever you fancy!

Our current book is The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway.

What is the book about?

A young drama teacher in the West of Scotland suffers deep psychological problems which affect all areas of her life. She fails to find meaning in anything around her, but in her search she strips situations of their conventional values and sees them in a sharp, new light.

We offer 10% discount on the current book to Bookgroup members. So join today! Just email your name and address to events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk.

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Book Signing: Robin Ince's Bad Book Club

Don't miss the opportunity to meet one of Britain's leading comedians and book connoisseurs.

Is hideous prose and ghastly poetry more fabulous than great literature? Determined to find out, award-winning comedian Robin Ince has spent most of the 21st century rummaging through charity shops, jumble sales, and even the odd skip to compile the defining collection of the world's worst(?), inadvertently hilarious(?) books.

Among the many genres it explores, the Robin Ince's Bad Book Club will guide you through the hinterland of celebrity autobiography, unearthing underappreciated classics such as those by It Ain't Half Hot Mum's Don Estelle and the brother of a former PM (Major Major). It offers a detailed study of romance sub-genres, from the equine (Diamond Stud) to the gynaecological (Sign of the Speculum). And it will prove invaluable to anyone who wants to know The Secrets of Picking UP Sexy Girls.

Above all, the Bad Book Club is a manual - almost a life guide - training you up for membership of the Grand Order of Curators of Books That Should Never Have Been.

For more information please contact Ann Landmann on 0131 622 8206 or events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk.

Forthcoming events to be announced. Please contact Blackwell, 100 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JG for more details.

Forthcoming events:

Beverley Literature Festival - 1st-10th October 2010

Morley Literature Festival - 11th-17th October 2010

Forthcoming events to be announced. Please contact Blackwell University Bookshop, University of Liverpool, Alsop Building, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L3 5TX for more details.

Forthcoming events to be announced. Please contact Blackwell, The Precinct Centre, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RN for more details.

Forthcoming events to be announced. Please contact Blackwell, 141 Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RS for more details.