The North Recommends: The Stripey Badger
The Stripey Badger Bookshop and its sister business, Stripey Badger Coffee Shop & Kitchen, both opened in the village of Grassington, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, in August. Serving the local community as well as tourists, our bookshop stocks guidebooks and maps, as well as hand-picked books that we aim to match with readers who will love them. Happily, we are very fortunate in having several local Yorkshire authors who are very popular, and we take pride in our local writing section of the bookshop.
We aim to counteract online competition by offering a book ordering service with a difference – books ordered and collected come with a voucher for a free hot drink from the café next door. A popular incentive!
Events will be an important part of our bookshop and we already have regular monthly readings for children; a Willow Dragonfly Workshop on 2ndFebruary; an Auction of second-hand books in aid of our Community Hub late January, and author signings – including Julia Chapman and Ben Myers – being arranged throughout the year.
The popular Grassington Festival takes place 21st– 29thJune 2019, and we will be taking part by sponsoring a Creative Writing event run by Angela Locke and an author signing event. Julia Chapman’s new book Date with Poison is out on 27thJune, and she will be in The Stripey Badger on 28thJune signing copies.
Date with Poison is the fourth in this “cosy crime” series that both we and our customers love. Her books race along, with local Yorkshire characters rubbing shoulders with murky murder and dodgy deeds amidst wonderful descriptions of the Yorkshire Dales.
2019 will see the bookshop start a Science Club for adults. With the aim of finding answers to questions asked by club members, we plan to watch the stars (we’re in a Dark Sky area), learn more about Mars, Black Holes and Gravity. This being the case, we’ll be looking out for Brian Clegg’s book (out February 2019), Professor Maxwells Duplicitous Demon, the story of a ground-breaking scientist. We’re big fans of Jim Alkahali, so we’re also looking forward to his book Gravity, out in February 2019, part of the new Ladybird Expert series.
If you’d like to start the New Year with a page-turning crime thriller, we highly recommend Blood and Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Jan 2019), a historic novel set in the 18thcentury slave trade.
The Closest Thing to Flying by Gill Lewis will enthral readers age 9-11. Out in February 2019, this is an uplifting story of friendship, hope, and finding the courage to fight for what you believe in.
We are currently preparing our website – but you can contact us via our Facebook page @TheStripeyBadger or email [email protected].