Southampton’s independent radical book shop, October Books, has a calendar of events scheduled throughout December for both children and adults, including author talks and crafting for kids.
Join local artist, Jutta Manser, with Woodcuts in Winter -an exhibition of exceptional woodcut prints – today, Tuesday 6 December at 3pm.
Jutta’s love of art has taken her in various directions, including typography, designing book jackets, and design and making of jewellery, which she studied at Sir John Cass School of Art. She spent time making botanical illustrations in water colours, obtained an HNC in Fine Art at Salisbury College, and finally moved on to print-making, especially wood engraving.
Explore art school creativity, from punk to new wave, on Thursday 8 December with an author talk, Blank Canvas, from Dr Simon Strange at 6.30pm.
In Blank Canvas, multi-genre musician turned university lecturer, Simon, paints a picture of the diverse range of people who broke down the barriers between art, life and the creative self. This book asks questions of today’s artists, musicians, and educators, looking for the essence of creativity and suggests how lessons learnt in and around art school education show a path for the cultural evolution of both musicians and artists hoping to create the future.
Take the kids along on Saturday 10 December at 11am for Maisie Morley’s First Christmas – a little polar bear who was made by Santa’s elves as a Christmas gift.
It’s Christmas Eve and Maisey is very excited because Santa is preparing to deliver her to her new home. Follow Maisey’s Christmas adventure as Santa makes some hard decisions on which child’s Christmas tree will the little polar bear be under on Christmas morning. Join illustrator Anne Jewitt, who will be in the shop for singing, crafting and colouring in.
At 3pm in the afternoon of the 10 December, a cookery demo with The Sustainable Chef, Andy Oakley, will take place in the shop. Learn how to make food with minimal impact as The Sustainable Chef demonstrates some festive recipes, using a range of ethical and fairtrade items from the shelves of October Books.
With forty-five no-nonsense, plant-based recipes, The Sustainable Chef gives a new outlook on cooking and baking, and each recipe comes with a ‘Carbon Impact Check’, to see how much of a difference you are making.
Another author talk, Queer As In Laughing, is set to take place on Monday 12 December at 6.30pm with Kevin Brazil and Rosanna McLaughlin, as they explore some of the more humorous, joyful, mocking, and satirical aspects of queer sensibility. n their new books – Whatever Happened to Queer Happiness and Sinkhole: Three Crimes – Kevin and Rosanna look at everything, from the state of contemporary Britain to the pretensions of queerness itself.
Kevin and Rosanna are both widely published critics and essayists, and are two of the most thought provoking commentators on contemporary culture today, writing on everything from global art biennales to the pleasures of Ariana Grande.
Bring your own book to the monthly online get together on Tuesday 13 December at 7pm, for a book club with a twist. Share inspiration found between the pages, as those in attendance each get a chance to talk a little bit about the book they have been reading and what they thought about it. There is no required reading, just a desire to talk about what you’ve been reading!
To keep up to date with the latest news about the event you wish to attend, please register your interest via Eventbrite.
To help keep the team healthy and the shop open, October Books strongly encourage face coverings when attending events and gatherings in the shop. They also ask that people stay at home if they are not feeling well.
- In Common is not for profit. We rely on donations from readers to keep the site running. Could you help to support us for as little as 25p a week? Please help us to carry on offering independent grass roots media. Visit: https://www.patreon.com/incommonsoton