16 booksellers celebrate Parker's memoir

Sixteen booksellers have gathered at an 18th-century farmhouse in Wales to celebrate Mike Parker’s memoir On The Red Hill (William Heinemann).

The retailers, who represent 10 shops, gathered at Rhiw Goch (Red Hill) in mid-Wales to explore the setting featured in Parker’s book, described by the publisher as an “unusual memoir/queer rural story”. 

On the Red Hill follows Parker and his partner Peredur, who were witnesses at the first civil partnership ceremony in the small Welsh town of Machynlleth in 2006. The celebrants were their friends Reg and George, who had moved to rural Wales in 1972, not long after the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

“When Reg and George died within a few weeks of each other in 2011, Mike and Peredur discovered that they had been left their home, Rhiw Goch a whitewashed ‘house from the children’s stories’, buried deep within the hills,” the synopsis reads. “They had also been left a lifetime’s collection of diaries, photographs, letters and books, all revealing an extraordinary history.”

The 16 booksellers represented shops from across Wales including Jaffe & Neale, Booka, Book-ish, Castle Bookshop, Browsers, Palas Print, Pen’rallt Gallery Bookshop, Pengwern Books, Ystwyth Books and Waterstones Aberystwyth. Penguin Random House independent retailers partnership manager Kate Gunning also attended, along with publicist Kate McQuaid and Welsh sales rep Alun Owen.

In addition to a guided walk through the woods and fields and wild swimming in the pond, booksellers examined artefacts from the lives of George and Reg, including a collection of photographs and diaries (as featured in the book), a gallery of paintings, and the gardens. The day also included live music and a Q&A on the book with Parker in the barn.

On The Red Hill was acquired last year and will be published on 6th June.