Winterson and Ince join Bookshop Day celebrations

Authors including Jeanette Winterson have been confirmed for the final programme of events celebrating Bookshop Day.

Taking place on 9th October, the annual celebration of bookshops across the UK and Ireland will see booksellers, publishers, authors, illustrators and poets work collaboratively on the campaign to encourage readers to "Shop Early, Shop Local"  ahead of Christmas. For the first time this year, 'BookTokers' will be promoting the event across TikTok.

Winterson will be joined by Mark O’Connell, author of Notes from an Apocalypse and To Be a Machine (Granta), to discuss AI and the future of humanity at Manchester University. Part of Manchester Literature Festival, the event is hosted by writer Kate Feld and run in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester.

Robin Ince (pictured right) will be at Mount Florida Books in Glasgow on Bookshop Day as a part of his 100-bookshop tour to celebrate the release of his new title, The Importance of Being Interested (Atlantic). Other shops on the tour include his childhood store The Chorleywood Bookshop, his current local Our Bookshop in Tring and shops in St Helens, Stewarton, Carlisle, Settle, Ilkley, Wootton-Under-Edge, Bristol, Sidmouth and Exeter. At each stop he will ask booksellers to recommend the title that has piqued their curiosity the most, and he will create a site charting the path of the tour and the recommendations he received. 

Picaresque Books & Galerie Fantoosh in Dingwall will be holding a "Gathering of Authors", with local writers donating signed copies of their books for an auction in aid of Book Aid. Signed titles by Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Graeme Macrae Burnett and S G Maclean will be available.

Piers Torday will be recording an episode for the "Writers Routine" podcast, to be released on Bookshop Day. He said: "My favourite bookshop is Pickled Pepper Books in Crouch End, North London—not just because they have supported my books from the very start, but it is a wonderful shop, so welcoming to children and families. [Its owners] Steve and Urmi are always ahead of the curve, and understood early on how the bookshop experience was changing; they converted a room above the store into a children's theatre, they went full on into supplying school events (including mine) and can also happily fulfil any order, children's or adult. They have just opened a new pop-up shop in Enfield, and I hope to be popping by there soon, because buying a book at Pickled Pepper is always a joy."

Emma Bradshaw, head of campaigns at the Booksellers Association, said: “One week to Bookshop Day, and we’re already buzzing with excitement! From organising poetry competitions and spoken-word sets to secretly dropping books around town, to mind-blowing window displays, the creativity of booksellers knows no limit, and they will have something in store for everyone this Bookshop Day. As the beating hearts of their communities, bookshops getting involved in charitable initiatives is a real testament to the incredible contribution they bring to the high street, and the local communities they serve. We wish everyone a wonderful Bookshop Day."

Previously announced participants include Laura Maiklem, author of Mudlarking and A Field Guide to Larking (both published by Bloomsbury), and Nigel Warburton interviewing Amia Srinivasan, author of the recently released The Right to Sex (Bloomsbury) at Blackwell’s Oxford.

Raynor Winn will be involved in an event as part of Dorchester Literary Festival, while Melissa Cummings-Quarry and Natalie A Carter, authors of Grown: The Black Girls’ Guide to Glowing Up (Bloomsbury Children's), will be doing an event at the newly opened Book Haus Bristol.