Jeremiad

April 29, 2013 • 5:28 pm 2

Blackwell’s and Creation Theatre Present Jekyll & Hyde

8th June – 6th July 2013

Blackwell’s are proud to announce that once again, after the success of previous productions such as The Odyssey and Doctor Faustus, Creation Theatre will be treading the boards in our very own Norrington Room, with their production of the well-loved classic, Jekyll & Hyde. Saved by their most generous benefactors and supporters, following the wettest summer in 100 years, Creation will return with their forthcoming production of Jekyll & Hyde. This show will see the company exploring a new approach with an intimate performance to 100 guests each night.

The Norrington Room will be transformed into a spectacular theatre as Creation delight and astound with a story of Good vs. Evil in the body of one man. Taking as inspiration the esteemed work of one of our greatest authors, Robert Louis Stevenson, one actor will embody every role in this tale of gothic horror. Refreshments will be available on the evening, and our expert booksellers will be on hand, should a book take your fancy from the Norrington Room’s almost 3 miles of shelving.

The show will run from Saturday 8th June to Saturday 6th July. Dates and times: Tuesday & Wednesday, 7:30pm. Thursday – Saturday, 7:30pm & 9pm. Running time of one hour. Tickets are available in advance or on the door. Please be aware that seats are limited to 100 per performance, and therefore booking is advised. Seating is allocated. Performances are suitable for adults and children from the age of 8. Seated tickets are £16, standing tickets are £10. Book your ticket online at http://www.creationtheatre.co.uk/booking/how-to-book

Filed under: Bookshop news and events, Creation Theatre, Oxford

April 29, 2013 • 11:56 am 0

Blackwell’s gets Oxfordshire Artweeks first exhibition up and running early in Caffe Nero

The Seven Ages of Oxford’ and several other original watercolour paintings from the new book ‘That Sweet City – Visions of Oxford’ with poetry by John Elinger and illustrated by Katherine Shock will be one of the first exhibitions to be found for Oxfordshire Artweeks which starts officially on 4th May. (Site 66). The exhibition runs right through until 30th May and marks the launch of this new book of poetry, walks with maps and atmospheric illustrations of some well known and some little known haunts of this magical city.

Poet John Elinger (Sir Christopher Ball, former Fellow and Tutor in English at Lincoln College and then Warden of Keble College) lives in and knows Oxford well as does the artist Katherine Shock. Together they pay tribute to the city they love in seven series of seven poems and paintings in the new Signal Books publication and many of the paintings can be found at Blackwell. (Others will be shown during City Week from 4-12 May at Site 154 in the Woodstock Road). The Book is available from 1st May.

Filed under: Bookshop news and events, Oxford

April 15, 2013 • 2:33 pm 0

Blackwell’s and Opera Anywhere Present Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado & Pirates of Penzance

Blackwell’s Bookshop and Opera Anywhere are proud to present a two week celebration of Gilbert & Sullivan, taking place in Blackwell’s world-renowned Norrington Room.

From Thursday 23rd May until Saturday 1st June, the Philosophy section of the Norrington Room will be transformed into our very own Opera House, as Opera Anywhere perform The Mikado from Thursday 23rd May to Saturday 25th May at 7:30pm and then The Pirates of Penzance from Thursday 30th May until Saturday 1st June at 7:30pm. With talented opera singers performing some of Gilbert and Sullivan’s best loved classics, in one of Oxford’s most magical venues, opera enthusiasts and book lovers alike are in for a treat.

Blackwell’s and Opera Anywhere will also be hosting singer’s master-classes, that will concentrate entirely on Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, taking place on Tuesday 21st and Tuesday 28th May at 7:30pm. Budding young soloists will be trying their G&S arias out in 20 minute sessions with members of Opera Anywhere’s professional cast, who will be giving advice and critiques- giving a taster of what is to come in the G&S shows for the rest of the week. Whether you’re an aspiring opera singer yourself, or simply a lover of Gilbert & Sullivan, we’re certain our Gilbert & Sullivan Master-classes will be prove to be fantastically entertaining evenings.

Opera Anywhere are known for performing unique versions of operas, both old and new, in unusual and interesting locations. With over 3 miles worth of books, the Norrington Room will certainly provide the perfect setting for a night of Gilbert & Sullivan’s finest. As Blackwell’s Music Shop has moved over to the flagship Blackwell’s shop on Broad Street, Opera Anywhere’s series of performances form one of the first in what we hope will be a long line of music events in the Norrington Room.

Make sure to book your tickets in advance for what promises to be a spectacular run of performances.

For £5 audience tickets for the Opera Master-classes, book online at http://www.OperaAnywhere.com or call 0844 8700 887.

Tickets for The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance range from £10 to £16. For the Box Office, please call the Creation Theatre Box Office (number 01865 766266 from 10am-6pm Monday – Friday) or buy online at http://www.OperaAnywhere.com.

Filed under: Uncategorized

February 20, 2013 • 2:45 pm 0

Medical Matters Medical Week: Helen & Douglas House 30th Anniversary Evening

Blackwell’s is proud to announce an evening to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Helen & Douglas House, in conjunction with our ‘Medical Matters’ Medical Week.

On Tuesday 26th February at 7pm, we will be joined by Clare Edwards, the Deputy CEO and Director of Clinical Services at Helen & Douglas House. Clare will be talking about palliative and specialist care at Helen & Douglas House, supported by case studies of the many children, young adults and families that use the hospice for respite, emergency and end-of-life care. Consultant Paediatrician, Dr. Emily Harrop, and Nurse Consultant, Karen Brombley will also be present to offer their expertise on the subject.
In 1982, Helen House opened in Oxford as the world’s first children’s hospice, and they have been supporting families from Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties ever since. To mark their 30th anniversary, they have put together a photo exhibition, ‘We Are Thirty’. It documents life at Helen House and Douglas House, and features 30 children and young adults who use the hospice houses, as well as families who have used the hospice in the past. We will be displaying the exhibition throughout Medical Week and on the evening itself.
We will also be holding a raffle with plenty of fabulous prizes to be won, all the proceeds of which will go to Helen & Douglas House.
So please join us in celebrating and supporting this extremely worthwhile cause.

Tickets for this event cost £4, £3 of this will be donated to Helen and Douglas House. Tickets are available at our Customer Service Department, Blackwell’s Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford. Telephone: 01865 333623.

Filed under: Bookshop news and events

February 1, 2013 • 1:15 pm 1

Top Tips for Couples from Lucy Beresford

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, author of ‘Happy Relationships at Home, Work and Play’, Psychologies agony aunt and psychotherapist, Lucy Beresford divulges her top tips for couples.

Lucy will be joining us on Tuesday 5th February at 7pm to talk about her new book with broadcaster, David Freeman. Tickets cost £3 and are available from our Customer Service Department, Blackwell’s Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford. Telephone: 01865 333623.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and so the thoughts of some of us turn to love and intimacy. Some of us will be in relationships, some of us are looking for a partner, but all of us need to be reminded that long-lasting love must be worked at, consciously, every day.

To begin with, we need to recognise that we often have unmet needs or hopes left over from childhood. Without realising it, we could be trying to repeat a childhood relationship in which we felt unloved or rejected or disrespected. By unconsciously repeating the same kind of relationship as grown-ups, we are trying to repair it. By taking responsibility for what needs we bring to our present-day relationships, we can stop blaming our partner for failing to meet that need.

We also need to pay attention to what happens in the bedroom. For example, porn is having a negative effect on relationships. Recent research has shown that women of all ages are feeling under increasing pressure to look a certain way in the bedroom, and that men speak of being bored by ‘ordinary’ sexual activity. As a result, couples are becoming increasing dissatisfied with their love lives.

But of course, porn is not an accurate representation of intimate relationships. So even if we are newly married, we need to find time to talk sensitively to each other about sex in general and our sex life in particular. Sex isn’t about recreating the same excitements which existed at the beginning of your relationship, but about maintaining a sexual journey, which fulfils and nourishes you and your partner.

beresford Criticism corrodes relationships, so we need to keep cross words to a minimum. It’s helpful to bear in mind how we would feel if someone criticised us all the time. Even if we grew up being criticised in childhood and therefore believe we can’t help ourselves, we do possess the capacity to change. By catching ourselves about to criticise, we can make a choice about whether to carry on doing so. Instead of always looking for the negative, we can try competing with our partner to be the one to say positive, encouraging things, and do loving or helpful things.

Above all, whether we are currently in a relationship or looking for that someone special, remember that the more we put in, the more we put ourselves on the line in a relationship, the more rewarding our intimate relationships can be.

Filed under: Bookshop news and events, Guest Blogs, Literary Events

January 10, 2013 • 3:09 pm 0

It’s a Dog’s Life : Capturing Animal Behaviour Through a Lens by Andy Hughes

In his first guest blog for Broad Conversation Andy Hughes, the author of ‘I, Jack Russell’, writes about the human-animal bond from a photographer’s perspective. All images are taken from Andy Hughes’ book, ‘I, Jack Russell’.

Andy will be joining us in conversation with renowned author of ‘In Defence of Dogs’ Dr. John Bradshaw, next week, on Wednesday 16th January at 7pm. Tickets cost £3 and are available from our Customer Service Department, or over the phone on 01865 333623.

Photographers, artists, writers and other ‘creatives’ are diverse in motivation, interests, experiences and insights. Much of my photographic practice deals with issues concerning the marine and coastal environment, however recently, I realized or perhaps discovered by accident that I had many more images of my two dogs than I did of my family and friends and this lead to a new field of research. I began this project about Jack Russell dogs by looking to find as many family snapshots, which included our dogs. I found a few and these are included in my recent book I Jack Russell which attempts to encourage readers to think about their own snapshots of dogs and about the dog human bond.

Many people come across images (photographic ones) in their daily life. Ubiquitous to some and unique to others there are millions of photographic images in the word today. In Roland Barth’s seminal book Camera Lucida he coined the term punctum, this denotes a type of ‘wounding’, a sort of personal touching detail which establishes a direct relationship with the object or person within it. The re-discovery of my own family snapshots containing images my own pet dogs as a young child brought Barth’s concept sharply in focus and led me to enquire further leading me to a number of books which became key in my search to understand the relationship between people and dogs.

For instance, after reading John Bradshaw, Alexandra Horowitz and Mark Derr it became clear to me that my thinking about my own dogs and dogs in general was far from complete or fully developed.

As well as published material, social networks such as DogBook that have photographic images of dogs seem as important to us as do images of other humans on Facebook. Collections of these images can often be found in our own albums or more readily in this day and age on our mobile phones or via our personal webpages. One very interesting historical survey can be seen in the book Dogs by Catherine Johnson where one can look at hundreds of images of dogs; it is a book filled with amateur, anonymous snapshots of dogs from the turn of the century to the early 1950s.

In I Jack Russell my motivations were driven by something more than simply capturing a sense of likeness. Something more akin to Barth’s concept. In a wonderful precise and short essay titled ‘Dogs’ Robert Adams [1] beautifully describes various relationships between artists and their dogs. Two sentences in particular resonate.

‘Art depends on there being affection in its creator’s life, and an artist must find ways, like everyone else, to nourish it. A photographer down on his or her knees picturing a dog has found pleasure enough to make many things possible.’

‘Artists live by curiosity and enthusiasm, qualities readily evident as inspiration in dogs. Propose to a dog a walk and its response is absolutely yes.’

The bond between creative enterprise, artistic interpretation and the sciences are re-bonding and revealing new insights. Research into the relationship between the dog and human is set to continue – we should all keep our nose to the blogosphere and bookshelf to help fully understand the dog and human world.

[1] Robert Adams: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews, Aperture (1994)

Andy Hughes January 7. 2013-01-07

www.andyhughes.net

http://cabiblog.typepad.com/hand_picked/

Filed under: Guest Blogs, Literary Events

December 17, 2012 • 4:05 pm 2

Blackwell’s Christmas Shopping Fundraiser Evening with Creation Theatre

We are thrilled to announce that we be holding a Christmas Shopping Fundraiser Evening, in aid of Creation Theatre, on Thursday 20th December from 6 till 9pm.

Along with Creation Theatre, we invite you to buy those last minute Christmas presents, at our late-night shopping extravaganza. Not only will we be opening later on this night, we’ll also be providing the mince pies and wine for you to get into the Christmas spirit while you browse.

Following the wettest summer in 100 years, and a 50% drop in tourism to Oxford, Creation currently finds itself in great need of support to fund their future. Despite their best efforts, the bad weather has meant that unless they are able to raise £50,000 by the end of the year, they will be unable to proceed with plans for any more shows after their current Christmas show, ‘Aladdin and the Magical Lamp.’ It would be a great loss to the Oxford community if this happened, and so for this evening 20% of all book sales will go towards Creation Theatre.

They will also have a box-office set up on the night, so you can get your tickets to their current Christmas show, ‘Aladdin and the Magical Lamp’.

So join us on Thursday from 6pm, not only to get in some more Christmas shopping before the big day, but also to support one of Oxford’s most-loved institutions.

Aladdin and the Magical Lamp

Thursday 6th December 2012 to Saturday 5th January 2013

The North Wall Arts Centre, Summertown Oxford

If you had three wishes, what would you wish for? This Christmas, Creation Theatre will whisk you away on a magic carpet ride with peasant boy Aladdin, Princess Badr-al-Budur, and a couple of mischievous, magical genies. Along the way you’ll encounter evil scorcerors, secret caves and an enchanted lamp, in this age-old tale of adventure that everyone can enjoy.

Tickets: £13.50 – £25. Box Office: 01865766266. Or book online at www.creationtheatre.co.uk.

Filed under: Bookshop news and events, Creation Theatre, Uncategorized

December 7, 2012 • 4:57 pm 2

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: a 21st Century Bestiary

Guest blogger, Caspar Henderson, writes for Broad Conversation on his new book, ‘The Book of Barely Imagined Beings’. We will be holding an event with Caspar on Wednesday 12th December at 5pm. See below for more details.

In The Book of Imaginary Beings, Luis Borges maps a good part of the terrain of myth and story that humans have ever dreamed up. Amongst his inspirations was the medieval European bestiary, or ‘book of beasts’, a genre that reached its full flowering in beautifully illuminated manuscripts, in the decades before the Black Death.

Bestiaries are full of allegory and symbol because, for the medieval mind, every natural creature was believed to embody a religious or moral lesson. Hume and Darwin discredited this way of looking at nature. Our new reality, however, is that as we humans increasingly shape the world through science, technology and our sheer numbers, such other living things as do thrive and evolve are increasingly becoming corollaries of what we love, value or neglect. In this sense, the world is becoming allegorical again.

Our times are more like the Middle Ages than we like to think. We still routinely mix rational thinking, mythology and spirituality, which can be good for us, with delusion and lies, which never are. We may have a vastly greater store of knowledge, and have made enormous strides in human health and political liberty, but it is far from clear that we are capable of using this knowledge wisely, as continuing blockages to rational action on climate change show.

Self-styled techno-optimists such as Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline, suggest that we are as gods so we might as well get good at it. Agreed, industrial civilisation has given us awesome powers, but a better characterisation of how we handle those powers is made by Braden Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz in The Techno-Human Condition: We are as gods? No, for we have created the power but not the mind. We have got used to, even blasé about, the possibility of nuclear winter, in the way a two year old gets used to a loaded .357 magnum lying on the floor within easy reach.

A good starting point for a life well-lived is continual effort to enlarge the boundaries of one’s imagination and knowledge to all the dimensions and details of the real world. Henry Thoreau may have written that in wildness is the salvation of the world, but this environmental visionary and political radical was not a wooly thinker. It was Thoreau not the supposedly practical folk around him who refused to believe that Walden pond was bottomless and actually took the trouble to measure its depth with a plumb line. As Richard Feynman later said, our imagination is stretched to the utmost not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.

We know that the oceans, for example, contain creatures stranger than anything you will find in a medieval bestiary: beings as tall as men that have no internal organs and thrive in waters that would scald us to death in moments; others which are highly intelligent but able nevertheless to squeeze their bodies through spaces the width of their own eyeballs. We know that there is a vast world of cold darkness on this planet in which almost every creature glows with its own light. Some of the creatures you might find also appear in The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, a work inspired both by medieval bestiaries and the newest discoveries in science. I hope you can join us for the talk at Blackwell’s.

Caspar Henderson’s The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is published by Granta. @casparhenderson and barelyimaginedbeings.com

Join us as Caspar will be discussing his book and signing copies on Wednesday 12th December at 5pm. This is a free event, all are welcome. We advise that you arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Filed under: Bookshop news and events, Guest Blogs

November 29, 2012 • 12:32 pm 0

Christmas Events at Blackwell’s

We’re all getting into the Christmas spirit here at Blackwell’s. The lights are up, the trees are decorated and Jack Frost has been nipping at our noses.

We have a calendar packed full of festive delights coming up over the next two weeks. Ranging from our Christmas Family Day, to a book signing with the man himself, Michael Palin, there is something for everyone.

On Thursday, December 6th, from 1pm, Michael Palin will be joining us for a signing of his new book, ‘Brazil’.

Half a continent in size and a potent mix of races, religions and cultures, of unexplored wildernesses and bustling modern cities, Brazil is one of the few countries Michael Palin has never fully travelled. In a new series for BBC1 – his first for five years – his new book ‘Brazil’ explores, in his inimitable way, this vast and disparate nation.

We advise that you show up early to get your hands on that perfect Christmas present for a loved one, or even for yourself!

This is a free event, all are welcome. Blackwell Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BQ. 01865 333623.

On Saturday, December 8th, from 11am, we will be holding our annual Blackwell’s Christmas Family Day.

Grab a woolly hat, maybe a carrot, a big handful of snow and join us for some Raymond Briggs, ‘The Snowman’ themed fun.

The day will include:

Christmas music from Abingdon Brass Band
Face painting
Balloon modelling
Christmas storytelling with Andrew Weale
(Shortlisted Red House Children’s Book Award 2013 The Spooky Spooky House)
Cartoons with Clive Goddard
(the hilarious illustrator of the Horribly Famous series)
Arts, crafts, activities, competitions, games & much more

This event is free and

will be taking place in the Children’s Department.

During our Christmas Family Day, BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz will be talking about his new book, ‘What Are You Looking At?’ Saturday, December 8, 2012 at 12pm

He will be explaining, in the blink of an eye, why:

Image credit: Ben May

-Conceptual Art isn’t actually rubbish

-Picasso was a genius (but Cézanne might be better)

-Pollock is no drip

-Cubism has no cubes

-A urinal changed the course of art

and

-Why your five-year-old really couldn’t do it

Probably the world’s first art-history stand-up comedian. Refreshing and irreverent Will cuts through the pretentious art speak and asks all the questions you were too embarrassed to.

All this to come over the next couple of weeks. Make sure to come along to one of our varied events, and indulge in some yuletide fun.

Filed under: Bookshop news and events

November 20, 2012 • 11:43 am 0

30 Great Myths About Shakespeare

Guest bloggers, Laurie Maguire and Emma Smith, write for Broad Conversation on their new book, ’30 Great Myths About Shakespeare’. We will be holding the launch of their new book on Tuesday 27th November. See below for more details.

We are thrilled to be launching our book Thirty Great Myths About Shakespeare at Blackwell’s on 27 November. We wrote the book to explore what we think we know about Shakespeare and why these beliefs are important to us. For us a myth is a widely-held perception or assumption, which is not necessarily untrue but which exaggerates, speculates, constructs or simplifies some aspect of Shakespeare’s life, theatre, and works. In our book we try to evaluate evidence for and against these myths to show not just how historical material – and the lack of it – can be interpreted and misinterpreted, but what this reveals about our own personal investment in the stories we tell about our national poet. Myths about Shakespeare, we discover, recapitulate deeply held ideas about genius and popularity, but also about emotions including love and grief.

Our short chapters scrutinise issues such as ‘Shakespeare was a Catholic’ or ‘Shakespeare detested his wife’ or ‘Queen Elizabeth loved Shakespeare’s plays’. Where possible we try to redirect speculation away from biography and back towards the works – the real reason Shakespeare is important to us today. At Blackwell’s we’ll be talking about some of the myths and discussing them with you. Who knows… maybe we we will get the material for the next thirty.

Laurie Maguire and Emma Smith on ’30 Great Myths About Shakespeare’. Tuesday 27th November at 7pm. Tickets cost £3 and can be obtained by telephoning or visiting the Customer Service Department, Blackwell Bookshop, Oxford. 01865 333623.

Filed under: Guest Blogs, Literary Events

Broad Conversation

Blackwell’s and Creation Theatre Present Jekyll & Hyde

Blackwell’s gets Oxfordshire Artweeks first exhibition up and running early in Caffe Nero

Blackwell’s and Opera Anywhere Present Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado & Pirates of Penzance

Medical Matters Medical Week: Helen & Douglas House 30th Anniversary Evening

Top Tips for Couples from Lucy Beresford

It’s a Dog’s Life : Capturing Animal Behaviour Through a Lens by Andy Hughes

Blackwell’s Christmas Shopping Fundraiser Evening with Creation Theatre

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: a 21st Century Bestiary

Christmas Events at Blackwell’s

30 Great Myths About Shakespeare

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