Scarthin Books

09/09/2026

Now in stock, signed copies of Tom Cox’s new book

09/09/2026

The Solstice Nature Prize
For Young Writers
open until 10th October 2026.

https://writingeastmidlands.co.uk/young-writers-groups/solstice-writing-prize/
Four age categories: 7-11, 12-14, 15-17 and 18-25s

The Solstice Nature Prize for Writing 2025 is open! Writers aged 7-11, 12-14, 15-17 and 18-25 can now enter their short stories and poems.

06/09/2026

Literary Mythology Quiz

1/6. The Greek goddess of the harvest, agriculture, and the fertility of the earth also gave her name to the ship on which Count Dracula arrived in Whitby. What was the name they had in common?

2/6. Which Radio 4 broadcaster, who ‘stands up for the classics’, has written books on Women in the Greek Myths, and Goddesses in the Greek Myths, while her fiction tends to concentrate on one figure from mythology in each book?

3/6. Written to take the minds of his wife and daughter off the German bombers overhead, E V Rieu’s translation of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ in 1946 became the first book in which series? In the 1970s the addition of black bindings made the series stand out.

4/6. ‘The Lightning Thief’ (2005) by Rick Riordan launched a series in which its hero, who discovers he is a demi-god (not very common in New York City these days), travels across the USA to recover the lightning bolt of the god Zeus. Who is this young hero?

5/6. Which 1939 crime novel about American gangsters kidnapping an heiress, written by an Englishman who had never crossed the Atlantic, recreates the myth of Persephone and her captivity in the underworld?

6/6. In the nineteenth century Joel Chandler Harris recounted stories of which trickster figure who did not want to be thrown ‘in the briar patch’? In the twentieth century his fame spread as Enid Blyton added him to her repertoire. Only then came Disney’s ‘Song of the South’.

04/09/2026

Sponsored Cycle from Sheffield to Paris

On 7th September, Peter McEvoy starts his 425-mile bike ride to Paris to raise funds for The Sumatran Orangutan Society; restoring and protecting the rainforest habitat of the Sumatran Orangutans.

To highlight the cause he’s cycling as his alter-ego, Pongo McVoysii. Come meet the man behind the orangutan who will be in The Scarthin cafe until 12 today or donate via the link here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/peter-mcevoy-1

01/09/2026

Beano’s admiring his new status as the employee of the month…👀🥇

31/08/2026

If you would like to meet Peter and hear more about the threats to the lifestyle and existence of the crucial population of Orangutan families in Sumatra, and about the work of the SOS charity, he will be in character at Scarthin Books on Friday 4th. September between 11 am and 12 noon. It would help us to plan if you can let us know if you are likely to come. Please email [email protected] or phone or text 07539 683907 but you are welcome to come anyway.

31/08/2026

Coming soon……. We are dues to receive signed copies of Tom Cox’s new book ‘ Curious Events Lately Occurring in this Neighbourhood’ in the coming week. A collection of short stories published on a smaller scale. To reserve a signed copy please either call the shop on 01629 823272 or email [email protected]

31/08/2026

Literary Lives Quiz

1/6. ‘Welcome to Your Life’ by Roland Orzabal, published in August 2026, takes its title from a song by which group, in which Roland and Curt Smith performed together?

2/6. Out now, ‘The Life of M’ recounts the relationship of an author with a contemporary actress. It has been suggested that it is more like biography than fiction. Who is the author known for this style of writing?

3/6. Which author, born June 25th 1903, wrote ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ (1937) which is both a metaphor, and true (he had walked almost all the way from Coventry to Manchester in 1936)?

4/6. In the summer (July 2026) Gerald Martin published his enormous biography of Mario Vargas Llosa, the author and Nobel Prize-winner who wrote ‘Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter’, ‘The War of the End of the World’ and ‘Death in the Andes’. What nationality did the author share with Michael Bentine, creator of ‘Potty Time’?

5/6. ‘The Illuminated Man’ was to have been a biographical study of J G Ballard by another leading British science fiction author, but he had to hand it to his partner Nina Allan to complete after his own death. Who was this author, who wrote ‘The Prestige’ (filmed by Christopher Nolan in 2006)?

6/6. In a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1813, which author wrote:
‘I do not write for such dull elves
As have not a good deal of ingenuity themselves’?

30/08/2026

Literary August Quiz
Answers spell A.U.G.U.S.T.

1/6. Which poet wrote the opening line ‘August for the people and their favourite islands’? Nominally describing holidays on the Baltic coast in the 1930s it reflects the English August Bank Holiday which was then on the first Monday of the month, not the last as now.

2/6. How does Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky’s name appear in the title of an 1897 play by Anton Chekhov about the problems of maintaining an inherited property?

3/6. P G Wodehouse created many characters apart from Jeeves and Wooster. One of them was ‘The Oldest Member’. He was the Oldest Member of a what?

4/6. ‘House of Cards’ (1989) and its two sequels, all by Michael Dobbs, rapidly made their way to the television screen. What was the name of its villainous protagonist who would do anything to get to the top of the greasy political pole?

5/6. Born on August 24th 1948, who is the author of a series of books about the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency?

6/6. Often quoted to inspire struggling athletes, the words ‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield’ come from ‘Ulysses’, a poem by which Victorian Poet Laureate?

Bonus Who was the first detective in fiction, created by Edgar Allan Poe, in stories such as ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ (1841), ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’ (1842) and ‘The Purloined Letter’ (1844)?