I have been volunteering at my local Oxfam bookshop for five weeks now, and my tenth afternoon there today started with a colleague pouring a pile of paperbacks in front of me whilst searching for something.

   “Fun here, isn’t it?” he said cheerfully.

I had to agree; though the sea of books in question was now covering what had originally been a tidy sorting room it is always interesting sorting through donations, and I do enjoy my afternoons in the shop.

For example, I recently came across a collection of early 1900s schoolbooks which advised the reader against ‘potentially dangerous children’s stories’ and instead instructed them to teach children ‘agreeable English’!  Who knows what they would have thought of Harry Potter? He often turns up in the donations, and this can only be a good thing because it allows others to discover his world. The Harry Potter books are some of my favourites, and I’m sure JK Rowling’s creation will be enjoyed by people of all ages for a long time to come.

I am also quite a dab hand at spotting ‘young adult fiction’ amongst donations, being a young adult reader myself, and make sure they get put in the right place. This is important because we want to encourage people of all ages to enjoy reading. However, I’m still waiting for a copy of my favourite book, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, or its sequel, Catching Fire, to turn up. These books are stunning in their ability to keep you on the edge of your seat, and I often recommend them to people.

It is best to know your Joanne Harris from your Jack Higgins at our shop, because mainstream and crime/thriller fiction are presented separately. Several times I have seen a couple walk in together and immediately part from one another, he to the crime and she to the mainstream. I often wonder what would happen if they perused one another’s shelves!

Today I also had the added privilege of being ‘shop DJ’ – in other words, choosing the background music, which is the duty of whoever is operating the till. My co-volunteer chose a relaxing Carpenters record – yes, record! I don’t even know how to work the record player yet, but being a fan of Keane I was pleased to find their first album on the shelf and chose it when it was my turn. The job does have perks!

Unfortunately, I am not wonderfully skilled at operating the till just yet, and had to call for help when someone wanted to pay by card. Hopefully I will get more practice in the weeks running up to Christmas. Soon the decorations will be coming out to go with our new Christmas stock – there is a collection of stocking-fillers on display at the moment which I have been eyeing up today, thinking they will make good presents.

In the time I have worked at Oxfam I have met lots of people, customers and volunteers alike, and all seem to share my love of books and reading. It is always pleasing to see someone come into the bookshop and find exactly what they were looking for, and I look forward to learning and growing as a volunteer in the future. On Monday, I will go straight to the sorting room again, knowing that there will be a fresh lot of books all over the place – and that’s the way it should be.

If a book’s value is increased because of the strength of the memories it evokes, then one way to send the value skyrocketing is having the hand that wrote the book sign the paper within.

While a signed copy of a book can mean a marked-up price tag, it adds a value that you cannot put a figure on: adding a personal touch, multiplying memories.

A signed book found online or in your local Oxfam shop is a bonus. A new copy bought for the author to sign in front of you is an experience. But a much-loved, been-through-everything-with-you copy signed by a literary genius? A treasure to be savoured, potentially a family heirloom.

The signing process itself is fraught with nerves (sometimes more on the author’s side than you may realise).

First, there’s the wait. Then, what do you say? Whatever you manage to mumble, you want it to be intelligent, witty, memorable, but short (don’t be the rambling idiot who takes up the signing star’s time and receives death stares from the queue).

It’s your turn. The author: pen poised. You: mind blank. Or the babbling begins…

Afterwards, the self-flagellation of missed opportunity – you rewind the seconds of shyness overcoming you, your reduction to an inane grin, and the hasty retreat.

Are you haunted by the clever comeback five minutes too late, the embarrassment of saying something stupid to your idol, the disappointment of a bored/tired/retiring/RSI-ridden author? Or worse, the slap-in-the-face wake-up call that your hero is in fact a real person, even more deeply flawed than the rest of us.

But maybe you have been lucky: cool and calm in collection, happy in the delusion that the smile bestowed means you’ve found a new best friend. Ah, the thrill of a successful signing.

Later, there’s the small burst of joy every time you open the book and it’s His or Her name there. A dedication inscribed just for you, to you, a small acknowledgement of existence, all from The Author.

And speaking of signing, I’m now sadly signing off as editor of this blog because I’m no longer based in the UK. I’m so grateful to all who have contributed to the blog’s launch, production and community - a big thank you to the Oxfam books team and shop network, our guest bloggers and everyone who has read and commented on posts. I’ve had a fantastic time, but I’m now leaving you in the capable hands of Alex Barker, who’ll make the next chapter of the blog even bigger and better! Best of luck to Alex and best wishes to you all…

Oh, and please let us know in the comments, what have been your most memorable (for good or bad reasons) book signing encounters?

Classroom is NATE’s magazine, essential reading for all teachers of English, both primary and secondary. It has articles about practical teaching strategies and resources, reflections on recent experiences, a regular review section addressing relevant texts for teachers and children’s fiction, and extracts from relevant, entertaining texts by professional writers and authors.

NATE is recommending Ox-Tales to all its members as “enjoyable, thought-provoking reading for you and also for older students - well worth a place in the secondary school stock cupboard for KS4 of KS5.”

A huge thanks to Marina and to NATE.

Meet… Vic Morrison

Vic Morrison is a driven man. In fact, he’s driven more than a quarter of a million miles around the UK in his role as a volunteer driver for Oxfam.

He’s has been hitting the roads for 11 years with Oxfam to clock up this amazing achievement. At least three times a week, Vic criss-crosses the country from his home near Leeds to pick up boxes of book donations from generous individuals and book publishers. Driving a box van, which can carry a tonne (or about 140 boxes of books), he transports books between Oxfam shops and Oxfam’s Book Barn in Huddersfield. His deliveries help Oxfam books product development manager Graham Draisey to set up brand-new bookshops.

It’s fitting that Vic is surrounded by books every day, as he is a gilder by trade – he used to gilt-edge books for nearly 18 years. You could say that he has the Midas touch. He’s dedicated to giving books new life, whether it was crafting beautiful gold edges on books then or picking up and collecting books to be sold at Oxfam shops now.

The hard-working driver came to Oxfam after poor health forced him to leave his job at a textile mill and retire. One day he heard on Radio Leeds that Oxfam were calling for volunteers. “Being at home waiting for an operation… I couldn’t cope with it. I needed something to occupy my mind. They wanted drivers, and they wanted sorters, and people to answer telephones and things like that. And I just thought I’d go down and see what it was all about. I think the first job was to drive a transit van to Manchester to take some recycling banks back to the depot.”

Soon after, Graham asked if Vic could lend him a hand. “The first thing I did for Graham was I emptied about 14 or 15 book banks in Leeds and York. And then he wants me to go further afield – Scotland, London…”

11 years later and Vic is still going strong, as is his friendship with Graham. “He worries about me – he rings me up often if I’m away for a long time. If I’m late home, he’s always ringing to say ‘Whereabouts are you, Vic, how are you doing?’. I’m well-looked after.”

He says being a volunteer driver “never ever gets boring, because I’m doing something worthwhile. I enjoy every minute of it”. So, what keeps him going? “It’s the open-air, driving, meeting people – I love to meet people”.

His role with Oxfam has even helped conquer one of his fears. “I always had a fear of going to London because I’d never driven there.” And now? It’s his favourite place to visit.

We’re inviting anyone who’s had the pleasure of meeting Vic on one of his visits to Oxfam shops to let us know of their memories in the comments.

If you’ve been inspired to volunteer your time at an Oxfam shop, head to our section on volunteering. And if you’d like to see one of the multi-talented people working behind the scenes at your local Oxfam shop profiled here, please mention it in the comments and we’ll see what we can do!

I wasn’t sure what to write about in this post, and my procrastination was manifesting itself in the usual way (i.e. reading a book), when I realised that the answer was right in front of me. I was finishing off The Punitive Squads by Ales Adamovich, a harrowing, fictional account of Nazi atrocities against civilians in World War II. Adamovich was Belarusian, and Belarus has become country number 136 on my LibraryThing world reading map. Most importantly, I found the book in my Cotham Hill Oxfam shop.

As my ‘round the world’ reading has progressed, finding the books I need has become more of a challenge. Initially I did most of my buying in charity and secondhand shops. I lived in London at the time, and the Gower Street Oxfam shop was a favourite haunt. Recently I have found myself resorting to the internet more and more. However, I still scour the shelves in Oxfam, and it has paid off twice in the past few months. As well as the Belarusian book, I also picked up Riding the Whirlwind by Habte Bereket Selassie, an Eritrean writer. Eritrea subsequently became number 132 on my list. It’s a real testament to the shop and the donations we get.

It made me wonder what nationalities we have on our shelves at the moment. We are a fairly small shop, so it didn’t take long to do a quick scan. The UK and USA were well-represented, of course, and a search through the classics yielded lots of French, German, Italian and Russian writers. Looking elsewhere in Europe we had writers from countries including Austria (Elfriede Jelinek), Croatia (Slavenka Drakulić) and Georgia (Boris Akunin). Africa was represented by Egypt (Alaa al-Aswany), Botswana (Bessie Head), South Africa (J.M. Coetzee) and Algeria (Albert Camus). From the Americas we had Canada (Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies), Martinique (Patrick Chamoiseau), Jamaica (Andrea Levy), Chile (Isabel Allende) and Colombia (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Restrepo). From further east there was Japan (Kazuo Ishiguro), Australia (Peter Carey), China (Gu Hua), Malaysia (Catherine Lim) and Hong Kong (Timothy Mo). An impressively cosmopolitan bunch of writers, and there were almost certainly others that I missed.

My literary travels have taken me all over the world, but most of my journeys have started in bookshops like Cotham Hill. I would encourage volunteers and managers to celebrate the diversity of literature we sell in our shops, because to me, it is representative of what Oxfam is all about. And if that’s not enough, I may be around, hunting for country number 137…

Read Andy’s post on Reading ’round the world, follow his journeys at LibraryThing, and let us know your thoughts on his global reading mission and any of the above authors.

There are more than 700 Oxfam shops around the country that stock books, and thousands of volunteers and staff dedicated to the book biz. Shops and local Oxfam groups certainly keep busy organising events and all sorts of fun offerings throughout the year.

When it comes to events, a good ol’ book fair is always a popular pick. One local group of Oxfam supporters who would agree is the Oxford Oxfam Group (OOG). The group has about 60 members and a varied programme of events, including twice-yearly book fairs.

If you happen to be in Oxford tomorrow (Saturday 24th), the group is holding a book fair at Wesley Memorial Church Hall, New Inn Hall Street, from 9.30am to 5pm. Head down to bag a good book or three.

The last fair, held in April as part of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, had a great range of books for sale, and for a good cause. With funds going towards Oxfam’s education project in Zambia, they raised a fantastic £2952.

A previous book fair raised money for an education project in Liberia, which has helped 164 teachers improve their teaching skills, three new libraries be established, 12 libraries re-stocked and Parent Teacher Associations put in place.

Events at the Oxfam Marylebone Bookshop in London have included poetry readings and collection launches (often hosted by poet Todd Swift), and food and wine tasting sessions. Oxfam Hertford Bookshop hosted author and illustrator James Mayhew a few months ago.

The Oxfam Byres Road Bookshop in Glasgow keeps everyone updated on what’s happening via their blog and Twitter account. The Oxfam Bookshop in Newcastle Upon Tyne also Tweets about specials and events including raffles, while Oxfam Crouch End has an events section on its site.

To find out what’s happening in your area, get in touch with your local Oxfam shop.

More than 160 people told us the first lines closest to their hearts and why. It was hard to pick a winner out of such great entries! We really loved that a few of you offered the opening lines to your own unpublished novels – thanks and best of luck to these aspiring authors.

A big congrats to the winner, Judith Allen, who scored a hamper of Cafédirect’s award-winning coffees and teas, plus a grinder and cafetiere, worth over £100. She nominated the first line from Iain Banks’s The Crow Road as her favourite: “It was the day my grandmother exploded.” You can read more about this winning entry here.

So, what other lines caught your imagination and wouldn’t let go?

The wonderful opening sentence from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca topped the list of favourites, just edging out George Orwell’s 1984 and Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities by a couple of votes. The classics were well-represented, with Pride and Prejudice and Moby-Dick also high on the list. More modern texts, like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Ox-Tales contributor Mark Haddon, also got a look in.

Check out the list below for more, and let us know in the comments if you agree with these popular picks or if your fave is missing.

1. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

2. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
1984, George Orwell

3. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

4. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

5. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
The Bible

6. “Call me Ishmael.”
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville

7. “Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling

8 (last four received equal votes). “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.”
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

‘It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears’s house. Its eyes were closed.”
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon

Bookfest 2009 was 14 days of more than 250 events big and small, far and wide around the UK. It ran 4-18 July, but we had so much going on we’ve only now (three months later!) reached the end of our reports on festival events. We thought we’d give you a wrap-up of all the action and leave you with some good memories…

The celebration of all things books and writing got off to a sensational start, with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy penning a poem (OXFAM) for us and giving a reading in Didsbury.

Bill Nighy, Joanna Trollope and Monica Ali were the first of many big names who generously volunteered their time at an Oxfam shop. The trio launched the festival and rolled up their sleeves to shelve and price books, plus work the till at the Marylebone High Street bookshop in London.

Philip Pullman got behind the counter as well at Oxfam’s very first bookshop, St Giles in Oxford.

Ken and Barbara Follett launched Bookfest in Stevenage, with customers lining up to meet the best-selling author and their local MP.

Also on the first day, Marti Leimbach visited the Oxfam Reading Bookshop at High Street and blogged about her experience for us.

Authors turned artists when they created special Bookfest shop front window displays, with Jonathan Coe and William Sutcliffe, followed by Ali Smith and Kamila Shamsie, decorating the Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop.

Elsewhere in London, Sebastian Faulks and William Boyd paid a visit to the Portobello Road Oxfam (see a video of the two here).

During Bookfest, we released Ox-Tales, Oxfam’s new four-volume fiction collection featuring works from a star-studded cast of 38 writers and based around the elements of earth, air, water and fire. It’s been a hit with critics and readers, and is now being sold not only in the UK but in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, with more countries to follow. Ox-Tales contributors Mark Haddon, Joanna Trollope and Nicholas Shakespeare launched the new books in Oxford (check out a video of the event). The collection was then launched in Edinburgh with Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith via video and readings from Kate Atkinson and Michel Faber (who debuted an extract from his new novel – we have an exclusive video of the reading). The Ox-Tales juggernaut then rolled into London, with DBC Pierre, Jeanette Winterson, Diran Adebayo and Kamila Shamsie delighting an audience of 500 people, who snapped up a record 158 copies of Ox-Tales in 40 minutes.

The Hay Festival’s Bookfest programme included a fantastic and diverse range of speakers including Fleet Street legend Rosie Boycott, Around the World in 80 Trades‘ Conor Woodman, poet Katrina Naomi, Countdown’s word expert Susie Dent, master of adaptation Andrew Davies, biographer Brenda Maddox, and Law and Order creator GF Newman. Also pulling in the crowds were authors Marina Lewycka (who sold-out her session in Sheffield), Adhaf Soueif and Howard Jacobson. Many thanks go to Paul Blezard, literary editor of the Lady magazine, who tirelessly criss-crossed the country MC-ing many of the Hay Festival events.

We officially launched our Book Barn in Huddersfield, with Simon Armitage coming along to do the ribbon-cutting honours.

But Bookfest wasn’t all about name-dropping literary stars (although did we mention Jeffrey Archer helped Oxfam Bexleyheath publish a book of memories?)! The festival was about showcasing Oxfam shops and bookshops throughout the UK, and getting book lovers in to check out our diverse and high-quality book range. We aimed to raise awareness
about Oxfam as the largest secondhand bookseller in Europe, and we certainly attracted attention. Plus we received lots of very welcome donations too, from individuals to large companies. The generous Times newspaper team were a standout, donating 20,000 of unwanted pre-publicity and review copies of books, CDs and DVDs.

The nationwide Oxfam shop network put together some amazing, entertaining, educational and simply fun events. Local shop teams banded together to put on events, such as the Glasgow shops hosting Scottish talent at their all-day literary celebration.

Kids got into story-telling sessions, punters picked up bargains at book fairs and auctions, and people enjoyed music events, learnt something new at talks, were spooked on
ghost tours, and got crafty at workshops.

We had a design-a-bookmark competition in Perth, creative shop windows in Crewe, a pop-up bookshop at the Go Greener Family Festival in Barrhead, a poetry and photography exhibition in Swansea, readings from local authors in Didsbury (check out Elizabeth Baines’ blog for her accounts of her reading and other events), Rising Brook Writers group’s marathon poetry recital in Stafford and busking for Bookfest in Northallerton in aid of a Tanzanian charity.

Not only did we enjoy getting people involved in celebrating books at events, we loved that you joined in the fun online, too. As this was our first festival, we continued the run of firsts with our first books competition. When we asked you for your favourite first lines (and tempted you with the chance to score a hamper of Cafedirect goodies), we were thrilled by the quantity and quality of entries. Find out who our winner was here.

We hoped you managed to get to an event or joined us here for your front-row seat (and views from the other side of the microphone from event speakers such as guest blogger Oxfam staffer Mary Malpas). Speaking of views from Bookfest insiders, here’s a few words from the driving force of the festival, the extremely hard-working Bookfest project manager, Suzy Smith:

“A huge thank you to all of you who bought books, donated books, volunteered time and attended an event during Bookfest. We are enormously grateful. Your money, books and time are amazing gifts to those living in poverty around the world and every book bought, every item donated and every hour given really does make a difference.

During Bookfest we received 40% more donations compared to last year. Your generosity has meant that since the festival we have raised 10% more cash in our shops from book sales and this trend is continuing. Without your gifts of donated books, time and custom we could not have achieved these amazing results, so give yourself a great big pat on the back.

Your efforts will make a difference on the ground in the countries Oxfam works in, where people live with extremity and hardship every day. It’s wonderful to hear from these people when our staff visit projects and they want us to pass on a whole-hearted thank you for all your support. Many of them are overwhelmed by the fact that you give your time, unwanted items and custom to Oxfam to help them and want you to know how much it changes lives. You are amazing! Be proud of being part of the Oxfam community fighting poverty around the world - together we can make an enormous difference.

And the great news is that Bookfest will be back! Oxfam Bookfest 2010 will run from 3 to 17 July. Put the dates in your diaries and tell your friends. If you have been inspired to get involved or to learn more about our book shops, please contact your local Oxfam shop to find out how you can help by donating, purchasing or even giving a few hours of your time. You can find our handy shop finder here. We would love to work with you!”

Thanks Suzy! And finally, a huge thank you to our books team, dedicated shop network of managers and volunteers, and every single person who helped out with, supported and attended Bookfest (that includes all people who commented on posts and you right now, for reading this blog)!

Please let us know in the comments your thoughts on Bookfest – the good, bad and ugly; what you loved or loathed; and what you’d like to see in future festivals.

The manager of Oxfam Bexleyheath, Diane Dawson, explains what happened when seven courageous men and a famous peer decided to help out Oxfam…

“In January, a gentleman called John came into our shop and, whilst chatting, told me the story of seven men’s recollections of the war. The story caught the imagination of the shop team, who were thinking about what to do to promote Oxfam books during Bookfest.

This interest developed into the shop team starting a writing group with its members sharing stories of memories to do with local history and the war. I had the idea that it might be possible to produce a book from the recollections of the seven men who had spawned the writing group idea.

John laughed at first but, with a lot of hard work and effort from the writing group members, the Bexleyheath shop have now produced a book! The writing group decided that they would pay for printing and donate all profits to the Bexleyheath shop. I suggested writing to some famous people to see if they could help with covering the costs of production.

We did, and were amazed when prolific author Lord Jeffrey Archer generously stumped up all the costs for printing, which means that all money made from selling the book will go to the shop. It just goes to show that with lots of hard work, imagination and a little help amazing things can happen. The book, Has Bexley Got Talent?, is on sale in Bexleyheath Oxfam shop for £5.99 - click to find out how to contact the shop to buy your own copy of this unique book.

Buoyed by their success, the dynamic writing group is already talking of its next project. The group is going to approach the library and local schools to ask relatives to write 2,000 words about their war experiences. With the recent death of the last British survivor of the First World War to fight in the trenches, Harry Patch, such efforts are even more timely to ensure these precious memories are preserved. Good luck to the Bexleyheath writing group!”

You can read more about the book and the group in the News Shopper’s story. Head over to Jeffrey Archer’s site to read his blog and find out about his books, including his latest best-seller, Paths of Glory. And let us know if your thoughts on the writing group’s book in the comments.

Poets, crime writers, storytellers and book lovers gathered in Glasgow for a lively literary celebration on Wednesday 8 July.

The all-day event, held in the glorious 19th century marble and gold surrounds of the City Chambers, kicked off with a kids’ session fronted by Debi Gliori, author and illustrator of popular children’s books such as the Pure Dead and Witch Baby series. Dennis the Menace also delighted the little ones, shaking hands and giving out goodie bags.

Members of Glasgow refugee writer groups then took to the stage to read from their published works, including Second Home, which was partly funded by Oxfam GB’s poverty programme. Telling of their troubles before finding a new home in Scotland and building new lives and memories, the writers – who came from far-flung places including Kosovo, Liberia and Madras – gave the audience pause for thought and a touching tale of reunion moved many to tears.

In between sessions, literary lovers browsed and bought from the tables of books for sale, with plenty of the speakers’ works and specialist Scottish literature and history titles available.

A few of Scotland’s finest poets, such as Gerry Loose, were next in the spotlight. Lanarkshire-born Liz Lochhead, who is Glasgow’s Poet Laureate, a well-respected playwright and performer, read her latest work Obviously, but obviously not obviously enough (an extract can be seen in the video above). Serving as instruction to actors, directors and writers, and dedicated to her friends in the theatre, she urged: “Tell the story… Tell it in prose, tell it in rhyme, tell it in words of one syllable, tell it in mime…”.

And the wordsmiths who followed didn’t need any encouragement when the focus shifted from rhyme to crime. Karen Campbell, Pat McIntosh, Caro Ramsay and Harry Morris represented the spectrum of crime sub-genres from historical to humour.

Harry Morris, known for the Harry the Polis series, entertained as the panel MC with tales of his time on the force, including his rookie experiences working with his partner ‘Rambo’, who shot at imaginary criminals and tormented tea bags.

Before her reading, former police officer and the author of The Twilight Time Karen Campbell gave us an insight into the publishing process, speaking about the difficulties English editors often have ‘interpreting’ Scottish words, noting that word ‘close’ was translated as a ‘foyer’, much to the audience’s amusement (although I really think you have to be a local to understand and appreciate this!).

Pat McIntosh, who pens the Gilbert Cunningham medieval mystery series, definitely looked the part for her reading, as she came dressed up in a brilliant period costume (at right).

The author of Absolution and Singing to the Dead, Caro Ramsay, regaled the audience with anecdotes from her speaking engagements, including talking at the Harrogate International Crime Festival on the topic: “Extreme sex and violence: Is cannibalism the last taboo of the crime novel?”. “So you can gather from that, that I am not the Enid Blyton of this panel,” she smiled.

The last session was devoted to local literary legend Margaret Thomson Davis, who has received Glasgow’s Lord Provost’s award for literature. Her books range from best-selling family sagas such as The Breadmakers to recent crime thrillers including A Deadly Deception. After reading from her autobiography Write from the Heart and asked when her next book might be released, the prolific author laughingly replied, “I’ve just finished my 41st novel and I’m 83 years of age”, to great applause.

The day was a fantastic celebration of Scottish literary talent,
and it’s thanks to the tireless organiser of the event and manager of Oxfam Bookshop in Byres Road, John A. Connolly, and the dedicated teams from this shop and the whole Oxfam shop network in Glasgow who gave their time and help.

The Byres Road Bookshop team was very busy during Bookfest, putting on a wide range of events including a forensic CSI-style night, history night with local author Roger Edwards, quiz night, world poetry event and science evening with Dr Carol Trager-Cowan. You can check out the bookshop’s blog for more on the Bookfest festivities, including event reviews and photos.

Deputy manager James Murphy and the team update this excellent blog regularly with shop news and they also have a Twitter account and a Facebook page. With all this going on in addition to running the shop, you can see why the Byres Road bookshop is not only the top-earning Oxfam bookshop in the UK, but also the top-earning shop of any kind of shop in our chain!

Let us know your thoughts on the literary day and any of the Bookfest events in Glasgow, or anywhere around the UK, in the comments.