Kim Tillyer - witchmountain

I’m thrilled to announce that I will be appearing at this year’s Words by the Water festival in
Keswick on Saturday 14th March to talk about my new book, 'An A-Z of Beatrix Potter'. See here for the full festival programme and to book tickets: x.com/cumbriaengli...

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

A stack of books on the bookshop table, with bookshelves beyond. Top 20 books are: 1. Rory Stewart, Middleland (Jonathan Cape) 2. Polly Atkin, The Company of Owls (Elliott and Thompson) - in hardback 3. Esther Rutter, All Before Me (Granta) 4. David Nicholls, You Are Here (Sceptre) 5. Stephen G Rae, Folklore of the Lake District (Folklore Press) 6. James Rebanks, The Place of Tides (Penguin) 7. William Wordsworth, Selected Poems (Macmillan Collector's Library) 8. Robert Macfarlane, Is A River Alive? (Hamish Hamilton) 9. Alfred Wainwright, Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells: 70th Anniversary Edition Box Set (Quarto/Alfred Wainwright Books & Memorabilia) 10. Polly Atkin, The Company of Owls (Elliott and Thompson) - in paperback 11. Sarah Hall, Helm (Faber) 12. Jack Cornish, The Lost Paths (Penguin) 13. Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky (Penguin) 14. Tracy Chevalier, The Glassmaker (The Borough Press) 15. Tom Chesshyre, Lost in the Lakes (Summersdale) 16. Samantha Harvey, Orbital (Vintage) 17. Kim Tillyer, Beginner's Guide to Cyanotype (Search Press) 18. Tiffany Francis-Baker, Concise Foraging Guide (Bloomsbury Wildlife) 19. Simon Armitage and Beth Munro (illustr.), Dwell (Faber)
 20. Ellie Wood, The Hotel at the Heart of the Lakes (HarperNorth)

Our 20 top selling books at Sam Read's for 2025 look like this! Top 5 were:
1. Rory Stewart, Middleland
2. Polly Atkin, The Company of Owls HB
3. Esther Rutter, All Before Me
4. David Nicholls, You Are Here
5. Stephen G Rae, Folklore of the Lake District

What a year, and many thanks to all who have supported my writing endeavours

Especially @samreadbookseller.bsky.social and @bookendscarlisle.bsky.social 💚

#folklore #lakedistrict #booksky

Winter flowering plant varieties with pink flowers and some pink Rowan berries on a bright turquoise linen background

Winter is pinker than you'd expect:

Photo featuring an older woman of Inuit heritage sitting on a stool facing forwards in a studio with a printed artwork on the wall behind her

"I am the light of happiness and I am a dancing owl" Kenojuak Ashevak, Inuk artist #womensart

Furness Book Fair, 2026

Open to an indie authors and indie bookshops in the South Lakes area. Contact me for more details.

white circle in a blue background and the words "It's Monday! What are you reading?" in the circle

It's Monday again and today I'm reading "Utterly Lazy and Inattentive: Martin Parr in Words and Pictures" by Wendy Jones and Martin Parr

What book(s) are you reading this week?

💙📚 #BookSky #AmReading #MondayReads #TBR

alt text in images please

Martin Parr photograph of a brown sofa , Signs of the Times 1992

I'm reading Martin Parr by Val Williams (2002) it's been on our shelf since my daughter was doing A level photography and I'm ashamed to say I don't think I've ever opened it ! Also reading The Box of Delights .

Photograph by Martin Parr from Signs of the Times 1992. Image shows a saggy brown sofa with bright cushions and a white lace edged antimacassar

"We keep buying things 'that'll look better and it just doesn't "
#MartinParr by Val Williams, (Phiadon 2002)

Name Dropping - books by people I've met. I've met so many lovely writers and artists through working at Sam Read's Bookseller in Grasmere, it's a real highlight of the job.

I made a booklist on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social about some lovely people I've met (many through my job at @samreadbookseller.bsky.social ) and their beautiful books.

An Explanation (Which I Would Be Very Grateful If You Took The Time To Read) What follows is a minor modern horror story.

I'm not going back to Substack. I will continue to post my newsletters from Ghost. But I did have to get back in there, just to post this and let people who thought I'd vanished know about this utter nightmare: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Popping back for something important…

This is for those of you who knew & loved that golden human, Jamie Normington @movingslowly.bsky.social – and those who never met him but were amused, enlightened, touched by his gift for communication and compassion here and on Twitter.

YouTube video by Sam Read Bookseller Rory Stewart in conversation with James Rebanks, discussing Rory's new book Middleland

Like a living anecdote from #Middleland about Cumbrian small business we've been extra busy spinning many plates, so it's taken us longer than planned, but the captioned video of our fantastic event with @rory-stewart.bsky.social and @herdyshepherd.bsky.social is now here to watch.

Squirrel with acorns in the porch at St Kentigern’s Church, Crosthwaite near Keswick in Cumbria.
#Woodensday

Sending strength and solidarity from a fellow migraineur, I hope you feel better soon x

READ the REVIEWS!! 👇
#BestSeller 📚 #Mostgifted 🎁
The new Womensart book
'Reframing Women Printmakers'
also support this account & the promotion of women artists
- so thank you! xx 💕 
At a bookshop of your choice....

Today marks 2 years since @likewinterblue.bsky.social and @pollyrowena.bsky.social took the helm of the shop. What a busy 2 years it's been! We're celebrating with our biggest event by a very long way next week, only possible because of our brilliant bookselling team and so much community support.

My book Help The Witch

A synopsis of my book Help The Witch

Plague doctor linoprint by my mum, Jo

To celebrate the rerelease of my short story collection Help The Witch via @swiftpress.bsky.social I’m giving away TWO signed copies each with a beautiful original linoprints by my mum, from the book (now v rare & worth £40).

To enter you just need to repost this and pop a reply below.

I love ours ( photos from recent night out in the mist) but it can be temperamental and we were nervous of using it in the summer, even on lake shore. I have been glad of it during power cuts!

No, it's ok I found them... I just wanted to know who to credit if I share the picture 🙂 ( the window itself is my father's work in collaboration with the National Glass Centre in Sunderland )

This is a great photo of the window, do you know the photographer?

Flaming marshmallow on a stick in front of a moody, misty lake with Canadian canoe.

Two cyanotype prints with embroidered details. An owl with yellow and orange flowers and a portrait of a young woman. In the background the room is dark and lit by a warm glowing light.

My most popular recent Instagram post is this flaming marshmallow on a stick, not the art I spent hours making 😏... still, when seen together like this they do have matching eerie and Autumnal colour schemes.

#NationalDayOnWriting

in Cumbrian dialects, 'hullet' is owl. A bird of magic and wisdom; a symbol of the divine feminine; of the moon; and light in the darkess of night

from: "Folklore of the Lake District"
bardofcumberland.com/folklore/

#folklore #lakedistrict #booksky
📷 unknown

Recent EE customer service "Guide"
"Can you confirm your full name? ... Awesome"
Having said that, in a job with repetitive customer interactions (bookshop), it's easy to overuse words like perfect when someone manages to navigate the card machine without appearing utterly baffled by the concept.

Thank you Helen, it's such a special place for me.

I mean, Peintmaking has to be worth checking out doesn't it 🙄😂

#Cumbria Printmakers Out of Ink exhibition opens at the Kirkgate Centre, Cockermouth tomorrow with an evening PV.
#handmadeprints #peintmaking #LakeDistrict (and Uffington 😏!)

Paperback of the company of owls held up in front of oak-crowned hill, with autumn sun just falling below it, casting light on moss on dry stone wall under book, and hand holding it, and reflecting off camera lens, to make a peculiar spotlight effect on the face of the owl print by Matt Underwood on the cover.

sunlight through yellow acer leaves on the ground

the company of owls paperback held up to catch evening sun in front of autumnal oak and beech trees

Spotlight on #TheCompanyOfOwls paperback - officially out tomorrow - though if you know anything about these tawnies, you'll know they do what they want when they want to do it, so no surprise some of them have branched early. Let me know if you spot one roosting near you! #BookSky #NatureWriting