A Bookish Diary Todmorden Book Fest

Saturday, November 2nd 2019

A.B. Frank
Nov 4 · 2 min read

The train to Todmorden Book Festival was delayed slightly because the driver was doing a brake test.

Lyall's bookshop is almost right outside the train station in Todmorden so I went over to have a look. A guy was outside the shop because it wasn’t open for a few more minutes. He was interested in books about the American civil war. He stood within four inches of my face as he spoke to me.

Had a look around the shop, spoke to Colin Lyall and arranged to come back at 4 pm.

Stumbled upon Border Books and had a look around the shop and a chat with the owners. They were nice. They might do an interview for the podcast some time in the future.

Walked down to the venue where Andrew McMillan was hosting a poetry workshop and waited for him to finish. We then walked up to a bar and ordered tea and coffee and did our interview for the podcast.

Met Colin and had a look around the basement of the bookshop where they keep a tonne of books ready to put on the shelves on the other two floors. He closed the shop and took me to a studio space where he keeps more books. His studio space is one of the quirkiest places I’ve been to; an old industrial type of building with rooms occupied by small businesses, artists & painters and photographers. It kind of reminded me of Casey Neistat’s place in New York.

Really enjoyed interviewing Colin. Looking forward to both these episodes from today being released.

A.B. Frank

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Reader • Writer • Entrepreneur

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