A Bookish Diary Todmorden Book Fest
Saturday, November 2nd 2019

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.