Category Archives: Children

#Arachne5 Anniversary celebrations

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This is the hashtag we are using for the 5th birthday celebrations so if you post to Instagram or Tweet anything about our 5th, say #arachne5 as well! Ta.

(Hello all those people saying WHAT? I know, I feel the same, but we have to try to move with the times)

This is where we are having the party. Manor House Library. IN LEE SE13 5SY, not the North London Manor House!

6.30-9.30 8th September, which is the 5th anniversary of the publication of our first book, London Lies

We’ve decided to be INSIDE. No matter how lovely the day, it will be cold and dark by the time we finish!

Current line up (Not in this order):

Poems from

Jeremy Dixon (The Other Side of Sleep and Liberty Tales), Reading from both titles
Sarah Lawson (The Other Side of Sleep, A Midsummer’s Night in the Garden) reading her poem from the Midsummer event last year
Kate Foley (The Other Side of Sleep, Liberty Tales, The Don’t Touch Garden), reading from The Don’t Touch Garden

Short Stories from

Ghillian Potts (The Old Woman From Friuli, Brat) – OWFF, read by an actor
Carolyn Eden (Liberty Tales) reading from Liberty Tales
Liam Hogan (London Lies, Liberty Tales, Shortest Day Longest Night, Happy Ending NOT Guaranteed) reading from Happy Ending NOT Guaranteed
Nichol Wilmor (London Lies, Lovers’ Lies, Weird Lies), Reading from Weird Lies
Katy Darby (London Lies, Lovers’ Lies’, Liberty Tales, Shortest Day Longest Night.) reading from London Lies
Cherry Potts (London Lies, Lovers’ Lies’, Liberty Tales, Shortest Day Longest Night, Mosaic of Air, The Dowry Blade) reading from Lovers’ Lies

Music from
Ian Kennedy & Sarah Lloyd
Summer All Year Long

Get your free/ donation ticket here:

Eventbrite - Arachne Press 5th Anniversary Party

 

 

The Old Woman is in Ealing this weekend

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Another outing for The Old Woman from Friuli!

Ghillian Potts‘ creation will continue her tour of London Libraries at West Ealing Library Melbourne Avenue, Ealing, W13 9BT

Reading by the author’s daughter & publisher Cherry Potts

Saturday 12th August 2pm Free

Suitable for everyone age of 5 and above

Books available for sale

In the meantime here’s Sarah Feathers reading the book at Osterley Library last month!

The Old Woman & Brat at Deptford Lounge

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Carrie Cohen is reprising her readings of The Old Woman From Friuli & BRAT at

Deptford Lounge, 5 Giffin Street, SE8 4RQ on 1st July at 11am

For younger readers (5-9, and up to 90 really) Bad tempered dukes, clever counsellors, and really stuborn old women.

For young adults (11-16 plus) outlaws, missing fathers and beggar children in a fantasy novel which is the first of a trilogy.

Reading the Old Woman From Friuli at Brockley Max

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Katy Darby channelling bad-tempered Duke, clever councillor and stubborn old woman!

Reading Ghillian Potts‘ The Old Woman From Friuli for Brockley Max in the Storytelling tent at Art in the Park. Just some little bits of video because there was so much background noise!

 

Launching the Old Woman From Friuli and Brat at Eltham Library – video

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I can’t tell you what a buzz it is to launch books in the Library where I spent great chunks of my childhood. Although there is an enormous centre out the back and the main body of the library is unrecognisable, the space we were reading in is the actual children’s library that I worked my way round book by book possibly three times before getting access to the adult books several years before I was entitled to. Thank you Eltham Library! (for then and now).

Brat cover by Gordy Wright

 

Carrie Cohen did us proud, reading from both books, Ghillian Potts talked to the children from Holy Family School, who asked really interesting questions about writing, and Gordy Wright, the cover designer for BRAT came all the way from Bristol to help us celebrate.

Here are some pictures of Carrie, and Ghillian, with a rapt audience.

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Video of Carrie reading the opening of BRAT

And some video snippets from The Old Woman From Friuli (Children kept popping up indentifiably so we couldn’t use all the video!)

and just for fun, a ringing endorsement from Carrie

Carrie is reading for us again at Deptford Lounge 1st July at 11am, and Lisa Rose will read at Stanmore Library 8th July 2pm.

 

First Review for The Old Woman From Friuli

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We’ve had an absolutely lovely review for Ghillian Potts‘ book for younger children, The Old Woman from Friuli from Sue Magee at The Book Bag

I loved this story. It’s told in clear language and once the emerging reader has her tongue around Friuli and counsellor they have a good story to get their teeth into. There are some illustrations, but probably not enough to give clues to any other pesky words which don’t spring off the page and introduce themselves, but that’s me being very picky.

What is great is that it’s a story which shows that the law applies to everyone, high born, or just the old woman from Friuli. It shows that property can’t simply be taken away at the whim of an aristocrat or anyone else who has an inadequate grasp of the law. It’s also a clarion call to our daughters: they don’t need to have a husband – they can make their own way in life and they’re just as good as any man.

Three cheers, I say! [4 stars]

read the whole thing here

Interview with Ghillian Potts – Early Writing

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Ghillian Potts, author of Brat and The Old Woman from Friuli bravely shares her adolescent poetry, which got her out of housework! (Photos from the family archive.)

We would like to invite you to a very informal launch reading at Eltham Centre Library, Archery Road, Eltham SE9 1HA on 7th June at 1.30 for Brat and 3.45 for The Old Woman from Friuli. Both readings will be performed by Carrie Cohen.

Further readings are at

BrockleyMax Art in The Park, Hilly Fields Park SE4 on 10th June 2017 at 2.30pm; (Old Woman From Friuli read by Katy Darby)

Stanmore Library, 8 Stanmore Hill, Stanmore, HA7 3BQ on 8th July 2017 2pm (Old Woman From Friuli read by Lisa Rose)

Osterley Library, St Mary’s Crescent, TW7 4NB on 22nd July 2017 at 2.30pm (Old Woman From Friuli and BRAT read by Carrie Cohen)

If you run a library, bookshop or school and would like us to visit you with a reading, get in touch.

The Old Woman from Friuli Launch, Tour and author interview

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Interview with author Ghillian Potts

Events

A very informal launch reading at Eltham Centre Library, Archery Road, Eltham SE9 1HA on 7th June at  3.45  read by Carrie Cohen.

Further readings are at

Art In The Park Story-telling tent on Hilly Fields, on Saturday 10th June at 2.30, when Arachne stalwart Katy Darby will be reading

Stanmore Library, 8 Stanmore Hill, Stanmore, HA7 3BQ on 8th July 2017 2pm read by Lisa Rose)

Osterley Library, St Mary’s Crescent, TW7 4NB on 22nd July 2017 at 2.30pm (Old Woman From Friuli and BRAT read by Carrie Cohen)

(Illustrations Ed Boxall)

Interview with Ghillian Potts author of Brat and launch info

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A brief conversation with Ghillian Potts about the writing of Brat

Brat is a novel for older children and younger young adults, the first in a fantasy trilogy about Brook, who is 12 at the start of the series. The Trilogy is called The Naming of Brook Storyteller, because Brook, as a storyteller has the power of naming – she can raise or destroy people by the names she gives them, and she earns, and loses, names herself, starting out as Brat, before becoming Spellbinder (book two out in December 2017) and finally Wolftalker (book three out in June 2018)

We are launching Brat with a very informal launch reading at Eltham Centre Library, Archery Road, Eltham SE9 1HA on 7th June at 1.30. The reading will be performed by Carrie Cohen.

We currently have one other reading for Brat arranged (together with Ghillian’s other book, The Old Woman From Friuli.)

Osterley Library, St Mary’s Crescent, TW7 4NB on 22nd July 2017 at 2.30pm. Once again, Carrie Cohen will be reading.

Bookshops, libraries, schools, if you’d like us to visit and read to you, get in touch.