News — books

It's that time of year again when we invite a group of local writers to takeover our gallery for a weekend. Last year's FRINGE Book Festival was a great success and although we hadn't initially thought about re-hosting the event in 2022 we were thrilled when, spearheaded by their members, The Writers Collective approached us to help out once again with a venue. The Writers Collective is a not-for-profit community of writers who host a unique free digital directory of specialist writers & services helps individuals and businesses realise their project in 2018. The collective also connects authors and helps promote local literary events and  new book releases....

As the end of the year approaches, it's a natural time to review how our first year panned out. Well, we have to say it wasn't what we expected!  Being forced to close three weeks after opening wasn't an action anyone could have predicted. Completely necessary for the health of the country it hurt in more ways than one. A new business with very little paperwork of income, we didn't qualify for any of the government help and had to rely on our fantastic resident artists for financial support. However, the most frustrating aspect of the lockdown was the change to...

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give." Winston Churchill ...   Just as the lockdown ends, we are at last allowed to embrace the season of giving. Thankfully most of us have turned our back on the big commercial giants this year in favour of supporting our local shops and suppliers. The painful struggle that many small shopkeepers have had to endure after four months of closure as a non-essential shop has left them teetering on the ridge of survival. So everything we can do to keep our high streets alive...