Real Magic Books

A great day yesterday with Sean Rowley and Real Magic Records. Open again today 10-4, upstairs in the shop. Come down!

David McCormick is the Collections Manager and Emma Paterson is Head Housekeeper at Chequers. They jointly hold the position of House Manager and between them have served eight Prime Ministers. We’re delighted they will be joining us on Tuesday 26 November to talk about the history of the house since 1164 and the work they perform at the country residence of the UK Prime Minister to this day.

We’re also celebrating the Chequers book we are stocking at Real Magic this Christmas. Recently republished by Akshata Murty after the original publication by Norma Major in the 1990s, we are the only shop to have copies of this new edition, otherwise used exclusively at the house for guests. It’s a brilliant insight into life behind the scenes.

Really looking forward to this one, fair to say we haven’t loved every recent resident of Chequers (some are barred from the shop!) but we think this will be a fascinating event with two special guests. Very happy to have made this one happen. Come and join us. Tickets on sale.

https://wegottickets.com/event/638959

Sean is back with his Real Magic Records pop up shop this weekend! As always you’ll find boxes and boxes of vinyl goodness from 9-5 on Saturday and 10-4 on Sunday. Hip hop, reggae, soul, disco, rock n roll, country, house, pop, indie, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and current LP gold throughout✨

Book of the day, Kala by Colin Walsh. A thriller that everyone has been talking about, red hot reviews all over the place and our next Real Magic fiction book group choice. We’ll be meeting on Wednesday 27 November at 7pm to discuss it! We have plenty of copies in stock now and there’s loads of time to read it too. Come and join us.

‘Helen, Joe and Mush were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group’s white-hot centre. Soon after that summer’s peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.

Now it’s fifteen years later. Human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. As past and present begin to collide, can the estranged friends figure out what led to Kala’s disappearance... and stop history repeating itself?’

Order online: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/11100/9781838958626

A huge thank you for making our second Real Magic Weekend so special. It really was brilliant. Thanks to everyone who came and talked, played music, screenprinted, danced, ate, margaritaed and hung out - we love you all. Back in May for part 3 🧡✨

What a wonderful Sunday afternoon! X

Day 3. It is 🌞 inside the shop today. Art workshop on now, Matt Brown reading Kevin the Vampire at 12, poetry at The King and Queen at 1230, Sanjana Modha at 1400, Vanessa Kisuule is here at 1530, then our closing party Modern Nature and Sidney Jones from 1700. Come and see us 🌈✨

Our Real Magic Weekend starts today. Can't wait to see you all. If you haven't checked out everything that is going on all the info and final tickets are on here.

https://realmagicbooks.com/real-magic-weekend-ii/

More Real Magic Weekend news 🌈✨ Matt Brown is back to read from the latest instalment of his fangtastic series, Kevin the Vampire: A Fanged and Fearsome Fiend!

The time has come for Kevin’s Gloaming. This is a test every almost nearly eleven-year-old must pass to show they have all the necessary skills to be a vampire. Kevin will have to show he can transform into a bat, mind-speak and melt into the darkness. Which would be fine, except he hasn’t quite mastered the melt yet… If Kevin doesn’t pass, he’ll be cast out forever. Is there anyone who can help him?

Join us upstairs on Sunday (20 Oct) at midday at the shop 🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️

https://wegottickets.com/event/634156/

Before the talks this Saturday we have Sean’s Real Magic Records pop up shop in the morning (9-1), the bar will be open for breakfast cocktails, the dog show at midday and a very special appearance from The Private Press here at the shop too.

We’re delighted that Gary will heading up from the Brighton studio and bringing along a miniature screen printing set up for you to print off your own very limited edition mini Real Magic weekend souvenir poster! Come and learn how to screen print with us, all ages welcome, all afternoon downstairs 🧡🩷💜

A shout out to all our DJs who are playing this weekend for us. We’re starting Friday night King and Queen with the Heavenly Jukebox at the controls from 8pm until close (maybe with a bit of Carl and Sophie too), it’s a free pub disco! Then Zephyr George will be taking things back a notch on Saturday from 2-5pm with a perfectly pitched afternoon session for the drinkers. Saturday night all roads lead to the Legion for our music special with Oldboy live, Vivien Goldman in conversation with Carl and Sophie and our special guests DJs Mistah Brown and Jayman with two very good boxes of 45s for that reggae-punk-disco. Hopefully see you all on the dancefloors 🪩🍹

https://wegottickets.com/sct/Hj9X8nP5yB

Next weekend we’ll be revisiting one of the highlights of our first Real Magic Weekend as we gather for the Real Magic Dog Show on Saturday. No need to register, just turn up for kick off at 12 noon sharp, as we once again judge Best Trick, Best Hair and Top Dog. Last year was a wonderfully chaotic, hangover challenging lot of fun. Free to enter of course and the winners receive our adoration and life long status as Real Magic Dogs. 🐶 🐕 🥇 ✨

Our Real Magic weekend gets off to a flying start next Friday with events in the shop before we head to King and Queen, Wendover for a Friday night disco.

At 7.30pm Sean Rowley will be talking to Sylvia Patterson about the records that have shaped her life.

Sylvia Patterson is one of music journalism’s best-known voices. She began her four decade adventure in magazines on Smash Hits in its million-selling late-80s heyday and went on to write for NME, The Face, Q and many others. Her 2016 memoir I’m Not With The Band was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and won Annie Nightingale’s BBC Radio 1 Book of the Year. Her second, Same Old Girl (2023), told the unflinching story of her misadventure through cancer and miraculous recovery. We can’t wait to have Sylvia and Sean with us. Hope you can joins us. Tickets here

https://wegottickets.com/event/634112

We’re very excited to welcome Jack Cooper aka Modern Nature to perform at our Real Magic Weekend. He’ll be performing a super cool, stripped back set on the shop floor amongst the books, as is now traditional for our Sunday evening closing party.

Modern Nature are a group that blurs the lines between folk music, modern composition and improvisation. Since 2019 they have released two critically acclaimed albums and a host of other material that includes an instrumental album, a short record called Annual and four cassettes of improvised music. Their latest album No Fixed Point In Space came out last year on Bella Union Records.

Support comes from Sidney Jones with her brillant brand of avant-pop-theatric-folksiness.

Cocktails will be served, the bar drunk dry. Our closing event was so lovely last time, come and see off the weekend with us ✨🌈

https://wegottickets.com/event/634167/

On Sunday 20 October we welcome Vanessa Kisuule to our Real Magic Weekend - you can catch her at King and Queen, Wendover for poetry at lunchtime with some other really exciting poets, before a discussion about her brilliant book Neverland later in the afternoon back at the shop.

Second photo is me devouring the book alongside a load of incredible food this evening, “a nice little tea” as the waiter said, a pretty lovely Tuesday night.

I’m loving how she brings together her lyrical writing and her examination of fandom - it’s a really special book and I’m excited to chat to her about it. Join us for what will definitely be a great event. Ticket info here

Poetry at the Pub
https://wegottickets.com/event/634159/

Neverland
https://wegottickets.com/event/634163/

A reminder to our followers here that we are hosting our second Real Magic Weekend on the 18-20 October, next week! It’s a mini-festival and celebration of books and music here in Wendover. We have lots of fascinating talks, workshops and live shows happening over the three days including Hayden Thorpe, Vivien Goldman, Sanjana Odha, Ian Dunt, Modern Nature, Vanessa Kisuule, Sylvia Patterson and lots lots more.

https://realmagicbooks.com/real-magic-weekend-ii/

We’re always striving to bring as many interesting writers, artists and musicians as we can to the village, come and support us if you can so we can keep putting on these events. Everything we make from the weekend goes straight back into keeping the shop running.

You can find all the info on the link below, there are still some tickets left for most things. It would be lovely to see you, if you’ve been before you know the score, if you are new come and join us, you’ll enjoy it.

Carl and Sophie
(Real Magic Books)
https://realmagicbooks.com/real-magic-weekend-ii/

Real Magic Records open until 5pm today✨

Book of the day, Orbital by Samantha Harvey✨A beautiful short, woozy and life affirming book about 4 astronauts and 2 cosmonauts on the international space station.

Shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize and, almost as prestigious, our book group choice for October. We’ll be meeting on Wednesday 23 October to discuss this brilliant book 🌍 🛰️

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/11100/9781529922936