Novel Sheffield

I didn’t want to end last year without doing a massive shout out on my grid to the queens behind Queen of the Suburbs, Elle & Lilly.

Getting to know you both & work closely with you over 2023 has been such a pleasure, it feels like we’ve come such a long way since we took these pics at the xmas pop-up last year 💖 thank you for the opportunity you gave Joe and I and the friendship that’s grown over the course of the year. Excited to catch up in 2024. 💖

& to all the amazing people who I met through Queens! I miss it 🥺

The proportions on the 2nd pic look whack because I was using x0.5 zoom 🥲 we’re officially all moved out of our little 238cm x 190cm space in Queens

What a pleasure it’s been to have a semi permanent space ✨ I’m very much enjoying some rest and taking time to adjust to my new medication (which is already working a dream), but I look forward to book clubbing and seeing you at pop-ups in 2024!

Joe and I send lots of love and festive cheer ✨❤️

Huge thank you to for hosting us this weekend ✨ what an utterly wonderful venue and a great event to be a part of

Cheers to everyone who popped by to see us ✨ I hope you/your loved ones enjoy their new books!

Photo credit

Happy everyone! Here’s an interactive map of our favourite independents across the city ✨

Kate and Joe’s gems ✨

Kate at Novel's "Kate and Joe’s gems ✨" List 35 places · Want to shop small & support local independent businesses? Here’s our guide to the city’s greatest 💘

💯 love these bags from

I didn’t post about the Black Friday/Cyber Saturday/whatever other übermegasuper deals that have been popping up on my feeds because truthfully, I had my flu and Covid jabs this week and have been rotting in bed too wiped out to even post a story 🥲

I’ve had a handful of orders online over the weekend though, and I wanted to appreciate those of you who are making the conscious decision to shop small this festive period 💖

I don’t want to operate in an economy where you can buy a dress for 5p, or line the pockets of billionaires/fund their ph***ic space vessels 🙃 the cozzie livs is squeezing us all, and I completely understand why 80%+ off bargains are attractive in these testing economic times. However, if you have the means to, please consider spending your ££ on the local economy, supporting your favourite indies if you’d like them to exist in 2024 and beyond 💘

All our stock is online 🎉 or you can pop by this Sunday 3rd December to shop irl.

✨

Love this pic of Señor Pabs at our stall at market last weekend 😍

Just wanted to pop on & say how much we enjoyed market yesterday ✨ Char, thank you for hosting us, it’s an honour to get to work with so many other small businesses and creatives.

ELC has always been top of my market wishlist, since setting up Novel I have dreamed of hosting a stall there ✨

Thank you everyone who came out and bought books or stopped by the stand for a natter 💕

Have a beautiful Sunday everyone ✨

I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who came to the & Novel pop-up send off yesterday 💖 what a wonderful thing we’ve all been a part of these past 10 months 💕 what a beautiful time in our lives, I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and to have met so many amazing people 💕

I’d also like to thank Eleanor and her friends for truly making my day yesterday ✨ They hosted a stall outside the shop selling an assortment of up-cycled handmade board games and mushroom cupcakes for their young enterprise school project. The creativity, effort and passion paid off - it was great to see their stall so busy and we were so chuffed to have you there as part of our send off.

I’ll pop some info on here detailing where we’ll be hosting pop-ups/stalls in the next couple of days, but for the time being, I’ll be hibernating with my dogs and enjoying some well deserved R&R.

Lots of love # #

One of our favourite things about October is not the crunchy leaves, or PSLs, but Sheffield’s - one of the largest literary festivals in the North of England, bringing the best in local, national and international literary talent to venues across the city.

We’ve attended two festival events this week, one for The Stirrings by Catherine Taylor and Two Sisters by Blake Morrison, and then the launch of So It Started There by Nick Banks, the drummer of Pulp up at Crookes Social Club 💘

Have you got tickets to any of the events in the programme?

First pic is our whippet Iggy Pup, who fancied a sniff of The Stirrings whilst I was taking a pic for our stories 😅

NEW IN: Riding the High Road by Penny Frances

‘In Riding the High Road, Penny Frances takes readers on an exhilarating road movie adventure that explores the complex relationship between Gethin and his biological father, Don.

Gethin, a teenage drop-out, leaves home to find his father who runs a ramshackle motorcycle museum in Scotland. His sudden departure leaves devastation in its wake for his le***an mother, Pat, who is left questioning her own worth as an alternative parent.

When Don rebuffs him, Gethin is left adrift and alone until he meets Jez, a biker-girl who is also running from family entanglements. Together, they embark on an adrenaline-fuelled road trip on Jez's illegal Harley, which takes them on a journey of self-discovery. As they navigate the Scottish highlands, they begin to unravel their reasons for running away and confront the legacy of their parents.

Riding the High Road is a coming-of-age story that tackles themes of identity, family, and the importance of shedding one's parents' legacy. Through Gethin and Jez's journey, Penny Frances presents a powerful message about the true meaning of a rite of passage and the importance of finding one's own path in life.’

NEW IN: Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, translated by Geraldine Harcourt

‘It is Spring. A young woman, left by her husband, starts a new life in a Tokyo apartment. Territory of Light follows her over the course of a year, as she struggles to bring up her two-year-old daughter alone. Her new home is filled with light, streaming through the windows, so bright you have to squint, but she finds herself plummeting deeper into darkness; becoming unstable, untethered. As the months come and go, and the seasons turn, she must confront what she has lost and what she will become.

At once tender and lacerating, luminous and unsettling, Territory of Light is a novel of abandonment, desire and transformation. It was originally published in twelve parts in the Japanese literary monthly Gunzo, between 1978 and 1979, each chapter marking the months in real time.’

NEW IN: Sink, A Memoir by Joseph Earl Thomas

‘Stranded within an ever-shifting family's desperate but volatile attempts to love, saddled with a mercurial mother mired in crack addiction, and demeaned daily for his perceived weakness, Joseph Earl Thomas grew up feeling he was under constant threat.

Roaches fell from the ceiling, colonizing bowls of noodles and cereal boxes. Fists and palms pounded down at school and at home, leaving welts that ached long after they disappeared.

An inescapable hunger gnawed at his frequently empty stomach, and requests for food were often met with indifference if not open hostility. Deemed too unlike the other boys to ever gain the acceptance he so desperately desired, he began to escape into fantasy and virtual worlds, wells of happiness in a childhood assailed on all sides.

In a series of exacting and fierceThomas guides readers through the unceasing cruelty that defined his circumstances, laying bare the depths of his loneliness and illuminating the vital reprieve geek culture offered him. With remarkable tenderness and devastating clarity, he explores how lessons of toxic masculinity were drilled into his body and the way the cycle of violence permeated the very fabric of his environment.

Even in the depths of isolation, there were unexpected moments of joy carved out, from summers where he was freed from the injurious structures of his surroundings to the first glimpses of kinship he caught on his journey to becoming a Pokémon master.

SINK follows Thomas's coming-of-age towards an understanding of what it means to lose the desire to fit in-with his immediate peers, turbulent family, or the world-and how good it feels to build community, love, and salvation on your own terms.’

Copies of both book club books are ready for collection here at

I’ve still got 2 tickets left for My Best Friend’s Exorcism and 3 for Western Lane if you’re wanting to join us ✨

I’m here on Fridays and Saturdays until 4PM, or you can pop in and give the baristas here your name, they’ll grab your copy from the back on one of the days I’m not here.

If you’ve selected for your book to be dropped off/posted, I’ll be sorting that on Monday ☺️

Wishing you all a fab weekend! 💕

NEW IN: Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

‘A spot-on, wildly funny and sometimes heart-breaking book about growing up, growing older and navigating all kinds of love along the way. When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming a grown up, journalist and former Sunday Times dating columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all.

In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, wrestling with self-sabotage, finding a job, throwing a socially disastrous Rod Stewart-themed house party, getting drunk, getting dumped, realising that Ivan from the corner shop is the only man you’ve ever been able to rely on, and finding that that your mates are always there at the end of every messy night out.’

NEW IN: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

‘Poor Roger Ackroyd. He knew the woman he loved had been harbouring guilty secret. And then, yesterday, she killed herself.

But guilty secrets rarely stay secret. Who had been blackmailing her? Had it really driven her to su***de? Sadly, Roger Ackroyd wasn’t going to live long enough to find out’

NEW IN: Ironopolis by Glen James Brown

‘Ironopolis is a warren of streets, memories and people with secrets...

Glen James Brown orchestrates a remarkable novel across these streets as Ironopolis tells its own story across three generations.

Jean unveils a secret on her deathbed... Alan unravels the truth of his father, a man who has haunted the Burn Council Estate for a lifetime... Corina is just trying to get through one last day at the hairdressers before she closes it for good.

And then there is the ageless Peg Powler, myth and reality, stalking them all...’

BOOK CLUB NEWS 🎟️✨

We’ll be hosting two book clubs discussing My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix 👻

Both book clubs are being held on Sunday 26th November, one in the morning and one in the afternoon ✨

Information about these events and tickets can be found by clicking the link when swiping through the post above ➡️🎟️

BLURB:

Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to actdifferent. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there's only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favourite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil

Here are our two book club picks ✨🎟️💕

Check out the posts on my profile for more info ✨

BOOK CLUB NEWS 🎟️✨

We are hosting two book clubs, discussing Western Lane by Chatna Maroo. Tickets are on sale now ✨

Both clubs are being held at Queen of the Suburbs on Sunday 3rd December, one in the morning and one in the afternoon ☺️

Swipe through to get the link to the tickets ➡️🎟️

BLURB:

Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo.

But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.

An unforgettable coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo’s first novel is a moving exploration of the closeness of sisterhood, the immigrant experience, and the collective overcoming of grief.

NEW IN: Work-Life Balance by Aisha Franz (author), Nicholas Houde (translator)

‘A cutting portrayal of the pursuit of work-life balance from the cartoonist of S**t is Real.’

NEW IN: Babel by R. F, Kuang

‘Oxford, 1836.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison…

But can a student stand against an empire?’

NEW IN: Wifedom by

‘Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self, she tries to remember her own . . .

When she uncovers his forgotten wife, it's a revelation. Eileen O'Shaughnessy's literary brilliance shaped Orwell's work and her practical nous saved his life. But why - and how - was she written out of the story?

Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwells' marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WWII in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell's private life, she is led to question what it takes to be a writer - and what it is to be a wife.’

Catch us at Crookes Street Market this Sunday ✨ 11am - 3pm on Stannington View Rd.

Apparently it’ll be 20oC! 🎉 we’ve got a large selection of new titles which I’ll be sharing on our page this week, come and get first dibs!

👋

@ Pink Slime book club attendees, thank you for the discussions over the three fantastic nights we hosted ✨

I love it when a book divides opinion! It’s definitely a great addition to our range at Novel and I’d really recommend it to anyone interested in dystopian lit or the ecological crisis.

Also glad we’ve clarified that raspberries are pink 😂 updates about upcoming book clubs will be posted on our insta later this week ✨

Another glorious weekend up in Crookes ✨ I’m savouring what could be the last of the blue skies for this year and feeling grateful for all of you who support us 💘

Whether that’s by popping by for a book, attending a book club, tagging us in posts or spreading the word about our shop ✨

We really appreciate you 💕

💖 Feels like home 💖

Good Morning..
Its a beautiful September day.. come and have a mooch on South Road..Walkley.

Open till 5pm Saturday
12 -3 Sunday

Good girl Betty was in yesterday 💖🥺 we’re here until 4pm today, dogs are SO welcome

Back open tomorrow and Saturday for all your bookish desires 💕 and a growing collection of giftware and cards to treat those you love ✨

Still so happy we’ve got these .liddle portable coffee mugs 😍