Housmans never made my original list, I’m not even sure why. But as it happens, fate decided and on one memorable Saturday in October this was where I decided to start my bookshop-crawl (I did not know it’s a thing until a very kind lady in Gay’s the Word told me). The outside is very unassuming, as I approached I was not even sure if I am in the right place.

However, once we’re inside there is no doubt. It is a radical bookshop with carefully curated shelves. I admit to very quickly looking over the shelves regarding anarchism, communism and Marxism, and making a beeline to the feminism books (yes, the place is as full of ‘-isms’ as it gets). As you’ll see below I found a few interesting books.

I very much liked the table display you can see in the pictures, it was beautifully colour-coordinated. There was a bargain book corner, which I think is a brilliant idea, even if nothing caught my fancy. I also appreciated a big selection of books about environmental issues. All in all a fantastic radical bookshop. Not too big, but with enough selection to keep you inside for a good 40 minutes. They also had a lot of books I have not seen in other places.

Here is what I bought:

1. Call Them by Their True Names – Rebecca Solnit (r)- a collection of essays about language in crisis. As I grow older I learn to appreciate the language more and more, so I think this will be interesting reading.
2. Reporting the Troubles – complied by Deric Henderson and Ivan Little (r)- this one has to do with something I’ve been promising myself for a while, to learn more about the Troubles. I was 14 years old when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, so should probably know more about this time than I do.
3. The Right Amount of Panic – F. Vera-Gray (r)- research on how women avoid sexual violence in public spaces. How much work we put to stay safe?