Clemo Books Newquay

Clemo’s lore… We’ve gained a few new followers so thought you should know @clemobooks origin story. Opening a bookshop wasn’t easy, but god has it been fun! 🐢 An 18 month pop-up stage including the start of Clemo Club, followed by a month-long @crowdfunderuk campaign (backed by Michael Morpurgo may we add!) and a 3 week renovation to open in time for 2023’s Christmas shopping. It all feels like a lifetime ago now! 📚 Locals are always shocked when we say we’ve been open on @lovenewquay high street for almost 18 months now. We’re also shocked. 📚 But thank you for your support! Locals, one time customers or social media friends from afar, it means the world! 🌍 #ChooseBooks #BooksAreMyBag #ShopLocal #ReadMoreBooks #ReadersOfIG #ReadersOfInstagram #Bookstagram #IndependentBookshop #IndieBookshop #ShopIndie #ClemoBooks #Newquay #Cornwall #CornishBookshops

NEWQUAY, HERE IS YOUR BOOKSHOP (and bookseller tehe!) After a whirlwind few months we’ve finally had a chance to get some pictures of the bookshop. 📚 Lots of people have said how lovely @clemobooks is and that it feels like a safe space and it’s my favourite thing to hear because that’s exactly what we wanted to create. A place where everyone is welcome to browse books, talk about books, sniff the books… 👃 So yes please enjoy these pictures, of course Jonathan our resident seagull is included in there, and hope to see you in Clemo Books soon. 🐢 P.S. Still obsessed with the ladder! P.P.S. Thanks to the endlessly talented @matthewhawkey for these snaps. 📸

Y’all need to be bookshopmaxxing this weekend. Go out, grab a lil coffee, support your highstreet! 💅 Clemo Books open 10-5 Saturday and 10-3 Sunday! We reccomend @sprouthealthfoods and @pavilion_newquay in Newquay, Cornwall, for ya coffee fix ☕️☕️ get your fortune told with @photo_pronto in store for free tooo 📸

Bookshop Joy! #2 Decided to make this a weekly thing because there’s just too many cute things happening in Clemo Books. 💕 Got some VERY exciting news that we can’t share until next week but YAYAY! Stay tuned on our Substack and keep your eyes peeled for all to be revealed on Thursday. 📚 It’s felt like winter this week so the bookshop door has been closed once again but that’s meant cosy browsing and blustery coastal stomps. 🌊 We had an author event so I got to come in early the next day and rearrange the table which is a JOY. 📚 Sunday bookseller @sonnywalkerauthor beloved partner whittled me a spoon out of wood! It’s just splendid and I’m going to use it for loose leaf tea in my little tea caddy. Thank you! 🥄 Started Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundhati Roy and wowwowowow already hooked, late to the party but glad to be in it now. Will get some stocked in Clemo Books asap. 📚 That is all joyous book worms, hope you all have a lovely weekend! 🐛

Curtis Garner is an author from Cornwall who, in his latest novel, Orange, writes that beautifully familiar landscape we all love in our coastal town of Newquay. Curtis will be at Clemo Books on Thursday 14 May, 7pm, tickets on sale now. 🐢 Orange is a dual-timeline novel that flits cleverly between 2018 Portscatho, Cornwall, and 2023 East London as Daniel Orange hosts his boyhood sweetheart, Jago, in his London flat. Their reunion is sweet, though it soon becomes clear that the two have fallen into (what the kids call) a long-distance situationship, marred by confusion and hesitation. Jago is kind, witty, seemingly perfect, everything Daniel wants, but there is something unspoken between them, something neither is willing to unearth. 🌊 However, Jago’s visit fragments Daniel’s hard-fought-for sense of self, his metropolitan queer identity, calling into question how compatible he is with his rural not-quite-lover. One aspect Sonny loved was the emphasis on familial conflict, the sacred relationship between boy and mother, and the way Daniel bears witness to his mother and grandmother’s quarrelling, how she seems to regress into a teenager like himself. Most significantly, though, the complicated dynamic between mother and father, the refusal to stay separated, no matter how it pains them to be together. What has Daniel learned about love from watching them? It is stubborn, as sure as the turn of the tide, with all the same violence. Without spoiling the plot, the structure of this novel is masterfully executed, amplifying tension through jarring transitions between time frames. This pace amplifies the feeling of disorientation that is central to Daniel’s experience, the desperation to bring together these two severed time frames, eras of boyhood and manhood that refuse to harmonise.

Heart is full of bookshop joy! 💕 The loveliest days of selling books and being a part of Newquay’s community. Nice things these past few days: saw Sonny walking home through the tram tracks and the sun was shining - they’ll be back in on Sunday for the finest lit student recommendations. Hosted a swimming group and @lizzi_l @quartobooksuk book signing on Saturday morning. 🌊 Followed by Claire doing a storytelling session in the bookshop. (We’ve planned to do these more regularly and do sensory storytelling to include all little book worms!) 🐛 Had a quick second for a cup of coffee. Another quick sec to read Orange by @curtis_garner for our event on Thursday 14 May. 📚 Tidied the bookshelves. Chatting with locals and holidaymakers about books and their weekend plans. Best job ever. Thank you thank you so much for supporting us. Get involved with your local bookshop! 🌞

SATURDAY 9 MAY - 9:30am @lizzi_l will be here to sign books before heading down for a swim at Towan, and at 10am we’ll have Claire in the bookshop doing a storytelling session. 🌊 Can’t wait for another fun filled weekend in Clemo Books! Open 10-5 Saturday, 10-3 Sunday and always open at clemobooks.co.uk 🐢

@lallymacbeth is an author and a DJ - she’s taking up all the coolness! Fab time at @verdant_taproom @verdantbrew watching Lally chat with @matthew___shaw and there are signed copies in Clemo Books now so come all ye book worms and rejoice in The Lost Folk! @faberbooks

ORANGE! Join us after hours in the bookshop on Thursday 14 May, 7pm, for an event with author Curtis Garner. He’s popping into Clemo before a literary fest appearance and we can’t wait to welcome him. 🐢 Bookseller Jaimie will interview Curtis and then there will be time fore questions, chit chat and a book signing of course. Check it out on our website and get your tickets whilst you’re there. 🌊

Here’s a little tour of the bookshop from your bookseller! 📚 We’re open here in Newquay, Cornwall, Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondaaaay for browsing and buying books (we don’t blame you if you secretly sniff them too…) 🐢 Hope you all have a lovely long weekend whatever you’re doing! 😊

CLEMO BOOKS WAS ON TV! 📚 The guys from @itvwestcountry popped down to the bookshop to chat about AI as the @thesocietyofauthors campaign for human written labels to be placed on books. Our view - it’s bloomin’ crazy that it’s come to this and the world feels very dystopian! 😬 Thanks to my mum and Oli for speaking on TV too. It aired on Monday evening but I’ve only now been able to face watching it back to edit the clip down… 📚

It’s delivery time for the paperback of Flora’s Day! Love @clemobooks and its beautifully curated selection of books. Thrilled Flora’s Day is there!! Thanks to Mr Liz aka @chrisdgfenwick for the photos. Also great to see The Sea Child by @lindajwilgus #awriterslife