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For a very limited time, we are accepting orders for the signed limited edition hardcover edition of John Connolly's short story, THE REFLECTING EYE. You can find more information about the book, including its introduction here. The book will cost £21 plus postage (to be determined). If you would like your name added to the list, send an email to David with the title of the book in the subject line and information will be provided as we get it. Please note that this is a very limited edition, so copies will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. A limit of TWO copies per customer will also be imposed.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to celebrate the launch of THE CARAVAGGIO CONSPIRACY by Walter Ellis on Saturday 12th May at 3:00PM.
Caravaggio was the greatest artist since Titian, a favourite of Popes and wealthy bankers. But at a time when the resurgent Ottoman Empire was planning a second wave of conquest, he discovered a secret so dark that it threatened the very existence of the Catholic Church.
The secret endures. Four hundred years later, Declan O’Malley, the first Irish-born Superior General of the Society of Jesus, learns that his friend, the German Cardinal Horst Rüttgers, has died in mysterious circumstances. With his nephew Liam Dempsey, recovering from wounds received while serving as a soldier with the United Nations, he tries to uncover the truth, bringing him into conflict with the sinister and virulently anti-Muslim Cardinal Bosani – Camerlengo, or High Chamberlain, of the Holy Roman Church – in charge of the upcoming Conclave to elect a new Pope.
As the two prelates grapple, Dempsey finds a bizarre link between Bosani and Caravaggio’s masterpiece, ‘The Betrayal of Christ’, lost for 200 years until it emerged in 1999 in the unlikely setting of the Jesuit house in Dublin. The painting turns out to be more than a sublime depiction of Christ’s seizure in the Garden of Gethsemane; it is also the key to a centuries-old conspiracy of evil. Can O’Malley and Dempsey, aided by the cool and resourceful Maya Studer, daughter of the Commandant of the Swiss Guard, prevent Bosani from re-igniting a calamitous war between Europe and the Muslim World?
Walter Ellis is a journalist who worked as a feature writer and foreign correspondent for The Irish Times, Financial Times, Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times. He is the author of two non-fiction books, The Oxbridge Conspiracy, about elitism in British higher education, and The Beginning of the End, a memoir of growing up in Belfast as best friend to the man who would become the INLA’s most ruthless assassin. Both books were widely reviewed and serialized. Born in Belfast, Ellis now lives in new York.
Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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Apologies, but unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, this gig has been cancelled. If you have already purchased tickets, please contact us and we will arrange a full refund.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to an evening of music with Mojo Fury on Saturday 26th May at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £10 each.
Another chance to see a rare and exciting Acoustic concert by one of the finest Alternative Progressive Rock bands performing today. The guys mesmerized the audience last time they played in No Alibis, showcasing their musical talents in an acoustic format. This is a truly unique opportunity to see mojo Fury in a very different light.
We expect this concert to sell out, so book your tickets now to avoid disappointment, by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to celebrate the launch of HARMATTAN by Gavin Weston on Saturday 2nd June at 3:00PM.
Haoua is a young girl growing up in a remote village in the Republic of Niger. Spirited, independent and intelligent, she has benefited from a stable home life and a loving and attentive mother and enjoys working and playing with her siblings and friends.
Haoua worships her elder brother, Abdelkrim, a serving soldier who sends money home to support the family. But, on his last home visit, Abdelkrim quarrels with their father accusing him of gambling away the money he sends and being the cause of their mother's worsening health. It also emerges that their father plans to take a second wife.
Despite this Haoua finds contentment in her schoolwork, her dreams of becoming a teacher and in writing assiduously to the family in Ireland who act as her aid sponsors.
But for Haoua, there are new storm clouds on the horizon: as civil strife mounts in Niger, she begins to fear for Abdelkrim's safety; Her mother's illness is much more serious and further advanced than anyone had recognised, and her father's plans are turning out to be far more threatening than she could have ever imagined.
Approaching her twelfth birthday, Haoua feels alone and vulnerable for the very first time in her life.
Gavin Weston was born in Belfast in 1962. He is a multi-media artist, writer, lecturer and inventor and lives on the Ards Peninsula with his two children, a fostered child and various animals. He studied Fine Art at Saint Martin's School of Art and Design and Goldsmiths' College, London, and subsequently worked and taught in West Africa.
In 1995 he completed an MA at the University of Ulster, where he has also worked as a visiting lecturer. He was an Associate Lecturer at Belfast Metropolitan College for many years and a regular contributor to The Sunday Times from 1994 to 2002. He is a former prize-winner of the Claremorris Open and Iontas, a recipient of The Tyrone Guthrie Award and was nominated for The Becks Futures Award in 2002.
Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore, in association with New Island Books, is pleased to invite you to an evening with Josh Ritter, to celebrate the launch of his new novel BRIGHT'S PASSAGE, on Tuesday 5th June at 7:00PM. This will be an evening of music and reading, and will include a conversation hosted by Ralph McLean. Tickets are now on sale, priced £8 each.
While his name might not be on the tip of everyone's tongue in his homeland, folk-leaning singer/songwriter Josh Ritter has benefited from numerous positive reviews and a loyal fan base. Born in Idaho, Ritter bought his first guitar after hearing the Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash classic "Girl from the North Country." While attending college in Oberlin, OH, Ritter got his first listen to Leonard Cohen and Gillian Welch. He instantly fell in love with their songs and dropped his neuroscience major in favor of the pursuit of music. With classic folk venues like Club Passim, Boston was the place Ritter chose to follow his dream. He recorded and released his self-titled debut in 1999, but it was 2002's Golden Age of Radio that got him noticed. Signature Sounds Recordings soon picked the album up, gave it exposure on a national level, and the four- and five-star reviews started rolling in.
The HBO series Six Feet Under grabbed a track from the album for their end credits, while Ritter received an offer to open for the Frames on a tour of Ireland. Soon his single "Me & Jiggs" was in the Irish Top 40, a headlining tour of the country was sold out, and a tribute band named Cork was playing nothing but Ritter material in numerous Irish pubs. Back home, the following was growing with sold-out shows in New York City and Boston, while an invitation to the Sundance Film Festival began 2003 on a high note. It took 14 February days in rural France to record his third album, and much of the equipment used for the session was Curtis Mayfield's old gear. The result, Hello Starling, was released in September of the same year. Animal Years, his much anticipated follow-up, arrived in March 2006, followed by The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter and the live CD/DVD In the Dark: Live at Vicar Street in 2007 and So Runs the World Away in 2010.
Josh Ritter’s first novel is a wondrous, suspenseful, and uniquely affecting story of the journey taken by a father and his infant son.
Henry Bright is newly returned to West Virginia from the battlefields of the First World War. Grief struck by the death of his young wife and unsure of how to care for the infant son she left behind, Bright is soon confronted by the destruction of the only home he’s ever known. His only hope for safety is the angel who has followed him to Appalachia from the trenches of France and who now promises to protect him and his son.
Together, Bright and his newborn, along with a cantankerous goat and the angel guiding them, make their way through a landscape ravaged by forest fire toward an uncertain salvation, haunted by the abiding nightmare of his experiences in the war and shadowed by his dead wife’s father, the Colonel, and his two brutal sons.
At times harrowing, at times funny, and always possessed by the sheer gorgeousness and unique imagination that have made Josh Ritter’s songs beloved to so many, this is the debut of a virtuoso fiction writer.
TV presenter, Radio DJ, respected arts commentator, producer, scriptwriter and newspaper columnist; Ralph has done it all in his impressive career. His life long passion for music and the arts has served him well as the popular presenter of entertainment TV shows such as First Stop, 11th Hour, Belfast Festival At Queens and many more.
On radio he has presented his own two hour roots show, the ever popular McLeans Country, for more than five years now on BBC Radio Ulster and made more series and one-offs than even he cares to remember.
He is 6 feet 4 inches tall and dreams of the day that Liverpool FC will win the Premiership.
Well a man can dream can’t he?
We expect this event to sell out fast, so book your tickets now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to two nights of music with Ben Glover on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th June at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £10 each night.
Ben Glover hails from Glenarm, Co Antrim, a small coastal village 30 miles from Belfast, N. Ireland. This singer/songwriter traded in a degree in law to peruse music and from all accounts it was a move that has paid off. Glover has been compared to Ryan Adams, David Gray and Bruce Springsteen and has been called “one of the finest writers in Ireland today.”
Glover has garnered rave album and concert reviews from across the globe and has toured extensively both as an opening act as well as a headliner. In the past calendar year his touring schedule included dates in Belfast, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, New York, Brussels as well as dates at the famed Hotel Café in Los Angeles and sold out shows in the Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Café.
Glover has toured and/or performed with Vince Gill, Mickey Raphael, Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Mary Gauthier and Jason Mraz. He has just completed his fourth full-length album, “Do We Burn the Boats?”, set for release in Spring 2012.
Book your tickets now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to an evening of music with Dean Owens on Friday 15th June at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £8 each.
"Scotland’s most engaging and haunting singer-songwriter" – IRVINE WELSH.
Edinburgh-based Dean Owens is one of Scotland’s most acclaimed and established singer-songwriters. Previously the front-man of the much loved and lauded Americana act The Felsons, Dean has subsequently been recording and touring as a successful solo artist.
As well as touring throughout the world in his own right Dean has opened shows and been tour guest for artists such as Steve Earle, Eddi Reader, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffiths and Joan as Policewoman to name just a few.
Dean spent 2011 finishing off his latest album “New York Hummingbird” This album has just been released and his trip to Belfast wiil be a perfect oppurtunity to hear a live rendition of these fine songs.
This year has also found Dean working on a project close to his heart, recording an album of Johnny Cash songs. A long-time fan of Johnny’s music Dean has been playing his songs at concerts for many years. The album is scheduled for release in 2012 to coincide with what would have been Johnny Cash’s 80th Birthday.
Book your tickets now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to an evening of music with Anthony Toner on Friday 4th May at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £8 each.
Anthony Toner has been described as ‘John Prine meets James Taylor – in a second hand book shop’. His single ‘Sailortown’ grabbed the attention of radio listeners in Northern Ireland last year. It was an utterly contemporary, clear-eyed depiction of a doomed teenage romance - set against the backdrop of Belfast’s fabled Sailortown neighbourhood, now undergoing all kinds of transformations.
Anthony was a journalist for 17 years, and held down a part time job as a guitarist and singer in a dance band, travelling and gigging all over the country.
His first album Eventually gained a great response from critics and DJs, but the success of ‘Sailortown’ propelled his second collection, A Sky for Every Day into the spotlight. The album picked up major reviews and sales, thanks to ‘Sailortown’ and the equally radio-friendly single ‘Marion, That’s All Right’.
In recent years, in addition to building a growing fanbase in Northern Ireland, he shared the stage with Nanci Griffith and Guy Clark in Nashville, and showcased in a special gig at Austin’s South by South West. He’s also developing a strong following in Canada.
His live performances always feature entertaining stories from the road, references to some of the influences, literary and otherwise, behind his songs, peerless guitar playing and thought-provoking songs that stay with you on the way home.
Book your tickets now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to an evening of music with Bayou Seco on Wednesday 25th April at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £8 each.
Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie, BAYOU SECO's roots are deep in the southwest but their branches reach far across the world.
They have collected music from older traditional American musicians for most of their lives and have learned to play many of their tunes and songs. They have especially focused on Cajun music in SW Louisiana and, since 1980, have learned from traditional Hispanic, Cowboy, and Tohono O'Odham musicians in New Mexico and Arizona. Both play fiddle and guitar and sing. Ken also plays one and three row diatonic accordions, 5-string banjo (fretless and freted), harmonica, and mandolin. They play concerts, dances (where they teach Spanish Colonial dances from New Mexico and other dances), Art Centers, Schools, Museums, Folk Clubs, Weddings, Wakes, State Fairs and other types of events. This will be their first concert in Belfast and will be a unique opportunity to hear traditional Cajun/South Western music performed live in a most intimate venue.
Ken and Jeannie will be joined by their godson Tomás Wentz, from Silver City, NM. He plays fiddle and guitar and sings. He played for several years with the punk folk band, GROG.
You can find more information on their website.
Book your tickets now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to an evening of music with Morgan MacIntyre and Eric Angus Whyte on Friday 27th April at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £7 each.
19 year old singer songwriter Morgan MacIntyre from Belfast, has been described as ‘extraordinary’ by Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody.
Her song ‘Pebbles’ was played on BBC Radio 1 and Radio Ulster and picked out by Lightbody as his “recommendation to the nation.” She has been selected to support Joan Armatrading in the Grand Opera House in September.
You can find more information on her Facebook page.
Eric Angus Whyte is a folk musician and storyteller. His sound is unashamedly maritime, yet eclectic enough to reveal influences such as Bruce Cockburn and T-Bone Burnett. He has been fortunate to have worked with some of Canada's best musicians including Blue Rodeo, Stephen Fearing and the Barra MacNeils.
In 2004, he released his first album called Always Home. The disc picked up airplay on CBC right across Canada and earned him an ECMA nomination for Folk Album of the Year. A short time later, he began touring Canada, playing notable events like the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Celtic Colours International Festival and North By Northeast in Toronto. In 2007, he was nominated for the Roots Traditonal Album of the Year at the ECMAs, for his participation in a group recording with Cape Breton Lyrics & Laughter.
In October 2011, he released his latest project called "Luddite Sons". The album, produced by Stephen Fearing (Blackie & The Rodeo Kings), was written in Ireland over the past two years. The songs are a unique blend of celtic-inspired folk, drawing on many historical tales for plots. The disc also features the hammered dulcimer, which is becoming a regular highlight in his live performances.
You can find more information on his Facebook page.
Book your tickets now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to meet Claire McGowan, who will be reading from and signing copies of her debut novel, THE FALL, on Saturday 28th April at 3:00PM.
Claire McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After a degree in English and French from Oxford University she moved to London and worked in the charity sector. She is currently the Director of the Crime Writers’ Association. THE FALL is her first novel.
What would you do if the man you love was accused of murder?
Bad things never happen to Charlotte. She's living the life she's always wanted and about to marry wealthy banker, Dan. But Dan's been hiding a secret, and the pressure is pushing him over the edge. After he's arrested for the vicious killing of a nightclub owner, Charlotte's future is shattered.
Then she opens her door to Keisha, an angry and frustrated stranger with a story to tell. Convinced of Dan's innocence, Charlotte must fight for him - even if it means destroying her perfect life. But what Keisha knows threatens everyone she loves, and puts her own life in danger.
DC Matthew Hegarty is riding high on the success of Dan's arrest. But he's finding it difficult to ignore his growing doubts as well as the beautiful and vulnerable Charlotte. Can he really risk it all for what's right?
Three stories. One truth. They all need to brace themselves for the fall.
'One of the very best novels I've read in a long while...astonishing, powerful and immensely satisfying' (Peter James )
You can find more information about Claire and the book on her website.
Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.
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No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to an evening of music and poetry with Martin Donnelly and Tess Gallagher on Friday 6th April at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £8 / £6 (concession) each.
Tess Gallagher is one of America’s leading poets. In Midnight Lantern she collects her indispensable work from forty years of writing poetry, along with an ample new section written in the west of Ireland. Included in this generous book are Gallagher’s signature nocturnes – for the changing Pacific Northwest, for her tough childhood, and for her late husband, Raymond Carver, and others.
Her challenging new work confronts a tumultuous century’s worth of art, warfare, and illness, while certifying the stubborn resilience of poetry and love. Astonishing, insightful, mischievous, an inimitable ‘seeing-into experience’, Midnight Lantern is the essential book by a poet in the prime of her power.
‘Gallagher’s poems resound with exquisite beauty and remind me once more how it is not subject but its rendering that redeems and uplifts’ – Boston Globe
‘Tess Gallagher’s is perhaps the most deeply moving and spiritual and intensely intelligent poetry being written in America today’ – William Heyen
‘It is impossible to read Tess Gallagher’s poems without being drawn into their mesmerising rhythms and convinced of the rightness of her intense yet unforced images’ – Joyce Carol Oates
‘She is outstanding among her contemporaries in the naturalness of her inflection, the fine excess of her spirit, and the energy of her dramatic imagination’ – Stanley Kunitz
Martin Donnelly’s music is inspired by the land, sea and skies of Ireland. It reveals the link between spirituality and ecological awareness. The songs also reflect the joys and sorrows of the ever changing nature of life’s journey.
Book your tickets now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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No Alibis Bookstore will be closed for Easter from Saturday 7th April until Tuesday 10th April inclusive. The shop will re-open for normal business hours on Wednesday 11th April.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Easter.
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No Alibis Bookstore are pleased to invite you to celebrate the launch of BELFAST BUILT SHIPS with author John Lynch in the shop on Saturday 24th March 2012 from 3:30PM.
Belfast has a long and proud shipbuilding heritage, this industry holding a strong place in Belfast’s identity and popular culture. There were three main shipbuilders, Harland & Wolff, Workman Clark and the little-known McIllwain & Co., all of whom had fascinating and often turbulent histories. Despite this, little is known about the vessels they produced, beyond the world-famous story of Titanic. In this impeccably researched book, Dr John Lynch endeavours to change this, revealing the fascinating stories of the many ships to be built and launched from Belfast over 140 years, from the late 1850s to the twenty-first century.
Including an alphabetical ship index, building lists, details on vessel name changes and many illustrations of the ships, this book also details the yards themselves and key characters in shaping their journeys from hey-day to decline.
John Lynch spent his career in the civil service before undertaking postgraduate work at Queen’s University, Belfast. He took a PhD in Economic and Social History before joining the School of History and Anthropology. Now a freelance writer and historian, he has a number of books and articles under his belt including work on Belfast shipbuilders and Harland and Wolff. He lives in Belfast.
Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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The Directors of Bloomsbury Publishing request the pleasure of your company at a reception to celebrate the launch of THE LIGHT OF AMSTERDAM
by David Park on Friday 30th March 2012 at 7 pm in The Ulster Museum. Music will be provided by Paul McMordie, and refreshments will be available.
It is December in Belfast, Christmas is approaching and three sets of people are about to make their way to Amsterdam.
Alan, a university art teacher stands watching the grey sky blacken waiting for George Best's funeral cortege to pass. He will go to Amsterdam to see Bob Dylan in concert but also in the aftermath of his divorce, in the hope that the city which once welcomed him as a young man and seemed to promise a better future, will reignite those sustaining memories. He doesn't yet know that his troubled teenage son Jack will accompany his pilgrimage.
Karen is a single mother struggling to make ends meet by working in a care home and cleaning city centre offices. She is determined to give her daughter the best wedding that she can. But as she boards the plane with her daughter's hen party she will soon be shocked into questioning where her life of sacrifices has brought her.
Meanwhile middle-aged couple, Marion and Richard are taking a break from running their garden centre to celebrate Marion's birthday. In Amsterdam, Marion's anxieties and insecurities about age, desire and motherhood come to the surface and lead her to make a decision that threatens to change the course of her marriage.
As these people brush against each other in the squares, museums and parks of Amsterdam, their lives are transfigured as they encounter the complexities of love in a city that challenges what has gone before. Tender and humane, and elevating the ordinary to something timeless and important, The Light of Amsterdam is a novel of compassion and rare dignity.
Book your spot now by emailing Cormac Kinsella or David Torrans, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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Glenn Patterson will be reading from his new novel, The Mill for Grinding Old People Young, set in 19th century Belfast, and published by Faber & Faber on Thursday 15th March at 8:00PM.
In the cold dawn of Christmas Day 1897, Gilbert Rice, 85-years-old and in failing health, recounts his journey into manhood in a city on the cusp of great change.
Belfast in the 1830s was a city in flux. Industrialisation had led to an increase in population as workers flocked to the newly created jobs. Gilbert, a young man with prospects, begins work with the Ballast Office, supervising Belfast Port.
But in the course of his days - and nights - abroad in the town, Gilbert becomes aware of tensions old and new. When he meets Maria, a Polish exile from Russian persecution, he is drawn into a love affair that will drive him to an act that could change his life, and the town's, for ever.
The Mill for Grinding Old People Young is a brilliantly imaginative and moving historical novel. It evokes a vanished city that resonates powerfully with our contemporary anxieties.
Glenn Patterson is the author of seven previous novels, has written plays for Radio 3 and Radio 4, and is the co-writer of Good Vibrations (BBC Films), based on the life of Belfast punk impresario Terri Hooley, due for release in 2012.
Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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No Alibis Bookstore, in association with the Young at Art Belfast Children's Festival is very pleased to invite you to meet Garrett Carr, while he reads from his latest novel, DEEP DEEP DOWN, on Friday 16th March at 6:30PM.
Around a hidden lake in the mountains is a perfect place. The people there live long and contented lives. But not for much longer...Andrew, May and Ewan will destroy everything. Unless the mystery that awaits deep, deep down destroys them first...
Garrett Carr was born in 1975 and comes from a town in the west of Ireland a bit like Ballydog. He has a background in illustration. He has worked for governmental agencies in his native Ireland and for development agencies in Latin America. He now lives in Belfast, where he contributes to the city's burgeoning literary scene with publications, exhibitions and readings.
You can find out more at Garrett's website.
This event is part of the Belfast Children's Festival.
Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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No Alibis Bookstore will be in the Waterfront Hall on Saturday 10th March, from 1:00PM as part of the John Hewitt Society World Book Day celebrations.
1.00-2.00pm O’Donnell Press Picture Book Readings (Strictly limited to 60 places. Price: £2.00)
Young Children - Ages 3-6 (Children must be accompanied by an adult)
Come and meet your favourite O’Donnell Press characters and their creators. After the great success of last year’s opening of our World Book Day celebration we thought we’d ask O’Donnell Press back and their authors Lauren Graham and Mel Fischer, who will introduce their characters again including, in this Titanic year, Samson – the little mouse who goes off to seek his fortune in the new world on the great ocean liner. This is a lively, interactive session in which you will have a chance to hear two authors tell their stories of seals and squirrels, big cats and little cats, fairies and Finn. It was great fun last year so don’t miss it this time.
2.30-3.30pm Nicola Pierce - The Spirit of the Titanic (Strictly limited to 60 places. Price: £3.00)
Older Children - Ages 9+
Nicola Pierce grew up in Dublin and now divides her time between Drogheda and Belfast. Her wonderful and much-praised debut novel ‘The Spirit of the Titanic’ tells the tale of a young man who goes on the ship but not as a usual passenger. It is a wonderful and fresh re-imagining of the almost unimaginable horrors that are commemorated this Spring in the loss of the boat. In her descriptions of the ‘mountain of ice standing proudly up in the ocean, steep with sharp edges that glistened dully beneath the stars’ we are there amidst the horror and the drama. Come and hear Nicola read from her book and take the chance to buy it and have it signed. The book is recommended for 10 years plus but good readers from 8 up will enjoy it too.
4.00-5.00pm Malachy Doyle – Picture Books (Strictly limited to 60 places. Price: £2.00)
Young Children - Ages 3-6 (Children must be accompanied by an adult)
Malachy Doyle is one of the world’s most successful children’s authors. He has written books for all ages from babies to teens. Some of his most memorable picture book titles include favourites like ‘The Great Castle of Marshmangle’; the beautiful ‘Cow’ and ‘Horse’; ‘One, Two, Three O’Leary’ ‘Splish, Splash, Splosh’ and ‘The Dancing Tiger’. Malachi grew up in Whitehead before moving to England and Wales for many years. He now lives in Donegal. He’ll be reading from and talking about his most recent picture books including his new titles ‘The Hen’s Cake’ , ‘The Happy Book’ and ‘Collywobble’.
You will be able to buy books by all of our authors at an all-day bookstall provided by No Alibis Independent Bookstore where you can use your World Book Day tokens to buy these or exchange them directly for the special World Book Day publications. The authors will also be happy to sign books at the end of each event.
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No Alibis Bookstore, in association with the Young at Art Belfast Children's Festival is very pleased to invite you to meet Ian McDonald, while he reads from his first novel for young adults, PLANESRUNNER, on Saturday 10th March at 4:00PM.
There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one of billions of parallel earths.
When Everett Singh's scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They've got power, authority, and the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He's got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.
To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his Dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner's going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.
Can they rescue Everett's father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!
Ian McDonald was born in 1960, in Manchester, to a Scottish father and Irish mother, but moved to Belfast when he was five, and has lived there ever since. He therefore lived through the whole of the 'Troubles' (1968-99), and his sensibility has been permanently shaped by coming to understand Northern Ireland as a post-colonial (and so, in his view, de facto 'Third World') society imposed on an older culture. He became a fan of SF from childhood TV, began writing when he was 9, sold his first story to a local Belfast magazine when he was 22, and in 1987 became a full-time writer. He has also worked in TV consultancy within Northern Ireland, contributing scripts to the Northern Irish Sesame Workshop production Sesame Tree.
As his many nominations and awards show, McDonald has built a considerable career and is increasingly widely admired both in developed nations and in the developing nations whose cultures often feature in his work. His 1990s 'Chaga Saga' is particularly notable for its analysis of the AIDS crisis in Africa, and his most recent works, River of Gods (2004), set in mid-twenty-first-century India, and Brasyl (2007), collocating the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries in Lusophone South America, extend McDonald's powerful attention to SF as a discourse intimate with colonialism. In 2008 Brasyl was nominated for, and reached the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing.
This event is part of the Belfast Children's Festival.
Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to invite you to a very special concert with Ruby Colley and Isobel Anderson on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd March at 8:00PM. This will be first time Ruby and Isobel have played Belfast together since their sell out gig at Christmas. Tickets are on sale now, priced at £10 (£7 concession) per night.
Ruby Colley performs her music alone, with an electric violin and a series of pedals that include a loop-station, delay, and octave pedal. She draws upon many different styles such as Eastern European folk, Jazz and classical. Her performances are mesmerizing as reviews and audiences testify. In her brief but highly acclaimed trajectory in Northern Ireland, Ruby has supported major acts such as Final Fantasy, Sinead O’Connor, Luka Bloom and the late John Martyn. As well as being a key instrumentalist in the Belfast band Cava, Ruby writes and performs her own compositions. Her music is eclectic but strangely unique and her performances charged with emotional power and nuance.
Isobel Anderson is a vocalist, songwriter, and installation artist. Her works and projects have incorporated film, theatre, song, spoken word, book art, radio and more. She now lives in Belfast and is carrying out a PhD researching how sound and stories create a sense of place in Northern Ireland. In 2010 Isobel released her debut album 'Cold Water Songs' which has been featured and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and BBC Radio Ulster and her installations have been shown at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, The Linen Hall Library, and Up The Wall 2010.
We expect this special event to be very popular, so avoid disappointment and book your tickets now, by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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No Alibis Bookstore invites you to the Launch of Darran McCann's first novel, "After the Lockout" on the afternoon of Saturday 3rd March from 2PM until 3PM.
‘A wonderful novel about what history has done to Ireland, and what Ireland has done to history. The triumph is that it is not only deeply intelligent and self-aware, but also entertaining from the first page to the last.’ Hilary Mantel
‘With this one novel Darran McCann succeeds where many writers over an entire career fail, laying claim to a terrain entirely his own. Spread the word, Darran McCann has arrived.’ Glenn Patterson
An ambitious and compelling first novel about a key moment in Irish history.
November 1917. With tensions in Ireland, war in Europe and revolution in Russia, Victor Lennon returns to his home village after a long exile. Radicalised by his experiences in the Dublin Lockout and Easter Rising, Victor is a hero to many but a danger to some.
Those closest to Victor know his true nature: his father, Pius, now drinking himself to death; his oldest friend, Charlie, wounded in the trenches; and the love of his life, Maggie, who he left behind years before. But soon Victor and the fearsome parish priest, Stanislaus Benedict, are on a collision course, with the very souls of the people caught between religion and socialism.
Told from the perspectives of these two equally strong-willed characters, After the Lockout is a first novel of tremendous ambition and achievement. At its heart is a conflict emblematic of a recurring faultline in Irish history, and of one more eternal and universal: between hope and experience; between ideals and human weakness.
Book your spot now, by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to invite you to an evening of music with Jude Johnstone on Wednesday 15th February at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £12 each.
Born in Bar Harbor, Maine, Jude Johnstone began writing songs at about age 8. At 18, she was "discovered" by E-Street Band saxophonist, Clarence Clemons. After spending some time in New York and New Jersey under his wing, in 1979, she moved to Los Angeles, where her songs quickly became sought after by other artists. She has been covered by Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks, Jimmy LaFave, Stephen Bishop, Jennifer Warnes, Trisha Yearwood etc., including a #1 song for Yearwood's debut album called "The Woman Before Me" which earned her a BMI award (as well as four other Yearwood cuts.) She also penned the title track to Johnny Cash's Grammy winning album "Unchained."
In 2002 Johnstone released her own debut CD "Coming of Age" on BoJak Records. The album received critical acclaim leading to an interview on NPR's Morning Edition and reached #6 on Amazon's Best Seller's List. It also featured guest vocals by Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Yearwood, and others. Her sophomore cd "On A Good Day" generated more favorable press which led to a performance on CBS's "The Early Show." It, too, featured memorable guest vocals from Browne and Raitt as well as Rodney Crowell & Julie Miller. Her third and fourth cds,"Blue Light" and "Mr. Sun", were both jazz/blues projects recorded LIVE in the studio with some of LA's top session musicians and showcased Johnstone's piano prowess more than her previous projects. With "Quiet Girl", her newest release, she returns to the Americana flavor of her earlier work. The album features duets with Emmylou Harris, Jimmy LaFave, J.D. Souther, and her late mentor, Clarence Clemons. There's also a choir that includes John & Susan Cowsill, Vicki Peterson (of the Bangles), Crowell and Maxayn Lewis on Johnstone's ode to Katrina "Cry For New Orleans."
"On her latest, 'Quiet Girl', Jude Johnstone summons heartbreak with both rootsy yearning and elegant restraint." USA TODAY
"Great songs, intelligently written and sung like tomorrow may be called off.".........Rodney Crowell
"Jude is one of my favorite singers and songwriters. Her fertility in regards to songwriting is truly awe-inspiring."......Bonnie Raitt
Johnstone's songs have also been featured on Lifetime/ABC's hit television series "Army Wives", Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" and Fox TV's "Lie To Me." Her song "In This House" (featured on "Army Wives") won a 2008 Independent Music Award for best song in a dramatic series.
Jude frequently tours with Bonnie Raitt and performs at various festivals and venues throughout the year. She is currently working on her next studio project due out in the fall of 2012.
We expect this event to be very popular, so avoid disappointment and book your tickets now, by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to invite you to an evening of music with the Sky Ranch Boys featuring John T Davis (acoustic guitar) and Shane Sunday (double bass) on Friday 24th February at 8:00PM. This event will also feature a screening of John T Davis' award-winning film SHELL SHOCK ROCK. Tickets are now on sale, priced £8 each.
John T. Davis is internationally recognized as Northern Ireland’s most distinctive, individual documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. Music is a prominent feature in each of his films, and John is himself an accomplished singer songwriter. Together with Ojibwa Canadian double bass player Shane Sunday, he recently formed The Sky Ranch Boys, a unique band whose country & western lyrics and sound have attracted a growing audience on the Belfast circuit.
John T. Davis – John has over twenty directorial credits to his name, including Shell Shock Rock (1979), Route 66 (1985), Hobo (1991) and The Uncle Jack (1996). John has worked extensively in the United States, and several of his films have their origins in his fascination with American music and popular culture. While the epic sweep of Route 66 traces the history and cultural impact of America’s most iconic highway, Hobo offers an intimate picture of the marginal lifestyles of the country’s itinerant underclass. Heart on the Line, a sensitive exploration of the highs and lows of the lives of Nashville songwriters, features portraits of and performances by, amongst others, Harlan Howard, Dean Dillon and Cowboy Jack Clement. The confluence between John’s filmmaking and songwriting is apparent in lyrics and melodies that are sourced in and influenced by his extensive travels and musical encounters in the United States.
Shane Sunday – An accomplished tattoo artist by trade, Shane has played electric bass in various rock, punk, jazz and country bands for over 20 years in his home country of Canada. He relocated to Holywood, Northern Ireland ‘for love’ four years ago, where his shop Alternative Ink is now a thriving business and where, soon after taking up the double bass, he made the acquaintance of fellow Sky Ranch Boy John T. Davis.
Shell Shock Rock – Initially banned at the Cork Film Festival in 1979, Shell Shock Rock went on to win the Silver Award at the New York International Film and Television Festival. Originally subtitled ‘An Alternative Blast from Belfast’, Davis’s Holywood Films production about Belfast’s underground punk music scene in the late 1970s has become a cult classic. Its focuses on the energy and optimism generated by punk bands including The Undertones, Rudi, The Outcasts and Stiff Little Fingers, whose message that music is more important than sectarian division offered a chink of light – the vision of an Alternative Ulster – during the darkest days of the Troubles. Davis’s gritty and moving film has carried this message to international audiences, and thirty years on it remains stylistically innovative and culturally relevant.
This event is part of the Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival.
We expect this event to be very popular, so avoid disappointment and book your tickets now, by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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IMPORTANT NOTE: This event will no longer be held at No Alibis Bookstore. For further information, check the Malojian website.
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No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to invite you to celebrate the launch of INCORRIGIBILY PLURAL: LOUIS MACNEICE AND HIS LEGACY from Carcanet Press on Thursday 1st March at 6:00PM.
Incorrigibly Plural celebrates the diversity and vitality of Louis MacNeice’s writing. Poets and critics illuminate the work of a writer whose achievement and influence is increasingly recognised as central to modern poetry in English. Contributions include responses to MacNeice by poets such as Paul Farley, Leontia Flynn, Nick Laird, Derek Mahon, Glyn Maxwell and Paul Muldoon; discussions by critics such as Neil Corcoran, Valentine Cunningham, Hugh Haughton, Peter McDonald and Clair Wills; and more biographical accounts, including a memoir by MacNeice’s son, the late Dan MacNeice.
For each of them, MacNeice remains a continuing presence for his insight into the mechanisms of the modern world, his complex political awareness, his ability to bring the historical moment alive. Above all, what emerges is pleasure in MacNeice’s plurality of language and forms.
More than a retrospective work of criticism, Incorrigibly Plural belongs to live debates about contemporary poetry.
Fran Brearton is Reader in English at Queen’s University Belfast. She is the author of The Great War in Irish Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2000) and Reading Michael Longley (Bloodaxe, 2006).
Edna Longley is one of the most influential critics writing on modern Irish and British poetry, and is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Irish culture. While earning international renown for her many publications, she has also had a huge and enabling influence on the literary culture of Northern Ireland, especially at Queen's University, through her teaching, and through the English Society that flourished under her direction, giving much impetus to the creation of The Seamus Heaney Centre. Married to the distinguished poet Michael Longley, she was the recipient of an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin in 2003.
Book your spot now, by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607
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