Wild Words Newsletter
Get monthly recommendations on all the latest nature writing, heritage and conservation related reads available at Sherlock & Pages
Fabulous... What a ghost story! A ripping read.' IAIN SINCLAIR, author of London Orbital'Vividly celebrates Bowie as not just a chameleonic visionary, but a nomadic one, a creature informed by place and circumstance" STUART MACONIE'Bowieland will make you want to take your very own pilgrimage, accompanied by the great man's songs.' ALEXANDER LARMAN, THE OBSERVERBOWIE IS STILL OUT THERE... Following open heart surgery, poet and writer Peter Carpenter was given one instruction - 'Walk, if you want to stay on this planet'. And so when his hero and inspiration David Bowie died in 2016, he knew what he had to do. The man who was to so many a companion and guide had left no shrine, no focal point of understanding. To reconnect with Bowie, he would take a walk into the past, to the streets, towns and places where David Jones became something more. Walking to recover, to stay alive, Peter realised he was also recovering his lost hero. Leaving behind Heddon Street and Brixton, well-known Bowie shrines, he moved out through South London edgelands and suburbia to remoter Bowie haunts: Croydon, Aylesbury, Pett Level, Southend-on-Sea. Finding the windows Bowie had stared out from in Clareville Grove; the streets in Beckenham where he'd scurried by. He sifted through debris on a patch of waste ground in Tunbridge Wells where Bowie's parents first met. He turned the handle and entered Shirley Parish Hall to find the same stage where a young Davy Jones and the Kon-Rads set up to play back in 1962; and travelled to Berlin, to emerge from the S-Bahn to gape at the ruined portico of the Anhalter Bahnhof and asked 'What is this?' In Bowieland, Carpenter's peripatetic trampings seem to echo Bowie's own wandering creative spirit, the walks often uncovering hidden layers, and making fresh connections to key Bowie stories, revealing influences conscious and subconscious. Through walking, an understanding is reached of where Bowie sits in the culture, his place among the poets, painters, artists and musicians who came before him, who inhabited the same spaces and in doing so passed on their wisdom to Bowie. Through Carpenter's travels these suburban lands became a new, very real place, that anyone can visit if they take the time... Welcome to 'Bowieland'
Book ISBN: | 9781800961548 |
Book Author: | Peter Carpenter |
Book Format: | Hardback |
Book Imprint: | Monoray |
Book Publisher: | Octopus Publishing Group |
Book Dimensions: | 242 x 164 x 33 cm |
Book Publication Date: | 2025-03-27 |
Book Pagination: | 320 pages |
Book Weight: | 544g |
Sherlock & Pages is a little bookshop with a big heart. We are based in Frome, Somerset, England and curate lists of books in the areas we are passionate about – landscape, nature, history, and heritage. In short, the conservation of all we’ve inherited and all we are responsible to pass on. We aim to inspire and be inspired, to form a literary culture of care and passion about this precious planet we call home.
This is a shop where you might find something you haven’t seen before, and we like to think we’ve got something for everyone. We choose each of our books with care and for a reason. This is because our physical store is small but beautifully formed, holding only around 1200 titles at any one time. We try and recreate the feel of the shop wherever we are online, to reflect our niche categories and personality.
We have an active social media presence and aim to share our story with all our friends. The long-term goal is to build a hub for the books and writers we believe in. Who knows where our adventure will lead but by supporting Sherlock & Pages you’re helping us to add a further layer of magic to our little corner of the world. If you haven’t visited our physical store, one day you might just make a literary pilgrimage down to Somerset.
Our tagline is ‘Long Live the Hedgerows’ and our symbol a hibernating dormouse. If you want to support an independent with a unique character and which will share stories with you for years to come, then choose Sherlock & Pages. The world needs bookshops with soul, for they are ‘citadels of light.’
Sherlock & Pages is a little bookshop with a big heart. We are based in Frome, Somerset, England and curate lists of books in the areas we are passionate about – landscape, nature, history, and heritage. In short, the conservation of all we’ve inherited and all we are responsible to pass on. We aim to inspire and be inspired, to form a literary culture of care and passion about this precious planet we call home.
This is a shop where you might find something you haven’t seen before, and we like to think we’ve got something for everyone. We choose each of our books with care and for a reason. This is because our physical store is small but beautifully formed, holding only around 1200 titles at any one time. We try and recreate the feel of the shop wherever we are online, to reflect our niche categories and personality.
We have an active social media presence and aim to share our story with all our friends. The long-term goal is to build a hub for the books and writers we believe in. Who knows where our adventure will lead but by supporting Sherlock & Pages you’re helping us to add a further layer of magic to our little corner of the world. If you haven’t visited our physical store, one day you might just make a literary pilgrimage down to Somerset.
Our tagline is ‘Long Live the Hedgerows’ and our symbol a hibernating dormouse. If you want to support an independent with a unique character and which will share stories with you for years to come, then choose Sherlock & Pages. The world needs bookshops with soul, for they are ‘citadels of light.’