Come for a visit!

For those of you who will be visiting us for the first time in December - this is what our building looks like. We have half of the ground floor of the East Wing of 5th Avenue Plaza, Queensway North on the Team Valley in Gateshead.
It's right next to the A1, between Retail World and the Premier Inn - Queensway is parallel with Kingsway, so no more excuses that you can't find us! There is plenty of free parking right next to our back door, so it's also very easy to bring things in and out.

The new Gateshead Food Bank used one of our rooms for a few months from the summer onwards. They have just moved to much larger premises, so we are able to use the room they had for all non-book items we have on offer at the moment.

People often give us books and then say 'oh, we have some toys, do you know where we can donate those?' - so we take the toys as well. The women's refuges in particular have children who may have had to leave home without their teddies and toys, and we will always find new homes for them.

Recently we received our first donation from Giving World Online so for a while we can offer baby sleepsuits and rompers and we'll be giving goodie bags for boys and girls for Christmas and New Year.  In the future we hope to be able to work much more with Giving World Online so that the items they offer can be more easily available to charities around the North of England.

We also have large quantities of certain items of stationery, including pens and post-it notes available to local charities and community groups.

Our Dutch office in Leiden also has stationery as well as a huge assortment of books - so things are booming on both sides of the water.

Don't forget to give us a call if you want books in time for Christmas - many of them are brand new or in super-good condition. We have some lovely childrens' books that will make great gifts. We are open regularly on Wednesdays from 11.30 til 4 at least, and on other days by arrangement. You are advised to phone or email us just to check - 07 808 704 307 or books [@] borderlinebooks.org
See you soon!

This was how the car looked after cramming in the second load of books from Greenfield School in Newton Aycliff a couple of weeks ago.

Having packed them very randomly into boxes as they were unloaded in Team Valley, some brave souls came along this week to unpack the whole lot and sort them into those books that may be suitable for a school in Zimbabwe and those which are better for local use. That was a much larger job than the volunteers from New Hope North East had bargained on, but with tea and shortbread, they battled on.  The result is that it is now clear what English grammar books are available and how many copies of each. It seems that anything more than one copy is something of a luxury in many schools.

Last week we had a visit from some members of the drop-in centre in Sunderland who were happy to leave with a collection of books for themselves and friends who were unable to come this time. We are hoping that we may be able to offer space for writing groups or language classes since the building is so well-suited for welcoming groups.

We've also been phoning round to remind local organizations that they should come and browse the shelves which are full to bursting. We particularly like to invite Womens' Aid to bring groups of women who enjoy reading so they can choose books for themselves and their children. It is up to them whether they take the books for keeps or bring them back and take others. There are enough books for everyone. - the only stipulation is that they remain FREE OF CHARGE and are not sold by anyone. They are donated to us to be given away free, and that's the way they should remain.

Don't forget: Cumberland Arms, 27 September, 7.30 for a great night of music, poetry and goldfish.

Poetry Poetry.....

Put September 27 in your diary - we are happy to announce that we'll be holding a profile-raiser at the Cumberland Arms in the form of a poetry night in the best traditions of Ten by Ten and Take Ten.

Starting at 8pm (doors open at 7.30) the fabulous Marjorie Pickering will host an evening of poetry and music with such greats of the local poetry scene as Sheree Mack, Catherine Graham, Rowan McCabe, Aidan Clarke, Mandy Maxwell, James Wilkinson, Kirsten Luckins and a special guest writer with  music from Nerys Angel and Christina Andropolis.

Marjorie may even bring some of her formation-swimming goldfish along.... you can never tell what Marjorie may do, but it will almost certainly be orange.

One way or another it's going to be a great night and we hope that lots more people will get to know about Borderline Books and the work we do. The Cumberland Arms has a tradition of wonderful monthly poetry evenings and we plan to make this one as brilliant as the best of them.

Entry £4

New Website - at last!

We have finally updated the website. Heaven knows why it took so long, but it's finally done. In the end we have made a single site in two halves - Dutch and English - but made so you can navigate from one to the other, should you so wish.

No doubt there will be tweaks over the next few weeks, but things can only get better.... and at least we will no longer be embarrassed to tell people to check out the website.
www.borderlinebooks.org