Birthday Bash

The Ostreme Centre in Mumbles was in festive form on Sunday 20th September, decked out with bunting, balloons – and books. The reason was to celebrate ten years of great bookselling at Cover to Cover – the unique and very popular shop on Newton Road.

To mark the occasion top-selling writer Julia Donaldson, and illustrator Axel Scheffler, came to Mumbles to sign copies of their beautiful new book Tabby McTat. And with them came their much-loved character, The Gruffalo, who also had a birthday to celebrate – ten years in print.

Excited children flocked to Ostreme, waiting patiently in the sunshine to meet the talented duo on their only visit to Wales this year. The Gruffalo had an easy time mingling with the crowd and chatting, while Julia and Axel did the serious stuff – ending the day with acute arm ache after signing over 250 books.

One little girl in a pink dress showed off her freshly signed book to a small boy standing in the queue. ‘I’ve got something special,’ she said. And that pretty much summed up the day.

Cover to Cover has recently hosted events with Griff Rhys Jones and Joe Dunthorne, and has many more planned.