Eileen Jones
A group of authors from the UK’s first publishing co-operative will be celebrating their 10th anniversary next month at the Halifax Piece Hall.
Writers from the Hebden Bridge-based Gritstone Publishing will be reading from their work, running workshops, chatting to prospective new writers, and handing out birthday cake in a corner of the historic architectural and cultural gem.
The event, on Thursday May 7, is being organised in association with the independent bookshop The Book Corner which is based at the Piece Hall and where the books written by members of the group will be on sale.
Established by four member-authors looking to assert more control over how their books were brought to market, the co-operative has grown and is now nine-strong. The most recent author to join is Mike Raine, a mountaineering instructor and author of the leading handbook on mountain craft. Gritstone titles are strongly rooted in a sense of place, with a particular focus on the north of England.
The group will be marking their tenth birthday by bringing out this summer the final two volumes to complete a comprehensive set of guidebooks to the England Coast Path, the longest and most ambitious of the country’s long-distance national trails. These are compact but lavishly illustrated books from cartographer Christopher Goddard and the 2026 titles, on the Northern and Eastern sections of the path, will join the South and South-West volumes already published. Christopher will be running a short mapping workshop at the Piece Hall event.
Also scheduled for publication in 2026 is fellow Gritstone member Eileen Jones’s tribute to William Wordsworth’s home at Rydal Mount in the Lake District where the poet lived for most of his life. The book has received support and co-operation from current members of the Wordsworth family who owned the house for nearly 60 years until its recent sale to the Wordsworth Trust.
Another among the list of Gritstone titles in the coming year will be Mike Raine’s new book Just One More Hill on the growing popularity of ‘bikepacking’ (off-road cycletouring), and a newly revised edition of The Long Spring by conservationist and former RSPB Director for Northern England, Laurence Rose. At the Piece Hall event Laurence will be leading a short nature ramble around the site.
Also choosing to work through Gritstone as members of the co-op are the veteran countryside writer and campaigner Colin Speakman, national parks author and activist Andrew McCloy, Yorkshire novelist Mike Padgett, and author of walkers’ and cyclists’ guides Chiz Dakin.
The Piece Hall party will feature short readings by individual authors and you can read more about each one of them on the Gritstone website here https://gritstonecoop.co.uk/authors/ The event will start at 11am and everyone is welcome to come along and chat, browse, and eat birthday cake. Andrew Bibby said: “We will be very happy to talk to writers who might want to consider joining our group, or just anyone who loves books and writing.”
Gritstone, as a fully mutual co-operative, is controlled collectively by its member-authors who discuss and agree proposed new titles for the imprint. Book distribution to the book trade, including bookshops and online retailers, is handled by a mainstream trade distributor, but Gritstone titles are also sold directly from its own website. Gritstone has recently been accepted as a member of the Independent Publishers Guild.
Andrew Bibby, one of Gritstone’s founder members, explained: “After ten successful years of trading and growth, we can definitely say that our publishing model works. The publishing industry has changed enormously in recent years to become much more marketing-led, and authors are increasingly missing out on a fair share of the rewards for their work. We enable our authors to have more control over the publishing process. Gritstone offers a third way between conventional publishing and author self-publishing.”
Image of Piece Hall bandstand and courtyard with thanks to The Piece Hall, Halifax
