It’s not every day you get to meet a former F1 driver courtesy of one of your favourite bookshops!
Booka Bookshop in Oswestry, Shropshire hold a number of author and book events in their shop throughout the year, however this one was so popular they held it at the local school hall instead. I just had to get tickets!
Mark was there to publicise his autobiography, Aussie Grit: My Formula One Journey. The evening began with an interview, with BBC Shropshire sports editor James Bond firing the questions (though I think he’s more of a football man than a motor racing fan), then it was on to the audience for a question and answer session.
Mark was witty and entertaining, but also showed his sensitive side too. He was honest about his battles with former team-mate Sebastian Vettel and other drivers (Pastor Maldonado took a bit of ribbing for his inability to overtake or be overtaken without crashing). It was also interesting to hear about accidents from a driver’s perspective. We mustn’t forget that whilst it’s shocking but exciting to watch a crash from a fan’s point of view, it’s terrifying for a driver. He also mentioned in incident where he outran the police when he was younger, which, of course, kept getting brought back up again throughout the evening.
After the question & answer session, Mark signed books for the long line of fans and even posed for photos.
All in all, it was a wonderful evening and many thanks must go to both Mark Webber and Booka Bookshop for such a great event.
Hi Nicky
I really love the look and feel of Booka Bookshop and the fact that it also has a cafe, is the icing on the cake. I would be all set for a wet weekend afternoon 🙂
As you know, I am not a huge fan of memoirs, even when someone as dishy as Mark Webber is signing them, so I probably wouldn’t have reserved tickets for this particular event.
However, I do have to be a little bit careful with my denial of the sporting memoir, as Frome is the home to Mark’s fellow F1 champion, Jenson Button. In fact, some of Jenson’s old schoolfriends live at the other end of our street and he visits quite regularly.
Oswestry is on my list of places to visit, so I’ll meet you at Booka’s for coffee one of these days 🙂
Yvonne.
Hi Yvonne,
Booka is such a wonderful shop and they always go all out when it comes to author events. When the events are held at the shop there’s usually cake and coffee or wine. It’s a popular place too.
We also have a couple of independent bookshops like that in Bath.
Mr Bs Emporium of Reading Delights
http://www.mrbsemporium.com/
and
Topping & Company Booksellers
https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/
Both are well worth a visit if you are ever down this way 🙂
While it’s not a sport I am particularly interested in (apart from being patriotic and cheering on British drivers), I would be quite happy going to an evening like this!
Both my husband and son are in to Formula One so this is an event they’d have loved. I wonder if he’s signing books anywhere near here.
I’ve never been much of a auto racing fan (Formula or Nascar), but I bet this was an interesting and fun evening. Obviously everyone else thought so, too, since the event had to be moved to a larger venue!
Such a great night and I’m well jealous! I would have loved to hear about his battles with Seb – looks like they’ve made up now but I can imagine that he’d wanted to punch him in the face back on the day of the Multi 21 saga! Oh awesome! 😀