An 'ideas', writing and media company that also runs 'Crofton Books', a vintage bookshop in London SE4

 

Welcome to The Tlön Media Co. London, UK

  • Crofton Books, The Bookshop

    Visit Crofton Books

    We are very happy to be in our new location as of 20th January 2021, at 315 Brockley Road, London SE4. Come and see our window displays and select books to buy through click and collect in Covid lockdown. Visit @croftonbooks for updates and buying options  

    An opportunity to meet the team behind The London Media Co., to view our books published by Tlon and to see a growing range of unique new and old other book titles, from the literary to rare. The bookshop has new stock daily and celebrates the notion of book ecology and recycling. 

     

  • The Romance an episode in the life of a young writer

    The Romance an episode in the life of a young writer
    • Author: Jason Shelley

    Poetic, gritty and funny! Buy it! 'Even if you don't like books, you'll like this!' 

    The Romance. Available from bookshops in London, Paris, New York and bookshops across the globe

    Slimline hardback with collaborative artwork by Jason Shelley and Vishal Shah. Artwork available for exhibition.

    "Yesterday walking through Waterloo station I headed towards the Southbank, where I came across a purple book called The Romance in the street. It stopped me in my tracks, I opened the first page and started reading it. Sounds of laughter came from my mouth (though I normally hate books. Not my thing really) and here I was lost in another little world of frustration.

    I finished reading and found another copy of the book. When I reached my destination and met up with my friend I gave him a copy. We both sat in silence while he read, then a heavy deep voice broke our silence..

    "Are you gentlemen going to have something to eat?" a middle age baling fat man stares at us.

    So we ordered two full English Breakfast and carried on our day embracing each moment. Good read, enjoyed the book and thanks!"
    Spike Mclarrity - Spike found one of the books we placed near and around The Southbank in London, UK and wrote to the author direct.. 

     

     

  • Through the Looking Glass

    Through the Looking Glass

    The Artwork of 12 Contemporary Female Artists by ARTed Ltd edited by Renata Kudlacek and Emma Barnard 

    The 12 female artists featured are Emma Barnard  Amanda Couch   Florencia Durante   Ann Harvey   Renata Kudlacek   Stine Ljungdalh    Louisa Mahony   Kate McCgwire  Marilene Oliver   Hilary Sleiman   Zoe Schieppati-Emery   Stacey Watson

    'Through The Looking Glass' Exhibition

    2007 Through The Looking Glass, Building 1000 (now Newham Dockside), London. Sponsored by Standard Life Investments, Development Securities, London Development Agency and Arts & Business.

    Through The Looking Glass, a major exhibition which brought together twelve female artists within the confines of Building 1000. A corporate profile building in an imposing scale, set against the towers of Canary Wharf and the City skyline, with a mile - long water frontage, Building 1000's vast glass and steel facade reflects the water towards nearby London City Airport.

    While the exhibition title acknowledges Lewis Carroll's ruminations on otherness and imagination, the artists sought to engage with the specific architectural symbolism inherent in such an environment, still a largely male - dominated arena. The unique ambience of the space with its reflections, water and light, and the accompanying themes suggested therein play a part too, allowing the artists a broad theatre in which to work.

    Curated by ARTed (Emma Barnard and Renata Kudlacek), an organisation dedicated to showing art in unconventional buildings, Through The Looking Glass presented a snapshot of contemporary female visual language in direct response to the surroundings and offered a stimulating reading of a modern London icon. The exhibition included a collaboration with a local Newham primary school, resulting in a children's exhibition at the site; artists' talks for universities and bespoke art tours for private companies.

  • Grey Love

    Grey Love
    • Author: Jason Shelley

    'Jason Shelley's work has a lingering profoundness which is subtle and powerfully indirect. A contemporary interpretive approach to poetry not seen often and usually discovered far too late.’

    Last Grey Love reading: 8.30pm on the 3rd December 2015 at the If Yesterday Were Today exhibition in East London E2 hosted by Berlin Blue. in 2015 Shelley also read from Grey Love in Tuscany, Italy and Berlin, Germany.

    Grey Love is a ‘cult classic‘, sold in London and throughout the UK, in New York bookshops and bookshops globally following it's publication in 2003.

    A book of selected prose, short stories and poetry from a poet heavy on irony. This is an urban love story set in London.

    Prose and poetry written with a cold detached style. Through every day life Shelley describes his own grey love. Beckettesque. Dark humour.

    'The best book in the world...Shelley is an English Bukowski...'Cold Pizza Parts 1 and 2' are highlights, and 'Small TV' - 'I've got a small TV/ I want a big one...review by Tom Levinge

    'Grey Love seduced me from the first page when the narrator is on a train next to a Nun (who happens to be eating an apple) on the way to Brighton. My colleague first showed me the book. She put it in our recommends section. She first became interested in it because it was published by a little known independent London book publisher she liked called Tlon Books Publishing.'  review titled 'Grey Love Grey Suit' by Percy Cole, Waterstone's Islington

     

     

     

  • Brenda's Bottom and her Birds

    Brenda's Bottom and her Birds
    • Author: Clare Stanhope

    Brenda's Bottom now provides educational packages for schools in and around London with assembly readings and workshops. Key objectives are to give an imaginative platform for learning, to educate beyond the constraints of the school curriculum, to build confidence and to provide the basic tools for creativity.

    Treats for 2016: School visits and bookshop readings. Watch this space. Look out relevant posts and pics on Twitter@BrendasBottom and Facebook.com/BrendasBottom

    Look out for Brenda's Bottom in bookshops and gift shops around London, the UK and the rest of the world. What is your favourite bird on Brenda's bottom? Or do you have favourite London building?

    What happens to Brenda? Why does her bottom grow and is there a happy ending? Find out by reading Brenda's Bottom and Her Birds. It features many of London's famous bridges and buildings and 52 types of birds 'from deepest Peru' and beyond. with 3 detailed indexes at the back listing all the bridges, buildings, birds and their names.

    Stockists include Brick Lane Bookshop, Tales on Moon Lane, Clapham Books, Rye Books and Kirkdale Bookshop.

    Read the Brenda's Bottom reviews on Amazon.co.uk. Why not write the thirteenth review?

     

     

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Latest News

  • New Slinky Malinky

    New Slinky Malinky

    We are very happy to provide a postage service for bookshop purchases

  • "Discover feature" for Crofton Books

    This month the Lewisham & Greenwich Newsshopper “Discover feature” focuses on the Crofton Park bookshop 

    “Crofton Books - discover this hidden gem of a secondhand bookshop..

    A new chapter for our Discover feature as Emily Hennings looks at a different type of place to visit - but one that's still a hidden gem you should check out.

    This week's thriller is all about Crofton Books, a secondhand bookshop situated in Crofton Park library and right next to the station.

    Located in the heart of SE London, it's a much-loved hub for locals but also pulls in visitors from further afield.

    We spoke to owner Jason Shelley, so if you're sitting comfortably we'll begin the story ...

    What makes the bookshop special?

    It engages with the people of south-east London in a community space. With its unique range of books provided by locals it also draws people in from all around London which benefits the other local shops and our local economy.

    We are encouraging adults and kids to read books again. Another way to prise people away from addictive computer screens.

    What also makes Crofton Books special is the great people that work here. The staff like to give as much creative input as possible. Staff include people taking career breaks, students at UCL and Goldsmith's, retired book enthusiasts and professionals who come in to help on their days off. It's a real hub for creativity.

    The bookshop also helps raise funds for Crofton Park library.

    Are there any rumours of ghosts or any famous stories about Crofton Books?

    Well, it's funny you should say that. As you may know there is a tree planted in the forecourt here, in memory of Spike Milligan. Rumour has it, you can hear him telling jokes if you stand under the tree.

    That's not the only rumour. Recently with Radio 4, we featured a biography of a 20th century poet and artist, David Jones. He was buried in Ladywell Cemetery, just down the road here, and it is said he was seen walking out the gates towards the bookshop.

    What is the best time to come and visit? Is it suitable for everyone?

    The best time to visit is any day seven days a week, but particularly Sundays. On Sundays we play music and hold events. It's normally part of a great day out whether walking, cycling or taking the train here. Obviously, we encourage healthy brain and body exercise that's helpful to the environment.

    How old is Crofton Books?

    This year we celebrate the fourth anniversary of Crofton Books. In that four years we have grown from strength to strength.

    This year we have been very happy to get some 1960s vintage oak shelving fitted, so hopefully we look as good as we feel in our old age.

    Any secrets you can share about Crofton Books?

    Are there any secrets? Yes. But we can't tell you except that Ernest Hemingway's great granddaughter is a regular visitor and so is Kate Tempest (obviously we stock her books and the ones she wrote and the ones she once owned).

    You might also might like to know the bookshop is owned by a published modern poet and that's me.

    So, if you are in the mood for a lovely secondhand book or two to while away the cold hours, then pop down to Crofton Books in Brockley Road. Keep up with them on social media for specific opening times, especially over the weekends.

     

    Newsshopper article

  • Punk is Dead event

    Punk is Dead event

     

    Press Brief

     

    Crofton Books Punk Rock Special

     

    On Saturday February 9, 3pm-5pm, there will be a punk literary event, titled simply Punk Rock Special, organised by Crofton Books, hosted by the Crofton Park Community Library, for which the event is a benefit

     

    This will be part of that weekend’s annual London Book Crawl in support of independent bookshops, including Crofton Bookshttps://www.ninjabookbox.com/london-bookshop-crawl 

     

    The event is centred around the acclaimed book Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night (Zer0 Books) by local author Richard Cabut.

     

    It will feature readings from the book by Richard Cabut and other contributors, as well as local poets and original punk rock luminaries. There will also be a Q and A session.

     

    Participants: -

     

    Richard Cabut (Editor/Author of Punk is Dead)

     

    John ‘Boogie’ Tiberi (Sex Pistols’ tour manager/photographer, described by Sid Vicious in 1977 as ‘the fifth Sex Pistol’)

     

    Tony D (Contributor to Punk is Dead and editor of Ripped & Torn fanzine).

     

    Kirsty Allison (Local poet and editor of Peckham arts magazine Cold Lips)

     

    Jason Shelley (Local poet, author of No Loooking Back and Grey Love and Crofton Books founder)

     

     

    DETAILS

     

    About the book Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night:-

     

    Co-edited/authored by Richard Cabut, this original collection of insight, analysis and conversation charts the course of punk from its underground origins, when it was an un-formed and utterly alluring near-secret – back in the garage, when the cult still had no name – through its rapid development. Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night takes in sex, style, politics and philosophy, filtered through punk experience, while believing in the ruins (of memory), to explore in depth a past whose essence is always elusive.

     

    Contributors include Jon Savage (England’s Dreaming), Jonh Ingham (journalist who wrote the very first interview with the Sex Pistols, for Sounds), Barney

    Hoskyns (Rock’s Backpages founder), Paul Gorman (Malcolm McLaren biographer), Penny Rimbaud (Crass), Dorothy Max Prior (Rema Rema, original punk), Ted Polhemus (Streetstyle), Mark Fisher (Ghosts of my Life), Neal Brown (Tracey Emin), Tom Vague (Vague), Tony D (Ripped & Torn), Andy Blade (Eater, The Secret Life of a Punk Rocker), Simon Reynolds (Shock and Awe) and Judy Nylon (Snatch, multi-disciplinary artist).

     

     

     

    ‘Admirably captures punk’s fractured, anarchic early spirit.

     

    Cabut and the other contributors use their critically productive nostalgia to prevent punk from being, as Judy Nylon puts it in her foreword, “reduced to a coffee-table book of white English boys spitting.”Zachary Hoskins, Spectrum Culture

     

     

     

    The specific purpose of the book is to celebrate that original evanescent wellspring of creativity when punk emerged as a stylish boho response to the modern world of inertia and consumption Colin Coulter, The Irish Times

     

     

     

    Richard Cabut has chosen the theme of punk as a transformative force, a becoming, not just in terms of the music and the culture around it, but in terms of the humans involved, fans included.Dickon Edwards, The Wire

     

     

     

    This is definitely a book for those who’ve read and digested all the starter level punk literature and are seeking something a little more. They’ll find it here for sure - a generous hit of the hard stuff. Ben Willmott, The Extricated blog

     

     

     

    A good companion to books like Jon Savage's England's Dreaming. Michael J, NetGalley

     

     

     

    I thoroughly enjoyed Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night. Edited by Richard Cabut, this anthology of essays, interviews and personal recollections reflects on the ways in which punk was lived and experienced at the time,’ Deborah Levy, New Statesman

     

     

     

    Editor Richard Cabut (formerly of positive punks Brigandage) corrals some of punk’s finest to document the “blank zone” in which a scene blossomed; early chroniclers such as Jon Savage and Jonh Ingham remind that it was a series of cultural seeds scattered, trigger points for what followed. MOJO magazine, Ben Myers

     

     

     

    Full participant biographies:-

     

     

     

    Richard Cabut

     

     

     

    Richard Cabut is the editor/author of the anthology Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night (Zer0 Books), contributor to Ripped, Torn and Cut – Pop, Politics and Punks Fanzines From 1976 (Manchester University Press, 2018) and Growing Up With Punk (Nice Time, 2018). His journalism has featured in the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, NME (pen name Richard North), ZigZag, The Big Issue,

    Time Out, etc. He was a Pushcart Prize nominee 2016 for his fiction. Richard’s plays have been performed at various theatres in London and nationwide, including the Arts Theatre, Covent Garden, London. He published the fanzine Kick, and played bass for the punk band Brigandage (LP Pretty Funny Thing – Gung Ho Records, 1986).

     

    John ‘Boogie’ Tiberi

     

    Tour manager/photographer of the Sex Pistols and the 101ers/early Clash – ‘It was arguably John Tiberi who helped create the punk movement when he put the 101ers as headline in a gig with the Sex Pistols as the support act.’ Now a filmmaker and photographer, John’s recent exhibitions include Punk Dada Situation at the Lucca Film Festival, and Post Punk Situation, Villa Faravelli, Emperia, Italy.

     

    Tony D

     

    Tony D founded two influential and inspirational fanzines, Ripped & Torn in 1976 and Kill Your Pet Puppy in 1980. In his piece for Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night, Tony has annotated his important 1980 piece ‘Pet Puppies in Theory and Practice’, giving an insight into the squatting punk scene of the time.

     

    Kirsty Allison

     

    Kirsty Allison's highly anticipated debut novel, Psychomachia, will be published by Wrecking Ball Press in October 2019. Her film art has shown been in galleries including the Tate. She is editor-in-chief of Cold Lips magazine. She’s soon to release her debut music project, with Gil De Ray: Children of the Burning Sun.

     

    Jason Shelley

     

    Jason Shelley, author of iconic work of fiction and poetry Grey Love and darkly humoured An Episode in the Life of a young Writer. He has recently read and toured with art gallery Berlin Blue in Berlin, Tuscany and London. Shelley, whose writing has been described as ‘profound and direct’ and bordering the absurd is working on an as yet untitled first novel. He has recently established Crofton Books, host of the Punk Rock Special, in London SE4.

     

     


     

    Product Details

    • Price: £17.99
  • Crofton Books

    Crofton Books

    Our bookshop at 375 Brockley Road, London SE4 1JU is going from strength to strength.  Books range from antiquarian, vintage and new. We have a book search system and the bookshop @CroftonBooks has its own social media pages with Twitter / Instagram / Facebook

     

    Product Details

    • Price: £5.00
  • Shelley's first book of selected poetry, No Looking Back

    Shelley's first book of selected poetry, No Looking Back

    Jason Shelley's book of selected poetry, No Looking Back is available to buy. 

    (image No Turning Point, artist Vishal Shah. Prints available. Enquire within) 

     

    Product Details

    • Price: £6.99