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Walk into any high street book shop and you’ll notice a bombardment of celebrity memoirs and novelty titles jumping out at you immediately. You see, the book market isn’t what it used to be and it leaves us wondering where all the intelligent, original and challenging books and magazines have gone? To the Manchester Independent Book Market of course...

Manchester Independent Book Market returns to St Ann’s Square on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 June from 10am-5pm, offering book lovers the chance to sample new titles by the North’s most exciting independent presses.

The North West boasts some of the UK’s most innovative publishers of novels, poetry, short stories, and non-fiction, and the Manchester Independent Book Market is bring them to the bustling St Ann’s Square, just off Deansgate.

The market’s a great place to browse, grab a coffee, listen to live readings from a selection of talented performance poets and authors, browse art and craft stalls and find the perfect gift for the book lover in your life. There will be plenty of food and drink including Mango Rays, Leonis Latin Cellar, I love Spanish Food and the Lakeland Picnic Company to keep you going as you peruse the wealth of reading material on offer.

It’s also a great opportunity for aspiring writers to network, and make face-to-face contact with representatives from the North’s independent publishers – including Comma Press, Tindall Street, Carcanet, Route Books, Crocus, Flax Books, and Inpress. There’ll be live readings on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 June, from 12pm – 5pm, compèred by the incomparable Gerry Potter. For the ull line up and reading times please visit www.literaturenorthwest.co.uk for more details.

To celebrate the Manchester Independent Book Makret, we’re giving away a mini library of books. Here’s the list of books which one lucky reader will receive:

Trader: Caroline Warhurst
Title: Dreams and Goals: World Cup and World Football Culture1990-2010 [Illustrated] (Hardcover)
Author: Alistair Berg
Photographer: Rogan P. Taylor
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Media Ltd
Genre: Sport

Synopsis Info: For every football fan the World Cup Finals are the most extraordinary celebration of the game. As we look forward to South Africa hosting the 2010 tournament, this outstanding collection of photographs by Alistair Berg captures fan culture around the world at its most vibrant and characterful. The book is a unique chronicle of a 20 year period that has seen enormous changes in football and a massive surge in support for the game.

Trader: Isabel Galan
Title: Away From the Light of Day
Author: Amadou and Mariam
Publisher: Route
Genre: Autobiography

Synopsis Info: The magic couple, Amadou and Mariam, are one of the most loved and successful acts to come out of Africa this century, but their story is not one of overnight success. They have been singing their warm notes for more than thirty years. Away from the Light of Day is an inspiring story which reveals the source of this golden duo’s contagious music, threading its way between tradition, religion, hope and superstition.

Trader: Andy Croft
Title: The Blue Cat Walks the Earth
Author: Frank Reeve
Publisher: Smokestack Books

Synopsis Info: The Blue Cat is a courteous, outspoken, well-read, somewhat randy anarchist ready again to lay down one of his lives for what he believes. He’s a cross between Top Cat, Puss in Boots, Schrodinger’s Cat and the Cat in a Hat. He’s a trickster, a prankster, an illusionist and an illusion. And he’s back.

Trader: Roy Gray
Title: Alison
Author: Andrew Humphrey
Publisher: TTA Press (as the hardback)
Genre: Mystery

Synopsis Info: Chris believed that Alison was the love of his life. He believed that Spike and Emma were his best friends. He trusted them. Turns out we all have our dark side.This first novel from successful short-story writer Andrew Humphrey builds on his fascination with dark desires, creating a compelling mystery that holds the reader in its grip as the disparate threads of a man’s life unravel amid revelations and recriminations.

Trader: Valerie Clarke
Title: Friend in deed. The history of a life assurance office from 1858 as the Refuge Friend in Deed life Assurance & Sick Fund Friendly society to 1958 as the Refuge Assurance Company Ltd.
Author: Cyril Clegg
Publisher: Stone & Cox 1958
Genre: Second Hand Book - History

Synopsis Info: A history of Manchester based Refuge Assurance Co Ltd. It looks at funerary benefits in Roman days, medieval gilds, burial clubs and the growing need for organised life assurance. When the "Refuge" began in 1858 it was a tiny, struggling friendly society that took life assurance into the homes of people of small means; by the time this book wasa written in 1958 it had become a well known assurance company - although still with the hope that it would be a 'friend in deed' to those who needed it.

Trader: Sarah Hymas
Title: Before the Rain
Author: Mollie Baxter, Tom Fletcher, Peter Wild
Publisher: Flax
Genre: Short Stories

Synopsis Info: Mollie Baxter, Thomas Fletcher and Peter Wild prove themselves to be engaging storytellers in stories that are war-torn, sub-marine and forest-ridden, and each unpicks dilemmas we can all relate to: love, fear and loyalty… This volume is the embodiment of Flax’s ambition to highlight regional voices.

Trader: Paul Sutherland
Title: Dreamcatcher – Issue 23 (Canadian Issue)
Editor: Paul Sutherland
Genre: Journal

Synopsis Info: A remarkable range of writings almost all from Canada. This is a chance to 'dive into other waters' and explore and value the literature from across the ocean. It will inspire and excite you as readers and stimulate you as writers.

Trader: Paul Neads
Title: The Wisdom of the Jumble Sale
Author: Jackie Hagan
Publisher: Flapjack Press
Genre: Poetry

Synopsis Info: Welcome to this dark and dazzling jumble sale, where if you pull aside a jam-stained coat and a frilly night gown, you can enter a secret magical world of drunken care bears and narky buses, where clowns eat spam, sugar and lard butties and if you stand outside Netto for long enough a rocket ship will come and fly you away. A world where the moon is fat on hot buttered toast, wisdom is biro'd on the back of everyone's hand and the weird and broken puff out their chests with giggling pride. Come in and meet Cat Diazepam, Bobby Bookshop, Veronica Pop, Mr Pinstripe and their friends and find out who brought Bambi's mum back to life, in this, Jackie Hagan's collection of contemporary folklore.

Title: Lyric of Dragon Claw Keep
Author: Dominic Berry
Publisher: Flapjack Press
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy

Synopsis Info: The war needs strong ones like yourselves. You will come with me now, my new slaves..." A mad and merciless Queen elf has descended from the dark north mountains and murdered the old King of Dragon Claw Keep. Within these ancient walls, her brainwashed acolytes have constructed a horrific abuse suite, where all who do not join her army are slowly slaughtered by blood-thirsty goblin mages. You do not know how you and your loved ones came to be in this strange and deadly land. Can you survive its challenges and traps long enough to discover how to get home? In Dominic Berry's exciting modern adventure game YOU are the hero. Many have already been killed resisting the Queen elf's cruelty. Where they have fallen, will you survive?

* Closing date for entries is 26 June 2010.
Entrants must reside within the UK, or have a UK postal address

To be in with a chance of winning the mini library, please enter below.