0About Kenilworth Books
“A Good Bookshop shows you the books that you never knew you wanted.”
Mark Forsyth
Meet The Team
JUDY BROOK
Judy Brook is the owner of Kenilworth Books. She bought the business in 2014 and brings to the bookshop 23 years of experience in the banking industry, and more recently, 8 years teaching business studies at Further Education level. Judy worked for Hereward College, which is a national college for young people with disabilities and additional needs. She has brought links with the college to the bookshop, which welcomes work experience students from Hereward in addition to students from the local secondary school and from further afield too. Judy’s interest and background in education has strengthened the schools-focus of the bookshop, which now works with many primary and secondary schools and universities across the Midlands.
Judy’s favourite book of recent years is Breath by James Nestor.
CHARLOTTE VAUGHAN
Charlotte has been working in the bookshop since 2019 and now manages the running of the shop. In 2020 Charlotte graduated with a Masters Degree in Victorian Literature at the University of Leicester after completing her undergraduate degree in English with a First from the University of Northampton. Although Charlotte’s love for books was first founded with the classics such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, she now reads a wide variety of contemporary fiction and loves recommending her favourite recent reads to customers. With the help of Judy, Charlotte began the Kenilworth Books Book Club in lockdown, discussing the book club choice online each month. The book club has blossomed and Charlotte has chaired many authors including Marianne Cronin, Ian Moore, Caroline Lee, Joanne Burn and Elizabeth Lee in the shop and online. Outside of the shop you will find Charlotte curled up with a good book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.
Charlotte’s current favourite book is The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin.
JACINTA MCLAUGHLIN
Jacinta McLaughlin has worked at Kenilworth Books since 2014. She is a former lecturer in Business Studies and curriculum head at Hereward College. Before working at the Hereward, she taught at both Dudley Technical College and at Barr’s Hill Secondary School in Coventry. Jacinta comes originally from Northern Ireland, where she started her education career teaching at Downpatrick, in County Down. In the shop you will find Jacinta chatting away to customers, ordering books and recommending her recent favoruites. Look out for Jacinta’s reviews in our Fiction and Crime & Thriller shelves, these are often the best reads!
Jacinta’s current favourite book is Devotion by Hannah Kent.
DEBORAH TEXEIRA
Deborah has recently joined the Bookshop team. She has been a primary teacher for the last 21 years in both State and Independent Schools in Richmond and Acton in London, Nottingham, Birmingham, Kenilworth, and Rugby. She has been the Assistant Headteacher for Early Years in two schools where she has also had responsibility for Reading for Pleasure throughout the school. This is where her love of children’s literature has grown. In her most recent school, she has organised many author and illustrator visits for the pupils and staff. These have included Kate Greenaway Medal winner Jackie Morris and former Children’s Laureates Cressida Cowell and Chris Riddell. Deborah also has first-hand experience of transforming a school library from a disused, unloved space to the beating heart of the school. With exciting choices for the children, the library has changed the reading habits of many the children.
Deborah is also part of the Waterstones Children’s Laureate Steering Group. In this role Deborah elects the new incoming Laureates and helps to guide them through their term in office. She has also been part of many Book Trust reading panels such as their well-known Time to Read campaign where every Reception aged child in the UK receives a free book to take home. Deborah has also given CPD lectures to teachers about Reading for Pleasure and has co-written an article about organising Author visits with Tamsin Rosewell for the Times Educational Supplement.
Deborah is also a long-lister for the UKLA Book Awards. She has too many favourite books to name just one!
LEE CHESTER
Lee moved from Surrey to Kenilworth in 2013. Whilst living in Surrey she worked for many years for a charity supporting people with life threatening illnesses.
Her background is in counselling, health and wellbeing. She has trained in massage therapy, NLP, healing and meditation. She has also enjoyed various retail placements including working in a dolls house shop, building, decorating and lighting the miniature houses for display.
Her reading choices are varied and she enjoys being part of the Kenilworth bookshop book club run by Charlotte. One of her favourite recent read is Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and she very much enjoyed seeing the theatre production in Stratford.
Lee enjoys meeting and talking to our customers and recommending books. She also loves travel and meeting new people.
TAMSIN ROSEWELL
Tamsin Rosewell has been associated with Kenilworth Books for over 15 years, and has a spectial interest and knowledge in children’s and illustrated books. Although she no longer works at the bookshop she became known for her painted window displays and now uses her creative talents full time as an illustrator. Tamsin is a regular panel speaker and Festival event chair, as well as being judge of the Stratford Salariya Picture Book Prize. She has been on the advisory panel for Pathways into Publishing, and a Reader for BookTrust’s Book Buzz programme. Tamsin lectures regularly to Publishing and Creative Writing Masters students, and runs school workshops; she is part of University College London’s Bookselling Research Network. Her illustration work includes The Billow Maiden by James Dixon for Guppy Books, The Wish Gatherers by Celestine and the Hare for Graffeg, The Haunted Hills by Berlie Doherty for Uclan Publishing and most recently The Seamaiden’s Odyssey also by Berlie Doherty.