The Bookshop Band has announced an 18-date Magical Summer Tour, featuring brand new music inspired by the writing of Robert Macfarlane plus tracks from their latest album.

Based in Wigtown but originating in Bath, the Ivor-Novello nominated duo specialise in using both contemporary and classical literature to inspire their songwriting.

The tour takes place in art centres, book shops and other intimate venues from Glasgow to Devon and the duo will be bringing their unique style to the Theatre by the Lake on Friday, July 25.

Audiences will be among the first to hear Ben Please and Beth Porter’s most recent songs, including one created by special request of Robert Macfarlane for the launch of his new book Is a River Alive?

July’s tour got its name following praise for the band’s music for the launch of Is a River Alive.

Robert Macfarlane said: “The Bookshop Band make magic; conjuring words off the page and into song, bringing books to strange, new lyric life, singing their ways into collaboration with writers’ voices and visions in ways that are thrilling and original.”

Penguin Books added that that “The music was magical.”

The duo will also be performing music from Emerge, Return – their 2024 album which was produced by rock legend Pete Townshend, who also played on each of the 12 tracks.

Ben said: “We love being on the road, playing at intimate venues. For us it’s the absolute essence of being musicians – the chance to share our music, and the books we love, with audiences in every part of the country.”

The pair, recently featured in the New York Times, occupy a unique space, straddling the worlds of music and literature.

They have just written and performed the music for the new audiobook adaptation of Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials.

Meanwhile Beth has been performing as part of the Spell Songs ensemble which grew out of two other Robert Macfarlane books – The Lost Words and The Lost Spells.

During this summer’s tour there will be the chance to get a sneak preview of an EP they have produced inspired by the counterculture Oz magazine of the late 1960s.

The EP will be fully launched after the tour in the autumn.

The band has worked with many celebrated authors with best-sellers such as Kate Mosse (The Ghost Ship) asking them to write songs for their book launches.

They have previously recorded 13 albums, which have been sold at gigs and online.

Emerge, Return was their first wider, commercial release.

Pete Townshend was so “blown away” when he discovered The Bookshop Band that he offered to produce their next album.

The result is, Emerge, Return. Townshend was gifted a set of Ben and Beth’s CDs and admired the quality of the music and, as a former bookshop owner himself, the fact that their work is inspired by literature.

He said: “I listened to the CDs in my car as I was travelling.

“I was blown away, completely blown away. I got into the whole Bookshop Band technique, which is just two people making this sound like a symphony orchestra.

“It’s quite extraordinary. Each song was special in its own way. So, I reached out.”

Emerge, Return is a dark album of 12 songs, all written by Ben and Beth, responding to themes including the oppression of bodies, free will and free speech that are explored in books such as

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Book Of Dust by Philip Pullman.

July Tour Dates

• 2nd July – SUDBURY, THE QUAY THEATRE

• 3rd July – OXFORD, CAPER BOOKSHOP

• 4th July – BRISTOL, FOLK HOUSE

• 5th July – CORSHAM, WILTS, POUND ARTS

• 6th July – FALMOUTH, TOLMEN CENTRE

• 7th July – TIVERTON, DEVON, LIZNOJAN BOOKS (listing soon)

• 8th July – CAISTOR, LINCS, WOLDS WORD FEST

• 10th July – PRESTON, GARSTANG LIBRARY (cash on door)

• 11th July – LEEDS, ILKLEY MANOUR HOUSE

• 12th July – NEWCASTLE, WYLAM  INSTITUTE

• 13th July – GLASGOW, PAISLEY ARTS CENTRE

• 14th July – EDINBURGH, THE PIANODOME

• 18th July – CARDIGAN, THE CELLAR

• 19th July – MIDDLESBOROUGH, SALTBURN ARTS

• 23rd July – BIRMINGHAM, NUMBER 8, PERSHORE

• 25th July – KESWICK, THEATRE BY THE LAKE

• 26th July – HUDDERSFIELD, READ HOLMFIRTH (PM)

• 26th July – MANCHESTER, THE MET, BURY