1. Winchester has a rich literary history, and your bookshop has been around for almost 300 years. Jane Austen famously lived three doors down from the shop! How does it feel to work in such a historic setting for bookselling?
There is a huge responsibility in taking care of what we believe to be Britain’s oldest surviving bookshop. It has traded from this site since 1789, before which it was next door. My role is as much custodian and maintenance manager as it is bookseller.
2. P&G Wells offers more than just bookselling on site. You have an online bookshop with a delivery service, and you sell stationery, stock library collections, and organise literary events. How do these extra services add to the nature of the bookshop as a whole?
Ever since our earliest record, an invoice from 1729 for stationery supplied to Winchester College, we have continually adapted to the times. While medicines and insurance policies are no longer part of our offer, we realise the importance of having many strings to our bow. The College is still an important customer, along with other schools across Hampshire and beyond. A few weeks ago, we shipped two pallets of books – more than the entire stock of some bookshops – to a British school on the other side of Europe.
Although closed during much of 2020, our loyal customers insisted we were essential retail, so we launched online sales through our own website and bookshop.org, supported by home deliveries all over Hampshire by bike – my daily exercise.
It is great that offsite events are now picking up as a way to reach new customers. We have a hectic schedule of pop-up bookshops in schools and other venues lined up that will keep us busy well into 2024.
3. What sort of books do you find your customers are most interested in? Have you noticed any recent trends?
We aim to stock a diverse range of titles that will appeal to our loyal customers. As well as local interest titles and of course our extensive range of Jane Austen, history and other social sciences, classics and both adult and younger fiction generally do well. Our growing selection of fantasy, classic retellings, feminist and LGBQIA+ titles is proving popular.
4. What is your favourite/ least favourite part about being a bookseller?
As an independent, one of my favourite aspects of bookselling is the opportunity to pick a selection of titles from a wide range of publishers. One of my least favourites is returning those that haven’t succeeded in finding the right customer. That, paying the bills and sorting out maintenance of our aging building.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you would like to share with us?
Until last Christmas we had a conservation bookbinder working in the old coach house behind the bookshop. Now that they have retired, we plan to turn the bindery into an event space and a showcase for our long heritage of publishing and printing as well as bookselling. While there is a lot of work to do, we hope to have it ready well before our 300th anniversary in 2029!
1. Your shop is themed on ‘strong-women’. Tell us your vision behind establishing Wave of Nostalgia.
It was a dream I had from being a young child, running a shop, finding the right gift for a customer, helping fulfil their needs.
I began 10 years ago selling vintage items, sewing clothes and repurposing preloved china and furniture on market stalls and visiting vintage fairs. Finding premises in Haworth, where the Brontë sisters grew up, fed straight into my vision of a themed strong-women shop as many literary people visit the parsonage where Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre were written. I curate all the books sold at Wave of Nostalgia, focusing on suffragettes, feminism, Brontës, women accused of witchcraft, women’s health, LGBTQ+ and conservation. If I don’t love the book it doesn’t get into the shop. The vision seems to be working as customers return to ask for more recommendations and that is just brilliant!
2. What is it like running a bookshop in Haworth, home of the Brontës?
Having a shop on the Main Street of Haworth amongst over 40 independent shops, looking out over the moors with the changing weather, so close to the Brontës home is a delight. We not only have visitors from the UK but from all over the world and also enjoy strong local customer support. We have a team of four part time fun-loving, hardworking staff. We welcome and chat to each and every customer and are there to help them navigate the shop. Even though it is small it is packed with interesting, informative fiction and non-fiction. Though it’s said ‘You should never judge a book by its cover’, we love stocking beautiful books especially Independent Special Editions with sprayed edges and signed by the author. They look great displayed on vintage tables and shelves. Every inch of space is used to its full potential.
3. The shop is a hive of activity, from bookselling to clothes-making – what is your favourite part of the day?
Opening in the morning is always such a pleasure, looking out at the other shops, and prepping for the day. But the most brilliant part of the day, it could even be the whole day, is meeting and learning from the inspiring customers who visit pass through the shop.
4. If you could recommend one book published in the past year, what would it be?
The Square of Seven by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, a historical drama with so many twists and turns, it will keep you guessing to the very end.
5. And last, but not least, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you would like to share with us?
Last year we opened up our barrel-vaulted cellar as an event space to hold poetry evenings. It was such a success that we began to hold book signings … they then expanded further and we used the café next door for medium-sized events of about fifty and have even used the lovely Baptist Centre to accommodate crowds of over a hundred. We now plan to get involved in developing a Haworth Festival next year as a warm up to Bradford City of Culture 2025, to help bring more people to Haworth not only for the literature but for the landscape, enriching not only the visitors but the local community.
1. The “Almost as famous as 84 Charing Cross Road” Spectator quote is one we couldn’t agree with more – the shop’s history is legendary. What is it like running such a well-established and traditional bookshop in modern-day London?
Standing behind the till at Heywood Hill, one has a chandelier over-head, a framed picture of Nancy Mitford (a venerable former desk jockey during the Second World War) to the right, our room of rare books to the left, and an original William Blake print of the pilgrims of the Canterbury Tales at one’s back. The history of the shop, which hasn’t changed a great deal since it opened in 1936, is easy to feel from this position; as though one has slipped through a crack in time and emerged in a post-war Mayfair. However, descend the stairs opposite the till and we have desks from which we answer calls and emails from around the world, setting up our subscriptions, putting together personalised collections of books, and arranging for them to go out across the globe. I think the geography of the shop speaks to our general ethos. It’s important to keep the traditional shop and its accoutrements, its discernment and discretion, at the head of the business, where customers can physically meet our booksellers and see our stock of new and rare books, but to meet the challenges of modern bookselling, we have a foundation of modern services resting beneath. We also branch-out from our spot on Curzon Street to sell books at events across central London. This helps us to introduce Heywood Hill to bibliophiles drawn to London and its historic booksellers – as well as to connect with authors and publishers.
2. How do you go about handpicking your selection of new, old, and antiquarian titles?
Our selections are always customer-led. Over time we’ve built up a picture of what our customers are looking for – narrative history, nature writing, and literary detective and espionage fiction, are just a few examples of genres we know to have a proven record with us. We supplement this core stock with ‘Beautiful Books’, which are often titles you won’t find in many other shops. These comprise high-end or limited run prints, coffee-table books, and rare imported titles. We also order titles for our customers if we don’t have a copy in stock, and our subscriptions, Ultimate Literary Gifts, and Libraries are done wholly on this personalised basis; with each title picked out for the customer individually and ordered directly from our suppliers.
Amongst our shop stock is, of course, our rare collection. Andrew McGeachin runs this department and has a long history in the trade, and has built relationships with many of our customers that now informs the basis of our buying. We sell broadly, though most of our rare stock is centred on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with an especially strong showing amongst signed and first editions. We also have an eclectic array of objects and ephemera, from paintings to napkin doodles, which is a tradition begun early in the shop’s history where such objects began being sold alongside the books. We are unusual in being able to buy large numbers of out of print books in fine condition as well as rare books. People who are downsizing or looking to sell books get in touch all the time.
3. If you had to pick your absolute favourite book, what would it be, and why?
I would take the 1974 Faber edition of The Spire by William Golding. The great spire that Dean Jocelin attempts to build over his medieval flock as the foundations of his cathedral sink beneath him haunts the novel, deepening the clerical madness of the Dean, terrifying those in its shadow, and casting judgement on pride, will, and obsession alike.
4. Heywood Hill offers a prestigious list of services, the most intriguing being the ‘Ultimate Literary Gifts’ – tell us more about it and how it works.
Actually our biggest service at the moment is probably the work of our Library Department. We assemble around 25 libraries each year for corporate and private clients. This is where our unique expertise in handling new, out of print and rare material comes to the fore. Each project is entirely bespoke and often involves amplifying someone’s existing shelves on a subject to something altogether more impressive. We have tackled every subject under the sun. Recent projects have included a library on the Enlightenment in France and African exploration by Europeans for a house in New England. The work is great fun and every time we learn something new.
We also broker the sale of world-class collections of rare or out of print books, finding new private or institutional homes for existing libraries.
Our Ultimate Literary Gift is a box (or several!) of books that are personalised to the literary tastes of each customer. They come at £150, £250, £500, £1000 price-points (exclusive of postage, as we send them internationally) and can contain a mix of forms – whether it be paperbacks, hardbacks, coffee-table books, or even rare titles. Each recipient has a ‘reading consultation’ with one of our booksellers, just as with the subscriptions, where we have a conversation about reading interests, such as one’s favourite authors, areas the recipient would like to explore in their reading, and what they really dislike in books. From this discussion we build up a picture of them as a reader and begin putting together their box(es). We’re really proud of the service and have received some wonderful feedback since it launched. The books arrive wrapped in our brown paper and blue ribbon, and at the upper-end, it truly feels like a small library or burgeoning specialist collection. The consultations can be done in-person or over the phone, or simply through our website. I think this is again an aspect of our melding of traditional and modern. The personalised service, based upon a bookseller’s brain, rather than an algorithm, is mixed with the opportunity to develop customers around the world, and get them their books quickly, that modern technology and infrastructure provides.
5. And finally, are there any exciting plans coming up for the shop that you would like to share with us?
Our mission is to sell good books in innovative ways to readers and collectors worldwide. We are always exploring new ways to do just that. Our focus this year is to find new clients who really appreciate our services. We’re working on a very special project this summer which we hope to announce early in the autumn.
1. When you set up Limestone Books in Settle in 2019, what was your vision?
I wanted to open a truly independent bookshop that looked beautiful, that reflected my taste and interests, and that was full of books that I could rave and be passionate about. I HOPED that this would appeal to the people of Settle!
2. What’s it like running a bookshop in the Yorkshire Dales?
It’s a lot of fun! My local customers are really supportive, and very interested and engaged in books. We have the best book chats. And because Settle is a tourist town, I get a lot of really happy people on holiday, looking to treat themselves to something interesting to read. I Have a great time recommending fab books to locals and visitors alike.
3. What types of books have your customers been buying recently? Have you noticed any trends?
Since I opened, nature writing and natural history have been really popular and this interest doesn’t seem to be waning. In non-fiction, I also sell a lot of outdoor adventure books, both guides and biographies. Fiction and crime fiction are also big sellers, and since COVID I’ve seen sales in these areas rise. I think people have definitely been looking for ways to escape reality!
4. How do you go about choosing the books that line the shelves?
I have lots of influences. For example, if a couple of customers order a particular book I’ll get it in for stock as there’s obviously local interest. Or if I see books are being reviewed well in the newspapers I’ll usually give them a go. But the main thing is, I have to think a book sounds interesting, or think it will be of interest to my customers.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
June is the month for independent bookshop week and I like to support independent publishers during this time. I ensure I get loads of stock in from one or two, (relatively local if possible), and offer them at a discount to promote their work to new readers. In July I’m really excited to be welcoming Robin Ince back to Settle as part of his Bibliomaniac tour. He’s such a huge book, bookshop and library lover and supporter, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Our Community Library is hosting the event and it’s great to be in partnership with them. And at the end of September it will be the shop’s fourth birthday. I usually bake a couple of cakes to share with customers, and put on a couple of promotions. Where does the time go?!
1. Firstly, what’s it like running a bookshop in Letchworth, the world’s first Garden City, and secondly tell us about being an independent Employee-Owned Trust – how did that come about?
Letchworth is neither a university town, nor is it a tourist destination, so we rely almost completely on trade from residents. Because of this, it’s important to stock the shelves with books that Letchworthians love. We do well with natural history and (surprise surprise) gardening.
The previous owner, Paul Wallace, sold the company to the employees in March 2020; right at the very beginning of the first lockdown. As far as I know, we’re the only bookshop EOT in the UK. If there are any others, I’d love to chat to the booksellers there, as the experience of working here is so unique. Everyone has a tangible impact on the way things are run, what is sold, and how the place looks.
2. David’s Bookshop sounds like a delightful hub of books, music, and scones – tell us how a normal day pans out.
The day starts with a strong cup of coffee from our sister café, and then begins the task of wheeling the second-hand books onto the pavement outside. If the day is wet, this early morning activity also involves vast, book-protecting tarpaulins. After that, the day can only improve. This year I’m pleased to say that we have had a lot of footfall, so much of the day is spent advising people on which books to buy, chatting with regulars, and shelving.
3. How do you go about choosing the books that line your shelves?
After we became an EOT we moved fiction to the front of the bookshop and expanded its shelf space by about three bays. Given that fiction dominates the front space, I tend to buy a good range, with a mixture of bestselling titles and representation from smaller presses. When it comes to nonfiction, it’s clear that the people of Letchworth love all things that are green and grow, so bold buying in the gardening and natural history departments is often rewarded.
4. You run quite a few events in store – what kind of events work best for you and your customers?
This year the headline event for spring is Ray Mears, who will be coming in to talk about his new book British Woodland. Of course, it’s a perfect event for Letchworth and we can’t wait to welcome him. We generally get a great response with our non-fiction events, and since 2021 we have also been running cookery demos and tastings.
5. And finally, happy 60th! What are you doing to celebrate 60 years young, and do you have any other exciting plans for the shop in the coming months you’d like to share with us?
On the 31st of March we had a party at David’s for staff past and present, representatives from the bookselling industry, and good friends of the bookshop. It was a great night, and I was very pleased to have the following day off. My colleague Chloe has made a selection of 60th merch (tote bags, bookmarks, cross fold leaflets) with the original David’s logo. We are busy throughout spring with our events programme, reading groups, and we’re starting a new silent book club in late April. After a few months off we will be returning to more events in September. We already have a few exciting things up the proverbial sleeve for autumn.
1. Firstly, many congratulations for being shortlisted for a Nibbies’ Independent Bookshop of the Year Award (South East) 2023! Tell us about how the shop came into being and what it’s like today.
Thank you very much. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the final, but it is always nice to be recognised.
I had worked for the Scientific Civil Service as a lab technician which didn’t suit me. I’d always loved bookshops and spent many a Saturday afternoon browsing in second-hand ones of which there used to be plenty, but sadly now all gone.
So, I spent nine years working my way up the WH Smith greasy pole, which I really enjoyed. They were then the biggest booksellers in the country and I learnt a lot, specifically about the business side of the trade. I had met Inge, a bookseller from Chichester, at a party. When we had the chance, we sold our house, lived with her parents, and bought City Books, which was then a remainder shop.
That was back in 1986 and the shop is very different now. We are, unusually these days, a stock-holding bookshop with thousands of titles We carry all the important titles from the big publishers and buy lots from smaller ones too.
At the start there were just the two of us. No computers and ISBNs had just come in. All the sales were recorded on an A4 pad of paper and orders had to be sent by post or read line by line over the phone. Now there are six of us, all with different interests and varying ages. We excel in arranging great events, which give us great pleasure (and an extra stream of income).
2. How do you spend your day – what’s your favourite part?
It is my job to see the reps and organise launches and outside events. My favourite part… it is particularly enjoyable to pick out the occasional gem hidden in the publishers’ lists. It is also extremely pleasurable to relax after a successful event, which has been enjoyed by both author and audience.
3. What sort of books do you find your customers are most interested in?
We have an intelligent and diverse customer base who generally want to make the world a better place. Books on slowing climate change, education, politics, science, and the arts are all in demand. Gender politics is a hot issue. There is also a strong interest in quality fiction. The Women’s Prize shortlist will create a lot of interest.
4. Do you have a current favourite – if so, what is it?
My favourite book so far this year is Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry. The paperbacks of Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart and Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris are coming soon – both are moving and well-crafted novels and should do well.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months you’d like to share with us?
May is a very busy time for us. We are booksellers at the Charleston Festival, as well as at Brighton Festival Fringe events. We have also made great progress in developing our online shop and will continue to invest in our staff and in books. In short, we expect to have a thoroughly enjoyable time.
1. What was the vision behind opening your bookshop, and that of your sister shop in 2021?
We moved to Wales in 2010 (Geoff is originally from Aberdare) and opened Penrallt Gallery Bookshop a year later, with our home above the bookshop. The ‘gallery’ element was to use our specialism in photography to curate work by photographers in Wales and to identify emerging photographers with an annual open submission exhibition. There would always be, unusually, exhibition wall space alongside a growing range of new and second-hand books.
As we built more bookcases, the wall space shrank a little but still provides plenty of room for photographers new to exhibiting, which we encourage. We rented space for a separate gallery, Ffotogaleri y Gofeb, three doors along in late 2017; the pandemic and social distancing led us to relocate our growing photographic book collection there. We have one of the most extensive collections of photography books in Wales, perhaps in the UK.
Meanwhile, our regular First Thursday events with authors brought together a community of readers, so over the 12 years we have become a hub not just for book lovers and writers but also photographers. We believed that was our lot until we ‘retired’. When, in 2021, we were invited to open another bookshop in the town, in Owain Glyndwr’s Parliament House (Senedd-dy), we took on the challenge as non-Welsh speakers to extend our already bilingual stock to concentrate on Welsh language books and to employ fluent Welsh speakers. It was essential to create a bookshop to compliment the Senedd-dy’s historical and cultural importance; it had also been the town library until the 1970s and the bookshop now uses a wonderful reading table (pictured) for display.
Siop Lyfrau’r Senedd-dy’s browsing experience offers customers a selection that reflects Wales’s rich literary canon in both languages including books new and old(er) across the writing genres. It also serves visitors who want to learn about Wales and travel around the country, walking, sightseeing and understanding how we see ourselves and our place in the world as one of its smaller nations. The children’s section offers a fantastic range of books by Welsh authors, primarily Welsh language with some English language and bilingual titles. The range for ages 7-11 is carefully chosen to encourage Welsh language reading in older primary school children.
During the pandemic it became clear that Pen’rallt was too confined a space for author events, so there was the added bonus of using the rest of the main hall for events. Senedd-dy is fast becoming an important venue for book launches, with pre-launches of some recent works taking place before the Hay festival in 2022 and programmed into the Amdani, Fachynlleth Gwyl Lenyddol, Literary Festival, 31 March – 2 April 2023.
2. What kind of books do well in your bookshops?
We choose books that align with our own principles and beliefs, so there is a ‘curated’ feel to the bookshop that is often identified by customers. Fortunately this approach works well with most customers and we have built up a reputation for stocking books that are not always available elsewhere. Our contact with Sally Sharp, our Yale Rep, is particularly important in this respect. Books by local authors launched by us, tend to sell very well but, generally, our best selling titles are about current issues such as the environment, politics, translation and art. With illustrated children’s books also strong sellers.
Books that do well in Siop Lyfrau’r Senedd-dy are the latest Welsh language publications across all genres including novels, cookery, sport, contemporary political thinking, art and music. Nature, travel guides and travel writing and maps of Wales. Resources for Welsh learners, Welsh history, social history, Welsh mythology and books about historical landmarks in Wales. Books on other small nations and the Welsh diaspora, including the ‘London Welsh’.
3. How do you go around choosing them to line your shelves?
We buy our second-hand books individually wherever we can find them. We tend not to buy from customers, never do house clearances or go to auctions, so that we can maintain the high quality of our stock. New titles are chosen on the basis of following the publishing industry news, reading reviews, talking to customers, visits from reps. and what we think will work in our bookshop.
4. If you could recommend one book published in the last year, which would it be?
We have chosen Cymru Fydd by Wiliam Owen Roberts, a dystopian novel, written in Welsh, set in a Wales of 2090, a “thriving and powerful” Wales, but a nightmarish Wales too. It is of much significance to us as it is the first book published by O’r Pedwar Gwynt, the Welsh Language Literary Review (imagine the quality of London Review of Books looking out at the European literary scene from Wales and in Welsh). We successfully launched the book at the Senedd-dy in 2022, attracting other writers as well as readers from near and far to an entirely Welsh language event.
Pen’rallt’s partnership with O’r Pedwar Gwynt is undoubtedly one of the highlights for us when we look back over the past 12 years. In Siop Lyfrau’r Senedd-dy, O’r Pedwar Gwynt, now has its official home. Many of the speakers or featured writers at this year’s festival regularly write, edit and contribute to the review. The venue is very beautiful and a perfect space to hold events.
5. And finally, we see you have a literary festival coming up at the end of March which is very exciting – tell us more about that.
The idea for a festival – Amdani Fachynlleth – began tentatively in 2021. Inspired by the life of Jan Morris, her description of Machynlleth, the place where journeys meet / lle mae llwybrau’n cyfarfod, and as always ‘a junction of powers and influences’, continues to inform the programming of these annual Spring weekends. And we can boast that we have book launches and author events as ‘way before Hay!’ Although the ambition is not corporate, more an opportunity for visitors to the festival and this beautiful location to get a taste of the cultured life of a small rural Welsh town.
We have a stellar line-up for the festival, with authors taking part a mix of ‘world famous round here’ such as Mike Parker, author of our best selling ‘On the Red Hill’ whose next book, All the Wide Border, a book that looks at Britishness as much as where Wales shades into England, we’ll launch as the penultimate event of the festival and other prestigious authors from Wales and over the border. Opening the festival are art historian Peter Lord and historian of music, Rhian Davies, with a profusely illustrated talk based on their recent book The Art of Music: Branding the Welsh Nation. Insights by the book’s designer, Isobel Gillan, will open up the elaborate process of Art book production and harper and teacher Rhiain Bebb will bring some of the harps pictured ‘to life’. Over the weekend there’ll be Talking Cooking with an African Twist with north Wales food guru, Maggie Ogunbanwo; another illustrated talk by The Lost Rainforests of Britain, author, Guy Shrubsole; Tom Bullough and Julie Brominicks, writers who walk Wales not as tourists but as observers and social chroniclers of its landscape now – contemporary examples perhaps of George Borrow; Simon Brooks and Huw L. Williams, Welsh historians of ideas will ask is there a risk, in the age of global knowledge, that a Welsh understanding of the world might be lost? Mererid Puw Davies proposes that women as writers are producers of a culture that offers an alternative to the prevailing orthodoxies, as she traces the life and work of her novelist grandmother, Elena Puw Morgan; and so much more.
To check the festival programme, please visit the website using the button below.
1. We see from your website that The Book Lounge opened in 2018 and you have recently expanded with The Jigsaw Lounge – what has been your vision behind setting up these shops?
I had been a school librarian for 13 years and took redundancy in July 2018. At a loss at what to do, (there were no other librarian vacancies in the area), I had the inspiration for The Book Lounge as I was driving into work one morning. By the end of the day I had the vision of a second hand bookshop with a comfy reading area in front of the fire to sit and relax with a freshly made coffee. The shop has developed and evolved over the years, and we now sell mostly new books, but I still have an area with used books available. We have a wide range of book themed gifts, including jigsaws, which leads me into why we opened The Jigsaw Lounge.
During lockdown as the nation took to doing jigsaws, we sold out of our book themed puzzles and found it almost impossible to restock as manufacturers couldn’t keep up with demand. In April 2021 as we emerged from another lockdown, we opened a stall on the local charter market running a jigsaw exchange, we soon introduced new jigsaws alongside the exchange, and then when the opportunity to rent a small shop just 4 doors down for The Book Lounge we decided to open The Jigsaw Lounge, which opened its doors in November 2021. Keeping with the lounge experience we try to have a jigsaw on the go so customers can add a few pieces, although there is no room to sit down.
2. What made you want to go into bookselling? What is your favourite and least favourite part about it?
I went into bookselling after redundancy, it seemed a natural progression from being a Chartered librarian in a school. It was a risk, I didn’t get it right straight away and am continuing to learn. I started as a second hand bookshop as I felt I couldn’t compete with larger online book sellers and supermarkets. I was wrong, it soon became apparent that the local community wanted a bookshop where they could buy and order new books. It has been a huge learning curve, but I love what I do.
Many customers take photos of our book clock and our counter made of books, both big talking points with the customers which is always a pleasure. My favourite times are when customers come back and tell me how much they enjoyed a book I recommended and then trust my judgement when choosing another one. Least favourite, there’s not much I don’t like, but I guess it is when you get a customer who just dismisses everything you recommend and can’t give you any idea of what they actually do want. This has probably only happened a couple of times but is frustrating.
3. What types of books are your customers buying? Have you noticed any trends over Christmas and into the New Year?
Poetry is very popular and over the years I have built up a good selection of poetry books for all ages. Recently a local photographer produced a book called “Forty Farms”, amazing photography and interviews with farming families in the Lake District, this has been very popular for Christmas and being published locally has been easily accessible for me, being hand delivered by the publisher. Local interest books are popular at any time of the year. History books are also trending for us, selling quite a few of a Yale publication, “Going to Church in Medieval England” in the run up to Christmas.
4. What is it like running a bookshop in Kirkby Lonsdale?
Kirkby Lonsdale is a beautiful small market town on the borders of Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire. There is a great community spirit in the town and the high street is made up of independent shops that are well supported by the local community. Tourism is good in the area, so our summers can be quite busy. I support a lot of local authors and it is amazing how many talented writers live nearby we held 2 local author book launches last year along with several book signings.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you would like to share with us?
I set up a dyslexia friendly books area in the shop recently and will be extending and promoting it this year. This came about from having been a school librarian and wanted my bookshop to provide books for everyone.
We’ll be hosting our second Kirkby Lonsdale Poetry Festival in 2024 having held our first very successful one in August 2022 and I’m planning an author event with Carol Wyer in March, she is one of our local authors, and will hopefully be organising many more during the year.
The Book Lounge is featured in “Bookshop Tours of Britain” by Louise Boland and this year The Jigsaw Lounge has been listed in a new publication, “111 Places in Lancaster and Morecambe (including the surrounding area) That You Shouldn’t Miss” by Lindsay Sutton. I will be making sure that we continue to be worthy of these publications throughout the year, no pressure!
1. Gainsborough’s House was founded in 1961. How has this rich legacy influenced your bookselling vision?
Gainsborough’s House in Suffolk is the childhood home of Thomas Gainsborough – one of the greatest figures of British and world art history. Gainsborough’s House Society was founded to collect and display a growing collection of art by him within this Grade-I listed Georgian House. We hold the largest collection of his work in one setting alongside art and personal possessions of Cedric Morris and John Constable, two other great artists from East Anglia. We set about to always stock books about these three men and often we are the only outlet for some titles. Sadly lots of well-loved Gainsborough titles are now out of print and feeling strongly that as Gainsborough’s House we should at least have Gainsborough books in stock, we always get very excited at the discovery of a new book on the block!
2. What is the history of the Gainsborough’s House shop? How do the exhibitions and collection displayed at the Museum inform your buying?
After three years of closure, we have just re-opened following a major £10m redevelopment and we are very proud of our beautiful new shop. Our old shop was very popular but we now have a shop twice the size and are developing our online retail presence. Just as the museum is curated, so are the ranges in the shop. A selection of the ranges is inspired by Gainsborough’s work – we take a painting, and the colours and content influence which products are bought to build the theme. There are also ranges inspired by the trees in our walled garden, the Quince and Mulberry. Finally, we have local themes like Sudbury Silk and our thriving Print Workshop. There are always a couple of tables set for exhibitions and when they finish, the books merge into our lovely Library range. Books represent a third of our takings and as a book buyer’s daughter, this is music to my ears. I love books and I am so pleased so many agree with me!
3. What do you want the Gainsborough’s House shop to bring to the museum experience as a whole?
We have seen a real lift in supporting museums by purchasing from their shops, especially in the last three years. When turmoil sets in around us, we all look to connect with history and nature almost in a bid to re-ground and re-settle ourselves with where we’ve come from. We see that in sale trends as people look to place a relevance to products. Plus, museum shops offer those unique and interesting gifts that are useful when we’ve run out of ideas in all the usual places! To know you are buying a specially selected gift with relevance and at the same time, supporting history and art – that’s a great way to round off a visit. As we stand alone to the museum, being adjacent rather than within, the shop is our chance to promote the museum through merchandise. We love a satisfying conversion from high street shopper to a visitor – our job is done!
4. What sort of books do you find your customers are most interested in? Do they generally correlate with the Gainsborough’s House featured exhibitions?
We stock a large selection of art themed books in our Library section and these can be anything from the Georgian period, history of art and the hidden messages in art to the grubbier side of Georgian life and then a few fiction titles. Local authors feature too, we like to support and encourage sales, and they very handily pop in to sign their copies for us. With exhibitions there is always the jolly old catalogue but we like to buy books that complement an exhibition. Our current exhibition ‘Painting Flanders’ is a collection of Masterpieces from Antwerp not seen in the UK before. How perfect to include books on the artists featured in this exhibition, they offer depth and substance to the range.
Customers are varied in their tastes of books, some like the academic approach with a coffee table tomb or a “fancy that!” type read. Others like to pick up a book linked to another product – the ‘How to Cook Quinces’ book pairs perfectly with a jar of Quince jam. Our best sellers at the moment are fiction with a reflection, a journey of peace and discovery. Perhaps that’s another way we reground ourselves with nature.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
We are continuing to develop our bespoke ranges inspired by Gainsborough’s letters. The graphics on the shop walls, the point-of-sale prompts and the bespoke products remind us at every turn the delightful turn of phrase Gainsborough had. We have author evenings in the pipeline both for local authors and further afield authors with new related titles. Plus, we have new Gainsborough’s House publications for our exciting exhibition programme in the coming year. Our spring exhibition is Masterpieces from the Woburn Abbey collection featuring more Gainsborough paintings to rival the beauty of the hang in our silk lined gallery. Plenty of inspiration for more books – perfect.
1. What was it that inspired you to set up Nantwich Bookshop back in 2003?
I have always had a love of books, especially beautiful coffee table types. One of Bookland’s (small northwest chain) stores came up for sale and we saw the potential of adding a Coffee Lounge to the Bookshop. My wife loves cooking so it was a win/win opportunity. It was also a perfect environment to bring up our two girls. They have both cut their teeth on the working world here with us and have gone on to be successful young ladies in their own right.
2. What’s it like running a bookshop in Cheshire? How have you seen the area change over the years?
As you can imagine there have been tough times as well as excellent times. Being in a market town and near Crewe (a railway hub) we have a lovely core of customers who appreciate having an independent bookshop. It is also very easy to reach Nantwich via rail and road. Just 10 minutes away from Crewe Station, and the M6. We were the first on the Nantwich high street to have alfresco dining. The High Street has evolved over the years that we have been here and it’s a really lovely destination with some Tudor buildings on the square. Our Bookshop has also evolved, having been only books downstairs, and the coffeeshop that we ‘created’ after the first year in the building, upstairs, to become a fully integrated Bookshop and Coffee Lounge with sofas downstairs surrounded by our ever-changing ” wallpaper” of gorgeous books.
During lockdown, the local church lent us their gazebo and we were able to do take away food and drink and click and collect books. Because of this, many people who may not have come to us previously have continued supporting us. Book sales have increased as have food and beverage sales. Without the coffeeshop, I am not sure if we would have survived all the knocks thrown at Bookshops. It also helps that Nantwich has grown over the years, and folk like to support indies. We have also invested in a really good gazebo so folk who still feel uncomfortable can sit outside all year long.
3. What types of books have your customers been buying recently? Have you noticed any trends?
The Independent bookshop editions with colourful sprayed edges (mainly fiction) are proving popular as are the cosy crime genre by celebrities. We haven’t ever really been huge on selling fiction, but these editions certainly have got people interested and buying.
Anything related to the environment and British Countryside is selling really well too. Our stronger selling sections are military, history, politics, in fact, anything real. Being close to Crewe, we do sell many railway books and anything to do with transport. In fact, we are the only bookshop in the country that sells a particular book on ERF trucks, so this helps Christmas sales for ERF enthusiasts.
4. Do you find that being family-owned sets you apart from other bookshops? If so, how?
Being family owned doesn’t particularly set us apart from other bookshops however it does help us achieve a sense of ‘community’ in our endeavours. Tongue in cheek, sometimes customers like the family disputes from behind the counter. Being in a remarkable building people tend to gravitate to us. There is a real feeling of homeliness about the shop. Our staff (who we regard as an extension of our own family) are friendly and there is always a welcome smile and greeting from any one of us. We try and support the local community as much as we can. We have quite a community of senior citizens in Nantwich. With this comes loneliness. We have “Chatty Tables” where customers feel comfortable sitting with strangers who leave as friends. I feel a lot of what we offer is because we are a family-run business.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
We’re looking forward to the annual hustle and bustle of Xmas sales over the next couple of months. We are always looking at ways of evolving our shop. Seven years ago we opened our doors to customers and their dogs, we bring our Staffie into work most days – though only on the ground floor of the shop and outside. Upstairs remains a sanctuary for those who prefer not having animals about.
Four weeks ago we introduced Button the Bookshop kitten. What a following he has developed! Visits with him turn into almost guaranteed book sales. We keep having regular author events (both well-known and local). We are also venturing into doing events at local universities when they have guest speakers. Our first such event is taking place at Keele University at the end of this month. All in all, it looks like a bright future here for us at Nantwich Bookshop and Coffee Lounge.