It may surprise you to know Dan doesn’t just sit in his office at Bookbugs reading books… He actually has another job in the Book world. He was recently in Prague for the RISE bookselling conference doing this job and got chatting to Book Podcaster extraordinaire Nigel Beale. This is the Podcast they made together.
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Well… Where to start? We’ve been in the news a LOT recently thanks in large part to our new celeb benefactor Russell Ira Crowe! Who’d have thought our crowdfunder would have taken off like it has and you can imagine how delighted we are to have absolutely smashed our target! (last count we are at £22,380, £7,380 above our target! We thought our target was hopeful (but absolutely what we needed to keep the doors open) so to know we have even more breathing space is a wonderous thing. The extra money will be ploughed into providing access to books for children as far and wide as we can reach.
I wanted to keep a bit of a record of some of the news stories past and present that we have featured in. One of the best things to have come out of the last 3 weeks has been that the worlds media has taken to our story as a good news story and that is just the loveliest thing to be. The world needs good news right now.
Not sure I’ll be able to keep this in chronological order but working backwards here’s the stories we’ve seen so far. People keep telling us they saw it on x website / TV / Radio and it’s been an impossible task to keep up so if you’ve seen it in other places please do send us a link!
AudioBoom:
Upworthy:
https://scoop.upworthy.com/russell-crowe-ensures-survival-of-bookshop-with-surprise-donation
CBS News:
Just in and potentially the last of our media frenzy since the Crowdfinder is now over!
International! We love how this story spread far and wide. MalayMail and Indian Express!
BBC:
We have featured in a few short pieces for BBC news and were due to be on national breakfast TV but the escalation in tension in Ukraine bumped us off the schedule. Here’s a couple of the internet articles
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-63177399
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-63199488
EDP and Evening News
Our local newspapers have always been very supportive our our antics and they were the 1st to break the story of the Russell Crowe donation which we were delighted about!
…and they featured us again when we appeared on Australian Quiz show “Have you been paying attention”
Goodnews_movement shared this with their 4.4 million instagram followers!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkMBGF2JC14/
Sky news interviewed Leanne and really did the story justice:
ITV came and filmed in the shop for an afternoon. I can’t find the video but here is a piece on their website:
https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2022-10-09/russell-crowe-helped-save-our-bookshop
Australian TV REALLY loved the story. We appeared on The Today Show, Studio10 AND we were a quiz question!
Looper:
https://www.looper.com/1075597/russell-crowe-details-that-fans-will-be-entertained-by/
That’s TV East:
Look out, it’s a bookshop blog! It’s been far too long we know. I can assure you that we are completely embarrassed at how lacking we’ve been in the blogs department. Suffice to say, we have been a tad busy of late. But I hope to remedy that in these quieter afternoon hours of what’s been a nicely bustling summer’s day.
So what have we been up to? Just so many things to tell you. To say the life of a bookseller is varied would be understatement. Let me fill you in a bit.
March was all about World Book Day. I say “day” but turns out one day isn’t quite enough. World Book Day for us lasted two weeks! Children and Teachers from schools across Norfolk paid us a visit over the fortnight for story telling sessions, creative workshops and of course to choose a book from this years World Book Day selection. On the day itself it would have been remiss of us booksellers not to dress for the occasion. Leanne attempting to descend the stairs in an inflatable caterpillar costume was a particular highlight.
Oh, just one other small thing that happened in March, we may have mentioned before. The British Book Awards 2022 announced the regional winners for Independent Bookshop of the Year. Guess who the winner was for the East of England? That we were in-the-running for the title was incredible enough, we were one of 9 Indie Bookshops to be selected from 63. We would have to wait until the Nibbies Awards in May to see if we were to be crowned Indie Bookshop of the Year for the UK and Ireland.
April saw a day of fundraising for the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, book launches, and a little trip up that London for Leanne and Dan at the London Book fair. Then Easter, of course, with our usual offering of lovely events.
May is always a brilliant month for Norwich, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival taking centre stage. How lucky were we to have an installation in our windows by artist and Designer Florence Poppy as part of the festival? Then it was back up that London for Leanne and Dan for the heady heights of the Nibbies Awards, hobnobbing with the like of Julia Donaldson no less. Well, she sat on a table near them at least. So excited were we at winning the regional accolade of Best Bookshop, that loosing out on the very top spot did nothing to dampen our spirits whatsoever. A big congratulations goes winner The Bookery in Crediton!
On to June! How has half the year nearly slipped by already? Two more window installations, one from the talented Anna Terreros-Martin to celebrate her new book The Friendly Mammoth. The other window was dressed by Young Norfolk Arts with Bitesized Poetry Postcards celebrating Norwich. Leanne attended a school Pop-up-Pride-Picnic, and a dinosaur came to live in our shop
The summer hols are here and with them comes the countdown to Bookbugs and Dragon Tales’ 3rd birthday. Can you believe it? how are we three already? What an eventful first three years. When you sit back and take stock of everything, the lows of the pandemic, the highs of the awards we’ve gratefully accepted albeit with a good dose of imposter syndrome. There’s been the days when we’ve hardly seen a soul and days where you can’t move in the shop for customers. We’ve been to parliament and swanky dinners, and filled school libraries with beautiful new books. We’ve run workshops and classes and our very well attended book club. We’ve laughed and cried with you, our wonderful customers. We’ve held your new babies and watched them grow. We’ve even witnessed one or two first steps in our very own shop.
Most importantly, we’ve placed the magic of books in the hands of our customers, big and small, and helped to make reading accessible to all. Hopefully while putting a smile on your faces with our silly shenanigans. We are so proud of what we do and forever thankful that Norwich, our cherished city, has embraced us so readily as part of the community. So we would like to say a wholehearted thank you to all our customers and friends. You make Bookbugs and Dragon Tales possible and we love you.
Anyway, enough of that soppiness before I have a little cry. There are some exiting matters at hand that I want to talk about with you. I may have mentioned that we have a birthday coming up. I’m sure you would expect nothing less of us than a week-long festival of celebrations? Good, because that is exactly what we’re doing!
That’s right, as if opening a bookshop once in a year wasn’t stressful enough, we went and did it twice! I think the stress may have got to us all a bit more this time round. The madness set it and we created a musical theatre number to deal with it!
This is something we always had up our sleeve but had much grander plans involving both of our theatre companies (The Common Lot and Second Side) think… “Consider Yourself” from Oliver! but for now you will have to put up with our amateur effort filmed on a Galaxy S10!
Another exciting announcement is that because of (one of) Dan’s other jobs we are honoured to announce that we are the 1st independent bookshop in the world that can accept National Book Token payments on our website!
So… if you’ve been sitting on a pile of Book Tokens waiting for a safe time to spend them, wait no more! Go crazy!
Obviously we would much prefer you to come and see us or another indie bookshop but if they are burning a hole in your pocket put out that fire!
Enter the long card number at the checkout, scratch off your pin number next to it and enter that. Then select Add Card and it will reduce your balance.
Hello!
We haven’t given you an update for a while as we were sure you would all have enough on your plates and in this Brave New World we didn’t want to bombard you. However, we thought it was time for another newsletter to keep you abreast of all things Bookbugs.
Re-Opening
All being well, it looks like we will be able to re-open the shop on Tuesday 16th June. We have been working hard to make sure that this is as safe as possible but also to ensure that it’s not scary or too strange for our favourite little (and big) customers. See below for how we will be doing this. We understand that some people will not feel able to venture out just yet so we will be continuing with our online ordering and free local delivery service as well. Check out the revamped website at www.bookbugsanddragontales.com.
Revised Opening Hours Initially we will be having reduced shop opening hours to enable us to do all the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff and not get in the way. The revised opening times will be –
Tuesday – Saturday from 10am – 2.30pm
From 2.30 – 4pm each day, you are very welcome to book a 15 minute slot for you and your household to have the whole shop to yourselves! We hope that by doing this we will be able to offer a more personal service without the worry of others. There is no obligation to buy if you wish to book a slot – the shop needs its people and I think in some small way the people need its shop. If you wish to book this bookshop experience, email leanne@bookbugsanddragontales.com with your preferred date and time and we will get back to you.
Shop Safety
Obviously our first priority when reopening will be your safety and that of the staff. The shop will look a little different (but not too much we hope) on 16th June. We have sneeze guards installed in the till area and staff on the shop floor will be wearing facemasks and face-shields. We have decorated these to make them more child-friendly.
We will also have a large Snakes and Ladders type board on the floor, with each square 2 metres, to make social distancing a little easier for small ones because games are fun and rules are not! There will also be a one way system in operation and we will be limiting the number of people in the shop. Don’t worry though – we plan to make queuing fun too! We have always been very passionate about people being able to touch the books and have a little read and while some shops are limiting this, we would like to allow this to continue.
However, the only way we can do this safely is to request that you hand sanitise and wear gloves provided by us (we even have little ones!) By us providing gloves when you arrive and disposing of them with us as you leave, we can ensure that outside contamination is limited. If you do not wish to do this, we would need to request that you do not handle books you are not intending to purchase. The shop surfaces, books and floors will be regularly and thoroughly cleaned.
While we are unable to minimise all risk, we hope that you understand that by undertaking these measures we are doing all we can to allow a sense of normality to return and try to breathe life back into the beautiful community space we have all created together. We really appreciate your support and if we make mistakes, let us know!
Classes
It looks like it may be quite some time before we are able to resume our classes as normal and that’s really sad for us! We love watching your babies and toddlers being creative and we have missed them enormously. I apologise to the many parents who have received a delivery and I have insisted they press their (usually baffled!) children to the window so I can see them! We will be following all guidelines and as soon as it is safe to do so, these will be returning with gusto and even more creative thinking. In the meantime Mini Moons Drama are running online classes, Grace Wellbeing is doing Mindful Mondays and we will be continuing our daily Storytime’s on Facebook Live at 1pm and 5pm until the shop reopens.
Exciting Promotions and Events
Penguin Classics Promotion– We have worked with Penguin to find ways to help Independent bookshops with their instore and online offering and are currently running a 10% off promotion on Penguin Classics. As an added bonus, anyone buying one of the promotional books between now and the end of June will be entered into a draw to win a super classy Penguin The Great Gatsby tote bag worth £12.95.
Independent Bookshop Week – This annual celebration will be 20th – 27th June and usually bookshops run a variety of instore activities to mark this. This year will be a little different but we intend to celebrate with outdoor events, author videos, signed stock, author and illustrator virtual events, launches, storytimes, draw-alongs, quizzes and other virtual events. We hope that we will have lots of things to keep you entertained and will update again when we have more things confirmed.
High Five for Bookshops – In conjunction with National Booktokens, we will be giving away 100 £5 vouchers to our wonderful customers to say thank you for all of the support you have given us during this strange time. We are still working out the details but will keep you posted!
Adult Escape Packs – We are offering Adult Escape Packs to help you through lockdown and beyond. Each pack costs £20 and contains 2 books (based on others you have enjoyed), relaxing treats and mindful activities from Grace Wellbeing. Perfect for treating yourself or as a lockdown gift, you can order through the website under Bookpacks.
Zoom Bookclub The Zoom Bookclub continues to be an absolute highlight so thanks to all who attend. It’s always loads of fun and it’s great to see all of the faces we miss so much. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold was very well received and scored very highly. We are taking things a bit slower this month with Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession. We are meeting at 7.30 on Thursday 11th June and if you would like to join, email leanne@bookbugsanddragontales.com
Shop Front Upgrade In case you haven’t seen it all over social media, we have taken this lockdown time to give the front of the shop an upgrade. No more chipped paint and leaking fascias, the shop is all sparkly and lovely and waiting for your return.
Once again, THANK YOU! At the start of this all, we didn’t dare to think that our small business would be able to survive but thanks to you all, we are still here. We know that things are far from over and that times will continue to be tough for all of us for a while, but your kindness, encouragement and support has made us feel so valued. I have shed tears over the kind emails, wonderful cards and drawings and social media comments. They really have made a difference. Supporters of Bookbugs and Dragon Tales, you are extraordinary and together we have created a very special place.
… Lets talk about you and me. Lets talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be.
Leanne just said to me… “there’s been some high points in January”, “Like what?” I enquire, for the purposes of the blog. *Blank face*. I suppose the high point is that we won’t have to work too hard next January to do better. I jest, every day is a joy in the shop, we’re still finding wonderful new customers who react with glee when they discover us and we had record numbers attending some of the classes and Book Club continues to be an invigorating experience.
January in retail is dire. Everyone knows this and why wouldn’t it be? Everyone overspent in December and are now seeing the enormous expanse that is the January Pay gap ahead of them. I’ve been warning Leanne since before we opened “December will be manic and January will be hideous”. Everyone warns you of this and every bookshop I’ve spoken to this month that kindly asks “How’s your shop going?” nods sympathetically in agreement. I think the issue with us is that we certainly didn’t double our takings in December so the cushion we were hoping for wasn’t there. It’s OK though, don’t panic (Mr Mainwearing!), what we do is ride it out and get busy engaging with schools.
I guess it didn’t help me that my year began with a bit of a tour of amazing Bookshops. Upgrading their Till systems and performing stock takes with them. Starting at Sevenoaks Bookshop, I had a lovely couple of days there which I made full use of by visiting nearby Uni buddies and their children. The highlight of which was delivering and reading a shop favorite, the philosophical phenomenon “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse” by Charlie Mackesy. They very kindly listened intently to the whole thing.
Sometimes you need to spend a bit of time in a bookshop to get it’s essence. I knew Sevenoaks had a great reputation and know Fleur the owner well but being there on a Monday in January was a revelation. You start to understand what a real community bookshop offers and the value of longevity. It’s all about people. When you have a team of experienced booksellers bouncing ideas off each other for a customer recommendation and getting it right for them they will come back and Sevenoaks has had 70 years of trusting their Bookshop will get it right for them. I don’t care how good the algorithm is there’s nothing that will beat a conversation about books with someone that really understands. And the community respond with love and loyalty. Whilst I’m getting texts from Leanne about our worst day to date (we’ve since beaten it!) Sevenoaks Bookshop was heaving! You don’t match that kind of loyalty in 5 months of trading. Sevenoaks bookshop has been there decades and this was a real lesson to me NOT to panic. We are on an upward trajectory and that is all that matters.
Next on my UK tour was a Book-ish in Crickhowell, Wales. Since being lucky enough to enjoy a Booksellers conference in Detroit with Owner Emma Corfield-Walters and persuading her to take the system I support we have become close friends. I often get asked if I’d like to stay at fellow booksellers homes when I am on my travels but for the most part I don’t feel like I want to impose but Emma is such a welcoming person I stay there every time I visit now. Her family are so lovely and it’s lovely to be able to be so far from home but still feel at home. Hotel rooms can be pretty soul destroying. Emma’s shop is something else! It’s half incredible bookshop half incredible cafe (I have cravings for their sandwiches). Emma punches above her weight, Crickhowell is not a big place. You could walk from one end to the other in 10 minutes but Book-ish is smack bang in the middle and serves a much larger area in the Brecon Beacons. Emma consistently sells out huge Author events with over 300 attendees, arranges festivals and is on the board of the BA. She is possibly the hardest working bookseller I know and deserves the plaudits she receives. Crickhowell won High Street of the year 2019 and there’s no doubt in my mind that it wouldn’t have without Emma’s drive and determination. OK, Bookseller crush gush over. But seriously, go there. The place and the surrounding area is stunning.
After counting all of Emma’s books it was onwards to what is, in my view the finest pure bookshop in the world. I don’t say this lightly, I’ve been to a lot of bookshops worldwide but I know there are some amazing ones in other countries that might take the crown aesthetically. I go back to my previous comment about it being about people. Before I gush about the people, let me just say that Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath has got it right in every aspect. It takes your breath away. I’d not been since they renovated and expanded into next door and created a new children’s area last year. We actually took a lot more inspiration (although on a smaller budget!) from them than I realised, their moving eyes tree is genius and the Imaginarium is sublime. Back to the people. I remember visiting Mr B’s a few years ago and marvelling at one of their legendary Book Spa’s in action (such a clever, simple concept to offer in Bath). You talk to a bookseller in a Spa style environment about books, likes, dislikes etc and they then come up with a reading list for you which you can buy as part of the package. Hearing their team of expert booksellers talking books with each other in response to the spa is an education in itself. I am very aware now that I have been learning all the time in my 11 years in bookshops doing tech support but I am very much in awe of what they do and can’t wait to fully qualify as a bona-fide bookseller. I’m reliably informed you very have to earn your wings in this industry, there are no short cuts. Having the privilege of chatting to Mr B’s owner and current BA president Nic Bottomly for a whole evening while I played about on their computers and fixed a few bits is where it’s all at for me. The seminal moment being the revelation that they started on the same value loan that we did and had no savings! YES! This is exactly the news I needed to hear in such a desperate month. Watch out Mr B’s, we are coming for you. But seriously. Thank you for everything!
Other shops visited this month include John Sandoes Books in Sloan Square. Bookshop to some pretty impressive customers. After counting their 30,000 books Johnny sent me away with one of the most unusual gifts I’ve ever had… a quarter wheel of Blue cheese that a customer had brought in for an event. We like to joke in our house about which particular celebrities cheese we are eating. I’ve also been to Hungerford Bookshop, London Review Bookshop and Primrose Hill Bookshop this month, all of which I have known for my entire 11 years in the book industry. I then had the pleasure of assisting a brand new children’s bookshop in Olney open. Rose there has more energy and drive than anyone I’ve met for a long time and her experience in child welfare means Olney will be well served. She also has the coolest little Book Bus that she can take out to events and lesser served villages. Pop along to her modest premises on the main square and you’ll see “The Snug Children’s bookshop” is a gem.
So, Leanne tells me that for a bookshop blog this hasn’t been much about our shop. Sorry not sorry. When I have hung up my Bookshop travelling boots and am full time employed by Bookbugs and Dragon Tales I promise to only write about our shop but in the meantime I’m loving writing about the inspiration I find in other shops. I make sure that I come back with 1 new book to stock from every shop. People often ask us where we find such a diverse and interesting selection of titles that they don’t see elsewhere. Well… you’d have to have been to all the bookshops I have been to to see them. Of course we also discover books from other sources, supplier catalogues, publisher visits, customer recommendations, industry analytics,
newspapers, radio, Instagram and Twitter but our Bookbugs Whatsapp group (comically named “Bookbuggers”) is littered with pictures of books I’m finding that are either recommended by the booksellers I meet or just found on the shelves. Of course our problem this month is we can’t afford to buy them! January is the perfect storm. Broke customers, terrible shopping weather and December bills.
So what do you do about January as a bookseller?
A quick word about today. The closest we have had to a dreaded snow day. Storm [whatever stupid name they decided to call this bit of wind] hit and everyone else stayed home. Tiles were flying off roofs, car alarms were going off and our A board decided it much preferred the view from John Lewis. Leanne and I came in because it’s what we do. We quickly realised it was going to be a stinker, in retrospect we probably shouldn’t have bothered leaving the house. Until 1.27pm we had had 1 paying customer and 1 online customer, to my own personal amusement (because I am 5) they both bought the same book, making the day even windier with “Does it Fart”. Finished the day on £24, £5 of which was a loyalty card redemption. Do you know what though? We had a lovely day together, dancing with each other, reading, laughing, cleaning stock rooms and writing blogs. It doesn’t matter. The week in general was better than any in January and our events have been better attended than ever. Craft social kicked off Friday evening with 12 customers! We apologised to our “Bookseller” Sally that running Craft sessions in an evening wasn’t in the job description, she laughed in our faces and said “Are you kidding? This is the best job ever!”. Meanwhile Poppy, our other permanent Bookseller has been off making waves in the poetry world with her performance at Norwich Arts centre that blew our minds. We are so lucky to have them.
We know we have great things coming up, Leanne actually took email orders today for 4 No Outsider book packs and 30 scripts so if you count those we had a great day. Big picture, don’t ever get focused on the quiet bits, evaluate and use your time where it can make things better. We have 2000 Loyalty card customers which may only be 1% of Norwich but that means we’re doing pretty well. It also means 99% of Norwich could still find us and we can grow into the hearts and minds of the community, which is where we always wanted to be.
If you’ve made it this far then you deserve a Badge and a sticker the next time you are in the shop. You could have read a book in this time. I recommend “Leonard and Hungry Paul” Fantastic book from our grown up section. Best book I’ve read in the last year. I’m a little star struck that the author and publisher have been tweeting me today. These things never get old.
nb. The day after writing the above… Hit our target by lunchtime! 10 in for bounce and Rhyme and lots of lovely customers. Boom! Back in the game!
Leanne and Dan have asked me to write a blog a few times now and my usual response is to wrinkle my nose and sassily roll my eyes like a teenager who has been asked to tidy their room. This is not because I wouldn’t love to write one, but I didn’t feel confident to do so for two reasons. The first is that I am dyslexic, so any sort of written task fills me with dread. The second reason is that I simply can not find the words to express how much this bookshop has impacted my life. However today I found myself asking if I could finally write my blog. With a heartful of love and excitement and a little dash of fear, here I am. So here it goes, please excuse my spelling mistakes and bad grammar.
I will start by telling you how I got the job as a bookseller at Bookbugs and Dragon Tales.
One day on my way back from one of my many jobs (a newly graduated Actor trying to make ends meet) I messaged my Ex drama tutor, fellow actor, friend and honorary theatre Mum, Leanne, to see if she needed any help with her BOOKSHOP!!!!! Having extremely long arms and Leanne standing at a very respectable 4ft 11”, she needed my help taking down some shelves which of course I was happy to. After the initial catch up and excitement for her new life as a bookshop owner Leanne began talking about needing to employ staff. Ironically I had read the advert incorrectly, I explained that it would be a dream to work her for my ‘mum’ but I couldn’t commit to 6 days a week to which Leanne explained I was a fool and it was a job share and I would be working three days. What followed was a lot of hugs, tears of joy and high-pitched squealing. (We are both actors, so it was a very dramatic moment). I was going to be working in mum’s bookshop!!!!
Opening day came and I immediately knew I had made the best decision.
Now comes the part where I struggle to describe how lucky I am. I will be soppy and say that it has changed my life, now that may sound dramatic but here are my reasons. It is very rare as a freelance artist that you find a part time ‘bread and butter’ job where your boss actively encourages you to take the day off for auditions. It is even rarer that that boss is like your second mum. More than the practicality of it, it is the energy that this shop has that has enriched my life and I see daily how it enriches the lives of others. BUT, the biggest thing is… I AM READING!!!! This is a big deal for me, it is something I have always struggled with, at the age of 21 I was told I had a reading age of a 10-year-old. This would make sense as the last books I can remember enjoying were Michael Morpurgo’s Kensuke’s Kingdom and Phillip Pullman’s The Firework Makers Daughter, both of which I always recommend to children struggling to enjoy reading. When I started working at Bookbugs and Dragon Tales it was the source of a lot of friendly banter that I, ME, Poppy, worked in a bookshop.
Leanne made it her mission to help me find my confidence in reading, a mission that she has accomplished. The book that started it all off was her recommendation of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I devoured this book, at my own pace and I never thought a book would have such an impact on me. I sat on my sofa weeping through the last chapter. Bereft that I had finished it I came into work and got a new book straight away. I chose The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I chose this because I love thrillers and I hoped that it would help to increase the momentum of my book reading. Which it totally did. I am now coming to the end of Never Greener by Ruth Jones and I am looking forward to moving onto Normal People by Sally Rooney. THIS, is why I finally wanted to write my blog, I have found a hunger for reading. I am chuckling at myself now writing this because I still cannot believe I have been consistently reading for 5 months!
Among the novels that I have enjoyed, I have also been reading numerous poetry books, collections and pamphlets. I am also a poet but have never had the confidence to do anything with it, but reading energised me and encouragement from everyone at Bookbugs and Dragon Tales has meant that I attended workshops and I am now writing more and performing my poetry.
I have learnt that reading can be enjoyable even after years of it being scary. I will be running a creative writing workshop in February Half term for 7+ years. This is accessible to those who have a dyslexic superpower like me. Everyone is welcome, whether you find writing easy, hard, scary or wonderful. We will be using drama and game play as a way to create story with the aim to take the pressure off being ‘good at writing’ and instead celebrate your imagination and creativity.
In conclusion, what a joy, I am so lucky and forever grateful to Leanne and Dan for giving me the most wonderful job and putting up with all my sass towards reading and writing.
Editors note:
Pops is very humble and finds it difficult to promote herself which, as a self employed Theatre practitioner, isn’t great. If any of what you have read here makes you want to know more, please follow her on Twitter or attend Toast at Norwich Arts Centre where she performs regularly. She also provides creative writing, spoken word poetry and drama workshops to local schools as Grape Arts Theatre Company and you can see a short poem of hers here
“It must be great to work in a bookshop” is what most people say in response to discovering that’s what I “do”. To be completely frank with you… it’s the absolute best and I love it. Bookshops are lovely places to be anyway but throw in the magic of Bookbugs and Dragon Tales and I can’t believe this is actually my job. I am so lucky.
Now bear with me, I’m about to get a little bit sentimental. Remember Christmas morning as a child? The anticipation before diving head-first into the long-anticipated gifts and goodies? Remember unveiling those gifts and the leap of joy in your stomach at the revelation of the wonder inside? Every morning we get to relive that feeling a little with our daily delivery of books. Especially this time of year. Some exquisitely illustrated, some poignant and resonating, some rich with nostalgia, the list is endless. Booking new stock into the shop takes longer than it probably should as we all stand around cooing at books like New Babies.
When a person asks you your favourite anything it’s such a difficult question to answer. Books especially, I find. There’s the books that Mum or Dad used to read snuggled up on chilly nights, or the novel you were reading when you were on the most incredible journey. Then there’s the books that help you through the tough times, finding peace and solace in the pages. Working in a bookshop my favourites change pretty much daily.
Picture books are brilliant. I LOVE new picture book deliveries and feel a real emotional connection with them. Probably because of the lovely hours spent reading them with my own children. We’ve just emerged from the picture book phase and entered the wondrous realms of the chapter book. The adventures are exciting and filled with considerably more peril than the picture books which means we CAN’T PUT THE BOOK DOWN and bedtime is elongated somewhat. But it’s worth it.
It’s time to try and choose some favourites I suppose. It might be a long list, but I’ll keep the waffle to a minimum. Did you ever read Shirley Hughes? The time I spent getting lost in her exquisite illustrations as a child, imagining myself building grass-houses and tumbling down hills when reading “Out and About.” And “Dogger!” Such a simple story, the pit of sadness when he’s lost, and the absolute joy when he’s found and reunited with his owner (sorry for spoilers if you haven’t read Dogger). Shirley Hughes’ books are such a childhood classic; gentle, imaginative and beautiful. They give me a feeling that I can only describe as ‘going to Grandmas House’ brimming with warmth and hugs.
I fell head over heels for a picture book that came in last week. “Dreams of Freedom” written in association with Amnesty international. An exploration of human rights; the right to have the freedom to feel safe, to have ideas, to have freedom from fear. Using powerful words from inspirational people and placing them alongside stunning artworks from illustrators including Alexis Deacon, Oliver Jeffers and Jackie Morris. Such an incredible book with an important message. And ALL the royalties from the sale of the book will be donated to Amnesty International. I’m a little bit too attached. I want to hide it in a cupboard and not sell it and keep it forever. In fact, I think I will.
There are SO many books, one I must mention; “The Heart in the Bottle” by Oliver Jeffers. I’d not discovered this little book until I started my bookselling career. This small but special book is a bit of a lump-in-the-throat-maker, looking at a child’s loss of a special person. The child protects her heart from the pain of grief by placing it in a bottle, and she grows up. She meets another little girl, who is captivated in the magic that envelops childhood, and its only then she is able to take her heart out of the bottle (Tear down the cheek, fuzzy little glow in the heart).
I suppose I could just tell you, quickly, about “Does it Fart?” by Nick Caruso, Dani Rabaiotti and Axel Griffiths. Any books about poo, farts, bums etc are popular, but this book in particular is one of our bestsellers. I mean, who doesn’t want to know if a Whale farts? Read this (children’s) book and you will always be armed with interesting, but possibly not entirely appropriate dinner-party conversation.
Chapter books! Love LOVE chapter books at the moment. The legendary Roald Dahl, what an absolute joy to re-visit his books with the kids. Then there’s Harry Potter; after a couple of years we’ve finally finished ALL the Harry Potter books and our son loved them to pieces. His favourite author, however, is absolutely David Walliams. We have some books and some on audio; the belly laughs that boy produces when listening to David Walliams are just phenomenal and completely contagious. Me and my son who’s eight are reading the “Wizards of Once” trilogy by Cressida Cowell at the moment. We’re on the last book. Its super exciting. A magical world of wizards and warriors, a voyage of self-discovery and courage and a battle against petrifying witches who were thought to be extinct. These books are so well written and exciting with brilliantly thought out characters, each one with a superbly distinct personality. A little confession, there have been a couple of occasions where I might have carried on reading after my son fell asleep. Sometimes you just don’t want to wait till the next bedtime before finding out if the witches are defeated in battle for goodness sake.
Ugh, I just love books. And my job. And now all the CHRISTMAS books are here, the windows are beautiful and festive. The EDP have included us in their “Favourite Christmas Shop Window in Norwich” poll. If you haven’t seen them yet, pop down and have a look. They are stunning and you won’t help but get a few festive butterflies in the tummy. And how amazing to be noticed and included on the list anyway! In a way I feel like we’ve already won (but please do vote for us because we would really like to win in real life).
Very excited about the next few weeks, craft fairs, elf workshops, clay sculpting to name a few of the things going on. Plus, our regular sessions. If you want to do something super lovely with the little ones, we do Bedtime Stories on the first Thursday of the month. It’s the cutest thing, snuggling up all cosy in the bookshop drinking hot chocolate in our jammies and listening to stories. And next Thursday it will all be Christmassy stories. I just cannot wait, never mind the children, it’s me who’s the most excited.
Looking through our selection of Christmas books at home, I decided that they’re a bit babyish and I just HAD to replace them with some lovely, new, age appropriate Christmas books. I love having a selection in a basket under the Christmas tree to read every night. It feels like because we only read these books at Christmas, they’re a tradition in their own right and the kids look forward to seeing them every year. I hope they approve of the selection I’ve got this year (pictures below) which are currently secreted on top of the wardrobe in my bedroom. Can’t wait to get them down in the run-up to Christmas and snuggle with my little people to read them with the Christmas lights on. Such precious moments. 
Signing off for now, I might ask nicely if I can do a follow up about Adult and Young adult fiction as I feel like I’ve waffled enough. So, thank you for reading, and come see us soon!
I started this as a facebook post but… well you know me, I do go on….
A bit of context, I’m away from the bookshop at the moment, last week I helped Trish with the opening of her brand new Childrens Bookshop in Greystones Ireland (@Halfwayupbooks).
This is my job… I go and get to see new bookshops open all over the world and teach them to use our book selling software (Bertline, Bertram Books, little plug), ridiculous right? Its rare I’m away for more than 4 days but this month has gone crazy. 2 new bookshops (@BBBookshop in November) and 5 existing shops. I’m really looking forward to Blue Bear in Farnham, they have been friends since before we opened and even visited when we were a building site
These are just the ones I’m doing. My colleague has been out with Blue House Bookshop in York and Limestone Books in Settle. Bookshops are quite the thing at the moment don’t you know?
So now I’m in Letterkenny, Co.Donegal, for my next 2 shops on a rare, even when I’m home, day off. Ok, I may have done some work but it would bore the pants of you if I included it! Anywho… this was the post I was preparing…
Well that was quite the adventure! Had to really force myself out on my “day off”. Would have been really easy to stay in my (upgraded penthouse) hotel room all day but would have kicked myself not to see some of this beautiful part of Ireland. Googled beautiful Donegal and chose the one with 4.9 rating. Mount Errigal, highest peak in the north. 35 mins drive away. Sweet! Off I pop then
Thought I’d pop over, maybe walk up it a bit and enjoy the view. The drive over was incredible and I had to stop for photos both on the way there and back.
Locals warned me the walk started in a bog. Yes it did! About 5 steps in my boot sunk beyond the shin and my hands followed. Absolutely covered in black gunk. I considered turning back then and there. Reconsidered and used some of my water to wash myself off. This happened a few times but I just wanted to get to a nice spot and sit and contemplate. As mountains often do though it kept teasing me with “just this next ridge” The place was deserted. I did meet a few lovely people including a couple of Irish gents at least twice my age who offered me words of encouragement.
Despite thinking I was having a stroke at one point (melodramatic headache due to not “taking it easy” as the gents suggested) I did not turn back. The view was too tempting. There were more hands and knees moments (Scarfel Pike this is not!) and generous consumption of sausage rolls and bacon fries, it rained… a bit, it got windy… a lot but it felt relatively safe.
When I reached the top all I wanted to do was talk to Leanne. I spent a wonderful 30 minutes on my own looking out over all of Donegal, the Atlantic ocean, the stunning cliffs and beaches of the coast and the entire mountain range. A truly enriching and tranquil experience and almost certainly better than the 4 walls of my hotel room. Signal up there was excellent so I got straight on whatsapp and chatted to Leanne for a bit.
I may have been up there on my own but Leanne, the kids and the shop were with me for a short while. Pesky customers interrupted us before I could give Leanne the full tour of the range but here’s a couple of snaps of us chatting, look how happy she is to see my stupid face! That’s what I pay my money for.
What cracked me up next was the whatsapp from our youngest 3, proudly getting on with their contribution to making the cogs turn on all this… dinner! Triumphant HumDrum dinner.
If I have to be away from them on such an important week for the shop I may as well make it count eh? I think I did that.
This week for me will be filled with training booksellers in 2 ex Easons branches, installing hardware in their huge shops and getting to know them, persuading them that I’m not the IT nerd they expect me to be. The best thing a bookseller can say to me on leaving (and sometimes do) is “I’m so glad you’re booky”
This week for Leanne will see Zeb Soanes (of BBC and Gaspard the Fox fame) visit and read Monday, adding to our James Mayhew wall illustrations, packed out Halloween events all week and then MP Clive Lewis reading on Friday!
You have no idea how exciting this all is for our fledgling bookshop! I can’t lie, I do wish I was there. But I also love the opportunities my job gives me to see the world and spread the Bookshop love and let’s face it, I have the best customers in the world! I did opt not to come back between bookshops, having Greta Thunbergs book fresh in my head, how could I fly back unnecessarily?
I’m so grateful to have a partner that is fulfilling my dream of owning a vibrant community focused bookshop in the centre of the best city in England… in my absence! Every day she stuns me with something new that the shop has achieved.
I can’t wait to be home but to anyone else who travels for work, make it count! Go the extra mile, literally! Take the detour. Visit the local bookshop (preferably) or find something to bring back with you in your heart. Even if it’s just a lovely conversation with someone, I fully understand not everyone wants to climb a mountain on their day off!
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Where to pick up from? I really don’t know… the last month has been crazy which is reason 1 for the lack of a blog post… it’s not like we ever have nothing to say, but singling out the things that might interest you as a reader is something else altogether. It always amazes me when people say they read the blog, let alone love it. I feel a responsibility to keep up the standard!
So, we finished up at the BA conference. What a glorious thing that was. I am so insanely proud of Leanne for how she is morphing from an exceptional lecturer to an inspirational bookseller and business owner. Sometimes, when I’m in the shop listening to her talking (especially to teachers) about key stage this and CPD that and giving spot on recommendations to parents and then she’s arranging events and book packs and PAYE and VAT and then she’ll whip up a clay hedgehog autumn craft workshop from somewhere, I’m wondering whether I was ever really needed. But let me tell you this… when she got up and spoke in front of all our peers at the BA conference I thought I was going to explode. I had to look away at points.. not out of nerves but my little heart couldn’t cope and there was every chance I would let out a little emotional whelp and ruin it all!
My conference was how it always is but to a multiple of 10x. I’ve been in the Book industry a long time now and been on some incredible trips with some incredible booksellers, I’ve visited what feels like every indie bookseller in the country and because I often spend 3 days with them I get to know them really well… you know, that hug or kiss stage of familiarity. So of course… every face is familiar and I do spend a lot of time worrying I won’t put the right name to the face or worse… bookshop to face. What’s even worse is when someone you’ve only spoke to on the phone says “Dan, it’s xxxx” and unless I catch that early I could be in a 20 minute conversation the whole time thinking desperately… which bookshop!?!”. The funniest one is always “Hi Dan, it’s Dave… from the bookshop (you have no idea how many bookshop owners are called David!) Having Leanne with me helped all of this… we developed a little routine for dealing with my poor memory which involved coded hand squeezes and masked bad introductions. I think we mostly got away with this! Of course the cat is well and truly out of that bag now.
So… how is the shop going? I refer you back to the Fear post. It doesn’t really subside. We seem to have settled into something of a routine of just making our arbitrary target most days then smashing it Saturday. It’s lovely to have other booksellers to bounce off of though. I spent a long time the other day chewing the fat with Sarah and Peter Brook of Brook’s Pinner, who are 15 months into their own bookselling adventure. 
They had some great advice which we have adopted which is to make a note on our cashing up sheet of any reason/weather/event that might caused a good or bad day. Simple but genius. Case in point… Climate change protest on a friday – we thought “Ahh yes, city will be full of people” reality – it may have been but they certainly didn’t want to shop! Result – 2nd worst day since opening! Next case – City centre Mall re-brands as “Castle Quarter” (literally just opened up some empty units as a games arcade) and payday – Best Saturday since opening. Having all this information and being able to look back on it next year with a bit of insight, can only help when planning for other events. – Am I kidding myself that we’ll have time for this level of analysis one day?
I think the most exciting thing to have happened to us in the last month is this glorious illustration on our illustrators wall.It’s been a month of wonderful experiences but when Leanne told me Chris Moulds Publisher had been in touch, he was in Norwich for a schools event and wanted to pop in…, WANTED TO POP IN! The minute this happens in your own shop it’s hard to describe how you feel. Someone noticing you in a crowd and saying I choose you. I’d loved the new edition of Ted hughes The Iron Man and tweeted as much.
I wasn’t about to miss this and drove the 10 minutes from Bertrams to the shop (which to be fair I do most lunch times now). It’s also important to stress that Leanne said he looked like Hugh Jackman so my supervision was also necessary. Chris (we can call him that now because he’s our showbiz buddy – also it’s his name) spent 3 hours in our shop and created what can only be described as a masterpiece on our illustrator wall. I mean, the guy really must love what he does because we literally only paid him in Coffee and conversation. What a conversation – it lifted all our spirits. Sometimes I just sit in the comfy chair opposite and smile. We still drag people into that room to show it and our James Mayhew Gaspard off… it’s officially our baby board room but regardless of if you have a child or not, you’re going in there!
I’m resigned to the fact this is going to be something of a novel. So much has happened and I don’t want to miss anything important. Maybe a list is the way forward – this will be just off the top of my head and not in chronological or order of importance.
It’s getting on now so, despite not fully unloading everything I’m going to spare you the rest. So I will sign off with 2 more incredible things. 2 very different but equally wonderful things that have filled our hearts and re-enforce everything we know about why we did this crazy thing.
Firstly our nearest fellow Childrens bookshop owner and bookseller extraordinaire Marilyn and Simon from Norfolk Childrens Book Centre invited us round for dinner, soaked us
in Gin and Pizza and imparted a whole evenings worth of Bookseller knowledge on us. Norfolk being Norfolk we knew each other already but it was so lovely to make it official. We laughed pretty much the whole night and really bonded. This industry is like no other. Everyone pretty much has each others back. There is a grander purpose. To share stories and a love of reading. I’m so excited for the future of what we do.
…and then there was this. You’ve read the “Kind” blog, if not, read that first. What happened on our return from the conference was this…
(Kind) Alistair called us on the Tuesday of our return and asked if we would be in the shop on the Friday because he had a gift for the shop and would be bringing a few friends in for the presentation! Of course this got our minds racing. We waited anxiously for Friday to come, I had the day off and made sure I was at the shop. Alistair arrived with his rather cool friend and a few others. We lifted the cover on the rather large present to find the most stunning reading chair underneath, specially commissioned by Alistair, painted by Joe (the cool one), a romany artist with Thea (Alistairs wifes name) the listening dragon. Alistair had written this rather beautiful story to go with the chair, there were a LOT of tears of joy that day. There is more to this story but safe to say we feel very lucky to have Alistair in our lives.
