***I place daily orders for customers for books not on our website. I can order (pretty much) any book for you, so long as it is in print. Just email tom@backstory.london ***
Our picks this week
Back to school: Re-educated - Why it’s Never Too Late to Change Your Life by Lucy Kellaway. Just out in paperback, this is the engrossing, amusing and ultimately inspiring tale of how long-time FT writer Lucy Kellaway quit her job and pitched up teaching in a London school. A lovely read. (Tom)
A pink ‘un tale worthy of a red-top: Money Men - A Hot Start-up, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight For the Truth by Dan McCrum. While I’m on the subject of books by FT hacks, I’ve just read this riveting account of one of the most extraordinary business scandals of recent years. McCrum takes us inside the newsroom as he battled to expose the lies at the heart of Wirecard, supposedly one of Europe’s tech success stories. (Tom)
Calm on a farm: On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin. A wonderfully tranquil but engrossing novel set in the farming community in rural Wales, against the backdrop of momentous events. (Jenny)
Yesterday’s stall bestsellers (excluding newspapers!)
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata just out, from the author of Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings
A Brief History of London by Jeremy Black
Who’s Hiding on the Farm? by Alex Scheffler
A Line in The Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle that Shaped the Middle East by James Barr still selling strong, a month after his signing
Godspeed by Nickolas Butler recently out in paperback, from one of my favourite authors
What do booksellers talk about when they get together? If the Booksellers’ Association summer bash on Thursday evening was a good guide, there are a few staples. “How’s business?” was the usual opener, to which a little mild grumbling seemed the expected reply. It being Britain and it being this week, the weather was another recurring theme. All agreed that the heat is putting off customers (my takings from the stall this week concur). One old hand, with the wisdom of one too many heatwaves, admitted to dreading them even more than such meteorological demand-dampeners as April showers or heavy winds. “Even a bit of snow, they’ll come out,” she tutted. “They won’t come out in the heat.”
More unexpected were the breasts. Over drinks in a room above a London pub, a seasoned bookseller was in the middle of taking me through the best ways to co-operate with teachers when she leaned in to confide: “Schools are afraid of manga… because of the boobs.”
As there would be at any insiders’ do, there was politics and a smattering of juicy gossip. Mostly, though, there was collaboration. Booksellers who had been-there-and-got-the-legal-fees sympathised with my current conveyancing limbo. Others offered tips and, better still, reassurance that everyone messes up the choice of books for opening (“we’ve still got some of our opening stock - we do a little dance every time we sell one”). One particularly kind soul volunteered to share his entire current stock list with me to help me whittle down my choices. When I pointed out that this was absurdly generous, he said it was nothing more than another bookseller had done for him when he started out.
The more I see it in practice, the more convinced I am that, on a tough high street, the resurgence of independent bookshops owes much to a spirit of mutual support. What explains that spirit? In part, it is probably luck, down to an unusual congregation of rather good eggs. I have still yet to meet a Bernard Black. From Mary and John James in Aldeburgh (who encouraged me to rifle through their finances) to Jack at the Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh (who cheerfully recommended a tote bag supplier), via Hazel at Village Books in Dulwich (a source of relentless enthusiasm in the couple of months I’ve known her) and Helen at Forum Books in my hometown (who let me learn the ropes from her staff for the day), I have encountered only support.
It might also be because of the money. Or, rather, the lack of it. Nobody goes into bookselling to get rich. Even Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, lost money selling them. (Though that, of course, was all part of the plan to get us hooked on his smiley brown parcels.) Chain shops that were once the enemy are now so fragile that independents are grateful for their survival and, with it, the model of book distribution. Rather than fighting over turf, booksellers understand that their rival is not another indie but Amazon and indeed the increasing proliferation of other calls on people’s time. In a tough, low-margin trade, pooling resources is not just nice, it’s good business.
***I’m starting a Backstory non-fiction book group in August. We’ll read a book a month, then join the author for a Zoom Q&A. Sign up here for more information***
But in order to forge these connections, booksellers need to be in the same room. The third factor, then, is institutional. Trade groups vary enormously in quality. Some are barely present; others obsess over self-important initiatives; the worst compete for turf with others in the same sector, breeding confusion and muddying their message. In the Booksellers’ Association we are blessed with a model for such a group. I’ve been really impressed so far by how lean and nimble it is (the MD was to be seen handing out the drinks on Thursday night) and refreshingly free of business speak. The association uses its ‘convening power’ wisely: at the London Book Fair, it organised mini-pitches of upcoming titles from all the major publishers; on Thursday night, HarperCollins hosted (thanks for the wine) and put on another very helpful speed-pitching session. The BA also runs a highly practical one-day ‘Introduction to Bookselling’ course that I took in February. I’ve been regularly texting a fellow attendee since then, who has just put in his own opening order. (Good luck, Jordan!)
So three cheers, then, for this wonderful, welcoming community, and especially for the BA. Unlike its cancellation-ridden namesake, it is flying.
Tom
More of your recommendations
Here are a few more of your recommendations. If you haven’t already, please do recommend a book or a few here - the book(s) can be in any category, you just have to have loved it and want to recommend it to a friend.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum by Katherine Boo. Characters you'll find yourself thinking about 10 years on - Avantika
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. I don’t think I’ve ever read a more eye-opening book. The US sociologist Matthew Desmond embeds with several families in Milwaukee either experiencing or at risk of eviction during the 2008 financial crisis. It’s a depressing but essential read. - Elizabeth
The Falconer by Dana Czapnik. New York City seen through the eyes of 17 year old Lucy, who is street-smart but still trying to figure life out. This is a coming of age tale different to any I had read before, and Lucy’s view of the world has stayed with me long after reading. - Molly
Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan. My girlfriend always assesses a bookshop on whether they have this in stock, so.... - Alex