Coming up at Backstory
Free live music every Thursday evening, 6pm-8pm. This week: Jack Mac sax
No need to book, just turn up at our bar from 6pm on Thursday evenings
Backstory presents: words & music with The Listening Project
Saturday 21st October, 7.30pm
A ticketed music night with The Listening Project, who will be celebrating contemporary classical music with an oratory focus. Featuring the works of composers such as Hilary Kleinig, Ted Hearne, Anna Disley-Simpson, John Lely and more. Join us for a night of sounds and soliloquy at the bookshop where art, music and ideas come together.
Ha-Joon Chang — Edible Economics
Wednesday 25th October, 7.30pm
The SOAS economist discusses his new book, which challenges the economic orthodoxy, serving up new ideas with a side order of stories about food from around the globe.
Prisons, inside and out, with Chris Atkins and Alex South
Wednesday 1st November, 7.30pm
Join us to discuss life inside — and after — prison with Chris Atkins, whose book ‘Time After Time’ tracks the fortunes of a dozen repeat offenders to understand why recidivism remains stubbornly high, and Alex South, who recounts her experiences of life as a female prison officer in ‘Behind These Doors’.
Wednesday 8th November, 7.30pm
The Costa Prize-winning author of ‘Mr Wilder & Me’, ‘What A Carve Up!’ and ‘Middle England’ discusses his latest novel, tracing life in one Birmingham suburb – and the story of our country – over the last 75 years
Janice Hallett — The Christmas Appeal
Wednesday 29th November, 7.30pm
Meet the “Queen of Cosy Crime”. The author of The Twyford Code and The Appeal discusses her new festive mystery.
Wednesday 6th December, 7.30pm
The award-winning cartoonist for the Telegraph discusses drawing the world's ups and downs which he always does with a gentle humour, never malice.
Coming up at the Non-Fiction Book Club: Caroline Knowles (Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London), Christina Lamb (Our Bodies, Their Battlefield)
Coming up at the Fiction Book Club: Rebecca Wait (I’m Sorry You Feel That Way), Bobby Palmer (Isaac And The Egg)
SOLD OUT: Kenny Imafidon in conversation with Stephen Bush — That Peckham Boy
Wednesday 18th October, 7.30pm
SOLD OUT Jeremy Bowen — The Making of the Modern Middle East
Wednesday 15th November, 7.30pm
SOLD OUT James O’Brien — How They Broke Britain
Wednesday 22nd November, 7.30pm
I LOVE FILCHING NEW PHRASES, the more jargon-laden the better. In the newsroom, you “put your story up” to “the desk” to see if your editor likes it. If they do, you better be sure to “file” it before it gets a good “subbing” (edit). After that, there might be a banging out (a traditional thumping of desks when a colleague leaves) before going off stone (when the paper goes to press).
Denise, our marketing supremo, is doing an excellent job at schooling me in marketing speak. When we did our ad campaign on the tube earlier in the year, I learned that we would pay extra for multiple “executions” (versions) and that we’d thank our lucky stars if we got any “overs” (posters that stayed up for longer than we paid for). Her current obsession, however, is “Q4” (as in the final quarter of the year), an expression familiar to anyone who has ever worked in business but somehow bemusingly corporate to a bunch of booksellers. Denise used it once or twice and now, with wry smiles, the whole team is running with it. We reckon we all need t-shirts that say “We’re busy” on the front, and on the back: “Try me again in Q1.”
Because, in terms of trying to make Backstory a business as well as a lovely bookshop, Q4 is where it’s at. Someone asked me the other day when I would start planning for Christmas, and I should probably apologise for quite how much of a guffaw this prompted. As the team will attest, I have been thinking of little else since January: one of them took me to task for mentioning the C word so much while we were still waiting for the sun to finally shine this summer.
This is not my natural disposition. I have always loved Christmas but I am also very much a man. As is typical of this breed, I tend to congratulate myself on my forward-thinking if I start ruminating on gifts to buy as early as December 15th.
But I knew just how much retailers rely on Christmas from childhood shifts in the gift shop my mum used to run in Northumberland. I used to put my smartest Christmas jumper on every “Christmas shopping night” and help ring posh soaps and cards through the till before shoppers headed for mulled wine and carols.
It’s just as important for a bookshop. As soon as I quit my job in March 2022, I had one objective: to get a shop open in time to benefit from as much of the Christmas trade as possible. In retrospect, Backstory was so fortunate to open on 1st October: we had three really busy, buzzy months of trading to bolster the bank account to get us through the quietest months, a feast before the famine.
Assuming this year follows a similar pattern, we are likely to take about 40% of the year’s revenue in the next three months — and a greater slice of the profit, since fixed costs stay the same and you can negotiate better margins with publishers on bumper Christmas orders.
So putting in lots of thought to get Q4 right isn’t about being greedy: it’s a retail version of hibernation — lining our stomachs as best we can to survive the sleepy months in the new year. January and February look set always to be loss-making. Breaking even, with a bit of change to spare, is the target for much of the year. It is only in Q4 when we can — and must — be more ambitious.
Don’t worry: the tinsel is under lock and key for now. And the advent calendars are safely stored away in the stock cupboard. But believe me they’re there. (And of course our individually tailored book subscriptions are always available, and make the perfect gift, whatever time of year…)
So it’s going to be a busy few weeks, but you’ll never be bothering us by asking for a book recommendation or two — just drop in, browse the website or shoot us an email. Our love of all things books is for life, not just for Q4.
Tom