Join us this weekend
As always, Backstory is open 10am-6pm today and tomorrow. We’ll be delighted to give personal recommendations and help you make a start on the Christmas shop.
It’s a 3-minute hop from Balham tube. Why not join us if you’re elsewhere in London and haven’t visited yet?
Try our delightful new Winter Spritz, made with Hayman’s sloe gin (from their distillery just round the corner) and your choice of either blood orange or elderflower tonic
Coming up at Backstory
Final live music night, this Thursday — free, no booking necessary
It’s the last live music night of the year (except our festive shopping evenings). Think of it like the last night of the Proms, though probably with less Elgar. Come at 6.30pm; music starts at 7pm. To round off the season we have Natalie Lindi, a huge rising star who played her first Glastonbury show this year. London born-and-raised, borrowing sounds from her South African heritage, she will be playing raw and heartfelt Acoustic Soul. See you there!
Christmas shopping nights — with live music, drinks & mince pies
Thursdays 14th & 21st December, join us from 6pm. No booking needed.
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.
Poetry open mic night
Friday 1st December, 6.30pm
We'll have a mic set up in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere for anyone to come and share their poetry or prose. Open mic-ers will sign up at the door and, once called up, will have five minutes (though no need to fill that all up!). It’s a great environment to share your work, whether you're a pro open mic-er or a first-timer. Please also come to enjoy hearing some poetry and support your local writers! No tickets, just turn up
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.
Paul Caruana Galizia — A Death in Malta
Monday 18th December, 7.30pm
The very inspiring investigative journalist Paul Caruana Galizia joins us to discuss A Death in Malta, his book about the assassination of his mother Daphne, a campaigning journalist in their native Malta. It’s an astonishing story about one family’s quest for the truth, and about the fight against corruption in a modern European country.
Wednesday 10th January, 7.30pm
Sky News’s Economics Editor takes us from our seats in Balham on a world tour as he uncovers the hidden stories behind the most important raw materials shaping our lives.
John Crace — Depraved New World
Wednesday 17th January, 7.30pm
Join Guardian parliamentary sketch-writer John Crace as he skewers the great and the not-so-good from a mad few years at Westminster.
Porn: An Oral History — Polly Barton in conversation with Jessica Andrews
Wednesday 24th January, 7.30pm
In the irresistibly-titled Porn: An Oral History, Polly Barton set out to bust myths by asking her friends about their use and abuse of porn. She joins Backstory favourite Jessica Andrews, author of Milk Teeth, in conversation.
Coming up at the Non-Fiction Book Club: Bianca Bosker (Cork Dork)
Coming up at the Fiction Book Club: Andrew O’Hagan (Mayflies)
Download our Christmas gift guide
I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD to Christmas for a long time now. I may be 33, but my inner child never needs much persuading to bring out the tinsel and whack on Fairytale of New York. And, since publicans tend to frown on serving children, inner or otherwise, grown-up me is on hand when it’s my turn to order the mulled wine.
But it is true that, as a retailer, I now have a vested interest in this season of peace and goodwill. Before opening Backstory, I had a bit of an idea that Christmas was a good time of year for shop-keepers: the closer it got the 25th, the more the queues — and the facial expressions — resembled those in the loo-roll aisle in March 2020. But I had no idea quite how crucial Christmas is.
Well I do now. It is no exaggeration to say that, for Backstory, the next four weeks will decide whether 2023 was, financially speaking, a good year or a bad one. They will certainly determine whether the first six months of next year begin with relative confidence or with relentless penny-pinching. The rest of the year, a 5% dip or boost in takings makes the difference between covering that month’s bills or not; in December, it’s the difference between having a business or having the wrong kind of non-profit.
The same is true, if not more so, for other shops on the high street. Which is why I’ve decided to do all my Christmas shopping with fellow independents this year. I love being part of a bustling high street, but even in relatively well-to-do Balham there are already too many vacancies: even on days when we’re packed out with an event or have regulars perched up at the bar sipping Hot Chocolates, it pains me to walk home past boarded-up shops. High streets — and the communities they sustain — are ecosystems: shops rely on each other for footfall, and sometimes just for moral support.
So, in a nod to the season of goodwill, I thought it would be nice if we recommended other great independent shops for your Christmas gifts. I’d like to ask for your help. Obviously you all know a great independent bookshop. But assuming you can’t buy everyone a book — and why not? — please could you nominate a great non-bookish present idea from an indie shop you love? Top marks if it’s in Balham or south west London, but it can be anywhere in the UK, so long as they take online orders.
Please send in your ideas using this handy form. Then next week, I’ll send round our alternative indie gift guide, with some thoughts from me and the Backstory team, too.
Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!
Tom
P.S. Of course, if you can buy some books for Christmas, we’d really love that! You can browse all our suggestions here, and there’s even free delivery anywhere in the UK.