The perfect mother’s day present: A Backstory subscription
We tailor our subscriptions, matching the subscriber to the Backstory team member whose tastes are most compatible so they can pick a book to surprise and delight them every month, then gift wrap it. Choose from three, six or 12 month subscriptions. Order now and we can post you a token in time for you to present on the day, or you can pick one up from the shop.
Upcoming events at Backstory
(all at 71 Balham High Road)
Tuesday 21st March, 7pm
We can’t breathe underwater, but lots of amazing animals can. We’re so excited to welcome two thrilling storytellers to talk about how and why we can look after the ocean. Laline Paull, whose new Women’s Prize-longlisted novel Pod is an epic, tribal tale of family and home told from the perspectives of a symphony of sea creatures, in conversation with Tom Mustill, a biologist and filmmaker, who wrote How to Speak Whale after a close encounter with a whale almost killed him.
1999: Manchester United, The Treble And All That
Wednesday 29th March, 7.30pm
Award-winning sports writer Matt Dickinson talks about Manchester United’s unprecedented 1999 season with Times deputy sports editor James Restall
Wednesday 5th April, 7.30pm
One of Tom’s favourite authors, who writes so well about modern relationships and the body. Talking about her latest, Milk Teeth.
Yaba Badoe: An introduction to YA (young adult)
Tuesday 11th April, 7.30pm
Yaba Badoe is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker and writer who has judged a few YA book prizes. We're going to talk about her experience writing for young adults and judging prizes in that category. Come to learn about all things YA, what it takes to build new worlds and create memorable characters.
Wednesday 26th April, 7.30pm
The Costa Book Prize-winning author of Unsettled Ground and Swimming Lessons joins us to chat all about her latest, The Memory of Animals. In the book, a pandemic is sweeping the planet. Neffy joins a vaccine trial, cut off from the outside world. The novel puts isolation and humanity under the microscope.
Team pick of the week
Amy recommends: Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood
From touchingly ordinary stories, such as a couple attending a first aid course, to wildly weird tales (for example, a snail’s soul being transposed into the body of a customer service representative), this short story collection highlights Atwood’s range across genres.
Among my favourites was Morte de Smudgie. After the death of her cat, Nell deals with her grief by rewriting Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur, replacing the legendary king with her cat Smudgie. Honestly, I found this vaguely unhinged behaviour disconcertingly relatable. I also loved My Evil Mother – is her mum a witch or just weird? Also worryingly relatable.
ONE OF THE THINGS you are apparently supposed to do as a good boss is to hire people who are better than you. Or at least to spot things that your employees are really good at and then let them get on with it. This is usually the case with Rory and what I might call “prettifying” and what a proper retailer would call merchandising.
From arranging books in appealing stacks to creating enticing chalkboard signs and windows, he’s just got the knack. I, on the other hand, used to get compliments on my “shorthand” when people I was interviewing glanced at my normal handwriting. So I usually just sit back and let him get on with it, occasionally suggesting that his third version is really perfectly adequate and he might not need to rub it out and start from scratch again.
But when Rory had a day off last week in the midst of foul weather that gave all the customers a day off too, I got to play shop and remembered how much fun it can be. I used to love faffing around with which books went where on the market stall and coming up with signs that, if nothing else, made me chuckle. Within no time, the floor was hidden beneath teetering piles of books while my new displays came to life on the bookshelves.
I devoted one of the tables at the front to the longlist for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, which has just been announced. Rory is a big fan of Cursed Bread and Pod, while Amy loves Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes. I’m just about to dive into Barbara Kingsolver’s latest, Demon Copperhead, and will report back. You can browse the full list here. And if you’re feeling particularly brave, you can order all 16 books at a discount in our Women’s Prize bundle.
I was pretty pleased with my handiwork in the end, but it is true that the preponderance of female authors hardly distinguishes this table from the others in our shop. Unlike some shops (like the beautiful Rare Birds in Edinburgh), we set out to stock great books, regardless of who wrote them. But I do find it interesting the degree to which both our customers and the authors we stock skew female.
Nine of our ten bestsellers last month were written by women, and seven of the ten below that, from established names like Elizabeth Strout and Claire Keegan to debut writers Bonnie Garmus and Monica Heisey.
The organisers of the Women’s Prize for Fiction are planning to launch a similar gong for non-fiction, not a moment too soon for those bored of browsing “smart thinking” selections written entirely by people called Robert.
That is not the case at Backstory, where non-fiction bestsellers include Lea Ypi’s Free, an extraordinary account of coming of age during the collapse of Albania’s communist regime, and Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott, an incredible work of journalism telling the story of urban poverty in America through the childhood of one homeless New Yorker. More women than men come to our non-fiction book club.
So do take a look at the Women’s Prize longlist, either online or in the shop. But it’s safe to say our tables will be piled high with great books by women long after the ceremony is over.
Speak soon,
Tom
Our bestsellers this week
Maame by Jessica George
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - now in paperback
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera - March’s Backstory book club
Send Nudes by Saba Sams
I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait
Foster by Claire Keegan
The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle - children’s picture book
The Girl and the Dinosaur by Hollie Hughes - children’s picture book