Till total £420.20
34 customers
MONDAY, 26 MAY
Online orders: 6
Books found: 5
At 9.05 a.m. a customer came in trying to sell a box of books on Christian Science. He told me that a load of Christian Scientists had already picked over the collection and taken some of them for free. He was telling me this as he was trying to sell it to me. If a bunch of Christian Scientists didn’t want books on Christian Science for free, then I certainly was not going to pay for them, particularly when they were covered in cat hair.
Late in the day a customer, when asked if he’d like a bag, replied, ‘Desperately.’
Over the past few days about £400 worth of books from the railway book deal in Glasgow have sold. They probably account for half of all the books I have sold in the last week.
Till total £408.88
46 customers
TUESDAY, 27 MAY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
As a customer was looking at the Birlinn reprint of Barnard’s The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom in our new books section, I happened to be passing to put new stock out and I heard the words ‘cheaper on Amazon’ whispered to his companion. He didn’t even have the courtesy to wait until I was out of earshot.
Till total £426.50
21 customers
WEDNESDAY, 28 MAY
Online orders: 7
Books found: 3
After lunch Alastair and Leslie Reid called in to say hello. They live in New York and come over every year to enjoy the Galloway spring months. Alastair was born in nearby Whithorn, the son of the Church of Scotland minister. He is a writer of extraordinary talent, now in his eighties. He is a poet, and also writes for The New Yorker. In recent years he has come to appreciate what he describes as his ‘flinty beginnings’ in Galloway, and every spring he and Leslie return to the place where the warm embrace of childhood friends and the memories of that season, with its familiar smells and sounds, transport him to the time before his wanderlust took him around the world. He introduced the poetry of Neruda and Borges to Europe. Despite (or possibly because of) his roots he has made no secret of his dislike for some elements of Scottish life. In the introduction to his book Whereabouts he writes: ‘The two pieces “Digging up Scotland” and “Hauntings” represent my coming to terms with my flinty beginnings, but while I am still haunted by some Scottish landscapes and weathers, I never feel at home in the wariness of its human climate.’
Those words were written in 1987, and I suspect that his annual visit is an indication that perhaps he now does feel more at home in Scotland’s human climate. It is always the most enjoyable rite of spring to see them both, to have them over for supper, to drink whisky together and for that favour to be returned at least once every visit. It has been an enormous privilege to have come to know both Leslie and Alastair. His has been the most extraordinary peripatetic life, which, he is fond of saying, stems from the first time he saw Irish travellers passing the manse in Whithorn. He asked his father where they were going, to which his father replied, ‘They don’t know.’ This fired Alastair’s imagination, and I suspect that at any time in his life if he was asked where he was going, his response would have been ‘I don’t know.’
Till total £192
19 customers
THURSDAY, 29 MAY
Online orders: 5
Books found: 5
A customer appeared at 9.15 a.m. with a fishing waistcoat and an over-groomed moustache, leaned over the counter and pompously asked if we have a section on ‘The Great Game’, as though he was Clive of India.
An elderly couple bought a book on the music of Scotland and commented as they were paying that they had found a hardback book of poetry by Stevie Smith that was £1 when it was published in 1970. They were surprised by ‘how much’ I was selling it for, which, it turns out, was £6. Often when this happens I attempt to explain that not everything goes down in value as it gets older, and in any case it is all relative. If that book were to come out in print today, it would probably be selling for at least £12. John Carter (from whom I bought the shop in 2001) used to reply to customers who accused him of naked profiteering by selling a book that was two and sixpence for £1 that, ‘If you’ve got two and sixpence, you can have it for two and sixpence.’ John was very good to me when I took over the business, and accompanied me on my first few book-buying deals, as well as showing me the ropes for a month before the shop became mine. One of his many pieces of invaluable advice was ‘My motto is the same as the Roman army: SPQR – small profit, quick return.’
At 3.15 p.m. four heavily built American men came in looking for ‘old Bibles’, so I showed them several from various periods going back as far as 1644. They didn’t buy any of them, and all insisted on calling me ‘Sir’.
Till total £271.49
13 customers
FRIDAY, 30 MAY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Uneventful day. Spent most of it reading.
Till total £114.98
12 customers
SATURDAY, 31 MAY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Another quiet day in the shop. Re-priced some of the stock in the antiquarian section, including a third edition (1774) of Thomas Pennant’s A Tour in Scotland 1769. The mid-eighteenth century appears to have been a popular time for books about tours of Scotland, normally illustrated.
Probably the most well-known tour – largely because of the already established fame of its author and his companion – is that of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson in 1785, when they toured the Hebrides. On their travels, they took with them a copy of Martin Martin’s A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (1703), of which Johnson was (typically) critical. This copy of Pennant came from a large house in Ayrshire which contained a wonderful library of such things. Daniel Defoe got in before Pennant and Boswell, writing A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–6), and among the other Scottish tours currently in the antiquarian section are Garnett’s Observations on a Tour Through the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland (1811), with maps and beautiful oval copperplate illustrations, and Campbell’s A Journey from Edinburgh to Parts of North Britain (1802), again with fine copperplate illustrations. The descriptions of the landscapes, the people and their lifestyles, along with the contemporary illustrations, provide the most accurate impression of what life in that period must have been like, making them not only beautiful books but invaluable social historical documents. Finding such items in a collection is always a joy.
Callum and I had arranged to go for a bike ride after work, leaving here sharp at 5 p.m. so I was prompt with closing and started locking up at 4.55 p.m. I told the only customer in the shop – a woman who was in the Scottish room – that I had to close for an important meeting. She shuffled reluctantly into the front room and started looking at the cookery books. Just as I was explaining (again) about my important meeting and trying to manoeuvre her towards the door, Callum strolled in wearing what were clearly cycling clothes and holding a bike pump, shouting, ‘Right, are you ready to go on this bike ride then?’ The woman left amid a barrage of tutting.
Till total £179.48
24 customers
JUNE
There are always plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops, because a bookshop is one of the few places where you can hang about for a long time without spending any money. In the end one gets to know these people almost at a glance. For all their big talk there is something moth-eaten and aimless about them.
George Orwell, ‘Bookshop Memories’
Things have changed a little since Orwell’s day. Perhaps the National Health Service has accommodated the ‘not quite certifiable lunatics’ who dogged his daily life in the bookshop back then or perhaps they’ve found some other equally frugal means of distracting themse
lves. We have one or two regular customers to whom this description might apply, but far more common today is the customer who will spend a few short minutes in the shop before leaving empty-handed, saying, ‘You could spend all day in this shop’, or the young couple who will find the most inconvenient place in which to park their vast, screaming Panzer of a pram while they sit exhausted in the armchairs by the wood-burning stove. Nowadays, when customers have that ‘aimless’ look about them, it is almost a certainty that it is because they are waiting for the pharmacist (three doors up) to fulfil their prescription or for the garage in Wigtown to call and tell them that their car has passed its MOT test and they can collect it.
SUNDAY, 1 JUNE
While Amazon appears to benefit consumers, there is an unseen mass of people who suffer thanks to the punitive conditions which it imposes on sellers – authors have seen their incomes plummet over the past ten years, publishers too, which means that they can no longer take risks with unknown authors, and now there is no middleman. Amazon seems to be focused on matching if not undercutting competitors’ prices to the extent that it seems to be impossible to see how it can make money on some sales. This puts the squeeze not only on independent bookshops but also on publishers, authors and, ultimately, creativity. The sad truth is that, unless authors and publishers unite and stand firm against Amazon, the industry will face devastation. Amanda Foreman wrote an excellent piece about this in today’s Sunday Times.
MONDAY, 2 JUNE
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Laurie’s first day back at work in the shop. Predictably, there were massive problems with Monsoon. Laurie is a student at Napier University in Edinburgh, a place that she loathes with undisguised contempt. She has worked in the shop for the past couple of summers. I have taken her on for this summer, which will probably be her last before she enters the hideous world of attempting to find a real job.
For the first time in the thirteen years since I bought the shop, I have been left with no choice but to turn the radio off. Terry Waite is guest of the week in Rob Cowan’s Essential Classics on Radio 3.
Tracy, with whom I often compare notes about the general public, dropped in during her lunch break at the exact moment when a customer came to the counter. The customer put a book on the counter. When I picked it up to check the price, I noticed that there was an ancient ‘59p’ written in pencil on the first page next to our price sticker of £2.50. During the ensuing argument over which was the correct price, I could see Tracy attempting to stop herself from giggling. When the customer reluctantly accepted the price and said ‘I will just get rid of some change’, she lost all control and began laughing hysterically. The customer took five minutes to work out the correct change, which consisted entirely of 2p pieces and pennies.
Till total £330.49
16 customers
TUESDAY, 3 JUNE
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
Opened the shop five minutes late because the key jammed. The first customer of the day brought two Rider Haggard first editions to the counter, £8.50 each. At the same moment the thought ‘Those are seriously underpriced’ entered my head, he asked, ‘Will you do them for £13?’ When I refused to knock anything off them, he replied, ‘Well, you’ve got to ask, haven’t you?’ so I told him that, no, you do not have to ask.
After work I went for supper with Alastair and Leslie Reid in the cottage they rent from Finn and Ella in Garlieston. Alastair spoke of his first trip to America, which he took via London. A lecturer at the University of St Andrews, from which he had recently graduated, had given him the telephone number of a friend of his in London called Tom. Alastair duly arrived in London and telephoned ‘Tom’ to see if he could put him up for the night. ‘Tom’ turned out to be T. S. Eliot. Stewart Henderson, another friend who was there for supper, asked him ‘What did he smell like?’ to which Alastair – with no pause for thought – replied, ‘A musty pulpit, which is exactly what he would have wanted to smell like.’
Afterwards I asked Stewart – a poet who presents programmes on Radio 4, including Pick of the Week – what had possessed him to ask that question. He replied that he had once been interviewing the last survivor of a British brass band which Hitler had requested to perform a private concert for him before the Second World War. The interviewee was an elderly woman who evidently did not understand that Stewart was trying to extract more than ‘yes/no’ answers from her. Eventually, in despair, he decided that he would ask her ‘What did Hitler smell like?’, at which point she opened up completely and gave him all the material he could have hoped for.
Till total £125.38
19 customers
WEDNESDAY, 4 JUNE
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Today was surprisingly quiet in the shop, which afforded me the opportunity to sort through some of the piles of boxes of fresh stock that perpetually clutter the shop and price up some of it and put it on the shelves. With the constant stream of fresh stock coming into the shop it is a battle to keep the place tidy and organised, particularly now that we have to check prices online to see whether a book is worth listing. This has slowed the whole process down considerably.
The undoubted highlight of the day was when my mother appeared, excitedly clutching a book that I must have bought at least six years ago, back in the days when I used to store freshly bought stock in the shed at my parents’ house. I thought I’d cleared it all away, but she’d found a box and started rummaging through it and discovered a signed, numbered limited edition of W. B. Yeats’s The Winding Stair. The edition was limited to 642 copies, 600 of which had been signed by Yeats. It was unusual to see my mother, who is not a bookish person, so animated, but it was not about the value of the book – more because she had in her hands a book that the most famous poet of his generation from the land of her birth had once also held. I spent the rest of the day wondering how on earth I could have missed it when I bought it, and trying to remember where it had come from in the first place. No idea.
Till total £157.48
20 customers
THURSDAY, 5 JUNE
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
At about 10 a.m. Nicky and I were gossiping about the perils of lending things to people when we were interrupted by a customer who asked if we had a ‘rest room’. Blank looks were exchanged for some time before Nicky broke the silence, saying, ‘There’s a comfy seat by the fire if you need a rest.’ For moments like this, Nicky’s value is beyond measure.
Smelly Kelly appeared, doused, as always, in Brut 33. He now has a walking stick but assured me that he will be fighting fit in no time. His relentless pursuit of Nicky is most inspiring, particularly considering that not only has she failed to give him any positive signals, but on several occasions she has also told him quite bluntly that she is not interested.
Drove to Glasgow and bought fifteen boxes of books from a retired couple in Bearsden.
Till total £115.50
10 customers
FRIDAY, 6 JUNE
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
Laurie was in, covering for Nicky, who put in an extra day yesterday, so I went fishing on the Luce. Didn’t catch anything, but a worthwhile break from the shop. Eliot emailed to say that The Bookshop Band are going to be in the area this weekend and are looking for a venue for a gig, and could he come and stay for a few days. I replied that I would be happy to open on Sunday for them, and yes, of course he was welcome to stay too.
Till total £109.49
7 customers
SATURDAY, 7 JUNE
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
Laurie fronted the shop today, which turned into a beautiful sunny day.
Her first customer was a Welsh woman who had brought ten boxes of Scottish books with her while she’s here on holiday, with a view to selling them. Her husband brought them in from the car. Some were interestin
g – perhaps 20 per cent of the total – but they were all in terrible condition. As I was going through the first three boxes, the woman made a note on her list of the books that I had removed. This is always, without exception, an indication that someone has overvalued their books. Occasionally she would pick one up and mutter, ‘Oh yes, that’s very rare’, or ‘valuable’ or ‘first edition’, as if this would somehow influence what I would offer her for the collection. When she eventually stopped talking, I offered her £60 for about twenty books. Immediately she replied, ‘Oh no. Oh no no no no no’, so I left the room at this point and went to make a cup of tea. When I returned five minutes later, both she and her beleaguered husband, and the books, were gone.
Eliot arrived at 4 p.m. and made himself at home, which, as always, meant dispersing the contents of his overnight case as widely as possible throughout the house.
Till total £128
20 customers
SUNDAY, 8 JUNE
I opened the shop at 2 p.m., just as The Bookshop Band arrived. They set up and started the gig at 3.30 p.m. They were wonderful. The Bookshop Band are Ben, Beth and Poppy. They were doing a tour of Scotland and the north of England, and Eliot persuaded them to come to Wigtown and perform in the shop. They brought their friend John along to give them a hand with setting up. Their USP is that they mainly play in bookshops, and all of their songs are based on books they’ve read. The shop was full for their gig: Callum brought his children along too. In the evening, once we’d eaten, the instruments came out again as the wine and beer began to flow and they sang folk songs (John’s speciality). We drank and sang until 3 a.m.
The Diary of a Bookseller Page 11