The last customers of the day – a young couple who bought a few sci-fi titles – told me that they spend their holidays visiting second-hand bookshops all over the UK. A glimmer of hope still flickers for us.
Till total £78
7 customers
TUESDAY, 25 NOVEMBER
Online orders: 7
Books found: 4
Forgot to set the alarm and slept in. Opened the shop at 10 a.m. to discover that the ladies’ art class was supposed to have started at 9.30 a.m. and they were waiting, shivering, outside.
Till total £64
3 customers
WEDNESDAY, 26 NOVEMBER
Online orders: 2
Books found: 1
Decline and Fall arrived in this morning’s post, so I telephoned Mr Deacon to let him know.
Sandy the tattooed pagan came in with his friend. He dropped off six sticks and found a book on Celtic mythology.
Customer came in at 4 p.m. with a box of modern paperback fiction which included a copy of José Saramago’s brilliant book Blindness and a copy of Pereira Maintains, by Antonio Tabucchi, both of which had been given to me by an Italian friend who was horrified by my ignorance of contemporary European fiction. Pereira Maintains was a book I greatly enjoyed, but Blindness was astonishing. There are few other books in which I have felt so completely immersed and – ironically – visualised so clearly. The filth and pathetic chaos of a world in which everyone has gone blind, the fragility of the social contract and the rapid disintegration of society following the loss of a single sense are so vividly painted by Saramago that it draws the reader in almost as a participant in the story rather than an observer and – like Hogg’s Justified Sinner – spits you out at the end asking more questions of the world around you.
Till total £90.55
9 customers
THURSDAY, 27 NOVEMBER
Online orders: 8
Books found: 6
The Christmas tree went up in the square today.
A group of three Russian women came into the shop, and one of them (clearly the only English-speaker) asked if we had any books in the Russian language. She seemed genuinely surprised that we had quite a few, but they didn’t buy any.
We received an AbeBooks order this afternoon from a customer in Ireland. It was for an eight-volume set of books which had clearly been incorrectly priced on Monsoon:
Title: European History: Great Leaders & Landmarks
Author: Rev. H. J. Chaytor, William Collinge, Walter Murray
Price: £3.48
Shipping: £8.85
Total: £12.33
The total weight of the set is 8.2 kg, which would put the postage to Ireland at £88. I emailed the customer and explained the situation.
Three people independently asked ‘Do you buy books?’ one of whom brought in three Harry Potter books and very ponderously showed them to me, pointing out the fact that one of them was a first edition. When I told him that the later Harry Potter books had such huge first-edition runs that they’re practically worthless, he hastily put it back in the bag he had brought it in and left. I don’t think he believed me.
While locking up, I was treated to the extraordinary sight of Mr Deacon sprinting towards the shop as only an overweight man in late middle age can. The tails of his ill-fitting jacket (slightly too small) flapping about and his comb-over (which had flipped up vertically) appeared together like a pair of vestigial wings and the dorsal fin of a sailfish: the former struggling to push him along, the latter to steer him. He was clearly trying to get to the shop before it closed. I held the door open for him, and he paid for his book, then shuffled off, panting, into the half-light.
Till total £88.99
6 customers
FRIDAY, 28 NOVEMBER
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
Nicky arrived at 9.15 a.m., as usual. Straight away she offered me a plastic tray of what might have passed for food were it a few days fresher, asking, ‘Would you like a cinnamon roll?’ (Tesco ‘Reduced to 27p’ sticker clearly visible). I replied, ‘I’d love one, thanks, Nicky.’ And as I reached for one, she swatted my hand aside and said, ‘I wouldn’t go for that one. I licked the icing off it on the way into work this morning.’
The only order this morning was for a book called A Toast-Fag.
While I was pricing up books from the many boxes from various book deals piled up in the shop, I found a copy of a book called The Restraint of Beasts, by Magnus Mills. Finn had recommended this to me, so I put it aside and will start on it when I have time.
Nicky decided to stay the night so that we could drink beer and gossip. Predictably we both drank too much. I offered her a bottle of Corncrake Ale and she told me that she doesn’t like any beer that has a bird’s name in it. This is the kind of logic that she applies to all of her decision-making.
Till total £62.50
5 customers
SATURDAY, 29 NOVEMBER
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
Nicky opened up, so I had a lie-in.
Today’s order was for a book called A Young Man’s Passage, by Mark Teller. Julian Clary used the same title for his autobiography, but I can’t imagine he chose it for the same reasons.
As Nicky and I were putting fresh stock out, we both commented at the same time (as we went into the gallery) that it was extremely cold in there. And the fire was lit too. Since we put in the air source heater at the bottom of the stairs last year, the gallery has gone from being the warmest room in the shop to one of the coldest, probably because it has a stone wall with no lining or insulation, so I telephoned Callum to see what he thinks about it. He is going to come over and have a look at it.
Till total £100
10 customers
DECEMBER
At Christmas time we spent a feverish ten days struggling with Christmas cards and calendars, which are tiresome things to sell but good business while the season lasts. It used to interest me to see the brutal cynicism with which Christian sentiment is exploited. The touts from the Christmas card firms used to come round with their catalogues as early as June. A phrase from one of their invoices sticks in my memory. It was: ‘2 doz. Infant Jesus with rabbits’.
George Orwell, ‘Bookshop Memories’
Christmas and the run-up to it is possibly the quietest time of the year in the shop. The business is so dependent on footfall from tourists – of whom there are barely any in December – that we would almost be better-off closing the shop between November and March. The few people who give second-hand books as gifts for Christmas are usually eccentric, though, so it is worth opening purely for the entertainment these characters afford. They are the most interesting customers. And it wouldn’t do to close; if the shop wasn’t open, it would disappoint those few souls who do venture into rural Galloway in the winter months, and they would be unlikely to return another time. Occasionally they spend some money, and the short, cold winter days permit little by way of alternative occupation if I was to close the shop, so it is better to be open on my own and take what slim pickings there are than to be closed and take nothing. The one week for which it is certainly worth opening is that between Christmas and Hogmanay – that’s the week when people return to the area to spend the festive period with their loved ones, whom they quickly discover that they love considerably more from a distance of several hundred miles than they do when confined to the same house as them. During that week the shop is busy, bustling with people who have spent far too much time in close confinement with their kin during the year’s darkest month; desperate for any means of escape, they flock to the shop and while away the hours browsing, and – usually – buying books.
MONDAY, 1 DECEMBER
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
Saint Andrew’s day, a bank holiday in Scotland.
A customer telephoned looking for a book:
Woman: ‘I was in your shop during the book festival and found
a book about old ruined gardens of Scotland in your new books section. Could you tell me what the title is?’
Me: ‘No, I am afraid not. I know the book you’re after and would be happy to sell you a copy, though.’
Woman: ‘Why won’t you tell me the title?’
Me: ‘Because as soon as I do you’ll just go and buy it on Amazon.’
Woman: ‘No, I’ll send my mother round to pick it up from you.’
Me: ‘Oh good, in that case can I take your credit card details and your mother’s name? I’ll put it to one side once you’ve paid for it.’
At this point she hung up.
Tracy and I went for a pint in the pub after work today. A local farmer dropped in and asked, ‘Does anyone want a turnip? I’ve got some in the pick-up.’ Laura, working behind the bar, told him that she would like one. He appeared with the most enormous turnip I have ever seen. Apparently he had a bumper crop this year.
Started reading The Restraint of Beasts.
Till total £28
4 customers
TUESDAY, 2 DECEMBER
Online orders: 3
Books found: 2
Callum dropped in, and we discussed the possibility of insulating the stone wall in the gallery. It should make a significant difference to the temperature. He has agreed to do the work, starting some time this week.
Today was a golden, sunny day; the low light of December and January illuminates the Penguin section in a way that never happens at other times of the year. The undoubted highlight of the day was selling a book called Donald McLeod’s Gloomy Memories, published in 1892, to a customer who had been looking for it for six years.
Till total £33
2 customers
WEDNESDAY, 3 DECEMBER
Online orders: 4
Books found: 2
Cold morning, so I lit the fire and processed the online orders. As I was walking to the post office with the mail, I passed a man carrying a brick, with his car keys dangling from his mouth. As he mumbled a friendly ‘Hello’, the keys fell from his mouth and landed – conveniently – on the brick.
At 2.30 p.m. an elderly man came in with a box of military history books to sell, including several on the KOSB (King’s Own Scottish Borderers, the infantry regiment that – despite Galloway not being a border county – Gallovidian men traditionally joined). Agreed a price of £120 for them.
Till total £46
4 customers
THURSDAY, 4 DECEMBER
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Callum arrived at 10 a.m. to start work on insulating the wall. Spent much of the day boxing up books and dismantling the shelves on the wall he’s going to be working on.
Till total £48
5 customers
FRIDAY, 5 DECEMBER
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
Nicky in. She arrived early and visibly excited; ‘Oh, have I got a treat for you!’ This ‘treat’ was supposed to be some sort of compensation for the cinnamon swirl that she had licked the icing off last Friday morning. She produced a box that was covered in ‘reduced’ stickers and contained a Peppa Pig cake.
Callum was in all day, working on insulating the wall.
Once I’d set Nicky a few jobs (which she nodded enthusiastically about and then decided not to do), I left for a book deal in Sorbie – six miles from Wigtown – at 11 a.m. It was the collection of one of my father’s friends, Basil, who died earlier in the year. His nephew was dealing with the estate. There weren’t many interesting books, and most of them were engineering textbooks, but I took a couple of boxes and wrote him a cheque for £100.
When I left Bristol to return to Scotland in 2001, death was something with which I was relatively unfamiliar, other than the loss of elderly grandparents and great-aunts. Perhaps I am fortunate never to have lost a close friend. Rural life, though, throws you into contact with people of all ages and backgrounds in a way that it is easy to avoid in a city. Back when I bought the shop in 2001, customers would often comment that I appeared ‘very young for a bookseller’, and perhaps I was. It is five years since I last heard that said, and the number of funerals I attend increases year by year. Many of my parents’ friends have died in this past year. My mother recently told me, ‘Your father and I are in the minefield now.’
After work I went for a pint with Callum. We invited Nicky along, but she said she wanted to stay in, so I lit the fire for her and bought some craft beers for her from the co-op (nothing with a bird in its name this time). When I came back at about 8 p.m., she was sitting in front of the fire sewing together a stuffed toy cow which apparently she has been working on for over twenty years. It bore no resemblance to a cow.
Several customers this week have come into the shop and complained that they had forgotten to bring their reading glasses. This is far from uncommon. When I mentioned it to Nicky, she pointed out that she too frequently does it.
Till total £22
2 customers
SATURDAY, 6 DECEMBER
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
At 8 a.m. I heard Nicky making her breakfast, so I had a lie-in and she opened up. I was woken shortly afterwards by the sound of Callum’s hammer drill battering away at the wall downstairs. I spent much of the afternoon running a speaker cable from the stereo, which we have now moved to the front of the shop, out of the reach of children, who seem incapable of passing it without tinkering with it – usually increasing the volume.
Till total £72.29
9 customers
MONDAY, 8 DECEMBER
Online orders: 9
Books found: 8
The shop was extremely quiet all day, the first customer appearing at 11.30 a.m. and asking, ‘Where do you keep your books on marketing and financial strategy?’ Someone is in for an exciting Christmas present.
As I was sorting through the mail, I found a letter from the council onto which Nicky had executed a very crude sketch of a round face with glasses and curly hair – clearly supposed to be me. When I presented her with it and asked, ‘Nicky, what’s this?’, she replied, ‘That? It’s a mirror.’
Till total £78.44
6 customers
TUESDAY, 9 DECEMBER
Online orders: 2
Books found: 1
Anna telephoned to say that she isn’t going to work on the film that she has been developing with her friend in America because she thinks the budget is too small, so she’s booked a flight back to London and is arriving in Dumfries on Thursday.
One of today’s customers, an old man, shuffled towards the counter clutching a book with a look of excitement on his face. ‘How much do you want for this?’ It was a Latin school textbook, and he hurriedly opened it and pointed to the name written in fountain pen on the endpaper, ‘It belonged to my father.’ The book was £4.50, but I told him that he could have it for free. I don’t recall how I came by the book, but he was so delighted to have found it that it seemed like the right thing to do. He was here on holiday from Kent, so it may have come from a large collection I bought from a house outside Canterbury several years ago.
Till total £80
9 customers
WEDNESDAY, 10 DECEMBER
Online orders: 1
Books found: 0
Nicky came in today so that I could get away to look at a library near Stirling, on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond. The house was in a stunning glen, and the road was lined with ancient broadleaf woodland and dotted with grand Victorian villas, of which this was one. It belonged to a couple who were about the same age as my parents, and was full of fine furniture and art. They were congenial and friendly, and kept me fuelled with tea and biscuits as I worked my way through the thousand or so books in the various rooms. Their sons had been to a boarding-school in Perthshire, and one of them was my age, so undoubtedly our paths would have crossed at some point, probably a rugby match. As with so many book deals, they were selling the house and look
ing for somewhere smaller, on this occasion a flat in the West End of Glasgow.
The book collection was mixed but contained some interesting antiquarian material, including a first edition of Barnard’s The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, published in 1887. This is the only copy of the first edition I have ever seen. There was a good collection of other books on whisky, including a couple of antiquarian titles. When we were chatting, it emerged that he had worked in the whisky industry before retiring, and we knew a few of the same people in the distilling business. After some civilised negotiations we agreed a price of £1,200 for ten boxes of books.
The drive home was horrendous. I made the mistake of taking the hill road: twenty miles of single-track. It was covered in snow, raining, and the wind was howling. I met a few fully loaded forestry lorries; then, as I climbed higher, the rain turned to snow, the mountainous landscape occasionally illuminated by sheets of lightning. Made it back at about 6 p.m.
Till total £85.98
7 customers
THURSDAY, 11 DECEMBER
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
One of the orders today was for a book called A Drug Taker’s Notes. When I took the orders over to Wilma, there was no sign of William. I asked Wilma where he was, to which she conspiratorially replied, ‘He’s having his nap’, with a wicked smile on her face. I don’t think any amount of sleep would be enough to put him in a good mood.
After I locked up I drove to Dumfries to pick Anna up from the railway station.
Till total £27
5 customers
The Diary of a Bookseller Page 24