Шон Байтелл - The Diary of a Bookseller

Just before closing, a customer brought in two large framed maps of Ayrshire, hand-coloured and dating from 1828. I gave her £60 each for them.

Till total £369.50

17 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 3

Nicky was up early tidying the shop – a significant reversal of her usual work-time activities, which largely comprise making as much of a mess as she possibly can. She asked me to find her an excuse to escape if Smelly Kelly came in to continue his Brut 33-scented wooing. Unsurprisingly, on seeing her blue minibus parked opposite the shop, he pitched up at about 11 a.m. I pretended that I had a parcel to collect from the post office in Newton Stewart and asked Nicky if she would mind picking it up for me, to which she readily agreed. Smelly Kelly then asked if she could give him a lift there as he wanted to visit his brother, at which point there was no option but to fall on my sword and tell Nicky that I would go to Newton Stewart, taking Smelly Kelly with me, if she could cover the shop. The journey was horrendous; the air in the cab of the van was barely breathable so dense was the cloud of Brut 33, even with all the windows open.

At 3 p.m. Mr Deacon appeared to inquire about his order. I told him that it should be here next week. He was clutching a tin of cat food.

Nicky and I spent the afternoon clearing out the van and tidying it up for Vincent to drive it to Inverary tomorrow. I dropped it off at Vincent’s at 4 p.m.

Nicky has decided that she and her friend Morag are going to the Edinburgh Book Festival and intend to promote the Random Book Club. She has instructed me to produce business cards and flyers by Thursday.

Till total £367.46

13 customers

Online orders: 6

Books found: 3

Laurie was off today, so I was alone in the shop. Vincent telephoned to tell me that the new van is here whenever I want to pick it up.

When I took the mail sacks over to the post office, Wilma asked how things were going with Anna. William overheard and muttered something unpleasant.

On Nicky’s instructions, I spent an hour or two designing Random Book Club promotional material for her to take to the Edinburgh Book Festival. After lunch I emailed it to J&B Print in Newton Stewart with a note that it needs to be ready for Thursday.

After work I picked up the new van from Vincent. It is silver with built-in satnav, electric windows and a tow bar, and much fancier than the old red one. It has a saltire flag on the back door, which should infuriate my pro-union mother.

Till total £434.44

39 customers

Online orders: 4

Books found: 4

Laurie made it in today. Apparently her dog has a punctured eye. The drama of her domestic menagerie continues. The kittens are doing well, though, apparently.

Amazon order for a book called The Reforming of Dangerous and Useless Horses. I ought to have sent this to my cousin Aoife, all of whose horses appear to fall into both categories.

Mr Deacon’s book arrived, so I left a message on his voicemail.

Till total £341.48

33 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 3

Laurie was in today, which was largely a cloudy day.

Drove to North Berwick to look at a collection of books on Catholicism in a beautiful Georgian town house. Gave the man – a tall man, so wordless that I began to suspect that he may have belonged to a silent order – £200 for five boxes of them, then drove to Eyemouth and found a hotel to stay in.

Till total £541.90

44 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 2

Laurie covered the shop. She couldn’t find one of today’s orders, which was for a book whose title was Sewage Disposal from Isolated Buildings.

After breakfast I left Eyemouth and drove to a house near Kelso, where I had arranged to look at another collection for sale. This time it was the library of an elderly man whose wife had died recently and who was moving from his bungalow into sheltered accommodation. He seemed happy to be moving, probably for the last time in his life. The bungalow was on a steep slope, and there were a dozen or so steps up to the front door. As his mobility is quite limited, I imagine that comfort is now his top priority, rather than independence. The books were both his and his late wife’s. They were a good mix of fiction and non-fiction, in fairly good condition, probably about 600 in total, including boxed Folio sets of Wodehouse, E. F. Benson and Orwell. I left with about 100 books, gave him £190 and drove home, arriving back at the shop at about 3 p.m. to be met with a customer in cheap polyester suit who asked, ‘Do you remember me? I bought a book about bowling from you five years ago.’

Alison from J&B Print dropped off the new Random Book Club flyers with an invoice for £313.94. Nicky had better get a lot of new subscribers to cover the cost of that.

Email from Helen, secretary of the Wigtown Agricultural Society, reminding me that I have agreed to film and make a DVD of the cattle show on Wednesday. The long-range weather forecast looks dire for that day.

Till total £277.73

31 customers

Perhaps various sidelines are more important to second-hand bookshops now than they ever were. When I can afford to and I have the opportunity, I attend the auction in Dumfries and pick up bits and pieces to sell in the shop. At the moment there is an oak Georgian bureau (£70), two pairs of Victorian crown green bowling balls (£25 per pair), seventeen jardinières and plant pots (various prices), a sturdy Victorian fire screen (£300), several prints and paintings and a mahogany table (£75), as well as an assortment of trinkets and costume jewellery that Anna has arranged into a corner of the shop that she has called ‘The Littlest Antique Store in the World’. Not my idea. These things, carefully chosen, can add atmosphere to the place by referencing the building’s history as a home prior to its incarnation as a shop – first as a draper’s in 1899, then later as a grocer’s in the 1950s, and since 1992 a bookshop. Add to that mix Sandy the tattooed pagan’s walking sticks and there is hopefully enough to keep the non-reading companions of bibliophiles occupied while their partners browse.

Online orders: 4

Books found: 4

Nicky in.

Tracy dropped in this morning to say hello. It is her birthday today.

Me: ‘Happy birthday, Tracy, hope you have a lovely day.’

Nicky: ‘Well, Tracy, you’re one year closer to death.’

Norrie turned up with prototypes of the concrete books that he has made to replace the spirals we had at the front of the shop. I used to make them from real books coated in fibreglass resin, but they were a lot of work in the making and needed to be replaced every three years. The concrete spirals will be expensive but should last for ever.