Шон Байтелл: The Diary of a Bookseller

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

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

Online orders: 1

Books found: 0

Nicky arrived in her black ski suit as usual, with a pasty from the Morrisons skip. It bore more resemblance to a giant scab than to an edible treat. ‘Eh, it’s delicious. Go on, have a bit.’ It was revolting. Foodie Friday has become a low point in the week, particularly since the cinnamon roll incident.

Today was particularly slow in the shop, and bitterly cold. Nicky’s Facebook post:

Dear friends, Nicky here! When I arrived at work this morning my emotions were all over the place on spying a red light glowing by the counter … was that a heater? Could I remove my Snuggies?

Yes and No. It was a heater with ONLY the light turned on. Snuggies will be in place until April.

Oh, most distressing news in this week’s Free Press – a coin was stolen from a vehicle parked on a farm. What is the world coming to?

Don’t tell him I was here.

Nicky brought in five pairs of glasses that she had bought at the pound shop in Bathgate, for customers who forget their own.

Someone from a lowland distillery heard that we’d acquired the whisky book collection and came to the shop. He offered me £600 for the Barnard, which I gladly took, as it means I am half-way to recouping my investment within a few days. Had it been in better condition, I could probably have doubled that price.

Callum finished work on insulating the wall. Now we need to find someone to plaster it before we can put up new shelves in time for Christmas.

Till total £79.50

3 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 2

By 9.22 a.m. I had dealt with today’s orders, but there was still no sign of Nicky. At 10 a.m. I received a text message from her: ‘Am in a ditch near the Doon of May. Waiting on a tractor to pull me out.’ She managed to hitch in from the ditch. The Doon is a piece of land near the pretty village of Elrig. It is owned by a man called Jeff, and he runs it as a sort of commune. Nicky eventually appeared at 10.45 a.m.

In the afternoon my father appeared to ask me to print something off for a meeting he has on Wednesday. He and my mother can navigate their way around their iPads, but beyond that family assistance is required for anything relating to computers. The discussion in the shop revolved around what time ‘the afternoon’ officially begins. I said noon. Anna said 11 a.m. My father said, ‘Not until I’ve finished my lunch.’

Till total £121.79

10 customers

Online orders: 2

Books found: 1

As I was sorting through some boxes – possibly from one of the ministers’ collections – I came across two books that you would not expect to find in the same box: a copy of Mein Kampf and an olivewood Bible from Jerusalem.

Coming across a copy of Mein Kampf can place you in a tricky position, morally. The copy we have is worth about £60, and a lot of dealers understandably will not touch it, but there is demand for it – not huge, but sufficient to know that this one will go within a month. The question you never know the answer to is into whose hands it will end up falling – some far-right lunatic, or a historian who is debunking Holocaust-deniers. The market for Mein Kampf will change next year in any case, once the copyright expires in Germany.

Till total £149.50

11 customers

Online orders: 1

Books found: 1

Nicky came in as I had an appointment to see the back specialist in Dumfries Infirmary at 11 a.m. I’ve been referred to the MRI unit for a scan. While I was in Dumfries, I took the opportunity to look at some books belonging to an elderly woman whose husband died in May. She was in a tiny flat conveniently close to the hospital. The books were all about fishing, and some of them were reasonably rare. We agreed a price of £250 for four boxes, and when I told her I was a keen fly fisherman, she insisted on giving me all of his old fly boxes. As I was going through the shelves, I noticed that on a lot of the tables and shelves photograph frames had been lain face down. I turned a few of them over out of curiosity. They were all of the same person, presumably her husband. Perhaps she couldn’t face being reminded of him.

More Facebook activity from Nicky:

Dear friends, Nicky here!

Some of you may not be aware of how caring & generous Shaun is. When I finally arrived on the Black, Black Ice day, vanless, he allowed me to flatten a cardboard box & lay it, DOUBLE THICKNESS, on the floor under the worktop, to keep out some of the winter draughts. How kind is that! And with the red light glowing on the heater (even minus any heat), it feels so cosy. He’s lovely!

I have been struggling to find a plasterer to finish the newly insulated wall, and Christmas looms ever closer.

Till total £58.49

8 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 3

One customer – who had been in for about two hours, and had been the only person in the shop during that entire time – said, ‘This must be your busy time of year, then, the run-up to Christmas.’ There was literally nobody else in the shop for the entire time he was there. Quite what he imagined the shop was like for the rest of the year I have no idea.

Finished The Restraint of Beasts.

Till total £103.09

8 customers

Online orders: 2

Books found: 2

At 10 a.m. the first customer came through the door: ‘I’m not really interested in books’ followed by ‘Let me tell you what I think about nuclear power.’ By 10.30 a.m. the will to live was but a distant memory.

When I took the orders over to Wilma, William was regaling a clearly unwilling customer with a joke of such colossal political incorrectness that, if there was a Beaufort scale of these things, it would have been of a magnitude so great that a new scale would have had to be created. I asked Wilma if she could send the postman over tomorrow to pick up the sacks when he does his end-of-day collection.