LOUISE ASHMOREREAD, HOLMFIRTHNestled in the heart of Holmfirth, WEST YORKSHIRE, Read is an independent bookshop with a distinctive ethos and a strong community connection.
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JR: Louise, for those who haven’t been to the bookshop before, could you give us a little introduction about where we can find you?
LA: Yes, we’re in a very busy and bustling town called Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. The town feels like it’s been in a bit of a revival over the last, probably, four or five years. There are a lot more independent businesses here than there ever were. In fact, nearly every business here is independent, and people have been very supportive, particularly a year before lockdown. And, you know, it’s not ideal to have just been establishing ourselves, but actually, people have been very keen for us to stay here and are very supportive.
It was originally a very touristy town here in Holmfirth because it's where Last of the Summer Wine is set. Obviously, a lot of younger people don't really know much about Last of the Summer Wine, so the revival has really been about independent businesses and families moving into the town.
We’re very proud to be here because it is a really exciting small town. We’d like to think that we’re part of that revival, really. There are two secondhand bookshops, but there hasn’t been a new bookshop here for about 10 years. So, as soon as we announced we were opening, we had a lot of support for that.
JR: I want to talk about you and your background a bit and how you got into bookselling, but let's stay focused on the shop a little longer. Could you explain for anyone who’s not been there more about the size of the shop and the range of books that you've got?
LA: Yeah, so we have two separate rooms. We’re not a large shop, but having visited lots of independent bookshops, I think we're probably a bit luckier than most in terms of space. We’ve got two rooms—one for children and one for adults. From the outset, we wanted it to be a family bookshop, where it’s fine to have children running around, and it’s a nice, bright, cosy place to be. That was the initial idea, and we still feel strongly about it. It’s fine for a child to be in the children’s room reading a book in the big chair while their parents are in the other part of the shop. That was very important to us. We’ve got three young children ourselves, and quite often when we went into bookshops, we felt almost under pressure.
To keep moving as quickly as possible because, you know, you’ve got young children. We just wanted people to feel a bit more comfortable than that. So, yeah, it’s nice and bright—yellow and grey—and we try to make it as colourful as possible.
In terms of the types of books we sell, I think we’ve now got a really good handle on the people who come through the door. We know the vast majority by name, and that’s really important to us. When we’re ordering books, we’ll often say, “Oh, James will like this,” or “David’ll like that.” For example, we’ve got an event this Saturday with Jen Scotney, who’s doing a book about ultrarunning. That’s a good example of something local people really like—real-life memoirs. We often have books on nature and the outdoors, but many people are very keen on fiction too. They seem happy to be recommended things, and we’ve got six members of staff with varied tastes.
We’re very lucky to have staff who are all well-read and experienced in life outside the bookshop, so they can genuinely recommend things across a range.
LA: Yes, we’re in a very busy and bustling town called Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. The town feels like it’s been in a bit of a revival over the last, probably, four or five years. There are a lot more independent businesses here than there ever were. In fact, nearly every business here is independent, and people have been very supportive, particularly a year before lockdown. And, you know, it’s not ideal to have just been establishing ourselves, but actually, people have been very keen for us to stay here and are very supportive.
It was originally a very touristy town here in Holmfirth because it's where Last of the Summer Wine is set. Obviously, a lot of younger people don't really know much about Last of the Summer Wine, so the revival has really been about independent businesses and families moving into the town.
We’re very proud to be here because it is a really exciting small town. We’d like to think that we’re part of that revival, really. There are two secondhand bookshops, but there hasn’t been a new bookshop here for about 10 years. So, as soon as we announced we were opening, we had a lot of support for that.
JR: I want to talk about you and your background a bit and how you got into bookselling, but let's stay focused on the shop a little longer. Could you explain for anyone who’s not been there more about the size of the shop and the range of books that you've got?
LA: Yeah, so we have two separate rooms. We’re not a large shop, but having visited lots of independent bookshops, I think we're probably a bit luckier than most in terms of space. We’ve got two rooms—one for children and one for adults. From the outset, we wanted it to be a family bookshop, where it’s fine to have children running around, and it’s a nice, bright, cosy place to be. That was the initial idea, and we still feel strongly about it. It’s fine for a child to be in the children’s room reading a book in the big chair while their parents are in the other part of the shop. That was very important to us. We’ve got three young children ourselves, and quite often when we went into bookshops, we felt almost under pressure.
To keep moving as quickly as possible because, you know, you’ve got young children. We just wanted people to feel a bit more comfortable than that. So, yeah, it’s nice and bright—yellow and grey—and we try to make it as colourful as possible.
In terms of the types of books we sell, I think we’ve now got a really good handle on the people who come through the door. We know the vast majority by name, and that’s really important to us. When we’re ordering books, we’ll often say, “Oh, James will like this,” or “David’ll like that.” For example, we’ve got an event this Saturday with Jen Scotney, who’s doing a book about ultrarunning. That’s a good example of something local people really like—real-life memoirs. We often have books on nature and the outdoors, but many people are very keen on fiction too. They seem happy to be recommended things, and we’ve got six members of staff with varied tastes.
We’re very lucky to have staff who are all well-read and experienced in life outside the bookshop, so they can genuinely recommend things across a range.
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JR: Yeah, and I guess it's all about building trust with your customers, isn’t it? That happens over time, but when you've got a staff who bring great recommendations and are constantly reading something new, that’s really important, right?
LA: And, you know, we try to read as much of the children’s stuff as we can. Because we’ve got three children, that’s easier for us than it might be for some. But yeah, we genuinely try to recommend books that people will enjoy and come back for more. We also do a lot in the way of school events, which I don’t know if it’s… is that okay to talk about? JR: Yeah, we can absolutely talk about it now. I was looking at some of the events you’ve done recently and those you’ve got coming up. I see Jen on the 9th, which is exciting, but you’ve also had David Peace and Wendy Pratt recently. How do these events work for you in-store, and what kind of events do you do externally? LA: Yeah, so we have a room below the shop, which we didn’t have until a year into owning the shop. It’s a separate unit with a vaulted ceiling. JR: It looks great! I think it’s one of the most iconic things about the shop, like a lovely little book nook. How many people can you fit in there? LA: Well, officially it’s 30 plus the author and staff. When I think back to how we originally ran events before we had this space, we used to move the middle unit out of the shop and wheel it out of the way, and people would fit cramped into these tiny chairs. If we did that, we’d probably fit far more than 30, but since Covid, people are more aware of personal space. |
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Thirty feels like a comfortable number for the shop and event space. We can set up circular tables and such—we’ve done an afternoon tea with Matson Taylor, for instance, with cakes and sandwiches. So, it’s not always set up in rows. We also use a local church for bigger events of up to about 200.
JR: Oh wow, okay, and that’s just on your doorstep, which is amazing.
LA: Yeah, it does cost quite a lot of money. I think that’s the only downside. It’s difficult, isn’t it, for shops? If you want to do an event that’s bigger than 30, then basically you’ve got to pay out quite a lot of money to rent another venue, and that can make it cost-prohibitive in some cases. But with Kate Bottley, we had nearly 200 attend, and with David Peace, nearly a hundred, so it felt like it needed to be in a larger space.
JR: 100%—and it’s about serving your community as well, right? You want to keep the authors and publishers happy, so getting those numbers up is great. It can impact business, too; hopefully, you’ll sell more books and things.
LA: Yeah, absolutely. We quite often find that, you know, there’s yoga going on upstairs in the church, and as people come back through, they’ll ask, “What event is this?” It’s about getting the word out. Not everyone is a book lover or regular customer initially, but when they come in...
JR: ...and get to meet other people, other customers.
LA: Exactly. We’re quite clear about what events work for us, especially with adult audiences. We find that autobiographical or memoir-style events do better than traditional fiction—unless it’s something we’re really passionate about and promote heavily. That makes a big difference. We also do a lot of in-person events at secondary schools.
In our town, there are lots of small primary schools, many with under 100 students. They often don’t have the budget or staffing to transport kids to secondary schools for events. A few years ago, they could do that, but it’s just not possible now.
During lockdown, we developed virtual events, which have really taken off. We now run a program about four or five times a year. We send out a list of events to over 100 schools, they sign up, and we host these virtual sessions. I think they’re high-quality events. We’re very selective; for instance, we did a Matt Lucas event once, but I wasn’t happy with the book’s quality, so we decided to only promote books we genuinely believe in. Recently, we did Wildsmith with Liz Flanagan and sold over 200 copies through that program, which was fantastic.
JR: Exactly. And it’s also about supporting your community, right? You want the best for these kids and to give them solid foundations. Recommending books you wouldn’t want to read yourself feels a bit disingenuous, doesn’t it?
LA: Yeah, exactly. I felt uncomfortable with that book, and only two weeks before the event, I told James, “I don’t know if we can run this.” But I didn’t feel I could back out, so we’ve since committed to only choosing high-quality books. That said, not all celebrity books are bad—it’s a bit of a controversial topic. The Stephen Mulhern book, for example, was actually really good, and he was excellent at the event. So, we’re not against celebrity books, just selective.
In-person events with secondary schools are manageable, but primary school events are much harder due to the schools’ size. We’re constantly brainstorming ways to make in-person events more accessible. So, we’ve decided to hold an annual festival event for primary students.
JR: Oh wow, that’s amazing.
LA: Yes, it’s what I’m dreaming about at the moment—it’s on my mind all the time! We’re aiming for the end of September next year and hopefully annually thereafter. We’re setting up a community organisation, looking at venues, and shortlisting authors. We’re lucky to have a few suitable venues nearby, like the Civic with its large hall, which is ideal for school events and more affordable than the church. We’ve set a date and are in the early stages of planning.
JR: Yeah, that's so exciting! I mean, these sorts of activities, as you well know, putting festivals together, putting big events together and stuff, can be such a headache, but the joy you get from having a room full of kids is just amazing, isn't it?
LA: Yeah, it is. And I think for me, it makes me feel better that all the school events are virtual. It makes me feel better about that because, actually, we're still able to bring some events in person. It's just that we're able to do it in a way that doesn't cost schools any money. And I think we have a relationship with the local schools—I hope, anyway—that they'll help us promote the literature festival. With it being a CIC, I'm hoping there'll be money for pupil premium books and things like that. So, yeah, I'm excited. But I also know if you speak to me in the middle of September, I'll be highly stressed!
JR: I'll have to talk to you again this time next year, I think. Once the dust has settled, once it's all gone swimmingly, as I'm sure it will. But yeah, we'll have to catch you after the stress, when you're looking back at it fondly and thinking, "Yeah, let's do another one!"
LA: I mean, I feel like we can. Looking at the plan last night, because of the space downstairs, it keeps the cost down as it's a smaller event. So we can keep maybe four picture book events, which can all be small events in the shop. Then we’re thinking about a story walk with the library next door and maybe a meet-and-greet with Supertato and things like that. We’re going to try and do some bigger events too. I’ve got some people who have provisionally said yes to doing that…
JR: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, you’ve had enough years under your belt doing this now that you must be getting quite a good reputation with some publishers, especially with the events you've done with schools. How do you feel like your relationship with them has changed over the last five and a half years?
JR: Oh wow, okay, and that’s just on your doorstep, which is amazing.
LA: Yeah, it does cost quite a lot of money. I think that’s the only downside. It’s difficult, isn’t it, for shops? If you want to do an event that’s bigger than 30, then basically you’ve got to pay out quite a lot of money to rent another venue, and that can make it cost-prohibitive in some cases. But with Kate Bottley, we had nearly 200 attend, and with David Peace, nearly a hundred, so it felt like it needed to be in a larger space.
JR: 100%—and it’s about serving your community as well, right? You want to keep the authors and publishers happy, so getting those numbers up is great. It can impact business, too; hopefully, you’ll sell more books and things.
LA: Yeah, absolutely. We quite often find that, you know, there’s yoga going on upstairs in the church, and as people come back through, they’ll ask, “What event is this?” It’s about getting the word out. Not everyone is a book lover or regular customer initially, but when they come in...
JR: ...and get to meet other people, other customers.
LA: Exactly. We’re quite clear about what events work for us, especially with adult audiences. We find that autobiographical or memoir-style events do better than traditional fiction—unless it’s something we’re really passionate about and promote heavily. That makes a big difference. We also do a lot of in-person events at secondary schools.
In our town, there are lots of small primary schools, many with under 100 students. They often don’t have the budget or staffing to transport kids to secondary schools for events. A few years ago, they could do that, but it’s just not possible now.
During lockdown, we developed virtual events, which have really taken off. We now run a program about four or five times a year. We send out a list of events to over 100 schools, they sign up, and we host these virtual sessions. I think they’re high-quality events. We’re very selective; for instance, we did a Matt Lucas event once, but I wasn’t happy with the book’s quality, so we decided to only promote books we genuinely believe in. Recently, we did Wildsmith with Liz Flanagan and sold over 200 copies through that program, which was fantastic.
JR: Exactly. And it’s also about supporting your community, right? You want the best for these kids and to give them solid foundations. Recommending books you wouldn’t want to read yourself feels a bit disingenuous, doesn’t it?
LA: Yeah, exactly. I felt uncomfortable with that book, and only two weeks before the event, I told James, “I don’t know if we can run this.” But I didn’t feel I could back out, so we’ve since committed to only choosing high-quality books. That said, not all celebrity books are bad—it’s a bit of a controversial topic. The Stephen Mulhern book, for example, was actually really good, and he was excellent at the event. So, we’re not against celebrity books, just selective.
In-person events with secondary schools are manageable, but primary school events are much harder due to the schools’ size. We’re constantly brainstorming ways to make in-person events more accessible. So, we’ve decided to hold an annual festival event for primary students.
JR: Oh wow, that’s amazing.
LA: Yes, it’s what I’m dreaming about at the moment—it’s on my mind all the time! We’re aiming for the end of September next year and hopefully annually thereafter. We’re setting up a community organisation, looking at venues, and shortlisting authors. We’re lucky to have a few suitable venues nearby, like the Civic with its large hall, which is ideal for school events and more affordable than the church. We’ve set a date and are in the early stages of planning.
JR: Yeah, that's so exciting! I mean, these sorts of activities, as you well know, putting festivals together, putting big events together and stuff, can be such a headache, but the joy you get from having a room full of kids is just amazing, isn't it?
LA: Yeah, it is. And I think for me, it makes me feel better that all the school events are virtual. It makes me feel better about that because, actually, we're still able to bring some events in person. It's just that we're able to do it in a way that doesn't cost schools any money. And I think we have a relationship with the local schools—I hope, anyway—that they'll help us promote the literature festival. With it being a CIC, I'm hoping there'll be money for pupil premium books and things like that. So, yeah, I'm excited. But I also know if you speak to me in the middle of September, I'll be highly stressed!
JR: I'll have to talk to you again this time next year, I think. Once the dust has settled, once it's all gone swimmingly, as I'm sure it will. But yeah, we'll have to catch you after the stress, when you're looking back at it fondly and thinking, "Yeah, let's do another one!"
LA: I mean, I feel like we can. Looking at the plan last night, because of the space downstairs, it keeps the cost down as it's a smaller event. So we can keep maybe four picture book events, which can all be small events in the shop. Then we’re thinking about a story walk with the library next door and maybe a meet-and-greet with Supertato and things like that. We’re going to try and do some bigger events too. I’ve got some people who have provisionally said yes to doing that…
JR: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, you’ve had enough years under your belt doing this now that you must be getting quite a good reputation with some publishers, especially with the events you've done with schools. How do you feel like your relationship with them has changed over the last five and a half years?
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LA: So what's really interesting is that I've realised how much the relationships have changed amongst the publishers, and that’s really because there are very few publishers we haven’t worked with.
JR: Right. LA: But all the others, you know, it’s come about because so-and-so has moved from Macmillan to Bonnier and somebody else has moved to Farshore from Bonnier. Those people kind of almost take you with them. If you look at some of the most supportive publishers, Bonnier have been absolutely brilliant with us. Amber, who’s in charge of PR there at the moment, we book a meeting once a year, and we look at what's ahead for the next year. We’ve already booked in for next autumn, the virtual events we’re going to be doing, and there’s at least some leeway where it moves about and things like that, but generally we try to keep one event per. We’ve got some nice nonfiction ones planned, which are a bit different. Then Farshore have been very good. Collins themselves, they’re all really great to work with. But if you go in there cold without any track record, it’s very difficult to break in. I think we’re just lucky that because of lockdown, we managed to establish a track record of sales, and we found a way that works for us. We’re just fortunate that that has worked, and now we’re able to list, I don’t know how many events we've done now. JR: Yeah, which is incredible. Let’s talk more generally about your community now. You’re sort of nestled... well, Holmfirth is uniquely placed, really. You're kind of equidistant between Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield, aren’t you? |
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LA: One of the things I’m looking at with the festival is that, actually, we are well-placed if we advertise it well. And that should help with people coming to the festival, but yes, a lot of people haven’t heard of Holmfirth.
JR: Yeah, it's a funny one. But there are a lot of similar sized towns dotted around the UK that host these kinds of book festivals and make for a big draw for the community. What’s the local community like in Holmfirth? And do you feel like it’s changed at all over the last five years or so in terms of book buying?
LA: So I think they were always very keen on books, but I do think that particularly in the children’s section, some of those tastes have changed over the time we’ve been around. And I'd like to think that’s because we recommend certain types of good books, and that keeps them coming back, so they don’t default to things like David Walliams, because they know there are other good books available. If you compare us to when we first opened, you know, we only had, I think, two David Walliams on the shelf now, for instance.
They’re just there because we occasionally get people who come in, but we very rarely recommend anything like that. It’s just that it seems remiss not to have something there. But they know we have our favourite boxes—five to eight, nine to 12, and young adult favourite boxes. Quite often, people will go straight to those and pick out something different that they maybe wouldn’t have thought about otherwise. They trust us.
JR: Which is amazing. It does take a bit of time to forge those kinds of relationships though, doesn’t it?
LA: Yeah, and it’s really difficult if somebody comes in and they’re looking for something like that. We’re still conscious that I’d rather someone be reading than not reading at all. We’re always really careful not to say, "Oh, that’s rubbish." Actually, if that’s what the child wants to read, we’ll say, "Well, if you like this, you might really like these three because they’re really funny, or they’re well-illustrated," or we just try to offer alternatives.
JR: Yeah, certainly in the last few years there’s been such a trend for comics and young graphic novels, things like Dog Man, Cat Kid, the Investigators books, and all that kind of stuff. I think a lot of parents were maybe a bit skeptical to start with, especially with some of the more comic-book-looking ones. But I was always like, "Look, if kids want to read them, just let them read." You know, reading a book cover to cover is more important, I think.
LA: Yeah, I agree. But it’s tough. If you look at how many graphic novels there are for that lower key stage one and two range, when we first started, I’m really pleased that kids will pick stuff up and have a go at something a bit different. You know, Pablo and Splash [Sheena Dempsey] and things like that. Okay, they’re not traditional chapter books, but they’ll get them reading and into something. We stock a lot of Barrington Stoke. I’m always amazed at how few people who have dyslexic children are aware of Barrington Stoke books. We’re planning to do a dyslexic talk in the new year, hopefully, showing people the Barrington books that are available. I suppose people know we were teachers before, so there's an element of trust in there.
JR: Yeah, hugely. I will come on to that in a minute, actually, because I do want to talk about your backgrounds and how you decided to start the bookshop. But just before we get on to that, I know you said there are six of you altogether, but I know it’s primarily you and James, isn’t it?
LA: Well, it’s six plus me and James, actually.
JR: Okay, cool. So how do you split up the roles in the shop? Do you both still do most of the stock management, or do you divvy that out a bit?
LA: To be honest, that’s probably something we’re not very good at. We just do it all. But I think that’s because we don’t have any full-timers or anything like that. We’ve prioritised breadth of knowledge and experience over structure.
We prefer to have lots of different people inputting, and that’s how it works, especially at Christmas when we don’t take on extra staff—just the staff we have do extra hours. The only time it becomes difficult is when we go away. It’s very hard to switch off, especially when you're coming back and thinking the shop won’t run without us, but it does. They’re really good at running it. It’ll never run the same way when we're not there because we can’t pass on all the knowledge we’ve gained working there six days a week.
JR: Well, it’s great to know you have that kind of working environment where people want to be part of the team.
LA: Yeah, some of them have been with us from the start.
JR: On the website you describe everyone as family, and I think you get so close to the people you work with, especially because you’re talking about things people are really passionate about. You get to share in that excitement with them, which is amazing.
JR: Yeah, it's a funny one. But there are a lot of similar sized towns dotted around the UK that host these kinds of book festivals and make for a big draw for the community. What’s the local community like in Holmfirth? And do you feel like it’s changed at all over the last five years or so in terms of book buying?
LA: So I think they were always very keen on books, but I do think that particularly in the children’s section, some of those tastes have changed over the time we’ve been around. And I'd like to think that’s because we recommend certain types of good books, and that keeps them coming back, so they don’t default to things like David Walliams, because they know there are other good books available. If you compare us to when we first opened, you know, we only had, I think, two David Walliams on the shelf now, for instance.
They’re just there because we occasionally get people who come in, but we very rarely recommend anything like that. It’s just that it seems remiss not to have something there. But they know we have our favourite boxes—five to eight, nine to 12, and young adult favourite boxes. Quite often, people will go straight to those and pick out something different that they maybe wouldn’t have thought about otherwise. They trust us.
JR: Which is amazing. It does take a bit of time to forge those kinds of relationships though, doesn’t it?
LA: Yeah, and it’s really difficult if somebody comes in and they’re looking for something like that. We’re still conscious that I’d rather someone be reading than not reading at all. We’re always really careful not to say, "Oh, that’s rubbish." Actually, if that’s what the child wants to read, we’ll say, "Well, if you like this, you might really like these three because they’re really funny, or they’re well-illustrated," or we just try to offer alternatives.
JR: Yeah, certainly in the last few years there’s been such a trend for comics and young graphic novels, things like Dog Man, Cat Kid, the Investigators books, and all that kind of stuff. I think a lot of parents were maybe a bit skeptical to start with, especially with some of the more comic-book-looking ones. But I was always like, "Look, if kids want to read them, just let them read." You know, reading a book cover to cover is more important, I think.
LA: Yeah, I agree. But it’s tough. If you look at how many graphic novels there are for that lower key stage one and two range, when we first started, I’m really pleased that kids will pick stuff up and have a go at something a bit different. You know, Pablo and Splash [Sheena Dempsey] and things like that. Okay, they’re not traditional chapter books, but they’ll get them reading and into something. We stock a lot of Barrington Stoke. I’m always amazed at how few people who have dyslexic children are aware of Barrington Stoke books. We’re planning to do a dyslexic talk in the new year, hopefully, showing people the Barrington books that are available. I suppose people know we were teachers before, so there's an element of trust in there.
JR: Yeah, hugely. I will come on to that in a minute, actually, because I do want to talk about your backgrounds and how you decided to start the bookshop. But just before we get on to that, I know you said there are six of you altogether, but I know it’s primarily you and James, isn’t it?
LA: Well, it’s six plus me and James, actually.
JR: Okay, cool. So how do you split up the roles in the shop? Do you both still do most of the stock management, or do you divvy that out a bit?
LA: To be honest, that’s probably something we’re not very good at. We just do it all. But I think that’s because we don’t have any full-timers or anything like that. We’ve prioritised breadth of knowledge and experience over structure.
We prefer to have lots of different people inputting, and that’s how it works, especially at Christmas when we don’t take on extra staff—just the staff we have do extra hours. The only time it becomes difficult is when we go away. It’s very hard to switch off, especially when you're coming back and thinking the shop won’t run without us, but it does. They’re really good at running it. It’ll never run the same way when we're not there because we can’t pass on all the knowledge we’ve gained working there six days a week.
JR: Well, it’s great to know you have that kind of working environment where people want to be part of the team.
LA: Yeah, some of them have been with us from the start.
JR: On the website you describe everyone as family, and I think you get so close to the people you work with, especially because you’re talking about things people are really passionate about. You get to share in that excitement with them, which is amazing.
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LA: Yeah, I think, I hope the festival’s going to bring out even more of that too.
JR: Yeah, hugely. I mean, you buy into the bookshop ethos as well, don't you? You've got so much control over your stock, you control the way you look. Even just down to your social media and your website and everything else, but at the end of the day it comes down to the people who are in your shop who need to be a part of that message and ar there to make sure that everybody's on the same page. LA: Yeah, I think a good example might be Eleanor. She helps James with the subscriptions. So we've got about 50 at the moment, but it actually goes up to about 80, 90 around Christmas time. And, you know, some of them do like six months, so they kind of slowly dwindle down towards Christmas again. And that's a massive job, because we don't just send the same book, they are actually selected per person, based on their questionnaire and things like that. So Eleanor and James do that together, even the wrapping is like a military mission. JR: Oh god, yeah, I know it's such a head-scratcher and it’s the time it takes to wrap them and the time it takes to get them ready to be posted and all that kind of stuff - it can take forever, can’t it? But worth the effort. LA: I can't imagine we make much of any profit on them really, but I think if you look at the majority of them, maybe it's probably about three-quarters of them get posted rather than locally delivered. |
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So it's just that it's extra to what we do. If we had more capacity, maybe that would be something that we would focus on, in terms of advertising and things like that but I think it’s just about right for that number and keeping things manageable.
JR: Yeah. And it's interesting to see how far-reaching these subscriptions can go.
LA: There’s this lovely lady who lives in Swansea, which is actually where I went to university. I seem to remember when she first ordered from us over lockdown, I thought of said, “Oh my goodness, I used to live just around the corner from you”, you know. And she just carried on using us. And I noticed the other day she put in her bio that we were her favourite bookshop. And I was like, “Oh! You’ve never even been through the door!
JR: That’s really special, though. I guess it comes back to why you do what you do and it’s about reaching new people and making an impact in some way, right?
LA: Yeah, absolutely. And we've made a really conscious decision that although we have a transactional website, we do not stock everything on there. We want it to be the special stuff, the signed copies, the stuff that we recommend. People who we're used to dealing with just email us, if there's something not on the website that they need, they just email us and we send them a link. It's probably not obvious enough, I suppose, to people outside of our sphere, maybe, that they can do that. But we've just found that we do have regulars, particularly who like special copies and things like that, and we send them all over. And very often they buy something else with it, or then a voucher on top or something.
JR: Louise, I want to go back to the beginning slightly. Could you tell us a little bit about your background and how you decided to open a bookshop?
LA: Yeah, so we were both teachers, both secondary teachers. I was actually in maths, and James was in English. We were both senior leaders for a number of years. But after our third child, James was at home at that point, he'd given up work, and I was still going out at 6am. And I don't know, it was just really, really difficult with a baby and two young children that are quite close together in age. It was just hard to live like that, really. And we just felt like we had to do something different. And so we just, through chance, really, of some of these head teachers that James used to work with, had a trust of schools, took us on as, like, maths and English leaders and to kind of work in these other schools, supporting them. And so we both worked part-time, which did kind of ease it a little bit, you know, took the pressure off a little, a little bit more family-friendly, I think.
We thought it's now or never really. We just happened to be passing over October half-term and we poked our nose through the door and were like, “What about this?” You know, we talked about it but it was never feasible for us to do it, and we kind of just thought, “I think it's now or never, isn't it?”
And it's a good job we did because actually, we found out when we did open, one of the first people through the door was someone who had been looking to open a shop just a few doors up from us.
JR: Oh wow, okay.
LA: So we were relieved that we did it when we did. But yeah I think we would have always regretted it if somebody else had beaten us to it.
JR: And was Holmfirth always going to be the location? Is this where you always had in mind?
LA: We just live here and that comes as part of it, we wanted to be part of the community, we wanted to live where we worked, and for so long we were travelling over 45 minutes to an hour away and we just wanted to be here and for our children to be part of the community. Because that is one of the things I still love, that even our eldest who comes down on the bus now just happily comes in and calls in with her friends and things like that.
JR: With young kids, do they appreciate the magic of the bookshop or is it still just mum and dad's job?
LA: I think they do. The older two can remember what life was like before. And they'll say, “When you used to go to boring work”, whereas Evie, our youngest, has no memory of what that was like beforehand. And actually, one of my first memories of her is on a Monday when I did have her and wasn't working in the shop, she would sit on the rug in the shop eating an ice cream while I helped the staff out or whatever, you know. And they still run through the door. They're still excited to come here. They still like choosing books off the shelves. I have to hide certain ones. I mean, especially near Christmas. I can't leave that out!
JR: Yeah. And it's interesting to see how far-reaching these subscriptions can go.
LA: There’s this lovely lady who lives in Swansea, which is actually where I went to university. I seem to remember when she first ordered from us over lockdown, I thought of said, “Oh my goodness, I used to live just around the corner from you”, you know. And she just carried on using us. And I noticed the other day she put in her bio that we were her favourite bookshop. And I was like, “Oh! You’ve never even been through the door!
JR: That’s really special, though. I guess it comes back to why you do what you do and it’s about reaching new people and making an impact in some way, right?
LA: Yeah, absolutely. And we've made a really conscious decision that although we have a transactional website, we do not stock everything on there. We want it to be the special stuff, the signed copies, the stuff that we recommend. People who we're used to dealing with just email us, if there's something not on the website that they need, they just email us and we send them a link. It's probably not obvious enough, I suppose, to people outside of our sphere, maybe, that they can do that. But we've just found that we do have regulars, particularly who like special copies and things like that, and we send them all over. And very often they buy something else with it, or then a voucher on top or something.
JR: Louise, I want to go back to the beginning slightly. Could you tell us a little bit about your background and how you decided to open a bookshop?
LA: Yeah, so we were both teachers, both secondary teachers. I was actually in maths, and James was in English. We were both senior leaders for a number of years. But after our third child, James was at home at that point, he'd given up work, and I was still going out at 6am. And I don't know, it was just really, really difficult with a baby and two young children that are quite close together in age. It was just hard to live like that, really. And we just felt like we had to do something different. And so we just, through chance, really, of some of these head teachers that James used to work with, had a trust of schools, took us on as, like, maths and English leaders and to kind of work in these other schools, supporting them. And so we both worked part-time, which did kind of ease it a little bit, you know, took the pressure off a little, a little bit more family-friendly, I think.
We thought it's now or never really. We just happened to be passing over October half-term and we poked our nose through the door and were like, “What about this?” You know, we talked about it but it was never feasible for us to do it, and we kind of just thought, “I think it's now or never, isn't it?”
And it's a good job we did because actually, we found out when we did open, one of the first people through the door was someone who had been looking to open a shop just a few doors up from us.
JR: Oh wow, okay.
LA: So we were relieved that we did it when we did. But yeah I think we would have always regretted it if somebody else had beaten us to it.
JR: And was Holmfirth always going to be the location? Is this where you always had in mind?
LA: We just live here and that comes as part of it, we wanted to be part of the community, we wanted to live where we worked, and for so long we were travelling over 45 minutes to an hour away and we just wanted to be here and for our children to be part of the community. Because that is one of the things I still love, that even our eldest who comes down on the bus now just happily comes in and calls in with her friends and things like that.
JR: With young kids, do they appreciate the magic of the bookshop or is it still just mum and dad's job?
LA: I think they do. The older two can remember what life was like before. And they'll say, “When you used to go to boring work”, whereas Evie, our youngest, has no memory of what that was like beforehand. And actually, one of my first memories of her is on a Monday when I did have her and wasn't working in the shop, she would sit on the rug in the shop eating an ice cream while I helped the staff out or whatever, you know. And they still run through the door. They're still excited to come here. They still like choosing books off the shelves. I have to hide certain ones. I mean, especially near Christmas. I can't leave that out!
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And I think when they go in other bookshops, they're highly critical of them compared to our own shop, you know, they won't have it any other way.
JR: That's so funny! I mean, if they can't be your biggest cheerleaders, then why are you doing it, right? LA: Yeah, exactly. And they do inform what we look at and they're just so honest. JR: Well, they have to be your biggest critics. LA: Right. JR: And I guess if you're doing it for the kids, you're doing it for the local community of children as well. And you need some honest opinions, don't you? Because, in the world of publishing, every book is the next big book. And sometimes you just need it straight. LA: And we’re incredibly privileged in that we get proof copies. And it's okay to get a chapter in and say, “No, this is not for us.” |
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That's a fortunate position to be in. Also, they still take part in our school events, so we get a very honest opinion of when it's been a good one or not.
JR: I bet! Right, to finish us off, I want to talk about books. Obviously, you've got family, you've got a young family, and you're doing a lot of kids' reading, but what kind of books do you gravitate towards personally? If you're not doing homework for an event or you're not planning your festival, what kind of books do you like to read?
LA: I really like family saga-type books. I quite like small-town America stuff. I really like Mary Lawson and Kristin Hannah. I also really like it when I feel like I've learned something about history or people as a result of reading something. And so, you know, the Jen Scotney book [Running Through the Dark] has been excellent, as a memoir. It's really made me think about all sorts of things. So I feel like I like to understand somebody else's point of view. Very often, I suppose, they’re first-person books. James is quite different to me; it's very unusual for us to read the same book. His favourite at the moment is Barrowbeck [Andrew Michael Hurley] , and we've got him coming to talk about the new one.
JR: That's very exciting. I'm a huge fan of his.
LA: [James is] going back through [Andrew’s] back catalogue now and really enjoying those. He also likes people like David Nicholls and David Mitchell. He loved Munich [David Peace]. So he's got quite a broad taste. I would say maybe more literary than mine, perhaps. My ultimate favourite is John Boyne, who I think is just incredible. Did you have Gardlink back at the bound?
JR: We had Batchline, actually. It was Bertrams but then it moved over to Batch.
LA: Sure. Well, on the Gardlink system, you can look at the Edelweiss information to show you what you've sold in comparison to other independent bookshops, or something like that. The John Boyne figures are ridiculous because we have three book groups, two evening ones and a lunchtime one, and it's spreading - they all have started liking John Boyne! At the end of the session we go through what else we're reading at the moment and what we've enjoyed that month. And when somebody says John Boyne, everybody cheers. And so you look at our sales figures, particularly on Edelweiss - the elements series, for example, Fire has come out today - and they're like 10% of independent sales because we just love them so much!
JR: Wow, okay, that's interesting. That's amazing.
LA: So, yeah, when the John Boyne proofs come in they do very well with the team!
JR: That's so funny! I love that there's nearly always one or two authors in a bookshop that seem to do the rounds.
What about your go-to staff recommendations? Is there maybe a book or two for adults and one or two for kids that you just always need to have in stock and you could recommend to anybody?
LA: So, we do have a [staff] shelf each, which is really good because we're quite diverse in our tastes. So for instance, Claire really likes Japanese fiction and she quite likes stuff that's not real, you know, she's more into the magical and she likes The Night Circus [Erin Morgenstern] and things like that. I'm the complete opposite, really. Nothing But Blue Sky [Kathleen MacMahon] is one of my favourites, which is about a woman, well, a couple, and she dies very early on in the book and he kind of relives their whole perfect marriage, except the more he relives and reads back into it all, the more cracks appear. That's really good. I've also just read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow [Gabrielle Zevin]. I'm really late to the party on that but I absolutely love it.
JR: Oh, I loved it. I thought it was great.
LA: The other one, by the way, is Kathleen McMahon.
JR: Yeah, Did you ever read The Home Scar by Kathleen? I quite liked that.
LA: Yeah, you see, I didn't like that as much.
JR: Right, that's interesting. But I haven’t read Nothing But yet, so...
LA: That's one of Eleanor's favourites. We've just read Tom Lake [Ann Patchett] as part of book group, that's another one of Eleanor's favourites. It was alright, I liked it. James will pretty much always recommend David Nichols as a favourite. I don't know, because we are so well-read amongst us and we feel confident to recommend something because Claire likes it or because Eleanor likes it, we don't always recommend exactly the same books, we really listen to what they like. In the same way as the subscriptions really.
JR: I bet! Right, to finish us off, I want to talk about books. Obviously, you've got family, you've got a young family, and you're doing a lot of kids' reading, but what kind of books do you gravitate towards personally? If you're not doing homework for an event or you're not planning your festival, what kind of books do you like to read?
LA: I really like family saga-type books. I quite like small-town America stuff. I really like Mary Lawson and Kristin Hannah. I also really like it when I feel like I've learned something about history or people as a result of reading something. And so, you know, the Jen Scotney book [Running Through the Dark] has been excellent, as a memoir. It's really made me think about all sorts of things. So I feel like I like to understand somebody else's point of view. Very often, I suppose, they’re first-person books. James is quite different to me; it's very unusual for us to read the same book. His favourite at the moment is Barrowbeck [Andrew Michael Hurley] , and we've got him coming to talk about the new one.
JR: That's very exciting. I'm a huge fan of his.
LA: [James is] going back through [Andrew’s] back catalogue now and really enjoying those. He also likes people like David Nicholls and David Mitchell. He loved Munich [David Peace]. So he's got quite a broad taste. I would say maybe more literary than mine, perhaps. My ultimate favourite is John Boyne, who I think is just incredible. Did you have Gardlink back at the bound?
JR: We had Batchline, actually. It was Bertrams but then it moved over to Batch.
LA: Sure. Well, on the Gardlink system, you can look at the Edelweiss information to show you what you've sold in comparison to other independent bookshops, or something like that. The John Boyne figures are ridiculous because we have three book groups, two evening ones and a lunchtime one, and it's spreading - they all have started liking John Boyne! At the end of the session we go through what else we're reading at the moment and what we've enjoyed that month. And when somebody says John Boyne, everybody cheers. And so you look at our sales figures, particularly on Edelweiss - the elements series, for example, Fire has come out today - and they're like 10% of independent sales because we just love them so much!
JR: Wow, okay, that's interesting. That's amazing.
LA: So, yeah, when the John Boyne proofs come in they do very well with the team!
JR: That's so funny! I love that there's nearly always one or two authors in a bookshop that seem to do the rounds.
What about your go-to staff recommendations? Is there maybe a book or two for adults and one or two for kids that you just always need to have in stock and you could recommend to anybody?
LA: So, we do have a [staff] shelf each, which is really good because we're quite diverse in our tastes. So for instance, Claire really likes Japanese fiction and she quite likes stuff that's not real, you know, she's more into the magical and she likes The Night Circus [Erin Morgenstern] and things like that. I'm the complete opposite, really. Nothing But Blue Sky [Kathleen MacMahon] is one of my favourites, which is about a woman, well, a couple, and she dies very early on in the book and he kind of relives their whole perfect marriage, except the more he relives and reads back into it all, the more cracks appear. That's really good. I've also just read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow [Gabrielle Zevin]. I'm really late to the party on that but I absolutely love it.
JR: Oh, I loved it. I thought it was great.
LA: The other one, by the way, is Kathleen McMahon.
JR: Yeah, Did you ever read The Home Scar by Kathleen? I quite liked that.
LA: Yeah, you see, I didn't like that as much.
JR: Right, that's interesting. But I haven’t read Nothing But yet, so...
LA: That's one of Eleanor's favourites. We've just read Tom Lake [Ann Patchett] as part of book group, that's another one of Eleanor's favourites. It was alright, I liked it. James will pretty much always recommend David Nichols as a favourite. I don't know, because we are so well-read amongst us and we feel confident to recommend something because Claire likes it or because Eleanor likes it, we don't always recommend exactly the same books, we really listen to what they like. In the same way as the subscriptions really.
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JR: Yeah, that's important though, isn't it?
LA: Interestingly, whenever we go somewhere on holiday in the UK, we do try to go to the nearest independent bookshop, and we'll usually ask them to recommend something. In the same way that we do to other people, it's really nice for somebody that can do the same, to recommend to us. So we've had some good ones, particularly from Imagined Things. JR: Yeah. Georgia and the team are great, aren't they? I love Imagined Things. And also, isn't it just nice to switch off your brain a bit and let somebody else do the recommending? LA: I’m always amazed when we go into other shops and see how different their stock is. It must be because their audience and customer base are different. You know, they might have loads more hardbacks or a certain type of fiction that we wouldn’t stock much of—like a lot of lighter fiction. We just don’t sell much of that, you know, the kind of TikTok books and things that might end up in the Top 10. Sometimes we don’t even stock them, or we’ll have them once and then not reorder. We don’t just go by what’s nationally popular. JR: We can’t all be the same though, it’d be boring if we were. We’re not trying to be WHSmiths, are we? We need to try something different. That kind of leads me to my last question. I suppose we’re officially in the build-up to Christmas now, whether we like it or not. Can you give us an insight into what’s been performing well so far at Read? Are there any books that you already know will be in your bestsellers for the year? |
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LA: Well… we’ve just done a top-up order for a few things that have been going well. James Rebanks’ The Place of Tides and Raising Hare [Chloe Dalton] have done well. We always sell lots of almanacs—we’ve got about five different ones in the shop, and they always go really well. We’re also selling quite a lot of poetry at the moment; we’ve just moved the poetry section, and that seems to have revived poetry sales, especially for Christmas. In children’s books, I Follow the Fox. We’ve decided that’s what our Christmas window is going to feature.
JR: Oh, amazing! I’m a big fan of Rob Biddulph, that’ll look great!
LA: I’ve just ordered a fox for the window, which arrived this morning. It’s a classic eBay purchase—you think you’ve ordered a really big fox, and it arrives and it’s tiny! But we do enjoy doing stuff like that. Our Christmas window is important, and we’re in a town where there’s quite a bit of competition in terms of shop windows—there are always some incredible displays.
JR: I actually haven’t seen Rob’s new one physically in a bookshop yet, so that’s interesting. I’ll have too keep looking out for it - and we’ll have to keep an eye out for your window!
LA: Well, we’ve only just brought our Christmas books upstairs, but it’s the one book that people have asked for twice now. I thought, right, I’m not leaving it downstairs if people are after it. Every time we put it back out, it sells, so that’s definitely our children’s bestseller, I think. But this year, there are more titles doing well, but fewer standouts so far. Particularly in adult books, you know, the usual big ones.
JR: And do you cater to some of the mass-market stuff? Like your Richard Osmans, your Sally Rooneys—do you carry those as well?
LA: Yes, we have a lot of people who like those, and we do quite a bit of that online. At the moment, Holmfirth is a bit less accessible than usual because they’re redoing the car park over the road. So it’s been a tougher few months than this time last year. Selling online helps keep us going, especially with special editions.
JR: Oh, I hope it’s done in time for Christmas.
LA: More likely before next Christmas! It’s a big project, but when it’s finished, we’ll have a market space, open-air event space right in front of the shop. It’ll be fantastic.
JR: Oh, brilliant. Well, Louise, finally, looking ahead—since we’ve talked about reading proofs and thinking, especially in your case with the festival, months in advance—what are you most looking forward to? Is there a book or an author you’re especially excited about coming soon?
LA: Yes! Josh Silver. We did a school event with him in person earlier in the year and he’s just incredible. Not just as an author, but as a presenter—he’s fantastic at events. But he’s got something new coming out next year - Trauma Land, in May. And I think he’s definitely one to watch. He is good but his books are really good as well. It’s a little darker and aimed at an older audience. Dead Happy is strong, but Trauma Land will be something very different. And for adults, I can’t not mention John Boyne. The fourth in the Element series, Air, is out in April I think - and of course Fire came out today. I can’t be looking forward to anything other than that!
JR: Oh, amazing! I’m a big fan of Rob Biddulph, that’ll look great!
LA: I’ve just ordered a fox for the window, which arrived this morning. It’s a classic eBay purchase—you think you’ve ordered a really big fox, and it arrives and it’s tiny! But we do enjoy doing stuff like that. Our Christmas window is important, and we’re in a town where there’s quite a bit of competition in terms of shop windows—there are always some incredible displays.
JR: I actually haven’t seen Rob’s new one physically in a bookshop yet, so that’s interesting. I’ll have too keep looking out for it - and we’ll have to keep an eye out for your window!
LA: Well, we’ve only just brought our Christmas books upstairs, but it’s the one book that people have asked for twice now. I thought, right, I’m not leaving it downstairs if people are after it. Every time we put it back out, it sells, so that’s definitely our children’s bestseller, I think. But this year, there are more titles doing well, but fewer standouts so far. Particularly in adult books, you know, the usual big ones.
JR: And do you cater to some of the mass-market stuff? Like your Richard Osmans, your Sally Rooneys—do you carry those as well?
LA: Yes, we have a lot of people who like those, and we do quite a bit of that online. At the moment, Holmfirth is a bit less accessible than usual because they’re redoing the car park over the road. So it’s been a tougher few months than this time last year. Selling online helps keep us going, especially with special editions.
JR: Oh, I hope it’s done in time for Christmas.
LA: More likely before next Christmas! It’s a big project, but when it’s finished, we’ll have a market space, open-air event space right in front of the shop. It’ll be fantastic.
JR: Oh, brilliant. Well, Louise, finally, looking ahead—since we’ve talked about reading proofs and thinking, especially in your case with the festival, months in advance—what are you most looking forward to? Is there a book or an author you’re especially excited about coming soon?
LA: Yes! Josh Silver. We did a school event with him in person earlier in the year and he’s just incredible. Not just as an author, but as a presenter—he’s fantastic at events. But he’s got something new coming out next year - Trauma Land, in May. And I think he’s definitely one to watch. He is good but his books are really good as well. It’s a little darker and aimed at an older audience. Dead Happy is strong, but Trauma Land will be something very different. And for adults, I can’t not mention John Boyne. The fourth in the Element series, Air, is out in April I think - and of course Fire came out today. I can’t be looking forward to anything other than that!
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