Elderwood Bookshop Blog

I am writing this from the shop. It’s a little too quiet. Some lovely people pottering and browsing, but I would like a little more buzz! Our new signs are being delivered this week and we hope the passing trade will increase then. However, I am taking a moment, I can hear the birds from my workplace now. The occasional melancholy cry of a buzzard, the twitter of sparrows. There is a corner of the warehouse that I cannot go to until the nest of starling chicks have fledged. I

The front room of our shop, newly reorganised with books on shelves and cards on racks 'It's overwhelming!' said my friend Marco, shaking his head as he took in the full scale of the large shop, and endless stock, we have taken into our care. Marco has big East London Italian energy, so for him to be finding it all a bit much really says something about the project we are doing. To say '70,000 books' to someone is a different to them actually seeing 70,000 books, and his shoc

What a couple of weeks it has been! T-minus three days (final push!) and so much has happened. Our admin is mostly in place; we have insurance, internet, Booksellers Association membership, an electricity account, bins, we are registered as a food business, we have interviewed and picked staff, our till system order is in progress and a coffee machine is on its way... all of the boring stuff is falling into place. The big news, though, is that we got word from the Aardvarks t

12th April Two and a half weeks to New Business Open Day and we have been busy. The To Do list keeps growing, messages are pinging back and forth, arrangements are being made and not only have we been showered with goodwill from all sides but we seem to have over 100 followers on facebook already. 100! Hi everyone, and thanks, we hope you stick with us! Meanwhile, back at the Bookery, the Aardvarks have begun the process of moving out of the shop. They are taking a few thousa

10th March (one month ago) It's 8am on Tuesday and I am on the train to the London Book Fair, a trip I had not even envisaged even 10 days ago, but suddenly our new venture is a step closer and so here I am. I used to live in London but I haven't been in over a year and have barely left Shropshire since Christmas, so I feel very country-mouseish as I crawl out of bed and haul my aged car (heating on the frtiz, slow puncture) over the hill towards the station. I have forgotten

I have been waking up at four most mornings for a while now, and lying there with the thoughts swirling around my head until the rest of the world surfaces.. This morning the thoughts were of this website and this blog and how I was going to start it all. It's been a funny old year, so far. I turned fifty at the end of the last one, (lets not be coy about ages, who really cares?) and as this one began, two huge opportunities opened up. My first play got a rehearsed reading a