What will we leave when we leave?

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 thousand of their favourite books to their new barn to continue their online book business from home. The task of extracting these books from 70,000 of their closest friends is a painstaking one, so after popping in for an afternoon to ask questions and recycle some of the obvious duds, we have mostly steered clear of the shop this week to give them some space to go through things. The timing has been good as both Polly and I already had different musical plans this weekend, so, rather than cancel, off we went, Polly to see Tori Amos in Birmingham with an old friend, and me to a singing weekend in Sheffield with the folk group Lady Maisery.

I love singing, it's something that, like many of us, I forgot about after school, but I have rediscovered it in the last year and my monthly singing group is one of the best things that I do. It is a full body experience, connecting our breath to our souls, quieting busy minds and forcing us to be fully present and connected with others in the room. There is nowhere to hide, but the very act of singing with someone else means that it is ok, you are amongst friends. Honestly, if you haven't done it lately, have a little sing, preferably with someone else, right now!

One of the songs we sang was the very beautiful Soil and Soul, by Rowan Rheingals, and I found singing it with 50 other people to be transporting and moving. One of the lines is 'what will we leave when we leave?' a question that seems pertinent as Sarah and Sheridan reckon with the physical, administrative and emotional consequences of their 20 years in this place. The world feels heavy and uncertain at the moment but I cannot think of anything more worthwhile than a life dedicated to books and conversation.

Books to me represent ideas, each one a labour of love by a person who had such a burning obsession that they took time and trouble to create and share it with the world, an effort to entertain, to explore, to navigate this shared experience of being human, to play. I cannot think of anything more quietly radical than holding a place for a community of ideas in the face of larger world events just now. I believe that ideas matter, that people matter, that joy matters, that taking trouble matters, and that a bookshop (with a cafe!) is a place for those things. If our shop garners even half of the affection and goodwill that the Aardvarks have earned during their time, and that we are receiving by proxy, then our lives will have been well spent, a legacy I would be proud of.

But let's not put the cart before the horse, there is no legacy without having done the admin first... back to the To Do list, and see you in just a couple of weeks.

Rachel

Lady Maisery singing group in Sheffield 10-12 April 2026