Bags of Thanks....

Special thanks go to the ladies of The Gift Box, near the Big Bridge, for supplying me with the lovely antiquey-style bags which books bought at Mr. Books are gently dropped into. They look superb and so much more stylish than the old plain brown bags which I made do with when the shop first opened all those yeas ago. Elisa at the Gift Box orders these in for me purely out of camaraderie with a fellow trader and it is very much appreciated. I would insert a link to their web site here but I couldn't find it on Google. Go one better then and go along and have a look in the shop for yourselves (on the way to Mr. Books of course!)....

Town Team Gangs up on Tonbridge Blog!...

Blimey I wasn't expecting to be swiped in the face this morning by Susan Adams with whom I have had many a polite and friendly conversation with over the past few years that I've been in business. The only thing I can say to Susan is to ask her respectfully if she has actually read the piece that I posted a couple of weeks back on this blog? If she had she would have realised that, despite admittedly having a bit of a dig at the Town Team/Business Alliance the post is actually brimming over with some positive suggestions of how to put the £10,000 to use. If there are other comments attached to the post which she's taken exception to then that, I'm afraid, is what you call freedom of speech. It's why blogs and social networking sites have become so popular because they allow people to express their true feelings even if the price is sometimes a virtual smack in the face. So long as it stays the right side of legal and decent then it only serves to the good from where I'm standing. Susan suggests that I might learn that good business practice is not to "continually" moan on about the town. Well, again, if she actually reads the blog instead of just forming a general opinion of it then she would also see that the proportion of moaning articles to positive, entertaining and frivolous is actually quite small. In any case there's nothing wrong in moaning sometimes; it can have the effect of getting things done if, as my post was, backed with helpful suggestions. I'm still waiting to see a list of the Town Team's suggestions or are they still in a committee room somewhere discussing them?!..

Fame at Last!...

Well it looks like Mr. Books shop is famous at last. The story about the break in has not only appeared in he Kent and Sussex Courier now it's in the Daily Mail as well. For those of you well wishers who have commented here and on twitter that it's kind of done me a favour I say I'd still swap the publicity for not having had all the hassle of the last week. Sorting out glazers, secuity companies invoices, clearing up the crushed book related gifts, speaking to restorers about antique sliding book end repairs, endless conversations with my landlord and his maintenance men etc etc. Not to mention that paranoid feeling that this sort of episode brings on. I've spent much of this week in the shop thinking that every one who looks slightly scruffy (which includes most book collectors!) is about to come and rob me at gun point. So no I don't feel "lucky" as one customer suggested; I'd just rather it hadn't have happened and I'd just had a really normal non-eventful week. But since it did I may as well have something positive out of it and a little publicity never did no harm. Was it Oscar Wilde who said: There's only one thing in the world worse than being robbed and that's not being robbed?! Or something along those lines....
For those who feel sorry enough for me, and all those other local independent bookshops up and down the country,  you can always come in the shop and have a browse. If everyone in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling came and spent a fiver in Mr. Books I could retire next week! Feel free to make a donation by paypal by clicking on the button to the right if you can't make it along to he shop. I'll donate half of all the money raised to a victims of crime charity or a booksellers in need type charity....

Unbearable....

Tonbridge Ted in happier times

Tonbridge Ted is still not talking about the trauma he must have suffered when Mr. Books was broken into in the early hours of Sunday morning. The shock though is written all over his little furry face and the experience must have been truely unbearable for dear old Ted, now in his 61st year. To ease his pain we've decided to give Ted pride of place in the Christmas window display next to the tree so that he can forget his troubles and listen to some Frankie Vaughan or Bing Crosbie on the gramaphone. His silence is however stretching the patience of the detectives asigned to the case. The word on the street is that they think Ted might have been the inside bear and that he's been in on the blag right from the start. They've even secretly gone to the trouble of sending a special paw print forensics expert along to tie him in. Fit him up I say! Ted's mother, 93, from Kiev and now living in Mile End Road, London, commented: There ain't no way that my Ted would do anyfing like that. He's a good young bear who buys his mavver flowers and salmon and that. He'd never do noffin like that!" She growled. The police claimed that Ted's mother had helped them with their enquiries with several other similar crimes and that they found her cries of Ted's innocence unbearlieveable!!..

The other bears are keeping schtum

There's Been a Break in at Mr. Books....

This is the scene which awaited me when I arrived at the shop on Sunday morning. The police phoned in the middle of the night to say that "there's been some damage." A drunken man had broken the door window in and then trashed the place a bit and later had phoned the Police from my shop to turn himself in where he as then arrested. Here's the bit you may not believe. He told the Police at 4 am that he had broken into Mr. Books and was sat reading a copy of Fly Fishing by JR Hartley. I wish I was joking but it's absolutely true and the weird thing is that he actually was looking at that very book which I found next to the phone. Fact really can be stranger than fiction sometimes. It would be funny if it hadn't caused me two days of agro with police statements, insurance claims, clearing up the mess and organising glazers etc. The shop's bear, Tonbridge Ted, is still in shock and refusing to talk having silently witnessed the whole thing!... 

Red Bull wings clipped in Tonbridge.....

In response to popular demnd Mr. Booooks today announced tutal cannng of the uses of all "so-called" energy enhancing caffynne style druggy halucinagenic drinks in canns. (and maybe bottles that hasn't been decided yet.) Apporantlyly they mak u unuseable to concentrote throat n fuckus on certin tusks an should be stopped before a school child actually manages to stay awake thru an hole history lesson! From now until the beginning of time back dated, anyone discoveredly to be drinking or has drunk on or benear the shop will have the contents confiskate parked and stomachs will be pumped up. Skirt lengths will also be taken into consideration if rolled up too the ankles and/or shoes. The abuse of flavorred so-called "milk drinks" are also being poured over in time for New Year hogday celebrations.

Asked to comment on the situation Mr. Books commented on the situation by saying: "Actually I blame that Mark Webber racing Aussie fella. Why does he want wings anyway when he drives cars? and Vettel, they're all having it....and another thing history lessons are bunk aren't they and have you sin the price on kindles? they're available on the cell i mobile smart box you know...."

I should be sticking with me herbal tea from now on! Trouble is these drinks are almost addictive. Mine's a red bull n coke....

Right Here Right Now....

Here and Now. I'm sorry to be so negative but really what is the point of this glossy excuse for a magazine. It isn't that it's badly written or anything like that but rather that it is so typically local government. It tries to be all encompassing, to bring together the borough of Tonbridge and Malling with it's zillion or so towns and villages in a way which is, by necessity, so watered down that you end up just binning the thing in disgust. To make it relevant and informative the magazine would have to be as thick as a telephone directory to cover everything that went on across the district. Be honest though do the vast majority of Tonbridge folk give a rats arse about what goes on in Borough Green, or Kings Hill, East Malling or Snodland (is that even in the borough? I'm not entirely sure.) I did however want to find out when the Christmas lights were being switched on in Tonbridge but I could have done that via their web site. Sorry guys but time to call time on Here and Now right now before you waste any more of our taxes in the form of the community charge. It's glossy and therefore most probably expensive to produce and so editorially widely spread geographically as to be pointless. Put the information on the web site instead. That way you can regionalise the information so that readers only need to read the bits most relevant to them....

Quiet at the back Holmes!...

I hear that Dame Kelly Holmes put in an appearance at John Ray's talk last Friday night, at the parish church hall, all about WWII experiences (not her's obviously!) I very nearly went along myself because I know that John can be very thought provoking and above all entertaining. He has what so many lesser speakers lack. The right balance of information and humour and a real stage presence. The result is that his audience hang on his every word. Kelly had a special reason to go along as, so I'm told, Mr. Ray used to teach her at Hugh Christie back in the 1980s. There is no truth in the rumour that John was heard last Friday night shouting: Holmes stop chatting or I'll move you to the front of the class or that he threw a piece of chalk at her! I'm told she was looking particularly smartly turned out and lovely though

Come inside the shop for a virtual tour....

Remember I mentioned that I'd been Googled a few weeks ago. Well now the Google maps page which allows you to come inside Mr. Books and take a virtual tour of the shop is up and running. Roddy Paine Photograhic studios in Tunbridge Wells convinced me that this was a good idea just in time for the Christmas shopping rush. I'm warning you though they won't be satisfied until the whole of Tonbridge has been Google mapped! If you're thinking of spending the money I'd say it's worth every penny especially as I got it for nowt being an early guinea pig Certainly got to be worth looking into. Click on the link and have a play. Better still actually come into the shop and have a browse....

Post you comments about Tonbridge....

There, that ought to keep you going for a bit. But if you feel the urge to comment then do so below if you have anything to say about Tonbridge places and people, or anything to moan about, to shout about, to write home about. Get it off your chest, it's quite a good feeling actually....

Lazy Sundays and Mondays....

Saturday: worked all day, had a drink in the Slug and Lettuce (which some of you may well finding shocking in itself!) and had my brother and sister over for dinner. Very lovely to see them it was too and the food was to die for (well I have to say that but really it was.)

Sunday: didn't have much of a hang over after a long lie in so went to the farmers market to pick up some nice bits of food I didn't particularly need and bought a new Harris Tweed titfer which I'm told is called The Newsboy hat. My wife thinks I look a berk in it but I think it looks rather dashing. (Maybe a picture to follow then you can all vote on it!) Then on to the shop to sort out a few bits and bobs, process a few internet orders etc. Decided to have the shop open while I was at it for about three hours. (Turned into more of a semi work day but actually I like it anyway so not much wrong in that.)

Monday: (for this is usually still part of my weekend) got up around 9am, so a bit of a lie in again, cooked my son breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast. Did a few household chores, surfed on the internet a bit. Realised I was due to meet someone at my storage unit about a bit of business, so spent the next few hours sorting through books. Not much of a day off when I come to think about it. (Reflected in the evening that I realy do need to stop making excuses to myself and start running again.)

That was my weekend. How about yours. Hope it was at least as interesting as mine or, frankly, don't bother sharing it!...

Keep Singing Leopards (and breathing!)

So let's see. What did I do over the weekend? Well had a lovely afternoon on Friday attending Skinners Day at the Assembly Halls where my son was receiving not one but two prizes. Naturally we are very proud of him. When you first go to this day you could be forgiven for thinking that it's going to be a stuffy occasion as the Skinners Company governors parade on to the stage in their furs and regalia like I imagine a Grand Lodge meeting to be. (Not that I've ever been to one.) But very soon into the proceedings you quickly realise that this is a warm and friendy event and the procession is all really that's left of the tradional days gone by. By the end of the day you can feel the warmth and companionship which is the very heart and soul of this magnificent school. Even the way the school song is sung by the boys echoes both the tradition, the sense of belonging and also the fun. Anyone connected with the school will appreciate what I mean as the chorus of the school song, The Leopard Song, is roared out "Sing Leopards Sing...." and where probably a hundred years ago a long forgotten teacher has tried to teach them to pause by saying the word the boys, as one, shout "Beathe.." before the next line of the song. It fills me full of warmth every time I hear it. You see, underneath, I'm just a soppy old man....

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Tonbridge Blog....

Yes I know I've completely failed in my endeavour (NB. not promise!) to post at least 3 a week on this blog. I will keep trying but, frankly, I have gone off the boil a little what with twitter, facebook, moving into a new shop, inflation, house prices, worrying about the economy etc etc etc. It's also quite nice to occasionally have a bit of time to myself and the family. But fear not Tonbridge blog will rise again like that thingymabob from the ashes....

All the T's: Tonbridge Town Team, Town Day, Town Shop....

I see on page 14 of today's Courier the Tonbridge Town Team (or is it now called Business Alliance?) are looking for ways to blow er, I mean spend wisely the £10,000 they have been awarded by the council. I'm quite amazed that they don't already seem to have much of an idea of where or what to spend it on and are looking for suggestions from businesses and residents. Well here's a few of  mine: Give me and several other newish businesses half the money that those money grabbers at the council take as business rates! That way traditional businesses like mine will be given a lift and be more inclined to stay on for longer. I know that this suggestion wouldn't be entertained so here's another: Have a competition for a new start up retailer to be given a grant to help them get going. £10,000 would go a very long way for one deserving business owner I can tell you. Maybe it would be a family butcher, farm shop or whatever. Better still: the town team should get their heads together with the Tonbridge Civic Society and others to see whether a Town Shop could be set up selling local produce on a non-profit making basis from a town centre location. The Civic Society has a small army of willing people who, I feel  sure, would be prepared to roll up their sleeves and muck in as volunteers if it was for the good of the town. Use an empty shop of the right size and that would do much more for Tonbridge than a Town Day that has been suggested which frankly would just flush the 10k away. When it happens and thrives, just remember where you heard the idea first....

You know when you've been Googled!...

I had an approach the other day from a photography company called Roddy Paine of Tunbridge Wells who made me an offer I simply couldn't refuse. They wanted to come and Google me. Ooh er, sounds a bit cheeky! But it was a genuine offer. More precisely they wanted to come to Mr. Books and take photos of the inside and outside so that anyone who searches for the shop on the well known search engine can not only find out how to get to Mr. Books but they can also take a look at the street outside and then take a guided tour INSIDE the shop. "Wow" I thought to myself as they took photos around the place. I've seen how this works on other clients of there's and it is quite amazing. Normally this kind of service would set me back a few hundred quid but, since they wanted me to help them build up a portfolio of clients, and were offering to do it gratis, who was I to stand in their way?! You'll be able to see the results of Roddy Paine Studio's work in a week or so. I know you can't wait!...

No more Comet anymore....

I see that Comet is about to go into administration. That's another big name to fall of the many since this financial crisis began. Tonbridge High Street just won't look the same without Comet. Oh, hang on, wait a moment. There is no Comet on Tonbridge High Street and hasn't been since about 1990 (if indeed there ever was one.) In fact, come to think of it, there aren't any electrical retailers on Tonbridge High Street any more. No Curry's, no Dixons, no PC World, no Tandy (remember them?) nothing unless you count the mobile phone shops and Robert Dyas, who themselves nearly went under not that long ago. Soon there'll only be cafes, hairdressers, kebab shops and Mr. Books left!....