Thankfully the scaffolding has now been taken down from outside Mr. Books and Clarke and Coleman Chemists. After six weeks it had started to seriously effect trade as potential customers could be seen giving it a wide berth and, in the process, not seeing the wonderful window display efforts of Mrs. Books! I've made strong hints to my landlord for compensation in the form of stopping the rent for a month but so far he hasn't bitten!
Back to normal then for me. Whatever normal is of course! One thing I said to myself I'd do when moving onto the High Street last June was to hold more events at the shop. "Mr. Books" I said, "You must hold more events at the shop...." I'd already had a few signing events at the old shop of course, such as Victoria Hislop and some local authors, but they were all a little low key probably due to my location being tucked away in Bank Street. Then came Anthony Horowitz and a two hour queue to get into Mr. Books. Yes, though I still pinch myself to make sure that I'm not dreaming, it really did happen. I've put many irons in the fire since then and can now announce that Charles Moore will be coming to the shop on Saturday 11th May from 10-30am to 12pm to meet readers and sign copies of his much publicized book Margaret Thatcher The Authorized Biography. I'm really quite excited about the whole thing. So if you were a fan of The Iron Lady or even if you just want to talk to someone who had exclusive access to many documents and interviews with Mrs. T's close collegues come along on the morning. The book will be on sale at the discounted price of £25 and you'll also receive a £5 voucher to spend on your following visit to Mr. Books. See you there hopefully. More details here
12 comments:
You are taking a chance. You could end up with an ugly demo by Kent's ex miners who suffered a lot under Thatcher and the old Kent coalfield areas are still very much depressed. Meanwhile we are importing coal.
Most of Kent's ex-miners were imported themselves from areas like Scotland and the North East.
Also, it wasn't Maggie Thatcher who was responsible for closing the majority of the country's coal mines, instead it was that rabble rouser, Arthur Scargill who deliberately engineered a strike against a number of percieved pit closures, which then turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I wouldn't worry too much if I were you TB, about groups of flying pickets descending on your shop; most of them will have got their bus passes by now!
£25? hehehe...What planet are you on Mr Books?
£25? hehehe...What planet are you on Mr Books?
Sorry about the double entry. There's a recession on and you want me to pay £25 for a book? Are you serious?
£25 - yes for £29 on specil offer at John Lewis and others yo cn bt a Nook Toch.
Well it's April when all the bills come in. If you don't mind, I might use it to pay some bills or buy some food. £25 for a book about a mad bitch? What's it printed on, gold leaf?
Give it a few months and it'll be in the charity shops for £1.50
She's just cost us 10 million to plant the old cow.
Twenty-five quid does seem a trifle excessive. Even if I was seriously interested in the life and times of our first, and so far only, female Prime Minister (and I'm NOT), I would still wait for the book to appear as a paperback or, failing that, I would borrow a copy fom the library.
It is a normal price for that sort of tome. I think I paid that a couple of years ago for Mark Twain's autobiography. Which (on his instructions) was only published 100 years after his death. A good read.
hallum, wasn't it Mark Twain who wrote "Reports of my death have been greatly exagerated.", or words to that effect. A great writer, and someone with an obvious sense of humour. I hadn't ralised he'd issued such an instruction about his autobiography; what a great idea!
ps. Going back to the pricing issue for a moment, unless it was a book I really wanted to treasure, I would wait for the paperback edition to appear.
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