At 3 p.m. the telephone rang. It was a journalist at The Observer who wanted to discuss the proposed wind farm.
I shut the shop at 3.30 p.m. and drove with Anna to Newton Stewart to visit Jessie in the hospital. She was in excellent spirits and we got back at 4 p.m. so I opened for the last hour. There were no customers.
Till total £30
3 customers
FRIDAY, 16 JANUARY
Online orders: 4
Books found: 4
It was snowing when I opened the shop. Nicky was twenty minutes late as a consequence. She took one look at the commode that I had bought on Tuesday and said, ‘That thing’ll never sell.’
We picked the orders then walked through our positions for ‘Readers’ Delight’. Peter, his wife, Heather, and their daughter Zoe arrived at 2.30 p.m. and we filmed it. It took three takes before we managed to get a completely perfect version. There will be no edits, at Anna’s insistence. Poor Peter, who was filming for us, had to walk backwards for the entire time.
Matthew (regular book dealer from London) came to the shop while we were filming and looked nonplussed. He spent £300.
The accountant telephoned to tell me that I haven’t signed and returned my tax return for last year, so I frantically scrambled around my chaotic filing system until I found the relevant paperwork, signed it and posted it back to him.
Nicky stayed the night and regaled us with wondrous tales of some of the treasures she has unearthed both metal-detecting and in the Morrisons skip.
Till total £313
3 customers
SATURDAY, 17 JANUARY
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
Nicky opened the shop. I was putting books on the shelves when a customer accosted me with a book and asked how much it was. I told him it was £3.50. He looked at me, then pointed at Nicky, who was wearing her ski suit and brushing her teeth behind the counter, and said, ‘I’ll pay your wife, shall I?’ Nicky dropped her toothbrush in horror, and I dropped the book I was holding at the same time.
I left Nicky packing the random books for this month’s mailing, and Anna and I went for a walk in the morning before the snow melted and the light and landscape changed. When we returned an hour later, Nicky hadn’t even started on the boxes of random books, but she had hijacked the shop Facebook page again and posted the following message:
Craigard Gallery have just delivered home-made, fruit-laden Chelsea buns (the size of a medium turnip) drenched in cream cheese & cinnamon! That’s what OUR neighbours are like – what about YOURS?
Finished Satyricon and went to bed at midnight.
Till total £44.50
8 customers
MONDAY, 19 JANUARY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 2
Awoke to a message on my telephone from Callum telling me that I was quoted in The Observer yesterday in a piece about the proposed wind farm on the other side of the bay, which the developer – for reasons best known to themselves, no doubt – have decided to call California Farm. Shortly afterwards, the person on whose land it is to be built, and who stands to benefit most financially, appeared in the shop to discuss my objections. He began by telling me, ‘I’m not here to try to change your mind’, then spent the next three hours trying to change my mind. Anna was very impressive dealing with him, asking him how much he was going to be paid for allowing them to be built on his land (over three times what the rest of the community will receive every year) and whether he would be able to see them from any of the properties on his estate. He looked at the floor and sheepishly answered that they would not be visible from any of the numerous properties he owns.
Anna’s love of Galloway is passionate and deep, and she is determined both to market the region to the world and to protect it from anything that she perceives might prove detrimental to it, particularly to the tourist industry, on which so much of the local economy depends.
Today we had another order for a book that Nicky listed recently in her new astronomy/physics shelf. As with the last one, it wasn’t there. When I dropped off the orders with Wilma in the post office at 10 a.m., I asked if she would be good enough to send the postman over to collect the random books later. William was in the middle of berating her for some minor misdemeanour when I arrived.
The commode sold at 11 a.m. Nicky will be furious.
I seem to have acquired a virus, doubtless picked up from a customer, and I passed the day coughing, sneezing, hugging the radiator and shivering. It is always seen as the curse of the teacher, being exposed to germy children and constantly being ill, but it applies equally to anyone who works in a shop. Customers enjoy sharing their ailments with us.
After lunch I telephoned Smurfit Kappa, who seem quite happy for me to drop off a van load of dead stock for recycling any time, so I’ll go next week when I have sorted through the last of the 2,000 boxes from the farmhouse, most of which are only good for recycling.
Posted ‘Readers’ Delight’ video on Facebook at 3 p.m.
Till total £99.99
7 customers
TUESDAY, 20 JANUARY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 2
Email from my cousin who lives in Greece to let me know that the shop was featured in a Greek book blog. Once, shortly after I had bought the shop, a Northern Irishman accosted me as I was putting books out and asked, ‘Do you have a copy of the Greek New Testament?’ When I told him that I didn’t have a copy in stock, he replied, ‘No self-respecting bookshop could fail to have a Greek New Testament.’ I muttered something about him being welcome to his opinion and carried on about my business. When he left, armed with a few books on Calvinism, he had the decency to apologise and compliment me on the shop’s stock, particularly the theology section.
The old ladies appeared at 1 p.m. for their art class.
The postman picked up the five sacks of random books at 4 p.m.
Till total £22.50
4 customers
WEDNESDAY, 21 JANUARY
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
At lunchtime I received a telephone call from another bookshop interested in one of our books. The Monsoon software we use to manage our online stock is reasonably widely used in online bookselling, so I assumed that she would have heard of it. Monsoon froze while I was trying to find information about the book and still on the telephone, so I apologised and explained that we were having a problem with Monsoon. She replied, ‘What? Really? You’ve had a monsoon? Oh, I am sorry to hear that.’
Picked up a copy of Auden’s Collected Works and flicked through to ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’, one of my favourite poems. I have resolved to learn it by the end of the month.
Till total £57.97
4 customers
THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
The order this morning was for a Second World War book. As I was going through the shelves looking for it, I came across Colonial Campaigns of the Nineteenth Century and Saddam’s War, as well as The Armies of Wellington, all in the Second World War section. They were clearly put there by Nicky. When I mention it to her tomorrow, I can guarantee that her explanation will be, ‘Well, there wasnae any space in the military section, and it’s all about fighting. Customers will understand.’
At 2 p.m. a customer walked in and demanded a copy of Barnard’s The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom. This is a title that was reprinted in 2008 by Birlinn, and of which I bought several copies (I had a first edition from the Loch Lomond deal back in December). I told the customer we had five copies, upon hearing which he turned on his heel, said ‘Hmph’ and left.