Kevin was sorry to leave Wales, but he had eaten all the custard creams
in Crickhowell, and all the Welsh Cakes too. It was time to fly on to
his next appointment, across the Irish Sea to the Little Acorns Bookstore in Derry. Would there be Irish Cakes? Kevin was eager to find out.
When
he landed, he recognised a familiar face. But it wasn’t just a familiar
face - that would have been weird. No, the familiar face was attached
to a familiar body and some familiar arms and legs, and they all
belonged to Misty Twiglet, Bumbleford’s own Pop Sensation. She had
brought Cedric the Centaur with her, and also a pet pug, whose name was
Love Missile F1-11.
“But what are you doing here?” asked Kevin, confused.
“Oh
I buy ALL my books at Little Acorns Bookstore,” said Misty, mistily.
“I’ve just been recording a duet with famous Irish songstress Lána Bus
and I popped in on my way home to pick up the latest bestseller by Reeve
and McIntyre.”
“By who?” asked Kevin. But he wasn’t here to discuss Misty’s obscure literary tastes. “I’m here to interview bookseller Jenni Doherty,” he said importantly.
“She’s
been expecting you!” said Cedric the Centaur. “She’s just popped out to
hide all her biscuits for some reason, but she said you should have a
look around the shop while you wait for her. It’s not just books! There
are a load of Interesting Old Typewriters everywhere!”
Kevin went into the shop, where he spent a while carefully examining the typewriters.
They
were very interesting indeed, but none of them had keys big enough for
his hooves, so he sat down on a handy chair to wait. Unfortunately, it
broke under his weight. Fortunately it didn’t look valuable - it was a
very old chair, and people had scribbled their names all over it.
Kevin
tutted at their bad manners while he carefully hid the bits of the
chair behind a handy dump-bin. He had just finished when bookseller
Jenni Doherty came into welcome him to Little Acorns, and answer his
Important Questions…
Kevin: What is the best thing about being a bookseller?
Jenni:
Being a part of the local community, the camaraderie, the craic and
special connection to people of all ages & doing something I love!
Kevin: What’s one way you’ve tackled a problem that your bookshop has faced during the pandemic?
Jenni:
Despite being closed & only allowed to offer 'click & collect'
from 12 April (having been closed from 24 Dec), I have been using the
Bus Shelter directly outside my shop as a Book Bandit Speakeasy
Sanctuary for hand-delivery on-foot of customers orders.
Kevin: A Book Bandit Bus Shelter for hand-delivery-on-foot?
Jenni:
It really has made the experience for all involved more exciting as we
try not to look suspicious and more like Sherlock Holmes. Also
arranging to have cross-border book orders delivered to local convenient
stores for those restricted by movement (within 5 kilometers) or
isolating. Getting to know and respect more all the local delivery
drivers, couriers, postal staff and even the local taxi and bus drivers.
Plus other independent retailers in the same area as we've become our
own little gang of warriors of support to each other.
Kevin: What are three books you absolutely love hand-selling to customers?
Jenni: The Moon Spun Round: W B Yeats for Children; The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery and Matilda by Roald Dahl
Kevin: Who is your favourite children’s book illustrator?
Jenni: Oliver Jeffers and Tony Ross - having met both of them also.
Kevin: What is your favourite biscuit?
Jenni:
Has to be a Lotus Biscoff as I also enclose these as a little gift with
book orders online and for local collections during the various
lockdowns. Also included is either a coffee or cappuccino sachet.
Kevin: Hmmm. You wouldn’t happen to have any other biscuits at all? That you might have accidentally hidden?
Jenni: No. None at all. I absolutely have NOT buried a selection tin of teatime favourites in the back garden.
Kevin: Do you have a shop pet?
Jenni:
I do, but not of the living-breathing kind. I was gifted a life-size
cuddly toy Scooby Doo from a customer nearly 6 years ago and he has
become the shop's mascot & 'resident guard dog' and sits in the
children's book area. Children adore him (but are missing hugging him
since last Feb 2020). He dresses up as a cat for Hallowe'en, as a
reindeer at Christmas & wears the odd tie or hat on other occasions.
I also have three papier maché life-size penguins who also dress up!
Kevin: Thank you! What is the best way for people to buy books from you if they can’t visit the shop in person?
Jenni: Folks can purchase directly by email to littleacornsbookstore@yahoo.
Follow Kevin's tour at #
'This is not a work which many adults will read through more than once,' claimed the historical novelist Alfred Duggan, reviewing The Lord of the Rings when it was published. But I've read it through LOADS of times and now I'm blogging my latest re-read, so what did he know? And so we come to Minas Tirith, Tower of Guard, citadel of Gondor, seven tiers of fancy white fortifications built against a buttress of Mount Mindolluin, with the Tower of Ecthelion rising a thousand feet above the plain. It seems to me the template on which a whole genre of knock-off fantasy cities has been based - I guess Robert E Howard and people wrote about such places before Tolkien, and perhaps there were cities of equal grandeur on Barsoom, but when concept art threads on Instagram throw up unlikely gold and marble castles built on mountaintops and over waterfalls they always look distinctly Minas Tirithy to me. I'm wondering now if London in Mortal Engines was subconsciously echoin
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