The Diary of a Bookseller

MONDAY, 16 JUNE

Online orders: 1

Books found: 1

Laurie covered the shop today.

Anna and I drove from Dunkeld to Stuart Kelly’s house in the Borders to pick up books, then spent the afternoon in Summerhall in Edinburgh with him. Stuart is a writer, journalist, literary critic and former Booker Prize judge. Because of the latter, he receives dozens of books every day from publishers, desperate for him to review them. These he puts in piles until there are enough to justify me driving over to his house and picking them up. He is a festival regular, an extraordinary intellect and a good friend. Summerhall used to be part of the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies, informally known as the ‘Dick Vet’, the veterinary school of Edinburgh University. It has been bought by an Irish philanthropist friend of his and is now full of artists and creative types. Wandering around it, I thought of my grandfather, who completed his PhD in the 1930s in the same buildings.

While we were away, I asked Laurie to make a note of a few things customers asked her during the day. Her note reads:

‘Why is Wigtown called Wigtown?’

‘Why is Wigtown a book town?’

‘How many bookshops are in Wigtown?’

The last two are asked on average twice daily all year round. After fifteen years, that means that I have been asked those same questions 9,360 times. It’s hard to muster any enthusiasm when I reply now. Perhaps it’s time to start inventing fresh answers that have absolutely no basis in fact.

We arrived back in Wigtown at 7 p.m.

Till total £114.50

12 customers