The Diary of a Bookseller

FRIDAY, 4 JULY

Online orders: 4

Books found: 3

Nicky was in to work in the shop today. She was unable to disguise her delight on hearing the news that I would be away for the next two days, first to clear Anna’s flat, and then on to Somerset for my cousin Suzie’s wedding.

I bade Nicky as fond a farewell as our relationship permits and left for London in the blazing sunshine at 11 a.m., arriving in Hampstead at 7 p.m., after I had dropped books off at the auction in Dumfries en route. Normally I send anything really rare to Lyon & Turnbull’s Edinburgh saleroom, and the Dumfries auction has become more fussy, so I can’t dump rubbish there any more, but occasionally I find myself buying something that I know will sell there but not in the shop: sets of reasonably good bindings, for example. They tend to be bought by antique furniture dealers at the saleroom because – when they’re selling bookcases – they are far easier to sell if they have nice-looking books on them.

Till total £307.89

36 customers