The Diary of a Bookseller

FRIDAY, 5 DECEMBER

Online orders: 1

Books found: 1

Nicky in. She arrived early and visibly excited; ‘Oh, have I got a treat for you!’ This ‘treat’ was supposed to be some sort of compensation for the cinnamon swirl that she had licked the icing off last Friday morning. She produced a box that was covered in ‘reduced’ stickers and contained a Peppa Pig cake.

Callum was in all day, working on insulating the wall.

Once I’d set Nicky a few jobs (which she nodded enthusiastically about and then decided not to do), I left for a book deal in Sorbie – six miles from Wigtown – at 11 a.m. It was the collection of one of my father’s friends, Basil, who died earlier in the year. His nephew was dealing with the estate. There weren’t many interesting books, and most of them were engineering textbooks, but I took a couple of boxes and wrote him a cheque for £100.

When I left Bristol to return to Scotland in 2001, death was something with which I was relatively unfamiliar, other than the loss of elderly grandparents and great-aunts. Perhaps I am fortunate never to have lost a close friend. Rural life, though, throws you into contact with people of all ages and backgrounds in a way that it is easy to avoid in a city. Back when I bought the shop in 2001, customers would often comment that I appeared ‘very young for a bookseller’, and perhaps I was. It is five years since I last heard that said, and the number of funerals I attend increases year by year. Many of my parents’ friends have died in this past year. My mother recently told me, ‘Your father and I are in the minefield now.’

After work I went for a pint with Callum. We invited Nicky along, but she said she wanted to stay in, so I lit the fire for her and bought some craft beers for her from the co-op (nothing with a bird in its name this time). When I came back at about 8 p.m., she was sitting in front of the fire sewing together a stuffed toy cow which apparently she has been working on for over twenty years. It bore no resemblance to a cow.

Several customers this week have come into the shop and complained that they had forgotten to bring their reading glasses. This is far from uncommon. When I mentioned it to Nicky, she pointed out that she too frequently does it.

Till total £22

2 customers