The Diary of a Bookseller

WEDNESDAY, 12 MARCH

Online orders: 4

Books found: 3

Very quiet day.

Just before closing, Mr Deacon appeared, looking flushed and flustered, and asked if I could order a book about James I for his aunt, whose ninetieth birthday is next Friday. As always, he produced a review from The Times and left it with me to order. It should be here next week.

As I was locking up the back of the shop, I could hear the sound of geese honking on the salt-marsh at the bottom of the hill, the bleating of new-born lambs in the fields and the croaking of frogs in the pond in the garden. No people. No traffic. Growing up in rural Scotland, sounds like these are the familiar indicators of seasonal change, and for me the onset of spring is the highlight of the year. Once you’ve lived in a city for a few years, I suppose there’s a detachment from these signals of seasonal shift to which the frogs, the lambs and the geese – spring’s harbingers from the water, the land and the sky – alert you.

Till total £28.49

4 customers