Tuesday 26 July 2011

Small but perfectly formed

Let me say at the outset that I have absolutely nothing against charity bookshops. Indeed as soaring rents, rising business rates & the ascendancy of the 1p online book conspire to decimate the numbers of traditional bookshops, we are in ever-greater need of the charity shops to supply our everyday book-browsing fix. However, I shall be bold & declare that there is nothing in this world so delightful, so rewarding, such good fun as a really good independent secondhand book emporium. No other kind of shop so perfectly captures the tastes & personality of its owner, qualities forged in the crucible of a lifetime spent in the love of books, replete with individual eccentricities & a relish for the sheer visual joy & tactile wonder of books in all their guises. Nowhere else do serendipity & the thrills of the hunt come together to such happy, often unexpected, effect.



So, in consulting the invaluable Book Guide before a recent whistle-stop visit to Bristol, I was excited to learn that not just one, but two, new shops had opened. We only managed to visit one of these, the curiously named Bloom & Curll on Colston Street. And it transpired that its freshly-minted appearance belied a respectable five years of existence. But what a shop! Small & beautiful, it is the epitome of what a vintage book emporium should be – a secondhand bookshop for our times: bright, friendly & appealing with its sky-blue walls & hand-cut floral lettering, but with all the quirkiness one requires from the inheritors of a long tradition of knowledgeable ‘used book’ selling.

Newspaper fans inexplicably adorn the shop window. The would-be customer is greeted with a display of paperback covers on open shelves that veil the proprietor at his desk, & an old-fashioned portable typewriter bearing the floral legend ‘If you need help please ask’. Thus the awkward transition from street to semi-private space is eased & the dread question "Are you looking for anything in particular?" is neatly avoided.


The owner is a man after my own heart, who enjoys good graphics & dustwrapper art. A display of front-facing & framed covers graces one wall; Hans Unger’s totally brilliant design for the cover of the Penguin Handbook of First Aid is stuck like a college pin-up to a wooden stepladder behind the desk. Proper secondhand bookshops, by the way, have personalised desks not anonymous corporate counters, and this is a fine example of the genre.

 

Apologies for the quality of the photograph there, but it had to be included.


And the final stroke of brilliance? See that beckoning doorway on the right, with its splendidly architectural 60s light shade glowing in an inviting fashion? This is the children’s corner.



Here is Alice & the White Rabbit pegged like bunting across this miniature wonderland – a hidey-hole & refuge from the realities of the adult world with a grown-up-sized squishy chair for comfort & classic children's literature for escapism. Positively wasted on infants!

To anyone within fifty miles of Bristol, I recommend a visit. The appearance of the Betjemanesque gentleman in a trilby, hurrying by up Colston Street with his arms full of bubble-wrap, was simply the grace note to a most satisfying & entertaining browse.