Spring Cleaning

The Bookshop will be closed over Easter and the Bank Holiday – we're having a refurbishment of the lower floor and our little office. There's going to be more space down there to read, with big comfortable chairs in which you can sit and lose yourself for the afternoon.

First, though, we've had to clear out ten years' worth of accumulated paperwork and assorted debris. Along the way, we've found numerous heart-warming letters from customers, photographs of booksellers past and present, and postcards from Iain Sinclair, Sister Wendy Beckett and Ruth Padel's mother. We've also found a big metal statue of a horse, an alarming quantity of beetroot juice and two fake human thumbs. We've kept our flagging energy levels up through the consumption of two whole cakes (an Apple and Earl Grey courtesy of the wonderful Cake Shop, and a Blood Orange and Rosemary courtesy of the wonderful Gayle). Finally, everything is packed up.

John has been brainstorming possible names for the post-refur​b lower floor (he's also designed a speculative plan – see above). Suggestions include: the Bloody Chamber; the Cave of Quietude; Room Without a View; the Library of Babel; the House of Asterion; and, somewhat inevitably, the Book Cellar. Any other ideas are very welcome – and we do hope you'll come down and have a look once it's done.