The Aardvark Blog

Big thank yous, and looking towards the rest of the year
28/09/2019

I see that my last blog a couple of weeks ago was headed 'Wow the autumn is really busy' and yes it really was. After an incredible four events in three weeks we now have a slightly quieter time until we leave for the Frankfurt Book Fair next month, and on our return we not only host a Poetry Breakfast on 23rd, but we also have the amazing Aardvark October Brocante on Sunday 27th October.

Other changes coming up in the shop are the installation next month of a new woodburner (only our third since we came into the village 15 years ago), which will require some moving around of books and a slight loss in shelf space (always a problem, given our active buying programme!). Speaking of books we have a really good collection of Folio titles at the moment - including some rarities - and also a good selection of Pevsners from early paperback Penguin editions to the latest Yale editions.

But before the year moves on any further, I would like to thank all those who have helped us or been involved in the last few week's activities. To Katy Moran - amazing colleague and author - for allowing us to launch her new novel 'Wicked by Design'; to Gill and the whole Crosby family, as well as to the amazing Shannon Donovan (how we will miss you) for enabling me to mount 'Gordon Crosby: The Art of the Pot', and to all the staff of the Ludlow and Abergavenny Food Festivals for allowing us to be their festival bookshop and letting us have such a great time. Particular thanks to Ceri at Abergavenny (how you got our banner put up was one of the wonders of the show), and to Katie Johnson from Wot's Cooking, who is always such a great help and joy at Ludlow. Finally many thanks to Peter Burden for acting as interlocutor/compere in our Festival Bookshop tent at Ludlow's 25th Anniversary Food Festival.

Our own staff are superb, too, and enable us to keep everything going and do the outside events! Jo and Katy, in the bookshop, and Jenny, Annie, Bucky and Rachel in the café, as well as Paul, in the warehouse and café, and Di - all are stalwart and hardworking and we couldn't do it without you!

Looking onwards we have a lot of bookings for the October Brocante/Flea Market on Sunday, 27th, but we do have space for a few more stalls. We also have spaces for the Aardvark Christmas Fair, this year on Sunday 15th December.

And finally a massive thank you to Aardvark customers who have made the bookshop almost as busy in September as it was in August (which was our busiest ever month). It remains something of a puzzle to me that so many of you find us, but all of us at Aardark are so grateful that you do. In these strange times we live in, a bookshop acts as cultural hub and a place of light and we are always delighted by the conversations that we have with visitors - some of whom now travel to us from long distances.