The Aardvark Blog

The book tower of Brampton Bryan
10/07/2021

In my nearly 20 years of bookselling I cannot remember a time when so many books have been offered to us or just arrived.Whether in car boots, carry bags, boxes or whole houses full, the sheer quantity of titles that have come into our swelling premises over the last year has been unparalled.

And to make matters worse I have just agreed to another house clearance and to purchase over £30,000 ( at retail value) of new art books from one of my favourite publishers. Ethel has stopped looking in the warehouse as she is worried that I may have truly and finally lost the plot. On the plus side there has never been a better time to visit Aardvark as each day I unearth and put into the shop the most fascinating titles. Believe me when I say that the Aardvark paws are burrowing into the book piles as quickly as they can go.

One member of staff suggested that we should use the books to create an enormous tower of books - the leaning book tower of Brampton Bryan - but I am not absolutely sure how this would help. The best thing would be for customers to carry the books away with them ( having hopefully paid for them), and this I am glad to say has been happening as we have sold a tremendous number of titles over the last month.

Yesterday was another busy day in the shop/café - lovely to see so many cyclists out enjoying the weather ( a sign of life returning to normal?). On the subject of our quest to revisit the before time from next month we will be returning to 'proper china' and dispensing with the hideous if necessary disposable plates and cups. Also we will again be offering light lunches. Bear with us as it will be a bit of a shock to the system.

August car boot. Stalls are filling up quickly for this and we will again be limiting ourselves to 32 stalls. We are already over 2/3rds booked so if you do want to come and sell your wares at the end of next month, now is the time to book. You do not want to be disappointed. There will again be live music etc.

Finally post-July 19th Freedom day procedures. Like everybody we are heartily sick of all the Covid restrictions, but we are concerned not to be a hot spot for infection ( I like our customers and would rather not see them infected). After the 19th therefore we will be keeping the one-way system and the reduced number of tables in the café. We ourselves will continue to wear masks, and we will continue to provide free masks for any customers who want them. Customers will have to make their own decisions as to whether to wear masks in the shops - I am too old to become any type of policeman - and I am sure Aardvark customers will continue to use their usual good sense not to crowd each other and to allow every-one to feel comfortable. Whenever restrictions are lifted it will feel strange and a little scary, but with good humour and good sense I am sure that we can all get through.