London's Rich Store of Publishing Houses and Bookshops
Literary Tourist in London, England. Day 1
I love London.
Love being surrounded by English accents, and striking architecture, old
Prisoners were ferried along the Thames under London Bridge upon which the heads of recently executed prisoners smiled down on them. Sir Thomas More, among other notables, entered the Tower by Traitors' Gate
and new.
(not sure what this building's called, or the battleship for that matter, but I'm feeling it).
The combination really enriches a place.
Intrigued by the steeples of London churches and the masts of tall ships depicted by the 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto, Renzo Piano designed The Shard as a spire-like sculpture emerging from the Thames.
Then there's The Tate. The Royal Shakespeare Company. The British Library. Jermyn Street. But most important of all, there's the fact that London is where so many great British book publishers and booksellers first set up shop: John Murray, Faber & Faber, Michael Joseph, The Hogarth Press, Jonathan Cape, Heinemann. Maggs Bros., Bernard Quaritch, Hatchards (complete with insufferable attitude), Henry Sotheran, Waterstones, Daunt Books .
I was here to connect with this.
***
Off the tube, on day one, at Green Park Station, and this lovely fountain
greets me en-route to Maggs Bros. bookshop,
Maggs Bros.
where I encounter Ben Maggs. Had hoped to interview his father for The Biblio File, but hadn't heard back. Ben indicated that this wasn't entirely unusual, so my nose slowly made its way back into joint. On the plus side, he told me he'd heard of my podcast! Then we settled into an interesting discussion about fine press books and communicating with the dead. I complimented him on the pleasing presentation of his books.
The doing of manager
Bonny Beaumont he told me.
***
Next it was off to interview Will Atkinson in Bloomsbury.
Will is Managing Director of Atlantic Books, U.K, publisher of Tim Waterstones's recent memoir The Face Pressed Against a Window. Prior to Atlantic, Will was for many years with Faber & Faber, serving as Director of Sales & Marketing. During this time he spearheaded the Independent Alliance, a very successful sales organization that comprises some of the U.K.'s leading independent publishers, including Granta and Canongate.
Listen here as we talk about the secret to his sales success:
***
From one part of Bloomsbury, via the inevitable
London Review Book Shop
bookshop(s),
on to the building that actually houses Bloomsbury, where I met renowned publishing pendragon Richard Charkin. Richard has been very supportive of my endeavours over the years, and gives great interview. Here we talk about birth control for books, what's facing the industry, and his new baby, Mensch Publishing:
***
Finally, as if this wasn't enough, I took a quick
reconnaissance flight
over Charing Cross Road ( didn't have time to visit Cecil Court Road nearby, but if you love books, don't miss it).
With no reported finds it was on to the tube again, off at Oval, and down the street to our Airbnb London HQ for some rest in advance of the next day's breathless set of peripatetic biblio-activities. Stay tuned.