Andrew Blackman » Crouch End

RIP Prospero

Andrew Blackman — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:24:56 +0000

I learned recently of the demise of Prospero’s Books, my local independent bookshop in Crouch End. It made me very sad – it was a great bookshop, with knowledgeable staff who were always very supportive of me and of other local writers. I was even on their bestseller list for a while. The strange thing is that the place always seemed full of customers, a lot of whom were actually making purchases as well. So I’m not really sure why it couldn’t continue. I still have some good independent bookshops within fairly easy reach – Muswell Hill Bookshop, Highgate Bookshop, Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green and New Beacon Books in Stroud Green. But Prospero’s was special to me and I’m sad to see it go.

Roelof Bakker, ‘Still’, Hornsey Town Hall

Andrew Blackman — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 14:15:54 +0000

'Male Artists’ Dressing Room (Clock)' from 'STILL' by Roelof Bakker

Just wanted to give a belated mention to a really good photography exhibition in Crouch End recently. It was a series of photographs of Hornsey Town Hall, an Art Deco listed building that has been minimally used for a long time now. After Hornsey was absorbed into the larger borough of Haringey in the 1960s, the town hall was no longer needed for its original purpose, and there has been a debate for ages about what to do with it.

In the meantime, Roelof Bakker went in and photographed the old, fossilised office spaces. There was something very poignant about seeing the abandoned offices, the old clocks, the posters and furniture, the files and letters that were once so relevant but now lie forgotten. Some images were fairly straight documentary, others more unusual. I remember particularly a clock that had rusted, and the rusty water trickling down the wall looked like a trail of blood. And the exhibition title was well-chosen – there was a stillness to the images, with the people who gave the place meaning long since departed and only the objects remaining, in a kind of stasis.

I am so late in posting about this – the exhibition closed about a month ago! But there are some more details, photos and exhibition notes here.

Rumours of the death of bookshops

Andrew Blackman — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:01:12 +0000

I got depressed about bookshops recently. A great little London literary magazine, Smoke, has just published its last issue. The editor/founder Matt Haynes explained:

Of the hundred-odd shops that stocked our early issues, well over half have now closed. And when Borders ceased trading just before Christmas, we lost not only more than 25% of our sales overnight, but also three dozen high-profile spots from which to be subliminally sublime.

I was really sad to hear this. Smoke is a magazine where I got one of my first stories published, and it’s a magazine I’ve subscribed to for several years and always enjoyed reading. The writing was always fresh and interesting, and it was great to have the London focus. Haynes says he plans to do new things: “Because the system no longer works for us, we’re inventing a new one.” Maybe that’s what’s happening now in general, just a change in the way things work. But I can’t help seeing it as a loss.

Then yesterday I was in Leatherhead, a fairly small commuter town just southwest of London, and discovered a wonderful independent bookshop called Barton’s. I was on my way home so didn’t get to stop long, but I really enjoyed my ten-minute browse. I came across a book on the shelf that I’d wanted to buy for ages but had never got around to (Crow by Ted Hughes). Then I saw another in the bargain bin that was perfect for me (a guide to caravan and camping sites in Europe, a few years out of date but still useful for planning a trip my wife and I are going to take next year). A sign said “Make us an offer” and so I offered £1 and the owner accepted. The Ted Hughes was full RRP, £3.99 (it’s a slim volume).

I have bought many books online, but it’s always been a purely functional activity. This brief stop at Barton’s I really enjoyed. Apart from the two books I ended up buying, I saw loads more that I had to restrain myself from buying. It was a friendly, welcoming place, and the owner seemed very knowledgeable about books. I told him how nice it was to come to a new town and find a good independent bookshop, and he agreed with me that things were tough for bookshops at the moment. He listed a few in nearby towns that had gone under, but said that he was doing OK.

In fact he was quite positive, saying that his main worry at the moment is the recession, not so much ebooks and internet sellers. He said that yes, people can often get books cheaper on the internet, but they could do that anyway with supermarkets or discount stores. What he offers is a pleasant buying experience, knowledgeable advice, friendly banter, recommendations, the ability to locate hard-to-find books, etc. He told me about a woman who’d come into the shop saying her sons wouldn’t read, and he spent an hour with them finding out what they liked and coming up with some suggestions for them to take on holiday. The woman came back a few weeks later and said that her sons had read the books in the first few days of the holiday and they’d had to find a bookshop in the area to buy more by the same author.

What he said reminded me of what I heard a while back in my local bookshop Prospero’s Books. I was saying that they must be worried after a budget bookshop, House of Books, opened across the street. They said it hadn’t had much effect: they offered a different service, and catered to a different market. There will always be people who just want cheap books, but there are enough people who value what a good independent bookshop has to offer.

It’s good to go to places like this and find they are thriving, but I can’t help thinking about all the other bookshops that haven’t made it. On the train on the way back to London yesterday, I realised how odd a thing it was for me to say, that I was happy to find a bookshop in Leatherhead. I’m not that old, but I remember when pretty much any town you visited would have a local bookshop, often several. Maybe it’s OK that all that business is now going to Amazon instead. Maybe it’s just the way things go, and something new and better will come out of it in the end. But I can’t help seeing it as a loss.

Mention in Time Out

Andrew Blackman — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:50:25 +0000

My book got a small spot in this week’s Time Out, in the “Battle of the Books” feature…

My book is a bestseller*

Andrew Blackman — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:40:03 +0000

* in Crouch End.

Hey, it may not be the New York Times bestseller list, but it made me proud when I walked past my local bookshop, Prospero’s Books, and saw my book at #4 on the Bestsellers Chart.

I even asked someone to take a photo. Come on, it’s probably the last time in my life that I will see my name next to Barack Obama’s

Sheer egoism

Andrew Blackman — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:26:51 +0000

George Orwell said that there are four reasons why people write: political purpose, historical impulse, aesthetic enthusiasm, and sheer egoism. This weekend I indulged in a lot of egoism.

Yes, I went around bookshops looking for my book on the shelves. And I started taking photos of it. Here it is, for example, sitting on the shelf in my local bookshop, Prospero’s Books in Crouch End. I won’t show you the whole album – like holiday snaps, they all look a bit the same after a while. I think you get the idea.

OK, so it’s not very cool. It’s not something I could picture Salman Rushdie or Iam McEwan doing. But I enjoyed it!

Edit: As well as being uncool, it’s also turned out to be an expensive habit. With all that looking in bookshops, I ended up buying The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I hope the novelty wears off soon, otherwise I’ll end up buying more books than I sell.

RIP Pick More Daisies

Andrew Blackman — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:57:56 +0000

My favourite cafe in Crouch End, the cafe where I wrote most of my novel On the Holloway Road, has just put up a notice saying it has fallen victim to the credit crunch and closed down. It was a shock to me. The place was perfect for writing. It had friendly staff, American-diner-style bottomless coffee, good food, big windows to stare out of, convenient plugs for a laptop, and Fawlty Towers tapes playing in the bathrooms. And it was just around the corner.

Also, on reflection, a reason I liked it was that it wasn’t too crowded during the day – perhaps not a good sign. Anyway, I will miss the place.

The betting shop next door seems to have closed too, along with the old furniture shop Myers – and of course our local Woolworth’s has closed, along with all the other branches. The place just up the road selling glass and picture frames has halved in size. Also, worryingly for me, shops that closed a year or even two years ago are still empty. But according to the council, there is nothing to worry about:

Councillor Kaushika Amin, cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, said last week there was “no discernable increase in the closure of shops” and vowed to monitor progress.

Later on in the same local newspaper article, Councillor Amin says there is nothing much the government can do anyway. Of course not. The free market must run its course. Small businesses must be allowed to fail, towns to lose their character, people to lose their jobs. Government money must be reserved only for truly deserving recipients, like investment bankers.

Anyway, of all the businesses in Crouch End that could have gone bust, I’m sorry it had to be Pick More Daisies. It was a good place. I hope the staff find jobs elsewhere, and that the owner didn’t lose too much. Here, as a kind of epitaph, is the Pick More Daisies philosophy that used to be up on the wall in a big mural: