Nigel Williams, Cecil Court

Book Lovers’ London
By Lesley Reader,
Metro, £ 8.99

London is a book lover’s and book buyer’s delight. In an age where global conglomerates, in the shape of chain stores, are eating up small independent bookshops, the latter manage to survive in London, enhancing the city’s charm.

All bookshops belonging to a chain look the same whether in London, New York or Singapore. A showcasing of the new arrivals, a café tucked in a corner, salespeople who have no clue about books and publishers, low shelf life of titles and no space for books unlikely to move. Serendipity, the bookbuyer’s ultimate ecstasy, has no place in such a bookshop.

The scene is exactly the opposite in an independent bookshop in London. More likely than not, such a bookshop will be lined with books from floor to ceiling. The arrangements will be a bit hugger mugger, but there will be a couple of knowledgeable salespersons around. Browsing will be encouraged as will be conversation about books. Any reader of that gem, 84 Charing Cross Road, will recognize the ambience being recreated here. (The bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road has long disappeared. It first became Covent Garden Records, which sold music and just the book that had made the address famous. But the record shop too went a few years ago, gobbled up by a flashy bar.)

This very handy and useful book tells readers of all the bookshops, as well as libraries and places of literary interest. It is an invaluable companion to a book lover who is an occasional visitor to London. Of course, of special interest are the bookshops, those selling old and antiquarian books and those selling new ones. Lesley Reader (is the surname an assumed one for this book, or is it one of those very apt coincidences?) does not make the distinction with which this review began. He speaks of all the bookshops.

But his comments and recommendations on the independent bookshops are especially valuable. About John Sandoe, the bookshop off the King’s Road in Chelsea, he notes, “This dimunitive shop in a fabulous 18th century building that used to be a poodle parlour, represents all that is good in bookselling and is justifiably one of the most renowned bookshops in London...The shop is packed to overflowing with an extensive and well-chosen range in literature, arts, architecture, history, biography, reference, travel, drama and children’s books with plenty of unusual editions and books you’re unlikely to find elsewhere. The staff are incredibly enthusiastic, well-informed and welcoming, despite the danger of customers dislodging piles of books at every turn. This place is worth a visit.” Sometimes, an account of a bookshop contains nuggets of gold of a different kind. Talking of Heywood Hill’s bookshop on Curzon Street, arguably London’s most celebrated bookshop, where Nancy Mitford once worked, Reader writes, “Just across the road a covered passageway leads into Shepherd Market where the Chocolate Society Café is a required stop for all chocoholics.”

Books, like chocolates, are an addiction.