Coming up at Backstory
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Free live music every Thursday evening, 6pm-8pm
No need to book, just turn up at our bar from 6pm on Thursday evenings
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Oliver Franklin-Wallis - Wasteland
Wednesday 2nd August, 7.30pm, Backstory
When we throw something “away”, where does it go and who deals with it when it gets there? In this age of climate crisis, award-winning journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on an eye-opening journey through the global waste industry.
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Isabel Hardman and Stephanie Snow on our NHS
Wednesday 9th August, 7.30pm, Backstory
Marking the 75th anniversary of the NHS, The Spectator’s assistant editor Isabel Hardman talks with Stephanie Snow, a Manchester University expert in healthcare history, about the past and future of the beloved and beleaguered institution.
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Join Rachel Yoder at our Fiction Book Club - Nightbitch
Tuesday 15th August, 8pm, Zoom
A mother experiences a brilliantly unhinged transformation under the strain of family life. Join the fiction book club for £15 a month or just pay for this session.
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Wednesday 16th August, 7.30pm, Backstory
Tom's favourite non-fiction book of the year so far, ‘This is Europe’ is a masterful portrait of a continent, told through pen sketches of dozens of its ordinary citizens.
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Live poetry at Backstory: Michael Pedersen and Hollie McNish
Wednesday 30th August, 7.30pm, Backstory
Two dazzling poets bring their words to life live at Backstory. Michael Pedersen will be reading from his new collection, ‘The Cat Prince,’ in conversation with Hollie McNish, author of ‘Slug’ and ‘Nobody Told Me.’
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Join Tim Marshall at our Non-fiction Book Club - The Power of Geography
Thursday 31st August, 8pm, Zoom
Tim Marshall, the bestseller who explains the world to us through its maps, joins us to talk about The Power of Geography. Join the non-fiction book club for £15 a month or just pay for this session.
A text from Mum…
“Morning Tom, Just to say I’m absolutely loving In Memoriam. It’s so beautifully written - I’m absolutely there with them! The best book I’ve read in years…”
July’s bestsellers
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Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
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Kala by Colin Walsh (our book of the month)
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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
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Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris
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Tangerine by Christine Mangan
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Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
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The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
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The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
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Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
It’s always a delight when one of my colleagues takes over the newsletter. A) Because I get a week off. And b) because I get to view the shop anew through their eyes. Here Darby Brown, one of the newest members of the Backstory team, takes us through some very different days in the life of a bookseller. Enjoy!
Tom
LIKE MOST BOOK-LOVERS, I’ve always dreamed of working in a bookshop. I imagined sitting on a rickety stool, a steaming mug of tea on the counter and a book in my hand, reading between customers. When I began applying to summer jobs as a teenager, I went straight to my local Barnes and Noble—where I was rejected so many times that it is probably embarrassing to admit.
The fact that I scored a job at Backstory is a stroke of luck, to do with the timing of the classic post-English degree quarter life crisis neatly aligning with a job opening, which landed me on my first shift, armed with a love of books, but otherwise with a lot to learn.
I can now confirm that working at a bookshop is magical, but there’s also a lot to the job that I didn’t know before. Sometimes being a bookseller feels like those pictures I’ve seen on the internet of Uber drivers who post “ride menus” on the backs of their seats for their customers: Would you like the silent ride, the “life story” ride, or the road rage ride? (“Life story” ride, please!) So, for anyone else out there wanting to know, here’s a sneak peek into the various days in the life of a bookseller.
Uber Menus – Bookish Edition
First on the bookseller’s menu is the basic weekday shift (a classic). On these shifts, there are lots of boxes to unpack and books to sort. I’ll spend most of my time restocking shelves, scanning in books that have arrived, and sorting them between the shelves on the floor and our overstock in the back. Sometimes, it’s three boxes worth of orders from Macmillan; other times, it’s 100 copies of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, all of which I have to inspect to make sure there are no damages (there were three). One side effect of this task is that my camera roll is now full of books that I found interesting while unboxing and took photos of to revisit later. Perhaps, one day, I will.
A weekend shift, by contrast, is much busier. We have more customers and especially more kids, who wave at us while cutely making a mess of the shelves. The bar is usually busier as well, the dishwasher full of coffee-stained mugs and teapots by noon. While we do still organise and restock books, we spend much more time enjoying the social aspect of the role, catching up with regulars, recommending books to someone about to go on holiday. Megan and I have also been known to spend slow hours on Sunday afternoons reorganising everything, from the drawers behind the counter to the shelves and shelves of books downstairs.
Next on the bookseller’s menu is the weeknight shifts where I get to practice my bartending skills. I’ve got quite good at opening wine bottles, a talent I didn’t think would come from working at a bookshop. These shifts are fun because every night is slightly different. On one of my first Friday evening shifts, I put our film scores playlist on and watched as a bar full of people read quietly while sipping wine and enjoying the relaxed vibe. I’ve also had shifts full of chatting and laughter, where customers hand book recommendations back and forth to people they’ve just met. This is when the date nights and the catchups with old friends happen, and it’s special to hear the room fill with conversation and the clinking of glasses.
Uber Menus – Bookish Events Edition
At Backstory, of course, we also have events. Our book launches are when we really become bartenders. We stay on top of alcohol tabs and keep an eye on the counter, where we top up the neatly aligned rows of cava and Chin Chin for guests to grab on their way in. Though these shifts are always busy and the shop can get quite hot with so many people, it’s always heart-warming to watch a group of people throng around their author friend to celebrate what they’ve accomplished. I once watched an author tear up, overwhelmed by it all, as her friends took over her speech. There is also the bonus that the publisher sometimes brings nibbles and even cake. But mostly, it’s that magical feeling that a new book has come into the world, that new stories are still being told every day.
We also host ticketed events with authors. Working these events is exciting, although they require much more physical labour than you’d expect. We spend the hour beforehand moving tables, carting chairs up from downstairs, and coming up with creative ways to fit enough seats into our space without everything feeling crammed (all of which must then be undone at the end of the night). We also make sure to polish plenty of glasses and pre-pour drinks. I was warned before my first event shift that there would be a rush as everyone comes in ten minutes before. There certainly is a rush, but everyone is incredibly polite and patient. People just seem happy to be there, and I don’t blame them.
Then, this might be when you get to relax and enjoy the talk. It might also be when you walk on unsteady legs up to the front, hoping no one else can see how much your hands are shaking, as you prepare to lead the talk. Both are fun, in their own ways. One of my favourite author event memories was just a few weeks ago, when I watched Megan interview Alice Vincent. There was a sense of shared space created as stories and questions were exchanged about gardening, motherhood, and existing as a woman in a community of other women. We all left feeling that giddy excitement of having formed a momentary community with a group of strangers, who we might never see again.
Thank You for Riding with Us Today
Being a bookseller is a far cry from how my fourteen-year-old self romanticised it. I don’t spend my shifts perched on a stool, immersed in a book until a stray customer wanders in. Nor could I have imagined that one of my favourite parts of the job would be restocking shelves (my fourteen-year-old self was not organised). But it’s also much more fun than I could have hoped for. I enjoy chatting with customers about my latest reads, passing over a glass of wine in the pre-author event buzz, and just being surrounded by so many words. As someone who thrives off of variety, I love that I never know what the next few hours will look like when I step through the Backstory doors.
Darby
Darby is about to start teaching creative writing courses in Balham, designed for people who have always wanted to get into writing or try their hand at it but never had the opportunity or time. Find out more here.