An interview with Daisyroots Books Ltd
Biblio checks in with Daisyroots Books Ltd to learn more about their book business, collecting interests and more! To view and shop their inventory, click here.
When did you get started in bookselling?
We're a family business. Christopher opened a shop in Kendal in the 1970s. The original shop closed in the mid 1990s and we moved into selling on the Internet where we focused on mountaineering books - hence the name Daisyroots - rhyming slang for walking boots. When we retired from our 'day jobs' and the books in our attic threatened to overtake us, we opened a small shop in Grange over Sands in 2006. From there we've moved to larger premises twice, finally settling in an original, virtually unaltered, early Edwardian shop on Grange High Street.
What drew you to bookselling?
It just sort of evolved. Both Chris and I love books.I've been surrounded by books since childhood - and as a writer I have always had an excuse for buying 'research'volumes.
What are your specialties as a dealer?
Daisyroots stocks a very wide range of subjects. We are well known for Railway books, Mind Body Spirit and Esoteric, Lake District, Mountaineering, and our huge selection of pulp fiction.
What's the most amazing book you've ever sold?
Two Ian Fleming genuine first editions from his very earliest works. We found them whilst clearing up at the end of a week-long jumble sale. They had been overlooked!! We also had a lovely man who came over from Saudi Arabia to buy a 1st (public) edition of 'Seven Pillar of Wisdom' complete with a newspaper clipping of Winston Churchill's obituary of T.E. Lawrence.
What is your favorite part of being a bookseller?
Meeting lots of different people who share my passion for books. And getting first pick of all the lovely books...
Do you have an open storefront or have you in the past?
Yes. An original preserved Edwardian shop on the main street in the Edwardian seaside resort of Grange over Sands.
If so, do/did you have any bookstore pets?
No
What is the funniest / strangest / scariest thing that ever happened in your store?
A man came in one day and wanted to buy a ladder. The shop used to be an ironmongers and he hadn't noticed the difference! Now that's scary!!
What's your favorite book you personally own? Would you sell it, if the price were right?
I tend to bring books home, keep them for a while then return them to the shop so other people get to enjoy them. So whilst there are always hundreds of books in our home very few actually stay there.
If you were stranded on a desert island and could bring three books, what would they be?
Gone with the Wind - because I have never got round to finishing it. Betjeman's poetry - it's so quintessentially English. A Course in Miracles
