Lesley Agnew: charming, enthusiastic, knowledgeable

Liz Thomson - BookBrunch

The death last weekend of bookseller Lesley Agnew, who owned and managed the Muswell Hill Children's Bookshop for the last 16 of its 36 years, has left the close-knit world of children's books bereft. It seems impossible that anyone as vibrant and full of life as Lesley could be struck down at just 65.

Founded by Helen Paiba, the shop over which Lesley and her daughter Kate presided won awards and nominations that long ago put it on the national map. It acquired, justly, a reputation that was out of all proportion to its size and some of the most celebrated names in children's books made repeated pilgrimages to N10 for signing sessions, held mostly on Saturday mornings.

Anthony Browne, Michael Rosen, Michael Morpugo, Judith Kerr, Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman and Shirley Hughes are just a tiny handful of recent visitors. Often, the lines of children, sometimes accompanied by a teacher with whom author and bookseller had worked, would snake round the shop and out on to the pavement and the jolly events were very much a part of Muswell Hill life. As was Lesley herself.