We need to think laterally to keep a priceless cultural resource for ourselves and our children, says Anna Sebba.
Sad ending: Anne Sebba with her
granddaughter Bella at the independent bookshop, The Lion and Unicorn, in
Richmond, shortly before its closure Photo: Paul
Grover
My favourite children’s bookshop has closed down, citing impossibly high
rents and rates. The Lion and Unicorn in Richmond has been a part of my life
since we moved to south-west London 30 years ago. But it has also helped my
children learn to read, love and devour books. It lent a very special identity
to its corner of the town. Just across the street stands a grown-ups’ bookshop,
The Open Book, to which lucky children would graduate in due course. The Open
Book is still trading: but for how long? After all, its childish neighour wont
be there to perform the same magical task for my grandchildren that it did for
my children: leading young minds to question, discover and love learning.
What had become known to locals as “Bookshop Corner” now boasts a restaurant
and the usual hairdressers, cafés and clothes shops. No more Saturday afternoons
with queues of children waiting to speak to an author – their own celebrity idol
– and ask not only for a signature but also why he or she wrote in a particular
way, or whether the hero triumphs in the end.
I know how much that contact matters, because I’ve been in that queue and
seen how the book written by someone my daughter had just met was transformed
into a treasured object, quite different from any book her teachers could
possibly recommend.
This engagement with authors, I believe, helps children understand the
creative process. Books are vital in forming lifelong habits of discovery. This
is not just a little local lament.
All over the country bookshops are closing. It feels as though they are in
the frontline of the battle to save the high street. The Booksellers Association
reported that in 2012 the number of independent bookshops on the high street
declined for the sixth year in a row. During that year 73 closed but – a glimmer
of hope perhaps? – 39 opened. One of the most dramatic statistics is that at the
same time, in fiction, digital book sales were up 149 per cent.
More
More
