Bookseller's novel idea: Publish all the strange questions customers ask

Miranda Bryant - London Evening Standard - 9 Jan 2012
Comic script: Jen Campbell found a publisher for her book after she posted some of the comments on her blog

When most shop assistants are confronted with a difficult customer they grit their teeth, smile and get on with it.

But a bookseller from north London was so taken by the strange questions she was asked that she started writing them down.
Now Jen Campbell, 24, has written a book about her experiences. Called Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops, it is written as a script of interactions - all based on real-life scenarios.

Miss Campbell, who lives in Crouch End and works at Ripping Yarns in Highgate, said she came up with the idea when she spotted a post on Twitter by John Cleese that read "what is your pet peeve".
Inspired by a customer who had asked her whether Holocaust victim Anne Frank had written a sequel, she replied: "The weird things people say in bookshops."
From then on she noted down all the strange questions and was approached by a publisher after posting some of the quotes on her blog.
Other examples included a customer saying: "I read a book in the Eighties. I don't remember the author, or the title. But it was green and it made me laugh. Do you know which one I mean?"
Another customer asked if she could leave her two young children in the shop while she did the weekly grocery shop, saying they were "no bother".
One asked her: "Is this Hampstead Heath?" to which she replied: "No, it's a bookshop."
Miss Campbell's book is to be published by Constable & Robinson on April 5.
She said: "I love working in book shops. There's nothing better than recommending a book to someone and when they come back and say they really enjoyed it. But for some reason, retail generally, and book shops in particular, attract especially strange requests."
Miss Campbell, who also writes poetry and short stories, is currently working on a poetry collection. One of her poems is set to be turned into a 20-second film to be played on screens on the Tube for two weeks this month as part of Smile For London.