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BOOKS@ EXPANDS TO HERTFORD |
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On Weds 24th October we opened books @ HERTFORD - our long-expected new branch in the centre of the County Town of Hertford at 12, Railway Street. During the five week re-fit we ran a series of fun competitions in the window inviting local people to work out the names of famous books from anagrams, identify the famous faces from our MEET THE AUTHOR season and to guess the names of famous authors from crossword clues. The new shop is open Monday – Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm and from 9.30am to 5pm on Saturdays. |
NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS RESULT |
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For the second year running we enjoyed a glitzy star-studded evening at The Bookseller Trade Awards at the Natural History Museum in London on 20th September. However, once again, we lost out to other finalists for Independent Bookshop of the Year Award and the new £8,000 Award For Entrepreneurship in Bookselling given by Dragon’s Den entrepreneur, Peter Jones (see below).
Stephen, co-owner of the shop, commented: “Obviously we were a bit disappointed, but it is terrific to have enjoyed this recognition by the Book Trade both for us and our staff who have worked really hard over the last year. Let’s hope with the opening of our new shop in Hertford and the ongoing success of MEET THE AUTHOR we might make next year ‘third time lucky!’” |
LYLB GOES NATIONAL |
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At the beginning of July, The Booksellers Association announced a new nation-wide initiative to be launched this autumn with the aim of getting people to support their local independent booksellers. They are basing their ideas on our LOVE YOUR LOCAL BOOKSHOP campaign over a year after we launched it in Hoddesdon. Alan Jeffery explains:
"They have changed our logo somewhat for use in the national campaign, which includes a national vote for Best Independent Bookshop Title before Christmas and leads up to a national Independent Booksellers Week in July 2008." |
BEARDING THE DRAGON |
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On June 23rd Alan and Stephen had the dubious pleasure of pitching their Hertfordshire Heritage project to Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Peter Jones in London. They had 30 mins in front of cameras in which to persuade him that they should be awarded £8,000 of his money to implement it as part of the Award For Entrepreneurship in Bookselling. According to Alan Jeffery:
“He certainly lived up to his on-screen reputation for aggressive cross-examination, but we were quite prepared for that. He might know a lot about launching companies but it became clear he certainly didn’t know much about bookselling! We felt we put forward a very sound and well-researched proposal, but now we have to wait until the Awards in September to find out if we succeeded in convincing him.” |
PARLIAMENTARY HONOURS |
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The success of our Meet the Author season was praised on Friday 15th June by Broxbourne MP Charles Walker as part of an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons on the subject of Supporting Local Trading. In his speech Mr Walker encouraged independent retailers to diversify their offerings and find imaginative new ways to promote them in the face of competition from the supermarkets.
He said: “An excellent shop in Hoddesdon called books@hoddesdon has branched out. Every month it invites an author to visit, and such visitors have included Jeremy Paxman, who came a few months ago, and Alan Titchmarsh. The shop rents out the Civic Hall and sells tickets… to people who want to meet and listen to the authors. Of course, the authors are delighted to turn up, because they sell thousands of signed copies of their books.”
Alan Jeffery said: “We were obviously very flattered as Hoddesdon’s local bookseller to be getting this kind of acknowledgement at national level.” |
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Opening Times
Hoddesdon
Mon, Tues, Weds, Fri 9:30am - 5:00pm
Thurs 9:30am - 2:00pm
Sat 9:30am - 5:00pm
Hertford
Tues to Fri 10:00am - 5:30pm
Sat 9:30am - 5:00pm
For details of future events click here
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