We were interested to read that “Bookshops in big city centres … are wary of taking risks” (Editorial, 23 August), and that this autumn’s harvest includes books by Ant and Dec, Jilly Cooper and Arsène Wenger, which have the potential to narrow sales further. In the city centre bookshop that I run, Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham, stocking these would certainly be risky, as we’d probably sell none of them.
You warn that a coronavirus effect should not lead to more inequalities in publishing, in terms of, for example, women’s rights and race and class relations. Indeed, but some city centre bookshops see these issues as lifetime concerns – eg News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Lighthouse (Edinburgh), Housmans (London), October Books (Southampton) and of course Five Leaves. Seven out of 10 of our current bestsellers are by people of colour and two are poetry books.
Nor are these concerns solely those of city centre shops. Others such as Scarthin Bookshop in Cromford, Derbyshire, Sam Read in Grasmere and Woodbridge Emporium in Suffolk operate on a wider canvas than you suggest. Of course, we all stock Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood too.
Ross Bradshaw
Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham
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