A much loved bookshop has clocked up 50 years serving the community, and all while its been in the ownership of the same lady.
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00:00So we're here at Burway Books and Rosalind, this is your baby.
00:04Yes it is.
00:05So 50 years.
00:07Yeah.
00:08Does it feel like 50 years?
00:09It's very, it's very.
00:11Sometimes it feels a long time, other times it just feels like yesterday.
00:15Yeah, and pretty much, I mean you were just literally a couple of doors down and then on this site.
00:20So this little mini stretch, 50 years trading.
00:23You must have seen so many different people come through the doors over the years.
00:29Have some of them become friends?
00:30Yes.
00:31Yeah.
00:32Yes.
00:33Like the two who work with me, Lucy and Carey.
00:35Yeah, there's a lovely kind of friendly vibe in the shop, I'm picking that up.
00:39And is it, are your customers mostly Shropshire folk, mostly visitors to the town? How's it work?
00:44We're here for everyone, from wherever.
00:48And we were saying, have you worked out, you know, where you rate in the oldest Shropshire bookshops?
00:54Single ownership, possibly.
00:58Possibly the oldest, yeah, yeah.
00:59So there's Castle Bookshops in Ludlow, but it's had a couple of different owners, hasn't it?
01:03So how did you first get into the bookshop game 50 years ago?
01:07How did I get into it?
01:08It was because my parents always, every school holiday, took us to Oxford or Cambridge or Durham,
01:17anywhere where there was a big, good bookshop.
01:20And my father kept moaning, there wasn't a good bookshop in Shropshire.
01:25But in Shropshire.
01:26And he wanted, I don't know, something niggled in the back of my brain,
01:32because I love books hidden under the covers, bed covers.
01:36Yeah.
01:37Secret Garden, Heidi, and all sorts of other books to finish them.
01:42I mean, my parents, I'm sure, knew I had a torch.
01:45Yeah.
01:46Doing all that.
01:47But I had this mission in life to read everything.
01:52Wow.
01:54I realised I couldn't read everything, so I'd had a bookshop instead.
01:56Yeah, yeah.
01:57And that's how it started.
01:58Well, you were saying you've got a Shropshire book there,
02:01just to kind of represent there's a good selection of local books and local authors.
02:05Local books, local history.
02:06Yeah.
02:07It's, well, the history of the Marches is fantastic.
02:11Yeah.
02:12Always keeps giving.
02:13Who is our most successful Shropshire author that's still about?
02:17Is there anyone that stands out?
02:19Most successful author that's still about?
02:22That is a very good question.
02:27At the moment, I'd say it was probably Annie Garthwaite with Cecily.
02:30Okay, yeah.
02:31Interesting.
02:32But that's in the last three or four years.
02:35Yeah, yeah.
02:36Before that, who were the authors?
02:43Sadly, most of them, like Mary Webb, were generations before.
02:48Yeah, yeah.
02:49But we keep selling their books.
02:50I mean, obviously, Howard Smith, Shropshire lad, although he was a Worcester man.
02:53Yeah.
02:54He wrote about Shropshire.
02:55Wilfred Owen's poems keep selling.
02:58You know, he was born in Oxford Street, lived in Shrewsbury.
03:01Yeah.
03:04So we've got some good classics that are still...
03:06We've got some very good classics.
03:08An amazing book about Shropshire and literature, not literacy, but literature.
03:18One interesting thing about Housman, an American author, Willa Cather, early 20th century author,
03:31she actually came to Shropshire to follow the trail of a Shropshire lad.
03:37Yeah.
03:38From Shrewsbury Station over the Longman.
03:41And I had no idea that she'd ever been to Shropshire when I was first reading her.
03:46Oh, wow.
03:48That was mind-blowing.
03:49Yeah.
03:51Some of my customers, quite famous.
03:54Certainly Mr. Pete Hussleswaite.
03:57Oh, yeah, yeah.
03:58He was a customer.
03:59And he was lovely, adorable.
04:03What sort of stuff was he into then?
04:05I can't tell you.
04:06Yeah, it's like attending a doctor's appointment.
04:09Your secrecy is confidentiality.
04:12No, no, that's a confidence.
04:13Yeah.
04:14So, Secret Gone's one of your favourites there.
04:18It's always been a favourite.
04:19Do you still read much now?
04:21Yes.
04:22Yeah?
04:23Yes.
04:24I read for enjoyment.
04:25I also read to work.
04:26You have to do both.
04:27Of course.
04:28You have to have a balance.
04:29Yeah.
04:30Balance approach.
04:31So, how is business?
04:32You know, things change 50 years.
04:34Does it vary?
04:35Yes.
04:36Some things are the same.
04:37And in fact, I didn't realise until this year that The Times bestseller list came out, first came out in 1974.
04:45Yeah.
04:46Oh, wow.
04:47Just before I opened the bookshop.
04:48Yeah.
04:49When I started the business, I hadn't a clue what a bestseller was.
04:53Yeah.
04:54First bestseller was a book about Jenny Churchill, who was Winston Churchill's mother.
05:00Yeah.
05:01So, since then, there have been various amazing bestsellers, but also books that should have been bestsellers and weren't.
05:08Yeah, yeah.
05:09I guess it's like when we look back at some of the, what we call classic songs,
05:14you realise they only got to like number 20 in the charts and that.
05:17You can't quite believe it sometimes, can you?
05:18No, you can't believe that.
05:19Why isn't, why wasn't that?
05:21Yeah.
05:22So, what, is there a book that you've loved over the years, but didn't really do much commercially?
05:29Is there one of those that comes to mind?
05:31Not really.
05:32No.
05:33I do promote things.
05:34There's a book by someone called Haris Vasili, if I can say it correctly, called The H Life, which is an amazing book.
05:43I love books about Russia.
05:44Okay.
05:45Russian literature, like Tolstoy.
05:46Yeah.
05:47It's just mind-blowing.
05:51Yeah.
05:52Because it's set in Georgia, but it's the 20th century through the Russian Revolution and through to Perestroika and beyond.
06:02Yeah.
06:03All through the lives of one family.
06:06If anybody hasn't read it, I do urge them to read The H Life.
06:09Interesting.
06:10So, let's take it to a kind of a more local.
06:13We've said about the age of books, some of the bookshops in Shropshire.
06:17Are there many businesses in Church Stretton that have been under the same ownership for 50 years?
06:21I should imagine there's a few, is there?
06:24There's one or two.
06:25Oh, that's nice.
06:26That's nice to hear.
06:27Yeah, yeah.
06:28So, any signs of shutting the door and packing up?
06:31I'm not allowed.
06:32You're not?
06:33My customers won't allow it.
06:34Yeah.
06:35So, that's it.
06:36No retirement for you, I'm afraid.
06:38No, no.
06:40Shall we go in and say hello to the girls who work with you?
06:42Introduce us then.
06:43Come and say hello to Kerry and Lucy.
06:45Cool.
06:46Hello.
06:47Yes, ladies.
06:48Yes.
06:49You can't run.
06:50How are you ladies?
06:51You okay?
06:52We're fine.
06:53We're fine.
06:54So, we've got Kerry on our left ear and then Lucy.
06:57How you doing?
06:58Kerry, you've got some great little things in the shop.
07:01We'll zoom in on the video.
07:02There's some special made jewellery.
07:04Just talk us through on what we've got there.
07:07Yeah, it's magical that.
07:09Okay.
07:10That's great.
07:11So, it's a necklace little bookshop.
07:14You've got the earring sporting yourself.
07:17Little dragons.
07:18Fantastic.
07:19Little dragons.
07:20Book dragons.
07:21What about your favourite kind of books then, ladies?
07:23What's the recommendations from yourselves?
07:25Well, I like sci-fi and fantasy.
07:27So, anything that's a bit otherworldly is always good.
07:29Yeah, yeah.
07:31Most recently...
07:33Putting you under pressure, I know.
07:35So, when it comes to sci-fi, I mean, I've watched a lot of sci-fi films,
07:39but funnily enough, the world of sci-fi books,
07:41I've not really delved into that.
07:43You're missing out, sir.
07:45I'm missing out.
07:46Yeah, yeah.
07:47What's a good sci-fi book then to get me started if I was picking one?
07:53Ursula Le Guin's good.
07:55Yeah.
07:56Anne McCaffrey.
07:57If you want to go old school, go with Anne McCaffrey.
08:00Off the top of my head, I cannot think of...
08:02No, that's a couple to go.
08:04Right, Lucy, you've had a moment to think.
08:06Go on.
08:07Give us a couple of books that you've enjoyed over the years.
08:09I recently found that I really enjoy the Eddie Griffiths books,
08:12the Dr. Ruth Galloway crime.
08:14It's low-key crime.
08:16Yeah.
08:17They're really...
08:18It's an easy read.
08:19Yeah.
08:20Takes your mind off of other things.
08:22Great stuff.
08:23Well, thank you, ladies.
08:24And a round of applause for Lucy.
08:29Thank you, ladies.
08:30And Rosalind.
08:31Where is she?
08:32Hello.
08:33Thank you ever so much for inviting us down there.
08:35And you've even got special cakes for customers, little book cakes.
08:39Someone's dropped off some flowers for you as well.
08:41You can have a cake if you like.
08:43I might take one for the road, actually.
08:45Thank you, guys.
08:46Well, all the best.
08:47And here's to another 50 years for the shop.
08:49Rosalind's thinking, I'm too tired.
08:52Cheers, guys.
08:54Cheers.