BYOB&BTS

We were fortunate indeed with the weather on the evening of 12 July, when we held our first post-lockdown Bring Your Own Bottle & Book to Swap event.

Social distancing concerns prompted us to hold the event outside, where guests could spread out to chat, enjoy nibbles, and sip at their chosen potions.

Our book swap table filled with a fascinating array of volumes; ranging from Paul Auster (signed!) to Poems on the Underground. There were some very recent books, too, including Antigone Rising and The Weekend - who reads that quickly? We asked people to describe their books as puddings, which provoked some thoughtful chin-stroking as well as chuckles.

Thanks to everyone who came along - and thanks to the weather gods for providing such a nice evening!

Final Prep before Opening the Doors . . .

The R rate has stayed below 1, apparently, and shops around the country are allowed to open.

We’ve invited members of our Readers Club to make appointments this week, giving them an advance peak at the newly-renovated shop. And also giving us a chance to re-learn the rusty skills of operating a cash register, recording sales, running the machine that takes card payments . . .

Automata!

With just over a week to go before we are allowed to re-open, we enjoyed a the installation of a new Prospero’s Project automata!

This light-up, moving installation was created for us by Paul Harrison, a Lewes-based artist, creator, tinkerer and inventor.

All coins fed into the delightful device will go to our social enterprise. Come along to witness the magic for yourself!

Everything is Behind the Scenes right Now

It isn’t too late at all for us to decide on some big changes - but most of our work now is on a small scale. We’re not moving sections, we’re organising them. We’re not shifting bookcases, we’re dusting them (again).

The devil is in the details, so we’re thinking about little things. Signange, identifying sections, wording. Does this book go here. . . or there?

Colour is going on, too - Will Emmett from The Dressing Room has been helping (in a socially distant way) with displays and painting. When you visit Prospero’s Project a lot of what you first see will be his work - Will decorated the room with paper flowers and leaves on heart of oak staves, and painted a round table where we can share some of our personal accumulation of bookarts.

He also created a Prospero’s Project diorama, downstairs near our counter - an amazing display complete with Prospero himself in his island library!

The Sun Shines on our Outdoor Bookcases

This week was dominated (in our feelings, anyway) by the arrival of two cartons with a book we love, Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth. We quickly arranged for one of our mini-flock, Bully Girl, to pose with the book. (We also printed letterpress bookmarks - a clear indication of how much we love the book!)

We also spent time in our Shepherds Hut, re-arranging it into a haven of non-fiction. And we began to populate our outdoor bookcases, too.

Opening the Cabin!

Is it lonely in a bookshop without customers?

Well, yes. A bit. But on the other hand there is plenty to distract us: Sections to shift and organise; research to be done; databases to be updated; chickens to spoil . . .

Amid the ongoing online confusion (our poor distributors have been open . . . then closed . . . and now partly kind-of-sort-of open again-ish), it is very satisfying to work with physical things. Seeing bookcases filled and orderly is no small delight. Knowing they will stay that way for some time to come modifies the pleasure a bit.

We’ve put in a couple of hours in our new cabin, filling shelves. It looks splendid - clean and fresh and alluring; our Italian bookcase chairs will be a great place to perch in coming months! We like it so much we’ve taken down the paper covering the front window, so everyone can peer through our gate and see what is waiting for them.

And we’ve not neglected the hens. With a new fence in place we can let them out of their spacious home, to roam the yard. And sometimes join us while we work in the barn. Spoiled!? Who said that?

Goodbye to the Work Crew (for now)

We knew the day would come when Mark Martin and his crew would finish. And now, it has: The drilling, hammering, measuring (twice), sawing, painting, hefting . . . done.

They leave behind a transformed shop, with a brilliant new book cabin; a private room for Prospero’s Project, where we can share our personal accumulation of book arts; a new apartment for visiting authors and artists; a new fence (to protect visitors from our voracious hens); and many other changes and alterations for you to discover.

Here are photos from the last days of construction - including pics of the gang with some favourite recent books. We’re grateful for their hard work - and we are sure they’ll be back . . .

Automata Assembly

We’ve asked Lewes-based artist Paul Harrison to create something new and wonderful for us to share with customers – his workshop is a fantasia of bits and pieces as he puts together what promises to be an amazing automata!

Inside, a Forest Grows

Interiors consultant Will Emmett (also known for amazing vintage clothes at his shop The Dressing Room) has been helping us put together the new Book Arts room, Prospero’s Project . . .

New Home for Books Shaping Up

Relentless rain and gusty weather has not put off our construction crew; siding is going on our new book room.

Inside, cases have moved into their final positions. Probably. Stacks of cartons wait to disgorge their books onto shelves when for the new book space is done. In the barn, our antiquarian books have been sorted so we can find them when online orders reach us.

 
 

Printing Gaiman

Our Adana press has - like everything else! - shifted place; the new printing area is part of our first floor bookarts room.

Amidst the moderate chaos we wanted to undertake a card printing project, and cast about for a suitable quote. Neil Gaiman came up with a charming, heartfelt and true-feeling sentence for us.

A test print showed that I managed to fit in an astonishing number of mistakes. But none were fatal, and it only required two more tries (!) to rectify all of them. We quite like the result, printed in Universe (12 point). Maybe it is good enough to sell in the new shop?

 
 

Bookroom Begins

While bookcases have shifted - sometimes more than once - and as a result entire sections of books have found themselves in new homes.

Meantime, the construction team has tackled plans for a new bookroom situated in our entranceway. The temporary structure will be neat, clean, dry and filled with wonderful books. At the moment is in mainly an outline and an idea or two - when Jacqueline Wilson dropped by she was just in time to test a new Italian-designed chair we’ll be filling with books . . . eventually!

 
 

Fencing

When we reopen, part of our yard will still be available for book browsers. But the barn and part of the yard will be reserved for guests - and chickens. A new fence will keep browsers and fowl separate, protecting both (those hens can be vicious!), and our contractor has begun the work on it . . .

Meanwhile, Holly is working on the collection of bookarts that we’ll be sharing in a new room . . .

Coming Down . . .

Unexpected advances this week: Our intrepid contractor had time to lower two large bookcases through a trapdoor in our barn.

That let us put one of them in place, shift other bookcases, move books . . . and feel as if progress is being made!

Closed for Renovations

The year crawled in with the village shut to thorough-traffic. Late in December flooding shut the main road; in January, it was human intervention: A new water supply.

Anticipating a quiet time, we decided to use the first quarter of the year to renovate, re-jig and generally move all the dust around. Following a massive book sale we shut, and immediately began the destruction process: Books shifted, stacked, packed, heaped, examined. Bookcases drifted from their moorings; tables and chairs joined the tide of movement. Within two weeks new paint livened two walls in the barn, and plans were starting to form . . .