Bookshop of the Month - Drake the Bookshop

 

Bookshop of the Month: May

Drake the Bookshop





Can you tell us more about Drake the Bookshop, why you decided to open a bookshop and how it’s evolved?

Unfortunately, I had fallen out of love with teaching and during a weekend away we came across a bookshop and cafe in Penrith. It seemed like a great place and led to a few conversations about the fact it might be something we could do. The Christmas break of that year our son pointed out that we had spent a long time chatting about opening a bookshop and were we going to do it? Nine months later in September 2015 we opened in a start up hub on Stockton high street in a space 125 square feet. A year later having grown to 250 square feet we moved on to Silver Street into our own shop and from there in 2021 we expanded again and opened the children's shop. 

On your website, you have a definition of a bookshop as a “sanctuary, welcoming place, refuge, treasure trove, portal to other worlds, safe space, beating heart of high street, oasis of calm, community hub.” What do you feel is the significance of a bookshop for a community?

Bookshops are so much more than just a place that sells books. They are spaces where people can gather; where they can come for a quick chat or a long chat; and where they can converse with total strangers about cool things like books. Beyond the four walls of the shop, bookshops, through their engagement with schools, bring reading to life and allow children to discover amazing books; meet their heroes or meet people like them who show it is possible to become an author or an illustrator. Bookshops allow children who love reading to become part of a team in much the same way sports clubs do.


Apart from running your bookshop, you work with local schools and libraries, and organise various events. What does a typical work day look like for you, and what is the most rewarding part of your job?

Blimey! Not sure there is a typical day in the bookshop. The overriding constant would obviously be booking in new titles to put on the shelves. But beyond that there are customers to serve, whether it be ordering the brand new book by their favourite author or trying to find the book that "has a red cover and was in the window there 3 weeks ago" or recommending a new series of books to get started on. Then there are book subscriptions and orders to send off and social media posts to promote and events shop and school to organise and assemblies to plan and do and quotes to send off and books to deliver and book club books to organise and book club evenings and events to arrange the shop for and books to send back. And all of that is before anyone has come in asking for a coffee!

Sometimes too many of these things get in the way of what should be the key focus in the shop and the bit that is the most rewarding: spending time with customers and recommending books and helping them find the next book they or their friends and relatives are going to love. 

What, for you, is special about children's/ YA books?

In the time since we opened the quality and choice of children's and YA books has just exploded. The quality and topic areas and illustrations are incredible and it is a wonderful time to become a reader. I have often said to teachers in the meetings we have that they should all stop reading their usual fiction choices and just read kids' books because they are so brilliant. Long may it continue.
 

What is your connection to the North, and do you feel that encapsulating the “spirit of the North” is important for your bookshop?

I grew up in Scarborough and have lived and taught in Northumberland and on Teesside. The North East is an incredible place and Teesside is a really quirky place. Within 20 minutes you can move from the opening scenes of Blade Runner at Haverton Hill and be standing amongst the greenery of the North Yorkshire Moors or take your shoes off and have a paddle in the sea.

However, it does seem that this part of the North East is a bit of a Bermuda Triangle. People forget the bits between Leeds and Newcastle and we think it is important to remind people, which is in large part why we created the Great North Author Tour and why we keep on shouting from the rooftops about how great it is around here. We promote local and regional authors and have shelves dedicated to the region.

What would you like to see from creative industries in the North?

The creative industries in the North and North East to my mind all have the same issue, and that is that the vast majority of the industry is based in the South East and has no idea of geography. We regularly have discussions with publishers about coming to the North East and "can you get from London to Stockton in a day". We just want more visibility, whether that be more regional authors or more regular visits!


What does the future of your bookshop look like, can you share a little about any projects (like your podcast Quacked Spines!) or events in the works?

The future of the shop looks a little bit like the present of the bookshop but done better, lol. We are looking at becoming a Community Interest Company so we can continue to build on our Solidarity not Charity theme of the shop and our pay it forward scheme.

Quacked Spines came about after listening to Frank Cottrell Boyce and Robin Stevens on Radio4 talking about how small the platform for children's books and reviews is.

From there we started doing brief reviews of children's books that we had read and included snippets from book club members and author interviews as well. When I was young my mum subscribed to a magazine that allowed me to discover the like of Robert Westall, Alan Garner and Philippa Pearce (The Machine Gunners and Tom's Midnight Garden are still among my favourite children's books) and so even if one parent or child has a listen and discovers something new then that is great and just what we had in mind. Check it out and subscribe and follow, you can find it on Spotify.

Drake the Bookshop’s May Book of the Month: James Nicol, Cloud Thief



Published by Chicken House, May 2024

Many of us have seen the huge chimneys at places like Drax Power Station and wondered if that's where actual clouds come from. Well James went a step further and put pen to paper. Mara's village needs rain and the only way to get rain is to get clouds and the only place clouds come from these days are factories! But the cloud they get doesn't look quite right and so Mara, along with her squirrel friend Fidget set off to find out why.

 A fabulous adventure sprinkled with magic and a moral dilemma that leaves the reader considering the state of the planet and global warming.

 This is our Young Bookworms choice for May (meeting Saturday 25th 2pm) and we also discuss it amongst other great books here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/48ikFsEpkRqOM7ej8xuSxH?si=V9AZ24xxSkCx4DTZeiJtMg

You can find Drake the Bookshop on:

Facebook: DRAKEBookshop
Instagram: drakethebookshop


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