From The Book Collector (Winter 2009, volume 58, no.4)
[In September 2009 Nicholas Dennys sold his London business. He had opened his shop, near Gloucester Road tube station, in 1983, and it became a neighbourhood fixture, notable for its all-too-rare catalogues and, particularly, for its hospitably long hours of opening.]
The new buyer of the shop is Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly. The Gloucester Road Bookshop, now under the management of Tony Smith, formerly of Heywood Hill, will be rebranded under the magazine’s name (and as ‘The Real Reader’s Bookshop’) in Spring 2010. Slightly Foxed was launched in 2003 by Gail Pirkis, a publisher formerly with John Murray, and sells itself as ‘a rather unusual form of book review, informal and independent-minded’, and consisting of articles of ‘personal recommendation’ (by established writers, journalists, booksellers and publishers) that are not confined to titles on publishers’ current schedules. She forecasts that new titles will, similarly, only account for around 20 per cent of the bookshop stock – the rest being ‘really good’ second-hand books. ‘We are going back to the old-fashioned type of bookselling, with knowledgeable staff who know their stock,’ she told The Bookseller. ‘The indie bookseller is set for a return for various reasons: people value a knowledgeable bookseller, they like an individual shop which does not look the same as every other, and they are tired of the hard sell.’
This is a bold and imaginative venture. The winter issue of Slightly Foxed contains pieces on 84, Charing Cross Road. At 123 Gloucester Road, perhaps, a new Frank Doel will emerge at the desk.