First and Foremost – 1 February 2025

I have been accused, not unjustly, of burying the lead in my previous newsletter. In case you missed it, we are moving round the corner to new premises.

In case you prefer to take the longer path to prepare for change, alongside a snail and via Dr Seuss, last week’s newsletter can be read here.

This weekend is your last chance to visit us in the Clifton Arcade. By next Saturday you will find us at 7a Regent Street. As such, we are offering 10% off everything bought in the shop this weekend – that’s off the prices: you will get 100% of the pages – and we may resemble headless chickens rather than heraldic herons as we prepare for The Big Move. Both of us are eating our Weetabix ready to shift a lot of boxes; one of us may also need to swallow The Little Book of Calm.  

Providing calm and laughter this week for me is a book about failing to become the lead: Second Best by David Foenkinos. Accompanying his father to work, which happens to be the set of the film Notting Hill, Martin is spotted by a casting director. Before Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has even been published, David Heyman has auditioned hundreds of children for the rôle to no avail. Now, here, unquestionably, is Harry Potter, sitting across the room with messy black hair and round glasses. He insists that the young Martin audition for the rôle.

Martin’s hopes are raised. Multiple auditions go well. His talents emerge. He is off to great places. And then he is not.

Martin Hill and Daniel Radcliffe are almost perfect equals. The latter has the slightest edge. The directors cannot explain what it is. On this ineffable thing, Martin’s future hinges. The rejection traumatises him.

The story and its considerations of fate and luck are profound and silly in ideal measure. Sometimes being second best is for the best.

This week has been full of doppelgängers. At the fiction book group, we discussed The Other Name, the first volume of Jon Fosse’s exploration of art and thus of humanity. Asle is a painter, preparing for his next exhibition and contemplating whether his latest work is finished. While doing so he thinks of his friend, a painter called Asle.

He ought to visit him, he thinks, ought to check in on him while he is in town. In the mundane, cyclical, shopping-list-dominated parts of a day is the stuff of life, is the suffering of life, whether one is destined to be the next Daniel Radcliffe, the next Hans Gude or the next person to offer quiet companionship to an isolated neighbour.

Exploring similar themes of empathy and how to live, as well as how to be a cowgirl The Legend of the Wild West Twins by Jodie Lancet-Grant, illustrated by Katie Cottle introduces twins Buffalo Lil and Buffalo Jill. They may be identical but they could not be more different. Fortunately, they can work together to expose poor sportsmanship in a wild west contest.

Lil and Jill are the kind of people one wants on hand when moving a shop, I think. We will be closed for at least Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the most intense game of Tetris I have ever played. (Poetry Book Club attendees, do not fear: we will hit pause on this game on Wednesday afternoon in favour of another, the Super Mario-inspired poetry collection of Stephen Sexton’s If All the World and Love Were Young.)

Official opening day is Saturday 8 February. From 9.30, we will have sweet treats supplied by East Village Café.* From 4.45, the champagne corks begin popping. At 5pm we will be toasting Heron Books, Volume II with a glass of something and a short poetry reading from Bob Walton. You are warmly invited to join us.   

Before then, we look forward to a weekend of reminiscence (remember when Danny Dyer came in? Remember when I rugby tackled a shoplifter? Nope.) and antici…**

May your weekend offer an extra 11.1% of enjoyment,
Lizzie

* I cannot promise that these will last beyond 9.35. East Village’s baked goods are simply the best, no second about it.
**pation

Opening hours:
This weekend we are open as usual in the Clifton Arcade
Monday 3-Wednesday 5: closed for moving
Thursday 6 and Friday 7: watch this space and wish us luck; perhaps there will be a soft opening
Saturday 8: opening day
Our opening hours in the new shop will be:
Monday-Saturday: 9.30-5.30
Sunday: 11-4