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| Nottingham's great trove of books. Image courtesy of Jermy & Westerman. |
Support your local bookshop. It's a simple maxim but one which I feel is often ignored or overlooked by many, myself included, when it comes to finding the next novel to read. However, I'm going to try and make a pledge that before I buy anything from an online retailer (that may or may not be named after a South American river) or popping into a chain which could be on any highstreet in any city, I will check in one of Nottingham's great independents first.
Nottingham is well resourced for bookshops and other purveyors of reading materiel. There's the radically rooted Five Leaves near the Council House or the stonkingly hip Ideas on Paper at Cobden Chambers, both hidden up their own little literary alley. The quirky Bookwise on Goose Gate, where all the profits support local music charity Music for Everyone. The idiosyncratic Books and Pieces hidden up in West End Arcade, opposite the city's main Angel Row library. If you're into comics and graphic novels there's Page 45 on Market Street - a few doors down from an Oxfam Books and Music - or the new space for Mondo Comico on Mansfield Road, shared with a board games cafe. But, for me, there's only one place that could have struck me with this notion and that is a bit further up Mansfield Road and the superb Jermy and Westerman (see note 1 also at the bottom of the page).
Established in 1978, Jermy and Westerman, is an Aladdin's cave of literary wonders and an oasis of calm for bibliophiles. The shop is owned by father and son
- Geoff & Richard Blore - who still do most of the staffing too, which includes making tea and coffee for thirsty book browsers. The shop covers two floors and has an eclectic
collection covering all subjects from popular reading to rare and interesting
books, magazines and comics.
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| The storefront of Jermy & Westerman on Mansfield Road. Image courtesy of Jermy & Westerman. |
On Saturday, Cáit (my partner) and I went to J&W after braving Nottingham on a Saturday morning - never a pretty sight. After a quick browse in the history section, I found Frank Friedel's 1990 single volume Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny. For only a fiver, it was an easy one to convince myself of and I have already (Monday evening) read the first three chapters. So, I found a book that I know I'd like (and subsequently have done), for a fair price, read the new LeftLion, which includes an interview with me!, and was able to have a lovely cafetiere coffee too whilst I was there. All of these things are a cut above the chains, but this wasn't the clincher. When buying the book, Richard told me the story behind the book and where he'd got it.
My copy of FDR:aRwD (snappy, huh?) belonged to Nottingham University academic Robert Frazier. Frazier was an American who had served in the Army in World War II, married an English woman and moved to the UK, writing a PhD thesis on the Greek civil war, which ran from 1946-49. Richard had bought his collection of academic books from his widow following Robert's death and it gave me a small thrill to know that a book that belonged to an American academic who had called Nottingham home will be helping me with my trip to his, and FDR's, homeland.
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| The new shelves and coffee corner at J&W. Image courtesy of Jermy and Westerman. |
This is what mainly prompted my resolution - you don't get this personal touch in other stores. As well as supporting local businesses by giving them increased custom (I hope), I also find new stories and tales of Nottingham hidden in the history of the pages and memories of those who had owned or purchased those books before. Call me an old romantic, but that's something you don't put a price on!
PS: Give J&W a follow on Facebook or Instagram. It's very much worth it if you like pictures of books!
1 - we also have a Waterstones and a Blackwells but these could be anywhere - Waterstones do some good events and have employed some friends of mine but the shop's roots aren't here and never feel like they will do. The Fopp in Nottingham also used to have a great selection of poppy, pulpy stuff at knockdown prices but this all stopped when Fopp was bought out by HMV and the cavernous warehouse-like shop on King Street was turned into yet another BBQ restaurant and Fopp, with a much diminished books section, was relegated to a poky shop in a pretty deserted Broadmarsh.