We return to Wigtown and listen to a bookseller’s confessions
Confessions – the blurb
Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. With more than a mile of shelving, real log fires in the shop and the sea lapping nearby, the shop should be an idyll for bookworms.
Unfortunately, Shaun also has to contend with bizarre requests from people who don’t understand what a shop is, home invasions during the Wigtown Book Festival and Granny, his neurotic Italian assistant who likes digging for river mud to make poultices.
Once more, again
I’d read The Diary of a Bookseller last year and really enjoyed it. Confessions picks up where Diary left off and provides much more of the same thing. Familiar faces return alongside some fantastic new ones (What a character Granny is). Bythell captures the lows and….lows of a bookseller whilst retaining his sense of humor. It’s non fiction but you almost forget that you are reading about real people. Despite this, Confessions is more emotional than Diary with Bythell going through quite a turbulent time personally. It was all handled very sensitively and I really do hope Anna, Granny and Nicky remain his friends.
Reading Confessions felt very much like putting on your favorite jumper. It’s warm, familiar and comforting. Thanks My Bythell, I loved it. Oh and I now own Three Things You Need To Know About Rockets (if you know, you know).
