Places to Visit

This year spring seemed to hold off forever but with blossom everywhere in Britain it has me thinking about antiques for the garden. While I was hunting on the web for something else I came across a delightful post all about Seed Box Antques in Missouri. You can read all about them HERE at their blog.

Following on from my comments about the brilliant Chorleywood Bookshop and how well they are doing, despite what many feel is a difficult time for independent bookshops, there is an article in last Friday's Guardian about Foyles in Charing Cross Road, the well established London bookshop that is not far from our new offices in Shaftsbury Avenue. Foyles is another shop that is bucking the trend; instead of following the lead of Waterstones and the departed Borders (who incidentally had a shop right opposite Foyles) they are selling books at full price and not indulging in the 3 for 2 or big discounting models of their competitors. Pivotal to Foyles' strategy is making their main shop, as well as others around London, lovely environments in which to spend time.

I think they have got it just right. The fact is that people who love books, people who buy books for themselves and as gifts want to make their book buying a great experience it’s not like going on a super market trolley dash to fill your basket as quickly as possible and as full as possible. To succeed bookshops have to offer something very different from their online competitors and from supermarkets. Naturally Foyles and many independents offer a far greater range of books. They also offer knowledge and the all-important service.

There is a bright future for bookshops, it's just not necessarily in the ways that perhaps we had become used to in the last ten years or so since there was a change of emphasis in the high street. Read more of the very interesting article HERE.

The iconic advertising campaign that was instituted by New York back in the 1970s is still a powerful piece of branding. . .it's a bit like a marketing equivalent of a collectable! I say this because a friend recently told me she was planning a trip to New York and was going to investigate visiting some antique shops. She also told me that the I Love NY web site has some useful links on antiques. You can find it HERE

It was the 19th Century poet Matthew Arnold that coined the phrase 'dreaming spires' to describe the Oxford skyline. "And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty's heightening." I need very little encouragement to visit Oxford but I've just seen in the Daily Telegraph that the Asmolean, Oxfords 300 year old university museum is reopening having had some rebuilding work;  in particular there's a new atrium. You can read about it HERE, then you should plan a visit. It's on my list of things to do when I get shot of this cast on my leg.

I've just had a lovely chat with Susan Schneider owner of Shandell’s of Millerton NY. Shandell's specialise in vintage lighting and are to be found at a restored gas station on Route 22 two hours north of Manhattan in the north of Duchess County. Susan also reclaims industrial artefacts from the 19th & 20th centuries and turns them into lamps; they are, as she says, "Things that make you smile.". I'm certainly going to drop in to see her when I drive up to Hudson to see my great friend Fayal Greene.