A Saturday at October Books

Hello all

This is the first in a series of more personal blogs from October Books, blogs which tell you the everyday stories of life in an independent, community owned, radical bookshop. I’m Clare and have been involved with the shop since 2016, when myself and three others took on the running of the business. We have come a long way since then (and moved 400 yards up the road!) and this feels the time to start sharing some of the more personal experiences of being involved in October Books. 

This Saturday was one that I was working at the shop, Jonny having a well deserved week off. I wasn’t due in until 2pm, but we had a Plant swap and sale so I went in around 10.30am to help set up. Jutta, one of our gardening volunteers, had arrived with many seedlings and I helped her get the table out. In the middle of putting up the table someone dressed as a large purple house (with net curtains!) arrived.

Sarah, from Hastings Rental Health Housing Co-operative is walking the length and breadth of the UK, carrying all her gear and dressed in a 3-D rendition of the housing co-ops logo. Fed up with not getting a fair deal from landlords for decades and seeing increasing second home ownership in Hastings pricing those on local wages out of the housing market, Sarah is raising awareness and funds for the co-op to put together a business plan to support their purchase of affordable housing.

Sarah shared stories from her walk along the South Coast so far and mentioned the idea of a Public Living Room, a welcoming, no-agenda place for folk to sit down with a cuppa, have a chat, and feel more human, something that sounds like it might work well at October Books (a bit of research shows we already have one in Southampton, at Oasis Academy, Mayfield).

I left Sarah for a quick check-in with Jutta and Nye (one of our other gardening volunteers) that all was well with the plant swap. A quiet day but some good chats with passersby. What happened next in my day was an unexpected conversation with a colleague about whether October Books is still true to our radical roots, with concern over the recent criticism from supporters and a feeling that we aren’t as vocal as we could be in supporting those whose voices are not heard. Having had a ponder about this conversation I realise that I spend most of my time making sure we have a viable organisation from which we can provide support to other … which often leaves me little energy to support my own activism. What we need are others who want to be a part of all that we are if we want to maintain this energy. Something for me, the team and our members to think about over the coming weeks.

Back to our visitor from Hastings. After finishing her cup of team and leaving a note about her travels on our ‘Take off with out taking off’ wall of ideas, Sarah headed off to Glastonbury. As I wandered out to the community space to eat my lunch before taking over the front of house role I passed an older child looking at some of the plants left over in the corridor… ‘Do you need help with anything?’ I asked ‘No, I’m just looking’ was the reply. Five minutes later I wandered back through the corridor and they were still ‘just looking’ so I encouraged them to squeeze the leaves of the peppermint plant we had and they told me all about the spring onions, beans, tomatoes and more that they were growing in a corner of their grandparents’ garden. Their passion for growing and eating the produce was so heartwarming and a wonderful reminder of the effects of a connection to nature. ‘I’m going to ask my dad for a pound’ they said as they disappeared back into the shop ‘so I can buy a peppermint plant’ 🙂 

All this and I hadn’t actually started my shift at the shop yet! 

I hope this first more personal blog gives you some idea of the incredible things that happen at October Books, the stories that we hear and become a part of each and every day. More blogs to follow over the coming weeks so watch this space .

Clare