The Bill and other exciting news.

Exciting times in the shop at the moment. Firstly we have added five new bookcases upstairs, this area is not open for general book browsing at the moment though if a customer asks for certain types of book, they can be escorted by a member of staff to this area. It is hoped that now we have extra shelving plus the hope that we will get even more shelving in the future, this area will once again be open for general browsing during shop opening hours.

The addition of the bookcases we've added so far means that we can now display all our poetry and plays for easy searching if we get requests plus of course, customers can ask to view the poetry and plays if they cannot find what they are looking for downstairs.

On the office side of the upstairs area, these bookcases have meant that we can file all our literary works, again for ease of search plus it means our most popular literary sections downstairs are easier to restock as existing stock is sold.

On the donations front, this week we have had some exciting donations that will require specialist valuation, more on this when they are valued and put on sale.

In the shop itself.

Our window display of Military History has gone really well, exceeding all expectations therefore we still have a partial window display as it is still generating much interest and sales. In the other half of the main window we now have Local History books on display. This display only went up last week and already it has generated a lot of interest and sales from this have been very good.

In our display cabinets we have some fine Norwich City FC printed memorabilia with an official 'Scrapbook' being the most interesting.

We also have a script from the ITV series 'The Bill' on display in the cabinet. This is signed by several members of the cast along with photos of the cast and the official 'The Bill' bible. I don't imagine this will stay in the shop very long as this is a popular TV series with many fans that would like to own this piece of TV memorabilia.

Finally:

The shop is gearing up for the Book-Fest that Oxfam hold every year. This year we will be having a book-swap in the shop. This means that you can bring in one (or more) of your books and swap it for one (or more) of our specially stickered books without charge! More details as we approach the Book-Fest.

Nice new window displays

Well, our Military History is going down a storm after we redressed the window on Tuesday. I know everyone in the shop would like to thank everyone that has browsed and bought books from this extensive display. We would also like to thank the donor of the books who wishes to remain anonymous for such a wonderful donation.

Our other window has also had a facelift and now our music is much more prominent with more to view from outside the window.

We also recently took delivery of some lovely new stationary which is now on sale in the shop.

Yesterday we had a young lady in the shop asking for some sheet music. She was associated with the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and was on a last minute hunt for props for one of the theatres. After some searching we found her some sheets that she was delighted with as they were also from the period when the play is set. She was worried that the cast members or other backroom staff might damage them as she was a musician and new the value of sheet music whereas some of the other theatre people saw them as just props.

She was back today buying yet more sheet music as her worst fears had come true. The sheets were so of the period that they had done away with their original posters in the box office only to rip the fronts off of the sheet music and used these fronts to design a new box office poster! The poor woman was distraught but happy that we had similar stock so that these sheets could then be used for their original purpose, decorating the set.

Easter Weekend and Beyond

Easter is now rushing upon us and if you have not already bought the Easter Eggs for your loved ones, now is definitely the time to be nipping into the shop to buy yours before they all disappear. We have a fantastic range of Fairtrade Chocolate Easter Eggs and Mini Eggs, our stocks of these are selling fast so visit soon to avoid disappointment.

St Georges Day will soon be with us as well, in fact it is Easter Saturday this year. As mentioned earlier we will have a stall at the St Georges Day Book Festival at St Gregorys Church in Pottergate. Various volunteers will be found there throughout the day to offer advice on what the bookshop has to offer as well as any volunteer opportunities that may be available in the shop. Of course we will have a small selection of our stock on sale at the Book Festival. Please drop by and say hello if you in the Pottergate area this Saturday.

The shop itself has seen something of a small makeover. We now have extra shelving for our Arts collection of books. Included in the extra shelving are more Television and Cinema books along with extra Media and Media Studies, Dramatic Arts and Music books. There is also extra space for our Fine Arts Books with more books to browse and of course purchase.

Over the coming weeks our window display will also be having a makeover. We currently still have a fine collection of Graphic Art Novels in the window but this will soon be making way for something to get you writing to your friends and family as we will be displaying all our new lines of Stationary and any books that are related to this subject.

We are also very excited to say that we will also be having a big display of Military History soon coming to the shop. We recently had a wonderful donation of Military History books and once we have collated all the stock we will be endeavouring to display this collection in the best light possible.

Please drop in and see us any time you are in Bedford Street, you will be assured of a warm welcome and hopefully just the book you are looking for.

Super Heroes Window

The next time you are in Bedford Street, come and take a look at our new window display. We are currently highlighting the marvelous collection of Graphic Art books, Marvel Comics and Super Hero magazines we have to offer. Besides those in the window, there are more facing into the shop from the window display and we also have a large selection of collectable Graphic Art Magazines at the back of the shop above our regular Science Fiction section.

We hope to have something for all Graphic Art collectors and if you cannot see what you are looking for, please ask as we do have other Graphic Art stock available.

The week ending 25/03/2011

After a week of sorting through another batch of fantastic donations by the good public of Norfolk I would like to highlight some of the new items we have for offer on our Abe listings this week.

To start with we have:

The Life of Charles Dickens

The Life of Charles Dickens - 6 volumes complete.

Valued at £340 plus P&P

To read the full listings please visit the linked page above. Of course this collection may also be viewed in our shop on request.

Then we have a lovely copy of Kenneth Williams Autobiography titled ‘Just Williams: An Autobiography’ which is signed by the author. We have this for sale on Abe at £75 plus P&P

Again, to read more detail please visit the linked page and of course this book is also available to view on request in the shop.

After last weeks message we quickly sold the CD collection of Noel Coward Recordings along with other material by Noel Coward to a very happy customer. We all hope he is enjoying his new purchase.

This week the shop has committed itself to running a table at St Georges Day Book Festival which will be held at St Gregorys Church, Pottergate, Norwich. The date to put in your diary is St Georges Day (obviously) 23^rd April 2011. More details will follow about our involvement over the coming weeks.

As always, we look forward to greeting you in the shop when ever you are in our part of the city.