Andrea Saunders
Andrea Saunders (Manager of Dartmouth Bookshop)
Born in Okehampton, Andrea’s father Ernest was a policeman, meaning the family moved town every few years. When she was four years old the family moved to Strete where Ernest was Sergeant and she remembers coming into Dartmouth and being allowed to go to Pillars to choose a book to read – a real treat.
Later her father became an Inspector in Totnes, where Andrea was to settle.
On leaving school, rather than going on to further education she began working in a nursery school where she wrote stories to read to the children. However, soon the council demanded that all those who worked in their nurseries had a teaching qualification. Andrea was left searching around for a job.
“I went to work in the Totnes Bookshop,” she said. “When I first went there I wasn’t very enthusiastic but within two weeks I was wondering why I hadn’t done it before! I loved helping people choose books to read.
“Before I started working at the bookshop I wasn’t the world’s biggest reader, so it definitely encouraged me to read more. It was actually great fun – especially when we had older ladies coming in asking for ‘sexy’ books!”
Andrea stayed in Totnes for 13 years, rising to the role of shop manager.
She was then struck by tragedy. Her fiancé drowned when on holiday in Sri Lanka. Suddenly she felt she wanted to get away from Totnes as ‘there were too many memories’.
She soon found that the bookshop community in the South Hams was closer than you might expect.
“Bruce Coward of the Dartmouth Harbour Bookshop wanted to open a shop in Kingsbridge and the staff at Dartmouth were keen to move there. The book company reps all knew I wanted to leave Totnes and Bruce found out. In 1984 he offered me the manager role in Dartmouth which had a flat above the shop as part of the deal. It was a completely new beginning for me, I jumped at the chance.”
The Harbour Bookshop was started by Christopher Milne in 1951 and sold to Bruce and Nicolette Coward in 1981. The famous man still spent a lot of time around the shop, Andrea remembers.
“He ran the shop for 30 years, and still loved to pop in,” she said. “He used to go upstairs and write. He was always the perfect gentleman and very, almost painfully, shy. Americans often used to come in looking for him and he used to plead with us not to let them know he was in. I think he had some bitterness that his father had sold the rights to Winnie the Pooh and created this burden for him – he was always ‘Christopher Robin.’”
Andrea continued to work and enjoy her time in Dartmouth and little changed when the shop was sold to Rowland Abram in 1999. There were problems for booksellers across the country as discounted books started to flood the market but the Harbour Bookshop continued as it always had.
Then, in 2011, the owners of the building that housed the bookshop decided they wanted to redevelop the property, meaning the closure of the business.
“The closure was just devastating,” Andrea said. “It was probably the worst year of my life. The build up was dreadful – people were coming to see us in tears, we were all in tears, the whole stock was selling for 50 per cent off or less.
“We closed in September 2011 but in the background the community bookshop was being set up. They negotiated to take empty premises as a storeroom and took shelves and the computers from the closing shop. The next thing I know I was asked to pull together stock for a new shop, opening at the beginning of December! I took the computer home and used it to order stock – it was a rush but very exciting. We opened without a telephone connection so I had to write down everything we sold and order it at home in the evening!
“Without the computer it wouldn’t have been possible – we had the ordering systems and a customer database. That database was vital as we had such a lot of goodwill in the community. People have been wonderfully supportive and we have gone from strength to strength over the last two years.”
Andrea seems wonderfully content, still selling books to the same community after three decades.
“It feels wonderful,” she said. “It’s so nice to keep a bookshop in the community. I’ve seen children come in to buy books, then come in with their children and now even with their grandchildren! It shows that the town loves reading and really deserves a good bookshop.”
First published By The Dart March 2014