November 2018 Bookshop of the Month: Griffin Books (Penarth)

By Liz Robinson | 19th November 2018

I adore the quote on the front page of Griffin Books website… “A town without a bookshop is a town without a soul”, how right this is! Griffin Books in Penarth South Wales is our November bookshop of the month and they have become an established part of the local community. They not only love to match books with people, they also host author talks, hold a weekly children’s story time, run book clubs, and offer a loyalty scheme as well as coffee! Their testimonials page says it all really, it is full of praise for the staff as well as the shop itself.

When was your bookshop born and how did that come about?

Mel Griffin, our current owner, took over the shop in September 2014 so we've just celebrated our 4th birthday! After working in IT for nearly 30 years, Mel decided it was time to do something she'd always wanted to do and open a bookshop. As luck happens, the previous owners of the existing bookshop in Penarth were considering retiring and everything just fell into place.

Tell us about the journey and the changes you have seen over the years.

When Mel took over in 2014, we completely re-branded and the shop became the Griffin Books we know and love today. One of our priorities has been to really engage with the local community of Penarth and significantly step up our events programme, through which we welcome both nationally renowned and local authors to the town throughout the year, as well as introducing regular children's storytime sessions and two book clubs. To achieve that we've increased the staff from 1 part-time assistant to 4! The future looks bright for us too as we're now planning an interior refit of the shop to make it more flexible and an even nicer environment for our customers to browse in.

Describe your shop in three words.

Interesting, welcoming, growing.

Has the rise of digital retailers affected your bookshop, what were your first thoughts about ebooks and do you feel the same now?

We've seen the rise of e-books peak and begin to fall again, with readers turning back to the irreplaceable experience of reading physical books. We won't ever be able to match the buying power and don't want to match the aggressive business strategy of digital retailers such as Amazon, but we offer our customers something distinctly different - a personalised service, a uniquely curated range of stock, and the opportunity to experience both the joy of browsing in a physical bookshop and the pleasure of meeting a wide range of authors, including household names, in person.

What is important in a great bookshop, tell us what sets you apart and makes you special?

When it comes to independent bookshops, it has to be all about the community you serve. We wouldn't be here without our loyal customers, whether families, retired people or local schools - we know many of our customers individually and are able to select stock and recommend titles we think they will love. Also, a great bookshop is only great if the people who work there love books an inordinate amount, which we all do!

Tell us about the books you love to recommend.

Mel: I enjoy recommending the latest quality fiction - current favourites are Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb series and Sally Rooney's two novels. And I've lost count of the times I've recommended Emily St John Mandel's dystopian novel Station Eleven!

Rachel: It's great to recommend to someone else a book that you have absolutely loved yourself! Recent favourites for me have been Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman which has been a best seller in the shop this year. Also, I have been discovering John Boyne - his The Heart's Invisible Furies is just brilliant.

Dawn: I like to suggest non-fiction titles, especially those involving travel - my go-to books are Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall and Islander by Patrick Barkham.

Kate: I love to recommend YA and middle-grade books to people! I will never stop recommending the first in the Nevermoor series (soon the second one too I'm sure!) Plus, if you ask me for a classic, I will always suggest Frankenstein!

What is your favourite part of your bookshop? A photo would be great.

It has to be our children's area. We'll be making the space even bigger and better when we refit the shop because we love to see the smiles on the little one's faces when they browse or listen to our story time.

Tell us a secret about books.

The only secret about books is that there is no secret!

Apart from yourselves, which other bookshop(s) do you love to spend time in?

Our favourites are Mr B's in Bath, Book-ish in Crickhowell and Booka in Oswestry. The independent bookshop community is so lovely!

What else do our members need to know about you?

We may be a small shop, but don't worry if we haven't got what you want on the shelves! We can order most books in for the next working day so we're just as quick and easy as ordering online (and you get to see our lovely faces too, which surely is a plus!) And we've just started a book subscription service, which makes the perfect present for a book-loving friend.