Happy ending as Basil Fawlty of bookshops sells up at last

A MARKET town is celebrating after a shopkeeper branded ‘Britain’s rudest bookseller’ announced that he was selling his business.

The Yorkshire Dales town of Hawes is saying a relieved goodbye to Steve Bloom, 63, who admits he’s a man who ‘doesn’t butter his parsnips’ when dealing with the public.

He refused to accept he had been driven out yesterday, despite complaining in January of a ‘vicious witch-hunt’.

Mr Bloom’s policy of charging 50p entry to his Bloomindales store – designed to stop time-wasting browsers – caused constant rows with his custom- ers, but he refused to back down. After protests about his Basil Fawlty-esque rants at those who dared question his entry fee, he avoided offending anyone for almost four months.

But this month alone two customers complained – one saying: ‘Hi, we had a pleasant visit to Hawes today – that is up until we visited the local bookshop Bloomindales. What a very unpleasant rude man this is.’ Mr Bloom hit back: ‘I hope that none of the people who have been trying to drive me out are claiming any kind of victory because it isn’t, I have left of my own free will.’

In an email to one complainant, Cllr John Blackie, who represents Hawes on Richmondshire District Council, wrote that Mr Bloom ‘represents the very opposite of all we show and do to extend a very warm Upper Dales welcome to those that come to Hawes..’

‘What an unpleasant, rude man this is’