Community Library Notes: Good Reads
“The Last Bookshop in London” by Madeline Martin is the story of Grace and Viv who move to London from their small town as WWII begins. They rent a room with Mrs. Weatherford who helps Grace get a job at Primrose Hill Books although Grace has only read Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The store is cluttered and Mr. Evans is not hiring an assistant until Mrs. Weatherford gives him a few words. Grace and Viv explore the city and find sandbags, trenches, and shelters masking the great city. Harrods is great with its departments of perfumes, glass counters, and a Pet Kingdom with a baby elephant. Huge guns greet them at Hyde Park.
Grace starts her job the next morning for the next six months. A customer in the store, George Anderson, helps another customer find a mystery book she wants and he recommends
“The Count of Monte Christo” to Grace as a good book to begin her reading experience. She finishes up the day dusting and cleaning making the shop look better.
The next day large silver balloons dot the sky and children line upon the street prepared to go to the country to live safely with other families. At the bookstore, Grace makes a display in the front window of books with colorful covers. While Grace is cleaning George Anderson comes in and helps her locate several titles to be shelved.
He invites her to tea for the following Wednesday. Later she goes to Paternoster Row to see how they treat their books. At Mrs. Weatherford’s, Viv gives Grace an ID bracelet to wear in case of bombing so they can be identified. At dinner, they meet Mrs. Weatherford’s son Colin and he blushes shyly.
The next day Grace gets to the bookstore early with many ideas. Mr. Evans gives her a note from George: he’s been called up for the RAF and must cancel their date. He encloses a book they can discuss next time they meet. It’s “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas. She organizes books, shifts shelves, and cleans. For a time, there are no more air raids or rationing and Grace is busy at the shop. Colin gets a letter drafting him into the service. His mother screams unhappily but Colin wants to go. He has planted vegetables in the garden and built a shelter in the yard and taped the windows. He’s been very helpful and tells Grace she’ll need to look after his mother while he’s away.
Primrose Hill bookshop is doing great business as Grace helps customers select their books. The clients stay longer and purchase more books. At Christmas the Weatherford house is solemn and
Mrs. Weatherford is busy with the Women’s Voluntary Service where other mothers whose sons have left gather to cheer themselves.
Grace thinks about Edmond Dantes, the Count, during dinner and is amazed at how the characters and story have grabbed her. On her
way to work, she sees several children and decides to have a children’s section at the store. Mr. Evans nods his assent. She has only one more month to work there. Mr. Evans opens a carton of books written by German writers, some Jewish, that Hitler wanted burned. Evans places them, after cleaning into a safe with other like books in the back room.
When Mrs. Weatherford tries to plant vegetables in Colin’s plot they wilt and Viv goes outside to help her. But Viv leaves for training in Devon, and Grace is without her best friend. She often curls up with a new book. She goes out three times a week with Warden Stokes to tell residents to draw their blackout curtains more tightly. Hitler takes France and everyone knows Britain is next. One day in the garden Mrs. Weatherford screams and when Grace goes to see the problem, finds out its worms in the lettuce.
Author Martin makes her readers laugh in the middle of the war. One night on her round with Stokes Grace sees several men smash windows at an Italian café in town and fire erupts. She’s appalled and Stokes explains it is revenge for Italy taking sides with Germany. He tells her not to interfere, and she feels helpless.
They read in the papers that thousands of soldiers are trapped at Dunkirk as German bombers strafe them on the beaches. Churchill sends pleasure boats in to rescue as many as possible. Mrs. Weatherford gets a telegram saying Colin is one of the casualties. Grace feels terrible for his mother who sleepwalks all day in her grief.
Another night Grace and Mrs. Weatherford spend the entire night in the shelter. Author Martin helps us see and feel the impact of war on ordinary people.
The following day Mr. Evans is drunk at the bookstore. He tells her he had a daughter who died and he doesn’t want to lose Grace who resembles her. He’s proud of her work at the bookstore and wants her to stay. There are now air raids every day and Grace continues on watch at night. In the shelter, other women ask about the book she’s reading. Grace is urged to read out loud and she does so as the bombs fall and anti-aircraft guns are noisy. Someone hands her a torch when the lights go out and Mr. Evans says she has the power to change the war. His advice and comfort give her courage but Paternoster Row of bookstores is burned almost to the ground. Grace creates a space where the other bookstore’s books can be sold and money earned for them.
Will the bookstore survive the bombings and be fixed after the war? Will George and Viv come back to be friends with Grace? Find out how a love for books keeps one going, living, and loving as courageous people on the new fiction shelf of your local library.