BOOK SELLERS BOUNCE BACK DURING LOCKDOWN
Enthusiasts order more books online despite ongoing lockdown restrictions
Motoring titles have seen a surge in sales since March, according to sellers.
Book seller, Simon Lewis, said: ‘We had a really busy spell as soon as the lockdown started and April and May were better than October to December last year. We were going great guns.’ Simon also notes that interest in rallying titles, both written in period and retrospectively, have grown in popularity, related to the growing number of historic rally events returning to the calendar after easing of lockdown. He said: ‘The historic rally scene has come on a pace, with many local and national events.’
Hampshire-based Chaters Motoring Booksellers is also seeing a rise in book sales, with this year’s sales bettering 2019. Chaters’ Paul Stroud said: ‘This has been our best summer ever. People were getting bored during lockdown so they went online and ordered.’
Chaters usually exhibits at events such as Goodwood but as lockdown put paid to that online sales have kept the business busy. Paul said: ‘Although we haven’t been to any shows this year we have been twice as busy as we were last year and second hand, out-of-print books have been especially popular. We’ve been buying in some collections but we’re still selling new titles.
‘We’re happy with things so far; we were doing three days a week at the start of lockdown and now we are back up to five days a week, and hopefully will be at the NEC in November.’ Richard Barnett
❚ simonlewis.com
❚ chaters.co.uk