Is it wrong for a shopkeeper to be a grump?

I COULDN’T help but feel sorry for the customers of the ‘Basil Fawlty of bookshops’ who charged his customers 50p to browse. He clearly has no idea that ‘the customer is always right’. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started to browse and ended up buying something I had no intention of buying when I entered a bookshop. Once a bookworm, always a bookworm.

E. M. SMITHSON, Ashwell, Herts. IT SEEMS I have a kindred spirit in the unfortunate Yorkshireman who is only trying to make an honest living from his bookshop and finds himself vilified as a result. My job as a seaside landlady is to welcome people into my home, not to set myself up as a sitting target. But when I look at the internet, you’d think my presence on earth was some kind of crime. Booksellers have always been a notoriously unsocial breed, but insofar as we’re talking about a Northerner trading with his fellow Northerners, we shouldn’t worry too much about anyone’s delicate sensibilities being hurt.

RUTH BUGUS, Skegness, Lincs. I’D LOVE to meet Steve Bloom, voted the most cantankerous shop owner in the country. I’ve no doubt it would be a far more authentic experience than the plastic smiles and ‘have a nice day’ nonsense I have to put up with wherever I seem to go. Give me a genuine grump over a loveydovey act any time.

TONY THOMPSON, Banbury, Oxon.

DRIFFIELD wrote a series of guides to secondhand bookshops 20 or 30 years ago (Mail). I kept one of these, largely for its entertaining acronyms, including ETGOW (easy to get on with), GOB (grand old bore) and WYlAH (watches you like a hawk). My particular favourites are FARTS (follows around recommending the stock) and BSN (bibliographically sub-normal). Though hopelessly out of date now, Drif’s guides are worth tracking down for their sheer rudeness. Praise was rare indeed.

CHRIS MAWSON, Denham, Suffolk.