He retired last year, and his daughter, Sara Jane, put the shop and its contents up for sale. There are now new owners, who prefer to remain anonymous. Commenting on the chaotic nature of the bookstore, they say that when they took it on, "you couldn't even walk". Around 100,000 books were crammed into every available space.
Order has now been created in the various rooms. The owners add that their intention is open in phases, the official reopening being next Thursday, November 2. Plans include a tea room with a chaise longue sofa and seats for reading as well as a painting workshop for children.
Seventy per cent of the books are in English. There are others in Spanish, Catalan, French, German and Scandinavian languages.
The new owners have found some real wonders - A first edition of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, a 1927 copy of Peter Pan and Wendy, a first edition of The Naive and Sentimental Lover signed by its author, John Le Carré, and The American Claimant by Mark Twain, published in 1892.
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