Our Bookshop of the Month is Bookbag, Exeter – an independent bookshop opened by Charlie and Malcolm Richards in December 2020, in between lockdowns. We spoke to co-founder Charlie.
Tell us the story of your shop.
Bookbag was opened towards the end of 2020 so we’re in our fifth year. My (Charlie) background is in marketing arts and music venues, and my partner and co-owner Malcolm is a senior lecturer. We’ve always loved books and bookshops, seeking them out wherever we were, from Lisbon to New Orleans. A space came up mid-pandemic, in a sought-after arcade in Exeter’s independent West Quarter, and the timing just seemed right.
Bookbag stocks a select range of books, with plenty from indie presses. We have a local/global feel to the books and are intentional about representing women, writers of colour, and LGBTQ+ voices across our sections and through our events program.
Our bookseller Sirisha Damarla set up an open mic in the bookshop in the early days. People came, sat on rugs on the floor, drank herbal tea and shared poems they’d written, words they’d scribbled in their Notes app. It’s a wholesome, nurturing space where friendships have been made and it’s this kind of energy that’s a big part of Bookbag.
We collaborate with brilliant local arts organisations and community groups, and run pop-up bookshops – from Fore Street Flea market to local children’s Centre For The Imagination – and co-produce a literary festival which is relaunching this year as Echoes, celebrating stories from Africa and the diaspora.
What are the booksellers reading at the moment?
I’ve read some excellent books so far this year. Local writer Fiona Williams’s (one of Faber’s super lead debuts in 2024) The House of Broken Bricks, family heartbreak set over a nature-hued year on the Somerset Levels, is beautiful and newly in paperback. Back In The Day – out this month – feels like my book of the year already. Oliver Lovrenski was nineteen when he wrote the story of youth, friendship and chaos in the Oslo hood. It’s tender, shocking and heartbreaking; fresh, and with a great humour to it. Deliverywoman by Eva Wyles, a debut short story collection from indie press Influx, is pure gritty pleasure.
What’s your favourite thing about your shop?
So many things. The people! Our small team (past and present) and our regulars, book-lovers who visit from Exeter, the wider south-west, tourists from further afield. People who search up ‘independent bookshop near me’ when they visit a new city. We appreciate each sale, and every time a person makes a conscious decision to choose to order through our bookshop.
The books – choosing across fiction, translated fiction, art, world affairs, music, travel and nature books for a living – what a dream! The stories and knowledge we find in books are so vital in the age of distraction and online noise. Bookshops are third spaces, cultural hubs in towns and in cities. You can walk in off the street and make human connections and we all need this.
Plus our home in McCoys Arcade. We team up with café Sacred Grounds, our neighbours in the arcade, for larger author events. We’re able to seat around fifty under the atrium in the covered space outside the bookshop, surrounded by twinkling lights and plants, with the café serving up natural wines & matcha tea. It’s the best event space – visually striking, relaxed and friendly.
Tell us your ideal day in your neighbourhood – especially other local independent businesses you’d love visitors to discover.
We’re part of the Fore Street community, a street full of independent shops, cafes and beauty businesses, many with an ethical ethos. Exeter is a very green-thinking city, close to the beach and moors. We might start the day with a coffee sitting on the bench in the sun outside Crankhouse, an excellent coffee shop, before browsing at Helen of Troy, who sell artwork, gifts and trinkets. We’d call in at Zero, a plastic-free minimarket for dried goods and chocolate buttons. We’d visit our neighbours at the historic McCoys Arcade, where shops include excellent vintage clothes emporium, The Real McCoys, Frances Kay, who sell typewriters and old analogue hi-fi, the House Of Hope and Mercy in The Jungle who stock specialist teas, and Sacred Grounds Café, brunch/lunch spot and home of the vegan poached egg! The café’s tables spill out into the arcade so you can browse our windows whilst having a coffee. In the afternoon we might take in a film at Exeter Picturehouse around the corner, and in the evening eat at Goto, a Japanese restaurant.
Last year we ran a funded project called Fore Street Stories to celebrate our neighbourhood, teaming up young writers with local places as ‘writers in residence’ over the summer, and holding a forty-eight-hour writing challenge where we mentored the young people to write a poem or story about their chosen spot. We then published a pamphlet of the work and distributed it around the city.
Do you have a favourite type of customer?
Those who want book recommendations – it’s why we’re here. Our booksellers, Sirisha and Reo, myself and Malcolm, all bring a different knowledge of titles. I always suggest three titles, including one wild card. I love groups of friends who come in for a mooch and stay for ages, talking about what they are reading, books they’ve seen on social media, sitting on our arm chairs or on the floor and reading bits of books. I like the flow of seasons in a bookshop; tourists during summer holidays, students discovering us in the autumn, gift-buyers who explain why they are choosing this particular book for a friend or loved one and the good energy of Christmas season, backpackers hiking the south-west who want a paperback for the journey.
What’s the best book recommendation you’ve ever given?
When I’ve read something that’s a little under the radar or by a debut author, or a forgotten classic that I love and I can rave about to everyone – and feel like I’m playing a small part in helping the book move out there into the world. These titles often make it into our book subscriptions.
Will you tell us a shop secret? A mystery is also acceptable.
This is a Faber secret – is that okay? When Malcolm was a child, his uncle was a security guard at the Faber offices in London, and when Malcolm visited, he would get to wander around and read the books scattered on desks.
What do you still find surprising about being a bookseller?
How exciting it is every single time a proof copy comes in, wrapped in a brown paper package, addressed to us.
Who’s your dream author to visit the shop – dead or alive?
We were desperately sad when Benjamin Zephaniah passed, we’d always talked about hosting him.
You can visit Bookbag at McCoys Arcade, Exeter, or order from them online at bookbag.shop
Think we should feature your local independent bookshop? Tell us about your favourite indie bookseller here.
