“I’ve been coming here for two and a half years and it’s my family”
Many of us will have driven past Henry Bohn second-hand bookshop on London Road in Liverpool city centre. The store, which first opened in 1988 on the corner of Berry Street and Seel Street, moved to London Road 15 years ago. It was established by Michael McCabe, an avid book collector, alongside his wife Anis.
Struggling to afford a bill in the 1980s, Michael took some of his books to a car boot sale to raise some much needed cash. However, this landed him in hot water after he was seen and reported to the social security who threatened to stop his benefits.
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But he was given an alternative – go on the Enterprise Allowance scheme, where he would get £40 a week for a year and which didn’t require him to sign on because he would be classed as “self-employed.” This is when Henry Bohn second-hand bookshop was born. The ECHO visited the shop to speak to Michael this week.
In the space of an hour, different people from different generations, some new to the shop and some regulars, could be seen coming in and out, taking in all the genres of books on display.
Business, it would seem, is pretty good. Or to put it in Michael’s words: “I manage to buy a loaf of bread out of it, so I can’t complain!”
There must be thousands of books in Henry Bohn, which is the name of a real Victorian-era bookseller, publisher and author of Anglo-German parentage. Michael said: “The shop’s overflowing with books, there’s too many. Somebody brought 40 boxes in the other day – I’ll never live long enough to sell them all.
“People die and their relatives bring them in, or people move to a smaller house and can’t fit them in – or they’ve just got sick of them. One man brought some books in on Monday; he was crying his eyes out because he was selling stuff that he didn’t want to sell, but his wife had said she wanted them out. His loss is my gain!”
There’s a friendly and easy-going atmosphere in Michael’s shop, and his desk is situated right in the middle of it all – not in some dusty backroom office. Here he gets to sit and speak to all of his customers, one of which is regular visitor, Jason Bronzite, who made it clear how much he loves the shop. He said: “I’ve been around the world, and this is the friendliest book shop in the world.”
Michael, grinning, tells me: “He’s making me blush here. I bet he says that in every bookshop he goes in.” But Jason continues: “I’ve been coming here more or less every day for two and a half years. It’s a meeting place. There’s always friendly people coming in here and we have discussions and talks. It’s history and politics all the time.
“All sorts of people come in: historians, professors, lunatics like me. I like to hear what they say and I’ve learned a lot.
“I lost my family. I’m from the south and I came up here to move. This was the first bookshop I went into and Michael made me welcome. I haven’t got any family, but I feel like everyone who comes here is my family and they make me welcome.”
Another customer walks in to sell a book. It falls into the nostalgic non-fiction bracket, something which Michael says “doesn’t sell for much.” He tells the seller: “I’ll only get £1.99 for that”. The customer says: “I thought I’d get at least three quid.” Both parties agree on a fair £1 in the end – after all, a good compromise happens when no one is happy.
While nostalgia may not be a great seller for Henry Bohn, other categories do go for more. Michael said: “Categories which sell better than others are things like philosophy, science, ancient history and things like that – literature is, of course, the main seller.
“But there’s so many subjects that you just wouldn’t even know about unless you walked into a bookshop, and there’s so many books in here that you just wouldn’t see otherwise. We sold a book the other day on the history of thimbles, which went for £10. How many books do you see on the history of thimbles?”
So, what’s the argument for reading a physical book instead of a virtual one on a Kindle or iPad. Well, Michael’s wife Anis said: “I think it’s easier to read when you have a physical copy in front of you. It’s nice to see pictures up close and some books have beautiful pictures and illustrations. It’s a lot more enjoyable.”
She added: “Also, if you go on the internet, you have to know what you’re looking for, and have a title in mind. But here, you can browse and take your time.”
If you want to pay a visit to Henry Bohn, it can be found on London Road, Liverpool L3 5NF. You can also visit their website by clicking here.
