Reading on the Riviera - Our community bookshops

Written by Patrick Middleton, Jan 2007

Patrick Middleton tries to find out what part books play in the life of our community

As the English settled along the coast of south-eastern France across the nineteenth century they took care to provide for two important needs: religion and reading. For a long time the two activities were closely related and that’s why even today our local English libraries are still often associated with Anglican churches. But that association loosened many years ago. I was reminded of its earlier form when, prowling the premises of the English American Library in Nice, which occupy the basement of Holy Trinity’s parish hall, I found the original rules, drawn up in 1852, posted on the inside door of a cupboard. “The volumes of this library,” it was stated, “are for the use of the congregation. They must not be lent to others ... Presents of books are gratefully received, subject to the approval of the chaplain.” These days the present incumbent is no more than an absentee landlord.

“Outlets run by genuine book people”

During the many decades of anglophone settlement here booksellers have come and gone. In the eighteen-sixties, for example, the enterprising John Taylor offered a range of popular novels to the clients of his estate agency (and, more surprisingly, a choice of Scotch whiskies). Two wars in the last century disrupted the local book trade along with many other aspects of expatriate life but over the past thirty years or so there has been a remarkable revival, with now six outlets serving the English-language market in Antibes, Cannes, Fayence, Monaco, Nice and Valbonne. At first sight this might seem surprising. Samuel Johnson, well over 200 years ago, remarked that “people in general do not willingly read if they can have anything else to amuse them”. And today they’ve got lots more to amuse them than even two or three decades ago with the domestic panoply of cable and satellite television, computers and the infinite seductions of the World Wide Web.

And, of course, electronics have affected the book trade in a more direct way with the rise of e-tailing and especially of Amazon. For many younger people, in particular, buying their books online is now routine. So why should anyone bother with a bookshop? Our local booksellers were at one in their answers. Firstly, people like to browse, picking up books, nibbling at their contents and then putting them down ... or buying them. You can’t really do that online. Secondly, they like to get advice on their reading or just chat about books. Not so easy these days in big chain bookstores in the UK and US but one of the attractions of the kind of independent outlets we have here run by genuine book people. Finally, there’s the social side. Our bookshops have become focal points for the community where people know they will encounter other local expats and can benefit from the staff’s veterans’ knowledge of the area.

The booksellers I spoke to all recognised the special character of their expat clientele while adding that French buyers, keen to use their English, were increasingly important. Where the anglophone customers are concerned, the biggest change in the years since this magazine started is that they now have a much greater access to English-language media by satellite or Internet. This might cut their reading time but can also encourage their interest in books. I was repeatedly told, for example, that customers enquire about titles promoted on the UK Channel 4’s Richard & Judy show. Some expat readers I talked to said that they watched quite a lot of satellite television and listened to BBC domestic radio but they felt they needed books to keep in touch with quality written English.

“Are you being served?”

And so who are they, the half a dozen stalwarts who have between them spent over a hundred years providing books to our community? I introduce them here in what (I hope) is the correct chronological order:

Jane France is the undisputed doyenne of our booksellers. “I started selling books out of a van in 1971 and opened my shop in 1980.” She’s enjoyed her years at Scruples in Monaco but after well over three decades she’s hoping to retire soon to spend more time in her Var garden. Anyone interested in taking over should get in touch. Next to arrive was Wally Storer who with his wife Christel came here in 1984 on “an extended holiday which turned into a new life”. Like Jane, at the Cannes English Book Shop he finds the biggest demand is for fiction, biography and travel but that serious stuff – “even poetry” – also sells quite well. “These days you have to have an eye for the unusual best seller – years ago I sold a thousand copies of Peter Wright’s Spycatcher in a couple of weeks.”

Heidi Lee opened Antibes Books in 1990. “Two things are good for me. First of all, the yachties are great readers – it’s amazing what they get through – and, secondly, a lot of local parents do encourage their kids to read.”

Linda Pickering at Cat’s Whiskers in Nice opened in 1988. “I prefer to look at some of the positive factors. I can get books in from the UK very quickly – 48 hours is the norm and we can often beat Amazon’s delivery times. And yes, the French are reading more English and children are once again getting hooked on books – that’s the real magic of Harry Potter.”

Christine Buisson opened the Castle Bookshop in Fayence thirteen years ago. “Obviously, I couldn’t survive in a place like this just on English books so I carry French titles as well. But, as you’ve heard from my colleagues, French people are reading more and more English. They see a review of a translation of Patricia Cornwell, say, and they decide to read it in the original.”

Finally, Jill Shepperd at the English Reading Centre in Valbonne only became owner of the shop four years ago (it was opened by Margaret Farley in 1990) but she worked there for several years before that. “Here in Valbonne we’re really in cyberland. For those Sophia folks an e-book is quite a good idea but I find once they’ve been in – maybe to pick up a Reporter – they come back. I’m speaking for all my colleagues when I say that in our shops people will find a friendly welcome, a wide choice of books and informed advice. And it’s good to get away from that screen!”

From Riviera Reporter 119, Feb/March 2007