The REAL Amazons!

News From Nowhere, the bookshop where Spokes works, is something of a Liverpool institution. It’s now in its 42nd year of operation which is a huge achievement for an independent book seller in this day and age!

It’s also a worker’s co-operative which offers way more than ‘just books’ – and I’m not talking about the magazines, CDs, T-shirts, cards and all manner of miscellanea which can also be bought there. It acts as a social hub for a huge range of progressive political groups, campaigns and causes and, as such, has had to withstand arson attacks, vandalism and threats to the staff over the years.

But the staff and customers are not easily daunted and the shop continues not only to survive but to thrive – selling to customers from all over the world.

I was chuffed that the current 6 members of the co-op asked me to do a photo-session with them today before one of their shop meetings. It’s not often that all 6 of them are in the same place at the same time so I leapt at the opportunity! In fact at one point I even leapt up a ladder (see extra photo!)

Thanks very much to (L-R) Mandy, Jill, Julie, Cate, Maria and Spokes. Not just for the photo shoot but also for everything they do for Liverpool and for progressive causes everywhere. They truly are, as they say, the REAL Amazons!

Do also check out the extra ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of Julie. She started working at the shop 30 years ago this week and was canny enough to have a picture taken to mark the occasion (I’m not sure who took it so I can’t credit them here – Julie if you’re reading this could you let me know?!) It was, naturally, a lot of fun to be asked to recreate that picture this evening. Julie still looks SO cool!

In a suitably book-related addition to the evening I then hot-footed it over to my monthly book club meeting where we had a very lively and enjoyable discussion about Sara Pascoe’s book ‘Animal: The Autography of a Female Body’. Verdict? It’s a hit!

At this point I would’ve linked to Leon Rosselson singing his song ‘Bringing The News From Nowhere’ but none of the YouTube links to it seem to be working… So here’s an equally apt song, ‘The Book Lovers’ by Broadcast www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og7m71xuFbA