THIS WEEK


Bookshop Spotlight Goldfinch Books


and her sister Andrea Sleney. Welcomed by the local communit, the store is a destination for books, coffee and homemade cake, but also a hub for events with a special focus on young people’s mental health. From fiction and non-fiction to children’s books, a range of titles are on offer at Goldfinch Books, which also features a “kids’ zone” for playing and reading.


“The shop oſten opens to a queue [coming in] for their morning coffee and setling with a book,” Clark describes. “Young preschool families and local business people then come in on breaks from work, and local college students fire up the laptop and setle in for their free periods,” he adds, “through to a rush in the aſternoons as the schools kick out and the primary kids huddle in the kids’ zone while the secondary schoolers populate the bar area with frappé and hot chocolate.” In the evenings, dog walkers drop by for a glass of wine, while others work on their laptops or atend one of the many evening events hosted by the booksellers. “There’s something wonderful about Goldfinch that has taken us all by surprise,” Clark says, “and that is how it has become a ‘safe space’ for young and old.”


The shop offers something for nearly


Goldfinch Books 24 High Street, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1BN


The bookshop offers something for nearly everyone while also being a ‘safe space’ for young and old


Melina Spanoudi @mspanoudi W 10


hen the Booksellers Association (BA) and Bookshop.org launched the New Futures initiative in 2021,


their goal was to support new booksellers from underrepresented communities to open their brick-and-mortar stores. Aspiring booksellers were given hands-on mentorship sessions with industry experts, including from publishers Simon & Schuster and Faber, as


2nd February 2024


well as The Bookseller. At the time, self-published author and “lifetime lover of books” Gary Clark had been considering starting his bookshop in the town of Alton, Hampshire. Local high streets had started to regenerate aſter the shocks of the pandemic, and he saw the potential of an independent bookshop to revitalise the small town. “New Futures is what took Goldfinch from a dream to the place where opening a shop could become a realit,” Clark tells me. “We were lucky enough to be selected for the first round of training and support by the BA and Bookshop.org, through which we developed a robust and realistic business plan. Our eyes were opened in this process, to the excite- ment, yes, but more importantly the chal- lenging aspects and harsh realities of what we were about to embark on.” Clark launched the shop on 1st November 2022, with his wife and store director Judith,


everyone, whether they’re looking for a buzzy evening at a creative writing workshop or an author talk, or to atend one of the regular communit meetings held for parents of children with autism and those struggling with their mental health. Goldfinch Books’ dizzying event programme also features four book clubs with over 100 members, while fantasy fans can meet to play table-top games like “Dungeons & Dragons”. For poetry enthusiasts, there is a monthly live event, and customers looking for live music have plent of options too. “Events are important to our business and our drive to become a hub for communit connection and creativit,” Clark says. “Our author programme last year included sell-out events with Laura Bates, Claire Fuller, A J Pearce and others.” The booksellers championed Bates’ investigation of inequal- it, Fix the System, Not the Women (Simon & Schuster UK), ordering 400 copies and cover- ing the front of the store with the book. They held events for children, exploring gender roles in books, and a workshop on misogyny for teenagers. “For a week, our customers could not come into the shop without being faced with Laura’s book,” Clark says. “Laura contacted us and offered to help, coming to Alton to the shop for a sell-out talk that the town still talks about today.” Teens and children are central to the


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