News from the Ginger Pop Shop

[MysteryMagic]

@ Viv of Ginger Pop - I’m a Londoner, born and bred, but now living in the Far East with my family. We moved here when the shop closed in 2013. I had had 40 years of trading, I started at 17 from an indoor market stall and graduated to a shop. As you know, the problems that have confronted booksellers are manyfold, and a combination of the internet and the problems that arose in extending the lease on my shop made me decide to call it a day.

Thank you for the links and I will be passing them on to everyone I know! It seems that common sense is a rarity today and it gladdens my heart to read about you and your efforts to restore it to the Nation.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

the problems that have confronted booksellers are manyfold, and a combination of the internet and the problems that arose in extending the lease on my shop made me decide to call it a day.

Thank you for the links and I will be passing them on to everyone I know! It seems that common sense is a rarity today and it gladdens my heart to read about you and your efforts to restore it to the Nation.

It sounds horribly familiar!

I've just been looking back over this thread. Five years ago I was not in a good place. My lovely partner Mark was dying and the Ginger Pop Shop was also in its final weeks.

Thank-you again to friends here that sent me supportive messages when the inevitable happened.

Viv

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

Hello everyone,

I have just updated my video to make reference to King Charles.

https://youtu.be/E6ks4iBpSdk

Of course, all the stats now are set back to zero!

If you like it, I'd be really grateful if you would help me by sharing on whatever social media you participate in.

Thanks

Viv

[Chindu]

I came to your shop in 2003, when I first came to this country. I had a wonderful time, looking through, and buying one or two books. I also had a long chat with the lady (I am not sure whether it was you or Fiona). I was so sad to see the shop closed later (I live in Dorset, so drive past quite often), but it is good to connect with you here! Thank you for the post, which explained what happened -- it is a loss, for all of us.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

Everyday in the Ginger Pop Shop I would ask customers where they came from, knowing that in the tourism honey-pot that is Corfe Castle, virtually none would be a local.

A very full answer could be “last night we camped near Weymouth, I’m currently living in London but I was born in Australia and my ancestors came from Wales”

Fascinating – and I would accept any part of that answer. But maybe out of curiosity I would then add, “so what’s the accent?”.

Often the tables were turned, with customers first asking where I was from; I accepted that it wasn't to be expected in rural Dorset to find an Anglo-Indian running a shop full of Blyton, WW2 memorabilia and golliwoggs! I’d answer that I was born in London and moved to Dorset age 7. Sometimes I would joke that to accepted in my village your family had to have been there since before the war – and they meant the Boer War – although that isn’t actually true! (At school I was bullied by a couple of girls for the colour of my skin, but no-one ever challenged that I was English, not even the half-German bully! )

Sometimes a persistent customer would ask where I was really from, and at times it did seem to go beyond curiosity to impertinence, and I would give a very full explanation to the point where they should feel embarrassed. More recently on the rare occasions this happens, I sum it up by saying that my mother was screwed by multi-culturalism.

Another question I would ask customers, especially those from overseas was “how come someone from (X country) so enjoys such very English stories?” I probably asked Darrell when she visited from India, and a Muslim girl from Malaysia. I remember both being so excited at coming to the shop, and their answer was the same as any other Blyton fan – the stories are brilliant!