Interview with Tyona Campbell of ‘Barnabees Books’, Westleton

How long have you been here -- when did you open?

I opened in 2017. I can’t believe how fast and weirdly slow it has felt actually. Partly because of the dreaded Covid, there were a couple of years that made everything, obviously, terribly complicated. It is the biggest joy of my life. I am completely unqualified to be attempting whatever I think that I am doing here. I did learn from the best and I sing all my praise and my honour to Chapel Books. That is the great emporium of Mr Jackson (Bob), one of the best second-hand bookshops in East Anglia. I’m not paid to say… 

That’s how I found you. Obviously, he is on the main drag. In his shop there were cards in the shop stating that there is now another bookshop in the village. And so, I went there.  

It’s a reflection of Bob. He asked me to put the cards in. I worked for Bob, on and off for the last 20 years. I was at university doing my masters and Bob and his lovely lady Juliet said, come in for 2 days a week. I loved working for Bob, and he was a huge part of why I would have had the confidence to open Barnabees Books. 

A: What was the tipping moment from, ‘I can do this for Bob’ to ‘I can do this myself’?

I met another gentleman through Bob. A wonderful man known as Nigel Burwood. I was working for Bob and I met Nigel who needed a cataloguer for his shop, ‘Any Amount of Books’ on the Charing Cross Road. From Bob, I went to work with Nigel. I worked remotely. Nigel would go between Suffolk and London and I would catalogue the books here in Suffolk. I worked for Nigel for 12 years. I absolutely loved it. I was handling lovely obscure, rare out-of-print books with incredible provenance. Nigel would buy up the catalogues of very well-known writers. Christopher Lee…

A: Dracula?

Yes, Dracula Christopher Lee’s library which was a joy to go through. Nigel would buy wonderful collections locally, to do with Benjamin Britten, but because of the force of Charing Cross they would be able to buy and have those contacts. The excitement of working with books that you know have been handled by Christopher Lee! Peter O’Toole was another one. One of the weirdest ones was Jeremy Beadle. 

A: Tell me more about Jeremy Beadle. 

He had a particularly unusual library. He had an old swimming pool where he lived. The pool was drained and much of his library was stored there. I know it sounds ridiculous. It sounds weird to mention Jeremy Beadle in the same light as the great Angela Carter and …there were so many books associated with him. I mention Jeremy Beadle as he had such an unusual life and that was reflected in his library. So, you would get these slightly strange, I think the polite word is esoteric. 

You do encounter books stored in the strangest places. They are often not stored in optimal conditions. I once went to visit an old lady who had a beautiful, thatched shed and her books were full of dust. It was sad to see. 

A: The place you have now, this beautiful bookshop, used to be a restaurant. 

Yes, the only reason that I am where I am now is because my parents, in the early 80s opened up Barnabee’s as a restaurant and that is why it is called Barnabee’s because my parents wanted a name with local appreciation and wanted something that would be memorable and easy to say. Barnabee is an old Suffolk word for ladybird. It’s why you see ladybirds all around the shop. My wonderful mother who I owe everything to. That’s why I am in such beautiful premises. My mother believed in me more than anyone. She leased it to me nearly 10 years ago now. If it wasn’t for that I would be in a layby with my car boot up. To have premises is a huge part of it. I speak to people and their absolute dream would be to have a bookshop. I always say they need to get the right premises. I am so lucky to have a place near the fabulous mystical Dunwich. 

A: Every time I come in here you are having a chat.

People are so generous with their wants, needs and obsessions, so you get to learn so much. I am incredibly grateful. I had a conversation the other day about the psychology of pigeons. I need to find some books! I come to work to learn. This is my dream come true!

A: Who are your customers? Do you have the old faithfuls? Collectors? You’re not quite on the tourist trail here. Do you get holidaymakers who are just passing?

It’s quite a broad mix. During an average week, I’m very lucky to have my stalwart customers, who are coming in to look for their particular fields of interest to see if I have topped up their area with new titles. And catching up on a bit of village gossip as well, of course. I am off the beaten track. I ride the coattails of Bob’s reputation. People who visit regularly live within a catchment area of 20-30 miles, perhaps they are going towards the coast, going towards Minsmere. I don’t specialise in any genres, it is very much a general stock. There is a lean towards local interest and ornithology, because of the bird reserve at Minsmere. There are customers who have become friends. A lot of people who are transient and moving through the east coast will pop in and then we usually go on a mad book hunt trying to find a title or author. 

I must also say, being here off the beaten track, that I also sell online. That gets me through the winter months. That was what I did for Bob and Nigel, so they are all online. That is the sorry side of second-hand book selling. You have to keep it topped up. It’s mercenary. A strong word, but I do mean it. If you are in a shop, you are engaging with the public and attending to their wants and needs. Someone orders a book online, but if you speak to someone you learn that they keep an apiary, another customer will jump in and give them tips on beekeeping. You see this chain reaction. That’s what bookshops and libraries do. You realise that we are all interconnected with our hopes, fears and we are all here to learn. People are so generous with information and so we all have our internal bibliographies that we all want to share and celebrate with each other. I don’t actually do any work!

There is so much going on with festivals, Aldeburgh, wonderful Felixstowe. I get flyers through and put them up in the shop. Word of mouth is so powerful, more so than the internet. That enthusiasm! 

A: Was bookselling the dream? 

It’s always been about books. I never thought that I would be able to open up a bookshop ever- and I still feel that now. 

I feel that on the Continent there is a bigger generosity from the banks for small businesses. There is the support to get business running. They need 2-3 years minimum to find its feet: To understand where its market really is. In the UK banks won’t lend the money. A lot of it is relying on nepotism. I’m only in the position I’m in because my mother leased the building to me at a particularly generous rent. 

A: Then there are a lot of potential booksellers out there, full of passion and knowledge, who are prevented due to money?

Yes, for a lot of sellers out there selling online in their particular interest. I’m probably sounding optimistic and naïve here, but to use the Haye-on-Wye method, putting like with like. You get strength. It’s good for booksellers, like many antique centres, if you put them all in one place. I was speaking to a lovely gentleman at the weekend who wanted nothing more than to open a bookshop. I said, ‘do it and do it here’. 

What did you read when you were young? What were your favourite stories when you were little?

I know it’s an obvious one to go to, but I loved The Borrowers. I particularly loved James and the Giant Peach. I loved all of Roald Dahl. My mother was very keen on the classics. She has such a big influence. She loved Beatrix Potter when I was very young. My hand-me-downs did come from my brothers and there was always a curiosity on how things worked and in machines. I am fascinated, as we all are, in where AI is going to take us. Anything with a robot in is quite fun, which brings me to teenage years. A really pivotal moment was reading Brave New World. 

A: Is the written word doomed? Are books/ paper/ things that sit on shelves and are loved. Are they doomed?

No!

A: Correct answer!

Two points. I’ve heard something quite negative recently. A lot of American publishing houses are not going to publish paperbacks. I need to confirm that but there is a huge worry that a lot of what people are reading is on screens. I think the most rebellious thing you can do is handwrite. Something that I need to do more of, because you think and you feel differently. 

I was listening to a lovely BBC Radio 4 show about the history of reading. About the wonderful developments that take place in a young person’s mind when they learn language and they feel it and respond to it, speak it and most importantly, to read it. 

From my experience of being around booksellers over the last 20 years, the written word is stronger than ever.

A: Connected to that, my penultimate question. It’s not your job to have an answer to this, but I bet you have thought of it. How do we get young people reading?

This is an important question. It is such a worry for parents and teachers and guardians and being a mad old aunt, I look to my nephew and niece and take on their recommendations.

A: Final question. I am thinking about the link (and this is not my world) but the link between rap and poetry and how cool poetry can be among young people and that gives me great hope. So, who is your rock star of the written word?

There is someone. It’s only because I have just bought his book. It’s Ian Patterson. He lives up the road. Ian has just written a fantastic book on how to build your own library. 

A: I’ve read it and passed it on. It’s doing the rounds, currently in Barnet. 

I am biased because he lives locally with his wonderful lady.

A: Olivia Laing is my rock star. She and Jaye Griffiths. 

I introduced him to a man over the road; they went to the same university. Ian said he was a poet and I said ‘Ian, don’t say that. You are so much more than a poet’. It was just the most appalling thing. He is a poet, a translator and a teacher. There are so many ancient words for him. He is rock and roll. He holds on to ideas of archiving and holding on to so much of ... enrichening our lives …we all share and seed each other with these exciting and scary and wondrous suggestions.

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Tyona’s desert island books:

Jeff Noon -- a distinctive voice in British cyberpunk fiction. His debut novel Vurt exploded onto the scene in the early 1990s … immersive, hallucinatory worlds that feel unlike anything else I’ve read.

Audre Lorde -- visionary poet, essayist, and activist whose work cuts straight to the heart of what it means to live authentically. Sister Outsider had a profound effect on me.

Gabriel García Márquez -- the master weaver of magic realism! Márquez’s works feel alive in a way that few novels do, capturing the full spectrum of what it means to be human. No bookshop, in my humble opinion, would be complete without him.

Interviewed by Alison Caldow