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Aug 16, 2021 | The Booksellers

Tell us a bit about what you do at Peter Harrington.  

As the Customer Services Manager, I look after email and website enquiries, as well as processing online sales, photography requests and after-sale enquiries. I also refresh and upload our database to our website daily, and update other online platforms to ensure our latest acquisitions are available online promptly. We also receive many offer enquiries we receive from private individuals wishing to sell their books to us, which I assess and respond to. 

  

What does an ordinary day look like for you?   

The first part of my day involves checking the orders, enquiries and offers that will have arrived overnight, and dealing with them accordingly. Then it is time to evaluate any book purchases that might have arrived on my desk, and contact my own customers. The tail end of the working day involves database housekeeping and preparing upload files for all our online platforms. 

  

How long have you worked with Peter Harrington and have you always had the same role? 

I’ve been with the company for 27 years and have had many roles over that time. I joined the packing & shipping department in 1994. When we moved to our current premises on Fulham Road in 1997, I left shipping and started selling books. During this time I also took over other roles, such as book-keeping, photography, and office management, before moving into my current role as the company grew. 

  

In what ways would you say the rare book trade has changed in the last 25 years?  

The advent of the internet and e-commerce has presented many new possibilities for the trade, though also some challenges. For the first time dealers could showcase their books to a much wider audience and became less dependent on catalogue mailings, book fairs, and shop walk-ins. The internet has also introduced rare book collecting to a wider and younger audience, which is beneficial to the long-term future of book collecting and rare bookselling.

 

Can you share some of your weirdest and/or most wonderful experiences working in the trade?  

The most memorable one that comes to mind happened a number of years ago, when a major Hollywood and Broadway actor, who was on a West End show at the time, ordered a set of the books and asked if I could deliver them to the theatre. When I arrived the actor inspected the books and asked if we happened to have another edition bound in the original cloth bindings, which they preferred to the leather-bound set I had brought. I said we did and offered to bring the other set to their dressing room before they were due to go on to the stage that afternoon. In my haste to do so I accidentally packed the actor’s packet of cigarettes, which was laying on the table next to the books. I was horrified when I unpacked the books back in the shop and discovered the cigarettes at the bottom of the box! To their credit, the actor saw the funny side of it all when I rather sheepishly brought them back and explained what had happened- they had apparently concluded their agent must have hidden the cigarettes away. 

  

What would you say the key qualities of an avid book collector are?  

Patience and perseverance. Finding scarce titles or books in uncommonly fresh condition is a waiting game, and requires dedication and self-restraint to stop you from buying an inferior copy of a book you always wanted simply because there is not a better copy available at the present time. 

  

How do you support and advise Peter Harrington’s customers?  

As well as providing support and answering any questions they might have regarding our books, delivery, and any after-sales queries, I also help my customers maintain and build up their book collections, or find the perfect gift for a special occasion. I particularly enjoy advising clients who want to gift a book to a friend or loved one but are stuck for ideas. Putting together suggestions based on the life, profession, hobbies or even year of birth of the person who is to receive the book is a lot of fun, and very satisfying when I succeed, and the customer reports afterwards that the book was a hit with the recipient.  

  

Do you think the way that customers are discovering and buying items is changing?   

Absolutely. The internet has enabled the public not just to find a given title with more ease, but also to better-inform themselves about various aspects of book collecting, from the importance of the condition to the various editions, issues, or binding styles that might be available for particular title they wish to acquire. 

 

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