Tilly Lloyd

Christmas trading figures were flat, and for retail about one per cent down, according to Statistics NZ figures released this week. However, bookstores fall in the consumables and durable section of retail which did see a small rise, according to the report.

Nielsen Bookscan reported that sales for the last four weeks of 2011 were  2.3% down on sales for the last four weeks of 2010 (excluding Whitcoulls).

And that "up and down" scene was pretty much the picture book that retailers painted when  The Read  did the “How was your Christmas?” phone around.

Tilly peers into her New Zealand Post Awards crystal ball…

The Read thought it would be fun to ask an eminent bookseller to pre guess the judges’ nominations for the first New Zealand Post Book Awards which will be announced  next Tuesday, June 22.

We chose Tilly Lloyd because we were doing the profile of Unity Wellington, and what the heck, it saved money on toll calls.

Ms Lloyd, however, took to her task with High Court gravity. As she had been out of the country on sabbatical during some of the awards period, she consulted with colleagues regarding titles she may have overlooked.

Unity Books Wellington has just renewed the lease on their Willis Street premises for a lengthy period, so it is good to see such defiance of doom and gloom. The store will also grow larger when Unity’s landlords refurbish the frontage of their building and Unity incorporates part of the entrance lobby into the shop. Tilly Lloyd is not unmindful of the risks, but is “reasonably confident that the paper book will continue to exist and will be needed”. She says, "The refit will be something like a second revised edition".

Unity Books is certainly a valued Wellington institution and has weathered a few challenges since the store was founded in 1967 by Alan Preston.

The cultural relevance and intellect of a city can always be judged by the health of its independent bookselling community, and on that criteria alone Wellington is
not just the country’s political capital but the undisputed literary capital as well.

Not only does it have a wide and diverse range of independent bookshops, it also has the best, with vastly more industry awards over the last decade being won by
Wellington bookshops than anywhere else in New Zealand.