words by Tanya Gribben and Rachel Cooper
In the 1980s Broadsheet, New Zealand’s feminist magazine, had the brilliant idea to open a feminist bookshop in Auckland. Unfortunately their plan was that the bookshop would generate profits that would help the magazine to survive. And as all of you here know, small indie bookshops do not generate huge returns. So their small shop on Dominion Road, staffed by volunteers, and stocking a lot of remainders, did not thrive.
In 1988 they decided to close the shop. But Pat Rosier, the editor of Broadsheet, wanted there to be a feminist bookshop in Auckland. So following the aphorism that if you want something done, you ask a busy woman, she turned to her friend Carole Beu. Carole was a full-time English and drama teacher, the mother of two primary school aged children and a bundle of energy. Pat convinced her to take over the lease of 228 Dominion Road, and on the 7th of April, 1989, The Women’s Bookshop opened its doors.
In the early 1990s the bookselling scene in Aotearoa (and the world) was very different. The Women’s Bookshop was one of four feminist bookshops in New Zealand, and one of hundreds and hundreds worldwide. Wellington had the Radical bookshop and Keith Locke opened the progressive socialist bookshop, One World Books, on Karangahape Road in 1990. Auckland also had two specialist New Age bookshops, a specialist art bookshop and multiple children’s bookshops. Every suburb and every small town had at least one bookshop.
Gradually they’ve almost all fallen by the wayside. So how did The Women’s Bookshop not just survive but thrive? One reason: Carole Beu.
Carole is almost supernaturally hardworking and passionate about her shop. She has constantly adapted the way the shop works – from microfiche and fax machines to computers and a social media presence – adapted the stock the shop carries – for example adding a gay men’s section when she moved to Ponsonby in 1999 and is never afraid of a challenge
But she’s done so much more. For most of us, juggling a small business with being a single parent would be enough. But Carole is Carole.
Through the 1990s Carole was the Auckland Co-ordinator of the Listener Women’s Books Festival – an enormous task. The Festival ran annually from 1988 to 1997. Women flocked to these events, which were often packed out and sometimes over-subscribed (rumour has it one woman made her way into a Marilyn Waring talk by brandishing knitting needles) and when it ended Carole might have taken a break. Instead, she sat at the kitchen table with Stephanie Johnson and Peter Wells and helped to formulate a plan for what would become the Auckland Writers Festival in 1999. Carole was a founding trustee of the Auckland Writers Festival, and has been the bookseller at the Festival for 27 years – sometimes alongside Time Out and Unity, and later alone.
At the same time she ran constant events at the bookshop – she hosted international authors like Barbara Trapido, Marilyn Frye and Alice Thomas Ellis – but from the first day she was dedicated to promoting local authors.
As well as events in the bookshop, in the 1990s she ran Women’s Book Weekends which were mini book festivals held at Auckland Teachers College, with stunning line-ups of speakers and workshops.
After the move to Ponsonby, she scaled these back and around 2008 began the Ladies’ Liter-Tea – a day of authors speaking accompanied by a decadent afternoon tea. This year’s Litera-Tea takes place on 1 November and tickets will be on sale soon! For a while she was a host on the weekly TV series The Book Show along with Graham Beattie.
She didn’t only run her own events in the shop – over the years The Women’s Bookshop has also sold books at an endless stream of conferences, events and workshops, Carole is always prepared to fill her little car with boxes and boxes of books and travel to wherever a bookseller is needed. The shop still sells books every year at The Big Gay Out and Same, Same But Different; as well as events and launches at venues across Auckland. Yesterday, for example, we sold books at an event at the Charlotte Museum and next week we’re selling books at a Writers Write, Actors Read event.
Carole reads prodigiously. If Carole champions a book, much of NZ (& all of the book trade) will know. Carole reviews books on National Radio and in print, chairs events at the AWF, and served on both the Booksellers Board and the Auckland Writers Festival Board. Hundreds of books and many vouchers are donated every year to various organisations such as a Women’s Prison, local schools, HELP Foundation, Women’s Refuge, community libraries and others. Last year we hosted a movie screening of Prime Minister to raise funds for Massive Theatre, a performing arts training company for youth.
In 1994, when the shop turned five, Carole said
“five years later my house is still mortgaged to support the bookshop; my two children, now teenagers, say they see even less of me than when I was secondary school teacher; I sometimes run around in circles convinced I will never get all the orders done, answer all the requests for information, track down the obscure titles, have the time to quietly listen to the women who need to talk… But I love it! The shop is not just my work, it is my hobby and my passion. … With your support, we intend to still be here in another five years.”
Five years later, Carole filled the 850 seat Dorothy Winstone Theatre at Auckland Girls for a tenth birthday celebration. Fifteen years later the shop celebrated 20 years. We have customers who mention still using their 20th Anniversary mugs, covered in the names of amazing women writers. And in 2019 the shop’s 30th birthday took place at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. And all three of these celebrations featured a line-up of women writers – Carole was never just running a business or throwing a party – she was always promoting and lifting up women writers of Aotearoa.
In the 2019 New Years Honours List Carole received the MNZM (Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to the literary industry and the LGBTQI+ community and in true Carole-style threw a party for friends, family and the book trade at the Long Room in Ponsonby Road.
The Spinoff quoted Dame Fiona Kidman in an article when we turned 30 and it is still true today…
“It takes courage to do what Carole did,” says celebrated author Dame Fiona Kidman. “Setting up a shop that celebrates women’s writing, as she did, and turned into a giant success. More than that, she has created spaces where books can be celebrated by many people, of whatever gender, and whether they buy books or not. I regard Carole as an influential, tireless friend to the bookselling industry, to local writers, to women’s lives, and to me personally. Nothing ever seems too much trouble to her and her absolute belief and commitment to everything she undertakes is an inspiration.”
