As he stares out of the window, Bob Stone’s eyes mist over with clairvoyance of memory. He recites to me tales of working in a jewellers. Tales of drunks coming in to buy engagement rings on a Saturday afternoon and then, later on, sheepishly trying to return them on a Monday. A Monday when the impulsiveness of their inebriated undying love had proved to be less ‘undying’ than a hangover.
He tells me how, about 10 years before, he’d stood behind the counter of that jeweller’s. While staring at some of the circumventing empty shops, he said out loud: “If I ever win the lottery, I’ll open a book shop, with a coffee shop inside”.
For more information, check out Write Blend’s website!
A decade on and – as a testament to the human ability to make dreams and imaginings into our very reality – we were sitting together, drinking coffee, surrounded by books inside one of those once empty shops. And the old jewellers that he once worked in was now no more than the mist in a book shop owner’s eye.
Bob’s new book shop, ‘Write Blend’ is a dream realised, a goal achieved – but still more than that. Write Blend is a leap of faith into the Crosby community, due to relying primarily on foot traffic for its income in an ever-increasingly Amazonian age.
For more information, check out Write Blend’s website!
Write Blend has ‘soul’ in a world full of ‘PayPal’. It’s a tabernacle of tranquillity; a literary sanctuary in a mad, bad world. Books shops and libraries have that meditative ambience I think. They don’t just beg it, they command it – they command quiet. And by God, do we need more quiet in this world! It’s essential for our wellbeing.
Write Blend provides that space to sit with a coffee and turn a page, that mind space, that me space, that ‘I just want to get on a rocket and piss off to outer space!’ space. There’s a lot of things that go on there, such as children’s events, live music, open mic poetry, book signings etc. The book shop supports a lot of authors, including oneself.
When I found them, I felt I was kind of ‘adopted’ into a literary family. In many ways, I am saying thank you in this article to Bob and his partners of the past for their help, in my writing this.
For information on how to join the literary family, check out Write Blend’s website!
Write Blend looks after people. They are not a ‘brand’ or a ‘business’ as much as a living breathing organism. A hub for the community; a hiding place. Just as Winnie the Pooh had his thinking log, we all need a hiding place, and for many (some very sensitive) Write Blend is it.
If you do get a chance, please check out their Facebook page for events, drop in, have a coffee, buy a book. Help support somebody else’s dream, somebody else’s hiding place, somebody else’s story. We need places like this in our community much more than we need bloody vape shops. We need to support them.
For more information, check out Write Blend’s website!
Check out Write Blend on Facebook!
You can check out Write Blend in person at:
124 South Rd
Waterloo
Liverpool
L22 0ND
