Every thriving reading community needs good bookshops, and good booksellers. In our Meet the Bookseller series, we introduce you to some of Australia’s most loved booksellers, starting with our local community of Adelaide. If you’d like to nominate a bookshop or bookseller to be featured, please let us know in comments, or email maddy@wakefieldpress.com.au.
This week, meet Alice Teasedale, owner of Kangaroo Island-based Big Quince Print and its carefully curated shop, the Book Nook. Alice tells us what it’s like to run a print, copy and signwriting shop alongside a bookshop – phew!
How long have you been a bookseller?
I got a job at Dymocks Burnside in 2001, and adored working in both the Burnside and Adelaide branches for nine years. When I moved to Kangaroo Island, I dreamed of having a book shop but never thought it would be remotely possible. However, one thing led to another, and I realised I could add a little ‘Book Nook’ to my family’s print, copy and signwriting shop. Because it’s the icing on the cake rather than our core income, it’s sustainable even in such a small community! I spoil myself by stocking a delicious and carefully curated range in a cosy environment.
What do you love about being a bookseller?
The books and the people! There’s so much pleasure in guiding people to a title which will delight or inspire them, or finding the right gift. I love the joy grandparents take in choosing books for their grandchildren! I love books as objects and books as windows to other worlds.
What was the last book you read and loved?
Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites. Local author, engrossing, haunting narrative. Deeply atmospheric, exquisite character studies, profoundly cathartic.
Also I am in love with Wakefield’s recent photography book Kangaroo Island, edited by Alison Higgs. The (anonymous) photographer captures our local landscape in a way no other artist has. The drama of the weather, the dense textures and the angles and shapes in each frame have a visceral effect on me. The photographer paints an agricultural landscape, a flawed landscape, a changing landscape, rather than just the seaside holiday island you so often see in pictures of KI.
What’s special or distinctive about Big Quince Book Nook?
Firstly the view! There are not many bookshops where you can sit and look across the ocean at mainland Australia.
Secondly, we’re not just a book shop! We’re a print factory too, so there’s always something going on.
Thirdly, we are extremely proud of our association with island writers and publishers. With my design hat on, I am the typographer for Stormbird Press, whose books are now distributed by Wakefield Press – so I get to see books from manuscript to shelf! Also, the previous owner of our shop, Darry Fraser, now turns out marvellous historical adventure novels and we have them all in stock, signed! We stock everything we can about Island life and history, and personal connections abound.
Fourthly, watch this space. We moved to our new shop space just over two months ago and we already have a visiting author and a photography exhibition scheduled. We are working towards having a micro coffee shop by summer so people can enjoy a cuppa and cake while choosing something to read.