"[Books] have voices; and our job as window dresser was to see that they were saying the right thing to the right people in the most effective way.
So we were like the puppeteer who, standing unseen, pulls unseen strings; or like the conductor of the orchestra who, silent himself, gets the best from each instrumentalist. Each book has its own individual voice, saying 'I am me: buy me!' Some books say this very loudly, clearly and persuasively. You put them in the window and people at once know all about them and come hurrying in for them. These are our soloists, and probably our best soloist when we opened was The Cruel Sea. Other books are better in chorus. 'We are cookery books. We are gardening books. There are lots more of us inside.' Some books speak for themselves. Books with titles like Devon or Sea Fishing for Beginners need no help from us: they say exactly what they are. But Jim Davis needs a little notice pointing out that it is an exciting smuggling story with a Dartmouth setting. Only those with the best voices qualify for the window or for display face forwards inside the shop, and each must be carefully chosen not just for what it has to say but to whom we want it said..."
From The Path through the Trees by Christopher Milne.
Christopher Milne (1920-1996) was the son of A.A. Milne, immortalised of course as 'Christopher Robin'. He and his wife Lesley owned and ran The Harbour Bookshop in Dartmouth, Devon from the early 1951 to 1983. The shop sadly closed some years ago.
