I found this today written by another writer who I’ve never heard of but then I doubt very much he has heard of me. There is another similarity we share and that’s the love he has for physical books. However, I can only hope that one day I will be as good as he is to express that love.
“When I was a teenager and starting to love books, I was lucky enough to live near a town with a fantastic little indie bookshop. It was called the Bluebell Bookshop and my mum had taken me to it since I was a kid. The folk that owned it were a bit hippy and New Age, and highly suspect to a Cumbrian farmer’s son, but they had amazing taste in books. Someone in the shop used to curate a table with books they thought their readers might like. They had a very clever trick putting books that we probably thought we wanted alongside books they thought we might benefit from reading. It was a quietly radical act that got me reading all sorts of revolutionary books. That bookshop table had a profound impact on me, made me a much wider reader, and eventually helped me become a writer.
Books aren’t just ‘products’ or ‘commodities’ to be bundled onto shelves carelessly, or set out in front of our screen-eyes by algorithms. Books are the result of writers pouring their souls onto the pages, and when it works, and really clicks, those books can change people’s lives. So selling books is one of the most important jobs a human can do, because it is more than commerce. It’s matching people to stories they might need, encouraging people to hear new voices and different ideas, and, through that, playing a little role in changing the world. We still, thankfully, have a few fantastic indies in Cumbria, even though Bluebell Books is now a Costa Coffee, and those indies have helped me to get my books out there into thousands of reader’s hands. I will always be grateful for that. Books should be written, sold and read with love, and when they are there is a kind of magic that lightens up the world a little bit.” James Rebanks, 2021
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About Daniel Kemp
Daniel Kemp is a member of The Society of Authors. His introduction to the world of espionage and mystery happened at an early age when his father was employed by the War Office in Whitehall, London, at the end of WWII. However, it wasn’t until after his father died that he showed any interest in anything other than himself!
On leaving academia he took on many roles in his working life: a London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver, but never did he plan to become a writer. Nevertheless, after a road traffic accident left him suffering from PTSD and effectively—out of paid work for four years, he wrote and self-published his first novel —The Desolate Garden. Within three months of publication, that book was under a paid option to become a $30 million film. The option lasted for five years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company.
All ten of his novels are now published by CNext Chapter with the tenth novel being a two-part ending to the Heirs and Descendants Series. A Covenant of Spies completed the four-book series alongside: What Happened In Vienna, Jack? Once I Was A Soldier and A Widow's Son.
Under the Creativia publishing banner, The Desolate Garden went on to become a bestselling novel in World and Russian Literature in 2017. The following year, in May 2018, his book What Happened In Vienna, Jack? was a number-one bestseller on four separate Amazon sites: America, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Although it's true to say that he mainly concentrates on what he knows most about; murders laced by the mystery involving spies, his diverse experience of life shows in the two novellas he wrote, namely: Why? A Complicated Love, and the intriguing story titled--The Story That Had No Beginning.
He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication and described as—the new Graham Green—by a highly placed employee of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of book signing events. He has also appeared on 'live' television in the UK publicising his first novel.
There is no morality to be found in evil. But to recognise that which is truly evil one must forget the rules of morality.
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daniel-Kemp/...
He is fond of writing Quotes and a collection of his can be found here---
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/list/72612151
Daniel Kemp 
Reblogged this on Ed;s Site..
This is a lovely post, Danny. What this chap, James, has said is spot on.
I thought so, Robbie. Sad about the bookshop changing into a Costa coffee shop, but time does not standstill.