Bookshop of the Month: The Story of Backstory

Balham’s newest bookshop is a far cry from your usual high street retailer. It promises not only books but writers and the chance to mix with them. You are welcome to browse the carefully curated shelves, but the real draw of Backstory lies beneath the surface, or more accurately, behind the big blue counter.

Backstory’s greatest asset is their staff, whose presence can always be felt. They have a large team for a relatively small shop, six in all. Usually, three of them are in the shop at any one time, chatting, sharing jokes or discussing the finer points of what they are reading. Their founder, Tom Rowley, is an award-winning journalist who has written for The Economist, The Washington Post, and The Telegraph. Despite having a safe job at The Economist as a journalist ‘who can’t really add up’, he planned in secret to resign and found his own bookshop. A colleague discovered and leaked the plot before he was ready. He had to act fast. He took to Twitter and announced that he was leaving to fulfil his dream.

A leap of faith and a big bank loan

Tom left The Economist with no location for a shop and no idea how to run a business. He has documented his bookshop journey on his excellent Substack blog, My Bookshop Adventure where his engaging and personal style caught the attention of bookshop regulars. He started out by selling books at a market stall, but soon his customers and followers helped him to raise money for a permanent base. With this and a £100,000 loan from the bank, he acquired an old tile shop in Balham.

Now, Backstory is instantly recognizable beneath the red-brick façades on Balham High Road by its bright blue shop front. The blue flows through to the inside, where shelves and tables are helpfully stacked thematically: popular new releases occupy the tables, the staff’s top 10 are lined face forward on the shelf nearest the window and next to them are award winners and short-listers. The rest are organized by genre, with plenty of biographies and history books to choose from besides fiction. Some of the staff’s favourite books have tags offering brief reviews and recommendations.

A group of friends creating a club

On my first visit, having browsed the shelves, I headed to the café-style counter with my purchases and had a long talk with Rory McNeill. After being introduced to Tom at the London Book Fair, he joined to do some marketing work for Backstory part-time, but as the project snowballed he decided to leave his job in publishing and is now the shop’s manager. As a writer too he often provides the weekly book recommendation on Tom’s blog.

Rory has been at Backstory since the first lick of paint went on and offers some useful insights into the shop’s daily life. They are aiming for what he calls a ‘club feel’, a friends’ passion project that gives something to people in the area. The team are close and often take part in group activities once doors close for the day. Rory mentioned ‘pints and proofs’ with enthusiasm, a weekly meeting where the team can discuss advance proofs from publishers over a few drinks.

Backstory overstaffed? Good!

Rory says that Tom is a boss who likes to say ‘yes’. Tom emerged from the storeroom at this point and clarified with a smirk that he likes getting the team’s input and that ‘sometimes’ he agrees. ‘It’s our shop,’ he said, ‘we’re a little overstaffed but I like it this way.’ I can see where he is coming from. After talking about the shop, Rory and I discussed the books I had just bought, what I was reading at the moment and things we had both read in the past. Without Denise tidying up the children’s section and Tom organizing new stock, Rory would not have been able to answer all my annoying questions.

Rory said he was surprised and gratified by how often customers would come in to ask for a recommendation, without taking a glance at the shelves. The team have clearly won the trust of the local community, as they do not just hand you their latest favourite book. They ask about your tastes and match you with a team member who best suits your reading habits. This is the method that they use for their monthly book subscription too. It is not uncommon to hear customers discussing books with staff or chatting with strangers over a coffee or a glass of wine. As I was finishing my coffee, an author came in and asked Tom if he had read the proofs of her new book. Was I in a bookshop or a publishing house, I asked myself? Tom said it is a regular occurrence. Another author had come in with the same question just that morning.

Watch the blackboard for future events

In addition to a weekly book club, Backstory host author talks, with guests ranging from top journalists to debut authors. They compere live music nights with local artists. These sell out fast, so keep your eye out for them. Every post on the blog begins with a summary of future events and book recommendations.

It is clear from Tom’s first year at the shop that he wants to use his journalistic skills to bring something new and constructive to his audience, not just remotely, issue by issue as The Economist did, but face to face in a continuing relationship. And so, the story of Backstory continues.

For write-ups of other bookshops and book-related topics, browse our blog.