The Golden Bookshop, in part named after Haig’s golden retriever, aims to be an inclusive and accessible bookshop and café with the ethos that “everyone is a reader”.
Haig said: “We want Golden to be an inclusive and welcoming space. For all humans and dogs. A place where people can sit and have a coffee and where there is no pressure to buy anything. We know the Seven Dials area of Brighton very well and it has a lot of great shops, but no booksellers whatsoever. So when this space came up we went for it. I grew up in a town without a bookshop so I understand the transformative power of bookshops.
“Our ethos will be the idea that everyone is a reader, even if they don’t know it, and to create a space that is both sumptuous but also welcoming for all. We will ignore genre snobbery and just sell stuff we like. Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, coffee table books, classics, banned books, books for every reader and background. Even a few vinyl records too – ones that feel like novels or poems. We want to be a good place to work for too, will pay London wages even though we aren’t in London, and will resist the lure of any technology that could replace humans. And we are sourcing some amazing coffee.”
“We won’t be pushing things we don’t want to push,” he said. “Just good books. Curated by me and people I trust. Mind-bending books. Tearful books. Banned books. Fun books. Graphic novels. Kids’ books. Grown-up books. Really cool music and art books. Books with words. Books that have no words but are really gorgeous to flick through. Books that are actually vinyl records. The best dead and living writers.”
There will be “the occasional evening event”, he added. “No stuffy vibes. No genre snobbery. No high/low book classism.” Dogs will also be welcome at the shop.
Haig, who was born in Sheffield, has written more than two dozen books for adults and children, including his breakthrough 2015 book Reasons to Stay Alive, an account of living with depression.
He follows several prominent authors who have established their own bookshops. Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney set up An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts; Ann Patchett opened Parnassus Books in Nashville in 2011; George RR Martin owns Beastly Books in Santa Fe.
