What I found today #2: A Memory
- philipmuollo
- Feb 13
- 2 min read
In the 1990’s, I would visit the bookshop of John Quilter (Quilters) on Lambton Quay. I didn’t know John very well then, in fact I barely spoke to him. For years, he was someone I would glance at curiously while sifting through the books that lay flat on a broad table, lifting one at a time to reveal another one underneath; John seated at his book-covered desk, glasses perched on his nose, reading and looking up, always with a gentle smile.
In the middle of 2023, I made contact with John and asked if he would be happy to meet me and give me advice and share some insights about his life as a bookseller. He said he would be delighted to meet and talk with me, but, warned me that he was unwell much of the time. He would let me know when he felt at his best, perhaps on the day itself.
And so I sat opposite John in Mystic Kitchen one morning soon afterwards. He had visited our shop first and looked around saying ‘wonderful, wonderful’.
John was never interested in tackling the growing complexity that was social media. The email was the only way John communicated with his devoted band of bibliophiles. He advised me to regularly send out emails. He said he would send an email listing the books that he thought might be of interest to all these individuals who he knew personally. He was also quite insistent that I invest in a sign, preferably in flashing neon, and have it protrude from the wall of the building, so that all the people in their cars streaming down Vivian Street would see ‘Bookshop’ flashing at them.
I have not, as yet, put in place either of these suggestions. The emails that have gone out invariably show what events are coming up, without much in the way of book news. I am glad, however, as I wrote an introduction to the February newsletter today, to have been able to insert into it a small memory of John Quilter, who passed away on February 19, 2024, one of the great Wellington book sellers.
Comments