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Prologue
Clove Lore
Some holidaymakers will think nothing of parting with four grand for a fortnight in a fully kitted-out villa on the Amalfi Coast, while devotees of the ‘staycation’ might invest as much as a third of their spare annual income to stay in a farm cottage in the countryside where the kids can feed goats, ride ponies and dodge the rain showers. And more power to them; no doubt they’ll all have a wonderful time.
But there’s still so much more to consider, what with lockdowns and cancellations always looming threateningly on the horizon like storm clouds, passport control lines as long as airport runways, the added taxes and insurance costs, all that faffery with roaming charges for your phone – and that’s before you even consider the expense of meals out, the art of inoffensive tipping, or the fact that tariffs shoot up during the school holidays so you’d have to be Zuckerberg levels of rich to afford even a week during peak season at Center Parcs these days.
All reasons why there’s a new kind of getaway growing in popularity, especially amongst a certain type of person, a person much like you, and it’s called the bookselling holiday.
All over the place, bookshops are jumping on the holiday-let bandwagon and dusting off their storerooms, clearing basements and attics, and shipping in beds and IKEA kitchen cubbies, so that book nerds can live out their fantasies of living and working in their very own bookstore, even if it is only for a week or two.
The Borrow-A-Bookshop at Clove Lore, right on the coast in beautiful Devon, was one of the very first to open its doors to guests, and this year its fame had spread as far as theGuardiantravel pages and one very tempting two-page feature inThe People’s Friend.
There’s a lot to recommend a Clove Lore bookish break. Imagine shuffling around your own personal bookshop from sunrise till twilight, or what the locals call ‘dimpsey light’ making recommendations to customers (called ‘hand-selling’ to those in the know!), lovingly wrapping a customer’s new book and sending them off with a smile on their face. Then, after hours, there’s the village itself to explore.
Clove Lore consists of one zig-zagging steep street (known as Up-along when you’re at the bottom, and Down-along when you’re at the top) which leads from the visitor centre – where the tour buses pull up – with its concessions selling souvenirs and clotted cream fudge, and the donkey sanctuary next door, all the way down to the historic harbour, where Bella and Finan run their traditional English pub, the Siren’s Tail, with its open fire and bar-restaurant, always cosy and welcoming on a winter’s day.
In summer you can take a trip on one of the sea-life spotting boats, wander along the beach to marvel at the caves and listen to the music of the cliff waterfall, or simply soak up the atmosphere and chat with the locals on the sea wall.
You might even fall in love, if Jude and Elliot are anything to go by. They both came to the seaside for a break (lugging broken hearts with them) and left healing and happy. Actually, the leaving part’s not quite true. Jude and Elliot met here last summer and look at them now, living, working – and in Jude’s case studying – locally and every bit in love as they ever were.
Not that the village chooses to advertise itself as a top spot for romance. The dramatic seascapes are attraction enough and there’s such a thing astoo manyvisitors, according to Araminta Clove-Congreve, ‘Minty’ to her friends, the aristocratic owner of the Big House and estate gardens at the top of the village. She’s slowly coming to terms with being skint and single since forever, up there in her grand old country pile, and trying to modernise, if a little reluctantly, to help turn the village into atastefully desirabledestination.
Sure, maybe there isn’tloadsto do in Clove Lore – very little in the way of water sports or nightlife – and the beach is pebbly, not ideal for sun-worshippers. Most are day-trippers, or weekenders enjoying dinner, bed and breakfast at the pub, but the bookshop holidays help bring guests in for two-week stays, long enough for them to feel a valued part of village life.
Plus, it’s cheap.
With a bit of saving up, a bookshop vacation isn’t really out of the reach of anyone,ifyou can get away from your own life for a while, and if you’ve been quick off the mark and secured yourself a spot on the waiting list, almost three years long now.
The most coveted of all bookshop borrowing spots is the fortnight including Christmas and New Year when Clove Lore is, when viewed from the sea, a sparkling winding ladder of Victorian street lamps and Christmas lights leading from the quay all the way Up-along. Not a single building is permitted to go undecorated, not if Minty has anything to do with it. It’s been ‘the way we do things’ for as long as Minty can remember and traditions must be upheld.
This year, the December frosts have loaned the strings of lights and the Christmas wreathes on every cottage door an extra special silvery lustre.
Picture the dreamiest ‘winter by the English seaside’ Instagram post you’ve ever seen or the most nostalgic olde English jigsaw puzzle your granny ever completed and you’ll be halfway to knowing how magical and idyllic the village looks this month, with smoke curling from each chimney pot, and the big twinkly Christmas tree by the harbour welcoming in the short, precious midwinter days.
Jowan de Marisco, the owner of the Borrow-A-Bookshop, wouldn’t dream of taking advantage of the increased desire for a bookselling holiday at this time of year by raising the price, even if he does look every inch a pirate. Oh no, every holidaymaker slash bookseller pays exactly the same, whether it’s for a slow and briskly cold February retreat or a bustling, blazing July when the cottage gardens of Clove Lore froth over with blooms and tourists arrive by the coachload.
Not only does everyone pay the same, everyone is welcomed with exactly the same spiel from Jowan too. Here’s the new arrival now, making his way with Jowan down the steep cobbles from the visitor centre, ready for their Christmas holiday at the Borrow-A-Bookshop. Only, they don’t look at all ready, or all that Christmassy either.
