About Heywood Hill

After more than seventy years in Curzon Street, Heywood Hill's bookshop is a remarkable survival. When it was founded, it was very much a family affair with Heywood and his wife, Anne, doing most of the work. When Heywood was called up in December 1942, the shop might have had to close if it had not been for the contributions of Nancy Mitford, who had been there for a few months, and a small group of loyal helpers. Some of this period is described in a A Bookseller's War (now out of print). Nancy and Heywood remained firm friends until her death in 1973 and wrote to one another regularly. John Saumarez Smith's selection of their letters has been published, to celebrate Nancy's centenary which occurred in October 2004. Charming and witty, but never malicious, the letters give a brilliant insight into a world that has almost disappeared. Copies can be obtained from us, price £6.99 paperback. Please write to enquire about postage costs if you would like to order a copy.

A sequel, uniform with The Bookshop, appeared two years later, which contained the correspondence between Heywood and John Saumarez Smith from 1966 to 1974. It is also readily available for £12.99.

In the twenty years from 1945 to 1965 there was the same feeling of continuity as Heywood was joined by Handasyde Buchanan and Elizabeth Forbes; Mrs Mollie Buchanan had worked with Nancy during the war and continued to do the shop's accounts. The shop was a favourite haunt of a generation of writers, from Osbert Sitwell to Osbert Lancaster, from Iris Origo to Lesley Blanch, from Evelyn Waugh to Anthony Powell. They were commemorated in shop catalogues in 1996 & 1997, at the time of the sixtieth anniversary, which listed books written only by customers.

The combination of new, secondhand, and antiquarian books remains, against all odds. Customers from all over the world retain a fierce loyalty to the shop and concern for its well-being. When in 1990, we underwent an expensive refurbishment, we never considered changing the layout or understated facade as our Friends assured us that changes could only be for the worse. If the surface seems occasionally chaotic, there is organisation behind the chaos.

The essential difference between us and any of the larger London bookshops lies in the number of books we read. We believe in matching books to our customers, often discouraging them from buying something that has been well reviewed. This relationship will grow as we discover what your interests are and where your tastes lie. We never pretend to be omniscient but do try to ensure that our Friends, wherever they are, receive books of long-term, general or specialist interest. For those who live abroad and cannot read English reviews, we can provide books on a monthly basis, as and when we know what is required.