Hatchards

I love a bookstore. I am guessing if you are reading this you do too! One of my favorite childhood rituals was a weekend trip to Borders. Now this was before the days of cafes and music and (shudder) toys invaded an honest to goodness bookstore. So we would stop for snacks at K-Mart food court, a red ICEE and some of those classic hot nacho cheese and chips in the plastic tray and then make our way to the sidewalk sale. It was always a mix of everything and at least somewhat mixed together. If the cover looked interesting, I would pick it up. It didn’t matter if it was a ‘kid’ book or non-fiction, if that cover caught my eye I would read the blurb on the back and if I was lucky that sale price meant Mom said yes and home it came. My bookshelves are still filled with a ton of books across tons of genres because of this browsing style.

It is so easy to walk into a big book store and be overwhelmed and head toward the romance section or the mystery shelves and walk past what could be your next favorite book. And we are used to big stores filled with a million options. I mean we have at least a dozen choices in all purpose flour at my grocery store. Can you imagine how much more amazing walking into Hatchards must have been for our Regency readers?

Hatchards was started in 1797 by John Hatchard and as was usual at the time was part bookseller and part publisher. The store that my characters shop in is still situated in the same place they would have found it. The large staircase is home to a portrait of the founder they may have seen a glimpse of while he dealt with authors like Lord Byron and maybe even an unknowing glimpse of Jane Austen.