First published 1999
Florence Green decides to open a bookshop in the tiny seaside town of Hardborough, Sussex, where post-war prosperity never arrived. The year is 1959, and the isolated community seems determined to watch her venture fail. Florence faces rising damp in her building and a resident poltergeist that the locals call a "rapper." Her most dangerous opponent proves to be Violet Gamart, who wants Florence's building for an arts center and will use any means to claim it. Florence has few allies, including a hermit who warns her about Gamart's intentions. Once the Old House Bookshop opens, Florence navigates the challenges of running a subscription library and training her ten-year-old assistant. Her customers have particular tastes: men want books by SAS veterans and military commanders, while women fight over a Queen Mary biography. When the slippery Milo North suggests she stock the Olympia Press edition of "Lolita," Florence faces legal and political attacks. Fitzgerald divides her characters into "exterminators and exterminatees," creating a world where hope meets inevitable human cruelty.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, british-literature, books-about-books
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Hardborough, Sussex
Period: 1959
158 pages · Hardcover · Chivers