2023 was the centenary year of our bookshop, Bertram Rota Limited , founded by my grandfather. His uncles, who gave him his first job, and their father were booksellers too. My father took the helm in 1966 and I joined the business in 1995. In modest celebration, I wrote and sent to customers “monthly musings” all of which are now appearing here. In April we issued a major catalogue rather than a reminiscence, but there is another written in December 2024 but not published until now.
This was the tricky one (although my heavy criticism in May of a book written about the firm and my family by a disgruntled ex-employee had caused raised eyebrows). My wife and co-director dissuaded me from publishing it on the grounds that it was not terribly festive for the time of year and that it sounded bitter. She was probably right on both counts, although on reading it again now I have decided to publish it here and not to edit it. It is an accurate reflection of events after all. After much research, I discovered that sadly I could not publish the Dylan Thomas drawing for reasons of copyright. The idea of publishing all of the musings in book form has not materialised owing to constraints of time and finance.
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