Episode 7 | Should you ever open a bookshop with your mum?: Linda Furniss and James Firth, The Stripey Badger Bookshop (Grassington, Yorkshire)
What happens when your mum's lifelong dream becomes your career? Linda Furniss had wanted to own a bookshop since she was five years old. Her son James Firth had just finished an astrophysics degree and needed a job. It was James who eventually persuaded Linda that if she was ever going to open the bookshop she'd spent decades imagining, she needed to do it now. So, in 2018, they opened The Stripey Badger Bookshop in Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales. Nine years later, they've learned a great deal about bookselling – and about what happens when a mother and son become business partners. In this episode of Bookshop Stories, we talk about Linda's terror during their first year, why James became the one reassuring her that the business was working, and the problems that arise when two people whose minds work almost identically try to serve customers together. We also talk about falling out and walking out, their very different approaches to switching off from the business, how they've supported one another through difficult periods, and why both Linda and James believe owning the Stripey Badger has given them greater confidence. Plus, we hear about the day-to-day realities of running a bookshop in one of Yorkshire's most popular tourist destinations, and what happens when your shop is periodically transformed into a greengrocer for the filming of All Creatures Great and Small. You can find books recommended by Linda and James and other guests, alongside some of my own choices, at the Bookshop Stories store on Bookshop.org. And for more from Bookshop Stories, including the companion article to this episode, subscribe on Substack.
