I didn’t know what to write on this ‘about me’ page and someone suggested that I use the tried and trusted method writing 100 things about me. I couldn’t think of that many and some of these are probably very dull but here we go. Maybe I should offer a prize to anyone who gets to the end?
My name is Vanessa
I set up and now run Fidra Books
I couldn’t do it without my husband who does all the techie bits, has brilliant ideas and reins in my more outrageous schemes
I would never have had the nerve to set Fidra up were it not for the encouragement of friends like Jane and Pat and the practical assistance of Emma our graphic designer and Catriona who sorts out the accounts.
Fidra Books grew out of my business as a bookseller specialising in rare and collectable children’s books.
I still sell books – http://www.robertsonbooks.co.uk/ – but have increasingly little time for it which is a shame
I am proud to be a member of Ibooknet – a cooperative of UK and Irish booksellers – http://www.ibooknet.com/ – If you’re after a rare or out-of-print book this is a great place to start with great books from professional booksellers
I gave up a career as a university academic to become a bookseller
I have never regretted that decision
My favourite authors are a diverse bunch and include Jane Austen, Ian Rankin, Ruby Ferguson, Janet Evanovich and Stella Gibbons.
I’m also very lucky in that I love the books that Fidra Books publishes – it makes it much easier to sell them!
Favourite comfort reads include Six Ponies by Josephine Pullein-Thompson, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Antonia Forest’s Marlows series.
I managed to read all of The Da Vinci Code and thought it utterly dreadful yet worryingly compelling.
I live in Edinburgh
Edinburgh in August with all the festivals is a great place to visit but a truly hellish place to live at that time
It’s ok the rest of the time, if a bit cold
I am from Worcester, a Cathedral city about 30 miles south of Birmingham
I left Worcester in 1991 and it’s changed a lot since then. I don’t think I could live there again – for one thing I can’t navigate the new bypass.
I regularly hanker after moving to a small-holding in Cornwall
When I was about ten, I was allowed to stay up late to watch the TV adaptation of K M Peyton’s Flambards books because it had horses in it and I was a pony-mad child.
Following that I read the books and decided that I wanted to be a writer
I actually can’t write for toffee and have abandoned that idea which is probably good news for the reading public!
I am in my mid-thirties
I quite like getting older because I worry less about what people might think and have much more confidence
I am also developing Grumpy Old Woman tendencies
But I quite like that
I have many qualifications but none are relevant to what I do now, except perhaps my English ‘O’ level.
I have never taken a business studies or book-keeping course. My accountant says that this is obvious.
I have many acquaintances but few true friends
Friends are people who will drop everything to help out in an emergency, feel perfectly able to make themselves a coffee in my kitchen and who I can trust with my deepest secrets
Those friends are much treasured
I will put myself out to help other people but there is a difference being made use of and being used and people don’t get the opportunity to do the latter more than once
This is getting quite personal – congratulations if you’re still with me!
I’ve never been very good at being one of the ‘in’ crowd
When I was younger that bothered me. Now I couldn’t care less.
If I worried what people would think, I wouldn’t be doing what I do now
We have one child. He’s brilliant
I get very annoyed when people I hardly know feel entitled to ask why we don’t have more children. Do I look at their brood and ask whether their contraception failed? I do not.
I would love to be groomed and elegant
I can manage ‘presentable’
But left to my own devices I’m an inveterate scruff
I don’t watch soap operas, but I am a fan of Radio 4’s The Archers
My favourite restaurant is The Witchery in Edinburgh
I don’t get to go there enough
I can’t think of anything else to say, so I’ll come back to this later….
