The Aardvark Blog

Blog Writers Block, Getting Ready for the Sale, April event
14/02/2026

Over the last few weeks I have thought about writing a blog on many occasions, but the thought of what I was going to say has deterred me. As most readers of this blog will know at the beginning of January Ethel and I announced that we would be giving up Aardvark at Easter and that we were inviting people to come forward to take over from us.

I am delighted to say that from a wide number of approaches two groups emerged as serious contenders, and both groups met with the Harley Estate's representatives last week ( Aardvark having been a Harley Estate tenant for the last twenty years). There will now be a slight hiatus whilst technicalities are addressed, but I hope that by early March we should know whether a new team for Aarvark will be in place in April.

As you can imagine much of our identity has been wrapped up in running Aardvark over the last two decades, so it will be a definite shock to the system not to be coming to work in Brampton Bryan every day. Our decision to leave has been mostly due to our personal situation, but one thing that did impact the timing of our decision was the recently announced changes to Business Rates for retail and hospitality businesses. Ethel and I were in the Booksellers Pushed to the Brink  feature in last week's Daily Express, and I hope that as many people as possible will back the Booksellers Association campaign to get government to think again on this issue.

Still one corollary of the decision to transfer the bookshop is that Ethel and I have decided that we need to simplify our enormous stock holdings here, which means that from Sunday the 1st of March we will be having a massive sale - both in the warehouse and in the shop - with 30% off all stock in the shop, and a huge 50 pence sale in the warehouse. Over the last 10 years we have built up a big surplus of stock, and I am busy clearing an area in the warehouse that has been untouched for over a decade and finding some interesting items.

We will also be preparing for our Easter Event on Saturday the 4th of April. This will be the last day of Aardvark under our stewardship, so I hope you will all come out for it. There are currently spaces for stalls - although the space is filling up rapidly - so if you would like to stand at Ethel and my last ever Flea Market ( although I am fairly sure that our replacements will keep them going ), then put the date in your diary.

Finally one element of hope in the last few gloomy weeks of never ending rain has been the appearance of snowdrops , acanates and other winter flowers this January/February. Attached is a photo of a very brave Hellebore Orientalis that pushed its head up outside our front door last week. There is hope that Spring is coming, and I hope that all friends of Aardvark will bear with us over the inevitable ebbs and flows of our transfer.