Tell us about choosing the library books for Another Place – what was your brief and how did you find the collaboration?
As a newbie on the block, I was very touched that Another Place reached out to Verey Books. I’d never curated a library before, so it’s been a brilliant learning experience and a wonderful thing to be asked to do.
The brief was to restock the Another Place library with 100 or so books that we felt guests would enjoy.
It’s a beautiful hotel in a beautiful location right on the lake, so they wanted books that would reflect their place by the water and the incredible landscapes all around – some outdoorsy books, some to entertain guests on a wet winter’s afternoon, and some children’s books. I interpreted the brief as inspiring fireside adventures and books to stimulate you to get outside and try new things, like swimming or stargazing.
To keep that sense of place alive, we’ve included books that talk about Ullswater and the Lake District, like Amy Bateman’s Forty Farms, which tells the stories of farms all around Another Place.
Was it difficult to edit your list of titles down to the final selection? How did you go about it?
I was quite slow and deliberate in my approach. The hotel gave me a list of books that they already had in the library, so I started off thinking, ‘What’s missing? What else is new? What’s come out since the library was last restocked?’. It was a collaborative effort. I picked the brains of different people to get their thoughts, like my mentor, Patrick Neale, and publishers’ reps.
You’ve got some great classics in your selection…
I feel like a library should include some literature, so I was keen to put a few classics in there, to give it a true library feel and to offer the reader the possibility of internal adventures.
Classics have proven staying power, whereas if I’d included the number one bestseller of the day then it could start to look dated pretty quickly.