A bookshop of one's own

A little bit of background📃

I found A bookshop of one's own in an eclectic, indie bookshop in Melbourne that I discovered on a work trip. The Book Grocer has a store presence but seems to do most of its trade online. The cover of A bookshop of one's own drew me as soon as I saw the book on the shelf on a cold Melbourne winter's day. A memoir of a bunch of bad ass lesbians opening an independent bookstore in London? I'm in!

A bookshop of one's own | Published February 2024 | Read July 2026

The author✏️

Jane Cholmeley is a notable feminist, gay icon, bookseller and publisher. Jane's 40-year career in the book trade began at Yale University Press. She then worked at Maccdonald Educational, but when the company was acquired by Robert Maxwell, Jane refused to work for him and instead completed an MA in Women's Studies. Jane opened Silver Moon, the subject of her memoir, with then partner, Sue Butterworth, and Jane Anger in 1984. Sandi Toksvig nominated Jane as a Gay Icon in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition in 2009. Jane and Sue won the Pandora Award from Women in Publishing in 1989.

The subject matterℹ️

A bookshop of one's own is part memoir of Jane Chomeley's life, part social history of the British feminist movement, part archival history of the bookshop, and part tribue to feminist writers, to all the incredible women who worked at the bookshop, and to the lesbians who paved the way. Silver Moon opened in 1984 on 68 Charing Cross Road, founded by three women who had a dream to start a feminist bookshop in an industry dominated by men. The bookshop's mission was to promote women's writing and create a safe space for women in a time of homophobia and misogyny in the context of Thatcherism. While the bookshop ultimately closed in 2001 due to rising rents, Jane and her booksellers created a thriving business, eventually branching out into publishing, and played a crucial but relatively unknown part in the women's liberation movement.

Jane's memoir takes the reader through her early years of cementing her identity as a lesbian woman, her early struggles in the bookselling industry, and her eventual romantic and business partnership with Sue Butterworth. The book provides readers with insight into the bookselling and publishing business of the 1980s and 1990s, gay rights and women's liberation, and is one giant love letter to literature and to the importance of bookshops.

My thoughts on the book💭

I've always wanted to own a bookstore so it was such a pleasurable reading journey through A bookshop of one's own. Jane writes with honesty and humour and I loved being immersed in the bookshop's world and the social history side of the story. "The power of women to change the narrative when they hold the pen" is one of the lines in the book that particularly stood out to me. There is so much to admire about the bravery, tenacity and sheer hard graft of all the women involved in the bookshop's history.

I desperately wanted to give the book a five-star rating, but I had to knock one star off for the amount of financial detail in the book. I understand Jane's desire for the book to be an archival record, but perhaps she could have summarised the financial details rather than proving great slabs of information that detracted from the power of the book's place in feminist and queer history.

My key learnings🪴

There's so much to learn about the business of bookselling. Even though some of the women's experiences are particular to the time, I was still fascinated by all the machinations of keeping the Silver Moon vision alive, when creating a women's space that was commercially viable was such a challenge in those days. I had no idea that a bookshop could have such an impact on queer and feminist culture! I developed a much greater understanding of the social history of Britain in the 1980s and 1990s, absorbing Jane's firsthand account of homophobia and misogyny and the struggles of the women's liberation movement. I was actually rather shocked by the hostility that the women faced.

In sum📝

A bookshop of one's own was always going to resonate with me as a lifelong booklover. I agree with Jane when she says that "books became my refuge." Books will always be this to me. I'm so glad that Jane put pen to paper herself and told her incredible story. I now have her gorgeous book in my library, testament to the collective power of women and the crucial role that books have played in my life.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐