Just found this site.I worked at Hudsons in the late 60's to mid 70's.There were definatly lots of female booksellers so to .say that it was a career only open to men is nonsense.The shop was always at 116 New street from when it opened in 1906 until Dillons moved it to the old Midland bank building after the takeover.The shop extended across the Burlington arcade to Stephenson St.There was also a penguin bookshop attached to the main shop.Other branches were at the the university of Birmingham and the college at Gosta Green which became the university of Aston,and there was at one time a separate medical book shop which was changed into a transport bookshop.There was also an order processing department in the old Woolworth building which supplied books to schools and libraries.Hudsons, when they were Hudsons ,never sold anything other than books and maps.They were a proper and pure bookshop.We all trained for our Diploma of Bookselling which was then a national qualification.I am very proud to say that I started my bookselling career at Hudsons and it gave me a good grounding in a career which I was able to return to as my children got olderWonderful!
A girl in my year went to work at Hudson's (so they did take young women as well as young men!) and I am fairly sure she had the diploma in bookselling. I guess she would have joined in the late 60's
No coffee shop.books and maps a proper bookshop Hudsons never sold anything else sadly it was a different story when Dillons took overWelcome Cynthia. I personally don’t remember a coffee shop. I only remember the shop in the 1960s and 70s. Maybe others can tell us. Viv.
We had to order the new publications with library supply in mind.We had to predict the quantities the libraries would want so that they could be supplied from stock as soon as they were published.I used to love it when the library list arrived to see if I had got it right for my departments titles.When Pentos took over from the Hudson Family there wasn't too much change,it was different after Dillons took over and then Waterstones took over Dillons and that is a different story altogetherI knew Hudsons very well for a time. I was a Local college librarian & we bought all our books from them. I then moved on to Birmingham Public Libraries. Again, Hudsons had the contract to supply BHam Libraries with books & what a joy that was. Weekly visit to the Book Purchase Dept to look at the weeks new books from Hudsons, choose appropriate titles for library I managed & look forward to their delivery.
I think Pentos took Hudsons over before it became part of Waterstones.
The old Hudsons store at it's peak was truly an incredible place with an incredible range of unusual titles as well as best sellers.
I don't remember getting anything signed at Hudsons although they were good with the King Penguin, Picador and other similar formats at the time. i do have a bunch of signed Angela Carter books 'though I don't think they were from Hudsons.I have some books I bought from Hudsons, poetry including Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and a young fellow called Simon Armitage who published a book called Zoom. It was an education to browse the shelves. The Penguin bookshop was colour coded with orange spines for fiction and black for Penguin classics. White for King Penguin in a larger format. Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. I waited in line to get my signed copy of Midnight's Children. Hudsons had a welcoming atmosphere and the staff were well informed.
I don't remember Angela Carter coming to Birmingham. Though I might have missed her. Signings are arranged with the publisher and Hudsons was a family firm though with shops at Aston and Birmingham Unis as well.I don't remember getting anything signed at Hudsons although they were good with the King Penguin, Picador and other similar formats at the time. i do have a bunch of signed Angela Carter books 'though I don't think they were from Hudsons.
I think she came more than once but the time I remember most was some event in the book festival one year when "Magic Realism" was the big thing. The speakers were Chris Priest and Her. Since I knew some people who knew Chris I was roped into a crowd after the event at one of the tables in the MAC's cafe and spent half an hour or more not knowing what to say seated between Chris and Angela with the folks I knew on the other side of Chris.I don't remember Angela Carter coming to Birmingham. Though I might have missed her. Signings are arranged with the publisher and Hudsons was a family firm though with shops at Aston and Birmingham Unis as well.
I missed her then. I've not read Priest's 'The Glamour' for years and should read it again. Lots of student writers are still into Magic Realism and many write fantasy of course.I think she came more than once but the time I remember most was some event in the book festival one year when "Magic Realism" was the big thing. The speakers were Chris Priest and Her. Since I knew some people who knew Chris I was roped into a crowd after the event at one of the tables in the MAC's cafe and spent half an hour or more not knowing what to say seated between Chris and Angela with the folks I knew on the other side of Chris.
Absolutely agree re the quality shops!Brilliant posts! In my family, Hudsons and Rackhams were THE quality shops in Birmingham and it was almost treated as a privilege to enter them. And, yes, my school prizes were derived from Hudsons, I got my Ian Allen train books from the New St shop and my Birmingham University textbooks from their University outlet (just went to the Uni for nostalgia, found Hudsons had become a Rymans and that got me investigating this forum!)