James Fraze’s Emotional Journey

He was the most Francophile of all the booksellers and booksellers in Montmorillon. And for good reason: he’s British. James Fraser opened The Glass Key in 2008, specializing in English books.

A bookseller in Yorkshire with a background in editing and publishing, he spent his life with his nose in open books and sheets of paper. “I love the physical side of books. With an e-reader, that doesn’t matter. I spend my days behind a screen, and I love to touch and feel the paper. It’s very attractive, paper”Abandons the bookseller, full of British phlegm.

Black Novels and Ecology

He searches his shelves in vain for the book that gave the shop its name: Glass key, Dashiel Hammett (1931). For this frue of detective literature, the title seemed appropriate for selling books, but also selling antiques, a business he abandoned. “One wrote and named detective literary history Glass key Like the best thriller. But I don’t know if that’s true…”

Amidst books close to his heart, he leaves 21 co-challenges to take care of yourself and the planet, Natasha Turabi (2020). For some time, he decided to promote the sale of books in French, especially on the theme of ecology. “There are lots of ideas to reduce your environmental impact. These are small things, but if millions do it, it can make a difference. You can’t prevent large emissions of CO2, but you can do your part to be sensitive. .”

Primarily a French-speaking audience

But most of its business results from the sale of books in English. “There are a lot of English people in this area, but they are not big readers. I sell more to the French, who prefer to study in English, than to the English.” James Fraser sells a lot of books online, sometimes more than in stores. He ships to Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom… “Sometimes I have orders for books that I cataloged 18 years ago.”

Thanks to the local English-speaking community, he had no problem filling his stocks. “I thought I’d go to England to buy some books, but today I’m almost drowning in them.” Mostly literature: “I’m a bit of a curmudgeon. I don’t have any super popular or ‘chick lit’ books. It’s a bit of a cliché but it’s true, it has to have literary value.”

A supporter of the French way of life

He had absolutely no thought of returning to England. “France is very pleasant to live in.” Having recently recovered from knee surgery, he has nothing but praise for the French healthcare system.

His favorite book? His selection finally stops, and he pulls a small block with a green cover from a shelf: An emotional journey to France and Italy, Irish author Laurence Sterne (1768). He read, in English, the first sentence, which summed up his thoughts in a few words: “This affair, I say, is best settled in France.”