Fables Bookshop

Interview with Ian Balchin of Fables Bookshop

When did you get started in bookselling?

In 1987 when international sanctions started biting on South Africa many of us were put out of work. My wife started a book-selling business and I started a photographic processing operation. Later we did away with the latter. We took our books to morning markets, and also advertised in the British magazine "Book Collector". In1989 we opened our shop in Grahamstown, a university town in the remote Eastern Cape where we served the academic community for almost 30 years. A few years ago we moved to nearby Bathurst to take life a little bit easier. Our interest in selling overseas was fuelled by early sales to Britain. We originally use Clue software to produce printed catalogues which we posted off in response to replies to our advertisements. It is interesting to note that in those days we used to post the books off for payment on receipt, and the cheques dutifully arrived later in the mail!

What drew you to bookselling?

We were both big readers. My wife was interested in literature and I was interested in earlier books about Africa. The economic situation in South Africa was very difficult at that time and this was more a method of survival at the time.

Did you have any mentors in becoming a bookseller?

Geoff Klass of Collectors Treasury and Doron Locketz of Bookdealers, both in Johannesburg, and Paul Mills of Clarke's Africana in Cape Town were good helps in different ways. They gave the incentive to open a bricks and mortar store.

What are your specialties as a dealer?

Africana, especially Southern Africa, and more particularly the Eastern Cape as well as the stalwart collecting areas of early travel, exploration, and hunting. We also keep a stock of Modern First Editions and Homoerotica as secondary specialities.

What's the most amazing book you've ever sold?

Not a book, but a collection of letters and documents relating to Thomas Pringle. He is our major poetical figure, was an early settler, and was later responsible for the abolition of slavery in England.

What is your favorite part of being a bookseller?

Looking through a bookcase or box of potential new stock. Nowadays having been involved in the trade for so many years I feel really able to help people find the books that they need especially in the area of Africana. This is really satisfying.

Do you have an open storefront or have you in the past?

Yes we did until very recently. We having been in operation one way or aother for well over 40 years. We suffer the same difficulties as out-of-print dealers worldwide which makes it more difficult. than used to be the case. After almost 30 years in Grahamstown we retired to Bathurst and then shared premises with Books of Bathurst. This was started by my then partner many years ago with his wife as Books of Bathurst. He visited me once a year on Bathurst Bookfair day, a valid definition of 'hands off'. Subsequently he passed away in 2025. We closed the bookshop in November of that year and are now trading online only

If so, do/did you have any bookstore pets?

I had a cat called "The Tobe" who used to sleep in the shop on his own shelf and let the student customers pet him. Sadly he passed on, and then we had "Caspir" (South African spelling relating to a military vehicle and not related to the ghost although he was white) a young male that happened by one day. He entranced customers, and totally scared some of the young African students who traditionally are very superstitious of cats because they are thought to bring spells from a witch. Now we have Turbo (after the protagonist's pet in Bernhard Schlink's detective novel series) who passes by most days for his nourishment after which he rapidly leaves. He has never shown any interests in books. I am thinking of getting another that will stick around and be more book-friendly.

What is the funniest / strangest / scariest thing that ever happened in your store?

A student shaking, shouting "Let me out" and pulling at the front security gate. He wanted to get away from our cat Caspir!

What is your favorite bookshop (other than your own)?

I can't say that I have one being effectively 500 miles up a 1000 mile dirt road. Thorolds, when we were in Johannesburg was a regular haunt although he had notices everywhere saying that the price in the book might be increased at the till if it was felt to be too low! He always had a grand selection of immaculate books but they too have now passed on from there.

What do you personally like to read? Collect?

I like detective fiction for leisure reading. Andrea Camillieri's Inspector Maltabano is my all time favourite of the genre I also try and do my share of reading the writings of early travellers in Africa, they were an intrepid lot. I can't collect, there is always a customer wanting it! In any case I have to be very careful of what I buy nowadays as great amounts could be left on the shelf without time for me to read them some day.

What's your favorite book you personally own? Would you sell it, if the price were right?

I have a 1st edition 1st printing of Percy Fitzpatrick's "Jock Of The Bushveld". Not to be sold, in any case I took it and gave it to my son in Australia a few years back. Not the most valuable item, but a reminder of days gone by. Surely the most loved book to come out of South Africa although now the language is deprecated and new editions that have been made politically correct are a mere shadow of the original.

What one book would you buy if price were no object?

Another "Jock Of The Bushveld", this time signed.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could bring three books, what would they be?

"Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance" A large dictionary / thesaurus The local bird book