Philobiblon

Tuesday, 28 January 2003

The Independent on Foyles, London’s most eccentric large bookshop.

For decades, Foyles has been a shopper’s nightmare, with miles and miles of haphazardly arranged titles, non-English-speaking student staff, and a payment system apparently designed by a Victorian lunatic. “It was a byword for dreadful bookselling,” said Nicholas Clee, editor of The Bookseller. “They never answered the phone, the assistants never knew anything, and were hired and fired in six months. You could never find any book you wanted.”