What are the essential ingredients of an excellent bookshop?

I’m not a fan of “general” bookshops. I like them to have a bit of personality — places where you get a glimpse of someone’s inner world and sense of taste. Bookshops should be cultural destinations, not places to pick bestsellers. There’s a big difference between a place that stocks books and one that chooses them. At Special Rider, we choose every single book carefully — partly out of principle, but mostly because we’re short on space.

Most things are possible to buy online now, but not everything is possible to discover. So, a good bookshop is one where you stumble upon something amazing seemingly by accident — but it’s actually the result of careful curation. That sense of surprise, delight and physical connection is what still gives shops an edge over online retail.

People are also important. Friendly, knowledgeable booksellers make all the difference — good conversation is another thing real shops can offer that the algorithms still can’t.

At the same time, it’s about balance: knowing when to talk and when to let someone browse in peace. Everyone’s different, but a truly good bookshop can read its customer - like a book!

Are the musical and literary arms of Special Rider intertwined, or do you treat the curation of each as a separate thing?

It’s a pretty simple equation to be honest — if we like it, it’s in. There are a few of us at Special Rider, and we all have different backgrounds: a musician, two poets, a novelist, a historian. That wasn’t planned; it just sort of evolved that way. I really trust all them and we curate based on our individual expertise, and we feel comfortable enough to tell each other no.

Books and music are ultimately about feeling. You pick something because it moves you, even if you can’t quite explain why, and hopefully other people feel the same. It doesn’t always work for every customer but it really works for some, and they come back.

You chose Shepherd’s Bush Market for your first shop? What do you like most about being part of the community?

Shepherd’s Bush Market is fantastic. The author Hanif Kureishi, who lives locally and comes in a lot, once said that you can see all of human life is in Shepherd’s Bush Market — and he’s right. It’s a microcosm of life, London in a bottle — multicultural, chaotic, beautiful, tough and sometimes a little scary.

Practically speaking, renting a market stall is also a far less risky way to get started than taking on a shop. It’s a great way to test ideas and become part of a community. I wasn’t entirely sure how my neighbouring stallholders — mostly Sikhs, Afghans, and Iraqis — would take to things like our occult section, but they couldn’t have been more supportive.

What does the future of print look like? If you were to publish books under the Special Rider brand, what sort of books would they be?

Personally, I think print will always survive — not because it’s practical, but because it’s beautiful. Books are tactile, collectible keepsakes; they have presence and weight in a way digital formats never will.

If we were to publish something — and we hope to — it would have to be genuinely striking and original. That might sound like a platitude, but it’s actually incredibly hard to achieve. I have huge respect for anyone publishing anything today, so we’d want to think long and hard about what we put out into the world.

What’s next for Special Rider?

We’re opening a second Special Rider Books in west London soon. I can’t say too much just yet, but it should be early next year.

We’re also looking to expand our events programme, which has started to take off. We’ve hosted some incredible people this year — Geoff Dyer, Hanif Kureishi, Jarvis Cocker, Wendy Erskine and David Keenan — so expect more in the year ahead.

Please can you recommend two albums (one 20th, one 21st century) and two books (one fiction, one non-fiction) that will warm our cockles this Christmas?

This is a really tough one but here goes…

Records:

I Cross My Heart — Sonny Boy Williamson II. I play the harmonica, and on this record Sonny Boy is completely unmatchable. It’s raw blues — full of bite and heartbreak. Every note sounds like it’s been lived. There’s a looseness to the playing, but also this razor-sharp control underneath it all. It reminds you of what honesty sounds like.

Sound of Silver — LCD Soundsystem. This is a great record for dancing, but what I really like is the self-awareness and humour. LCD Soundsystem manage to make music that’s both euphoric and reflective. It’s about getting older, staying up too late and trying to make sense of modern life.

Books:

The Last Days of Roger Federer — Geoff Dyer (non-fiction / memoir). Dyer brilliantly uses Federer’s twilight years as a way to explore the concept of endings with his trademark wit and intelligence. It’s part memoir, part cultural essay and the writing is completely alive.

Eurotrash — Vincent Delecroix (fiction). This just came out and is darkly comic and beautifully written — a road novel that becomes a meditation on family, memory, and identity in Europe.

Quick Fire Five

Favourite restaurant: Din Tai Fung - I spent seven years living in Shanghai and I love Chinese food. Din Tai Fung is as close as you can get to dumpling perfection.

Favourite holiday destination: Chile. My wife is from there, so it’s not really a holiday destination — more of a second home for me. I have loved trekking in the Andes, star gazing in the Atacama Desert and hiking through Patagonia.

Favourite musician: Jarvis Cocker — original, effortlessly stylish, and writer of incredible pop songs. I did an impression of him in front of my whole school when I was 13 and it was probably the greatest moment of my life. It’s been downhill ever since.!

Prize possession: My book and record collection which I spend too much time thinking about expanding.

Biggest indulgence: Indulging my two kids who are already indulged.