Nestled in the heart of the glorious, World-Heritage-listed Blue Mountains, in a
massive 3-storey superannuated Bank Building, sits the delightfully eccentric books
and antiques shop known as Mr Pickwick's Fine Old Books and Antiques.
Down a Dickensian alley alongside lies Mr Pickwick's Old
Curiosity Shop and its Framing Business, and even further into
the mists lies a vast Furniture Barn.
The main Mr Pickwick store contains some 60,000 books in all,
ranging from rare and arcane leather-bound antiquities through
extensive sections on Art, Architecture and Literature to a
virtual second-bookshop upstairs containing some 4,000 Penguins
and a further 10,000 paperbacks and cheaper editions, priced
from $2 to $10.
A prominent sign in the bookshop, recently featured in the
Qantas In-flight Magazine tells much of the Mr Pickwick
philosophy. It reads: "You may sit here and browse at your
leisure, for as long as you like. You are not obliged to buy a
book".
Mr Pickwick has built a large and loyal trade amongst the
locals of the sprawling Blue Mountains community, but the shop
is also a welcome discovery for the several millions of
tourists from all over Australia and the rest of the world who
annually pass through this lovely spot.
Mr Pickwick offers in addition an obligation-free Book-Finder
service, and sources many rare and troublesome items for its
clients all over the world.
The spectacular Blue Mountains area is well worthy of a visit
in any event. Mr Pickwick's just adds a dollop of cream to
the bun for the civilised visitor.
The Upstairs Shops, where paperbacks and cheaper
books are sold by the thousand |
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Some of the quality antiques and collectables offered
within Mr Pickwick's
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The Curranty Crew
"And the frivolous cake was filled with
the fun
Of her and her curranty crew."
Mervyn Peake
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MR. PICKWICK HIMSELF!
Guy Weller has spent 25 years in the book
trade as a poet, author, reviewer, publisher, playwright,
theatre producer, Internet publisher, commercial designer
and typesetter, and just about anything else you can
think of. Having attained the faintly absurd age of 50,
at which feat he is mildly abashed, he has now retired to
the solace of the gorgeous Blue Mountains, where he lives
happily with cats, dogs, wives, geese, fish, birds,
snakes, kangaroos and whatever else might turn up. He
sells books for a living, but sadly, keeps more than he
can bear to sell. Nobody at Mr Pickwick's takes him
particularly seriously.
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FRAN BALFOUR
Fran is the Bookshop Manager, and has
read every one of our 60,000 titles several times, and
memorised their contents. She supervises the cleaning
down, pricing, minor repair work and shelving of the
3,000 titles we need to replace against sales each and
every month. She has two university degrees under her
belt, but despite this is extremely knowledgeable on most
subjects. Her politics are the same colour as her hair.
She is a fine artist, as well, and curates our Art
Gallery section for us. For samples of her work go to
ART FOR SALE section.
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TIM JONES
Tim is a very fine professional artist
who has recently joined us with his
art framing and restoration business. Like Fran, he also has two higher
degrees, but also like her has managed to survive this
punishment with most of his brains intact. Tim's
framing work is exquisite, and he has developed high
expertise in the restoration, patching and re-touching of
damaged and semi-ruined artworks and prints. Tim's
own paintings are hung in numerous private collections
around Australia. For samples of his work go to
ART FOR SALE section.
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ELLIOT WAUGH
Elliot, being just 17, does all the
actual work in the bookshop, for which he gets hideously
underpaid and is made to work up to 16 hours a day (his
angle on things, at least). Elliot is just about to
commence a university course in literature and art, and
has resisted all inducements from his parents and the rest of
the staff at Mr Pickwick's to study something of any
actual use. He knows nothing at all about horse-racing or
cricket, but is already an expert in the lesser arts of
poetry and modern fiction. He threatens to write books,
but we are gently steering him away from such
madness.
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CARL HINDLE
Carl is the Technical Manager of
The Blue Wizard. Having had his
42nd birthday on a Thursday (which he always has claimed that he can't get used to!), Carl can
actually use and programme computers with the requisite mind-set and
produce some phenomenal work!
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