The bookshop of the stars

Peter Mayle has become firm friends with Wally and Christel Storer over the years

It was back in 1983 that Wally Storer sold his computer business in Australia and moved to Cannes with his wife Christel. They had planned to stay for a year but found twelve months later that they had fallen in love with the area. They decided to stay a little longer, it was then that the bookshop was born.

Although the location may have changed over the years the philosophy and heart behind the business have stayed the same. Wally and Christel still run the store and are settled and well integrated in the local community.

Since its birth, the Cannes English Bookshop has acquired celebrity status, largely thanks to its canny knack of drawing big names for book signings. The town’s film festival also brings welcome business. In the two weeks that the festival runs, the shop can be expected to make around two months worth of sales, and 50 per cent of those books are film books. And the festival does not only generate sales: but also a great atmosphere, especially when the stars pay the shop a visit. “We had Tony Curtis for a book signing during the film festival one year, and it was pandemonium. They had to close off the street. We had three film crews in here and they were climbing up on the display stands to take pictures.” Wally remembers.

The bookshop is certainly intimate and, on a normal day, it is difficult to imagine the crazy scene Curtis’ appearance caused. Although the event has, of course, only added to the store’s history and character. “It is a lot of fun to run this place, and certainly a lot better than selling fish and chips,” Wally says on reflection.

Despite its name, the Cannes English Bookshop has a truly international appeal, with customers coming from all over the world and not only from Anglophone countries. “There was a lady here today who had come all the way from Moscow just to meet Peter Mayle,” Wally says. The shop also has a strong contingency of French customers, which offers a cultural exchange between the Cristel and Wally and their host nation.

Looking to the future, Wally is pragmatic: “A few years ago I would say it could go on forever but now I’m not so sure. These days technology runs us, we don’t run technology. It’s changing all the time with e-books and the Internet. How many publishers will still pay people to write books in the future? We just don’t know.” 

Still, with over 100 copies of Peter Mayle’s latest novel The Vintage Caper sold during his event at the shop last month and with more star authors in the pipeline, things continue to look rosy for this charming independent bookshop.  

TD