At Blackwell’s flagship store, Verjee oversees a varied annual programme of more than 200 events, ranging from the big (the remote bookshops at the annual Oxford Literary Festival, which resulted in a five-figure profit from just nine days of trading), to the small (local author launches and in-store artwork exhibitions). A recent initiative was the staging of a play in-store by Creation Theatre, a venture which drove an additional 8,000 people to the shop.
Verjee established the store’s first Writer in Residence‚ with author Roma Tearne spending a week in the branch. Writers including J M Coetzee, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Watson have all had events at the store. For the latter, Verjee created a “Tomorrow’s World”‚ promotion, which resulted in more than £4,000 worth of sales, an idea since rolled out throughout the chain.
Themed promotions tied to local events have been introduced, such as Oxford’s annual Lewis Car-roll-fest, Alice’s Day, and the Oxfordshire Science Festival. -Verjee oversees Blackwell’s historic walking tours, the branch’s profitable relationship with the Oxford -University Alumni,- and a partnership with reading and -creative writing charity Bookfeast. He has also been invited on to the steering committee for the Oxford bid to be the Unesco World Book Capital in 2014.
Zool Verjee – an experienced bookseller who works in the world-famous Blackwell Bookshop on Broad Street, Oxford. He has considerable insight into the role booksellers play in readers’ lives and his specialist knowledge of English literature has been at the disposal of countless customers over many years.
via Bookseller Industry Awards 2011: the shortlists: pt 1 | The Bookseller.
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