Tag Archives: Books

Brittle with Relics and Other Books about Wales

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Leigh Sparks

At this time of year, I often post about my recent reading, generally on the theme of retail books. This year though there is a different theme. Normal service will be renewed in due course.   I grew up in South … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Campaigns, Culture, Folk Museums, Government, History, Rugby Union, St Fagans, Tryweryn, UK Government, Wales | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Changing Climate through Ice and Seeds

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Leigh Sparks

I try to use my break at Christmas and New Year to catch up on some reading that is non work based (whether administrative or academic work). A couple of books had caught my eye some weeks ago and they … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Climate Emergency, Community, Food, Gardens, Home Growing, Ice, Real Seeds, Scotland, Seeds, Snow | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Small Shops: Brian Lomas

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Leigh Sparks

I have just been alerted (thanks to @LeighVBird) to a book recently published by the modernist on the topic of Small Shops. It consists of 45 black and white photographs of small shops from North Manchester, taken in the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Community, Consumer Change, Food Retailing, Historic Shops, History, Independents, Local Retailers, Manchester, Neighbourhood, Retail Change, Retailing, Small Shops, Social Change, Urban, Urban History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fading Glory: the Ghost Signs of London

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Leigh Sparks

Anyone following me on twitter will know of my enduring fascination with ghostsigns.  It has also appeared on this blog a few times.  These traces of the past are, in my view, something worth capturing and preserving (or at least … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Design, Ghost Signs, Heritage, London, Places, Retail Change, Retail History, Towns, Uncategorized, Urban History | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Embracing Failure in the Shadow of Success

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Leigh Sparks

This post’s title is the sub-title from a book I recently read.  It concerns Mick Channon Jnr and his relationship with his father, who he describes as “an arthritic workaholic grumpy old bastard” and only grudgingly as an ex England … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Bookmakers, Charity Shops, Closure, Consumer Lifestyle, Discounters, Heritage, High Streets, Local Retailers, Markets, Places, Planning, Pound Shops, Property, Regeneration, Retail Economy, Shopfronts, Social Inequality, Social Justice, Store Closures, Town Centres, Towns | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Navigating The New Retail Landscape

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Leigh Sparks

Readers of this blog will be aware of the occasional use of guest bloggers and of book reviews.  A couple of weeks ago my colleague Steve Burt showed me a new retail book he had bought, authored by two contemporaries … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Books, Consumer Change, Consumers, Customer engagement, International Retailing, Internet, Multichannel, Retail Change, Retail leadership, Retailers, Strategy, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hail The Town! The Scottish Town in the Age of the Enlightenment

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Leigh Sparks

One of the perks of running this blog is that I can occasionally hand it over to others for contributions and get to learn something about their interests and viewpoints. Readers of previous guest blogs will thus have seen Anne … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Enlightenment, Heritage, History, Improvement, Public Realm, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Towns, Urban History | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Painting the Town: Scottish Urban History in Art

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Leigh Sparks

One of the joys of working at a University is that (on the whole!) colleagues are interesting and interested and you can have conversations that take very different turns. One recently with my frequent co-author Anne Findlay ended with “oh … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Art, Heritage, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Town Centres, Towns, Urban History | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Summer Retail Reading with an Asian flavour?

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Leigh Sparks

It’s not that I have more time in the summer, but rather I try to clean up my office (and it really does need it, as colleagues will attest). The problem is that I end up discovering things I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Books, Convenience stores, International Retailing, Marketing, Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Books and Booksellers

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Leigh Sparks

A few weeks ago I presented at a Booksellers Association arranged event, The Independent Booksellers Forum on Creative Collaboration for Healthy High Streets. I had been invited to talk about what is going on in retailing , the Portas review … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Consumer Change, High Streets, Internet shopping, Tax | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments