4 days Ago
Moving from London to Brighton with three children, setting up a business, waking up at 5am to write a novel before the school run and buying a bookshop? All in a day’s work for author and owner of Kemptown Bookshop Cathy Hayward. Last year Kemptown Bookshop was selected as one of the 12 best independent bookshops in the country by The Times, something Cathy feels “really lucky” about. Cathy, originally from Worthing, spent 13 years working as a journalist for trade magazines in London.
With three small children and a full-time job, she felt the yearning to return to the South Coast and to escape the “chaos” of London life. In Brighton she set up a PR agency called Magenta Associates before feeling it was time to fulfil a lifelong dream. “I hit 40 and thought, I really want to write a novel.
It had always been a dream, and I thought, if I don’t do it now I never will.” Cathy took a course with the Creative Writing Programme and realised that what she had been writing was not “a series of independent pieces but a whole”. This became her debut novel, The Girl in the Midnight Maze, published in 2021.
“The inspiration came when I was clearing out my mum’s flat after she died. We had a difficult relationship, and I wondered if I might find something which would explain our difficult relationship”, she said. “I didn’t but I thought it would make an interesting premise for a novel.
” Meanwhile, Cathy became involved with a pop-up bookshop by Churchill Square, The Bookmakers, set up by crime writer William Shaw. The pop-up closed in January 2022, shortly before Kemptown Bookshop came up for sale. Cathy has turned the shop into a community hub (Image: Supplied) “I had a tiny bit of experience from the pop-up shop, and I had really loved that.
I took over the shop in May 2022. It was an intense year and a half getting it up to speed. “It had been slightly neglected by the previous owner who had it for 25 years and had been focussed on other things.
I wanted to it to be a community hub.” The shop now runs book events with local authors, free storytelling for children, book clubs and a 5am writing club. “I have aways been an early riser and when I first started writing I had three kids at primary school and a busy job, so I used to get up at 5am to write before the school run.
” Cathy held the first session on the summer solstice in 2023 – the longest day of the year – and now holds a session on the first Wednesday of every month. “We drink strong coffee and write together silently. It’s really magical as the sun comes up to be creeping along the streets to go into your local bookshop”, she said.
Successfully running an independent bookshop is no mean feat, but Cathy says Brighton is a “fantastic place” for businesses like hers. She said: “Independent bookshops thrive here. When the shop was up for sale, people were really worried it wouldn’t be a bookshop anymore and were so grateful it was staying because it’s been here since 1976.
“They know they can get books cheaper on Amazon, but they want to come into a shop and feel the books, get recommendations and talk to people. It’s a really personal experience here. We have booksellers who know books inside out.
“There are lots of elderly and vulnerable people in Kemp Town – people who come every day and make it part of their routine. Especially if they’re living alone or don’t have family around, little shops like ours play a massive role in supporting people.”.
