Heywood Hill Explained

Founder:	George Heywood Hill
Industry:	Bookshop
Location:	10 Curzon Street, London, W1

Heywood Hill is a bookshop at 10 Curzon Street, in the Mayfair district of London.^[1]

History

The shop was opened by George Heywood Hill on 3 August 1936, with the help of Lady Anne Gathorne-Hardy, who would later become his wife.^{[2] [3]}

For the last three years of the Second World War, while George Heywood Hill was in the Army, Lady Anne ran the shop with the assistance of the novelist Nancy Mitford.^[4] In 1949 Elizabeth Forbes, the daughter of Admiral Sir Charles Forbes, joined the staff of the store where she worked prior to her career as a journalist, music critic, and musicologist.^[5] In the period following Heywood Hill's retirement, the shop was managed by Handasyde Buchanan, a notable contributor to books on natural history who had joined the shop in 1945.^[6] John Saumarez Smith, who had joined the staff straight from Cambridge in 1965, took up the reigns as manager in 1974 following Buchanan's retirement, a position he held for over thirty years.^[7] In 1991, the shop was bought by Nancy Mitford's brother-in-law, Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire.^[8]

Since 2016, the shop has been owned by Mitford's nephew Peregrine Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire. It has been managed by his son-in-law, Nicky Dunne since 2011.^[9] Heywood Hill specialises in rare books and collections of books, and has a service of assembling and delivering bespoke libraries for customers.^[1] It has been described as the late Queen's favourite bookshop.^[10]

See also

• Heywood Hill Literary Prize

Further reading

• Hill, Heywood & Anne; Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (ed.) A Bookseller's War (Michael Russell, 1998)
• Saumarez Smith, John (ed.) A Spy in the Bookshop: Letters Between Heywood Hill and John Saumarez Smith 1966-1974 (Frances Lincoln, 2006)
• Samuarez Smith, John (ed.) The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952-1973 (Frances Lincoln, 2004)

External links

51.507°N -0.1466°W

Notes and References

1. News: Sarah Lyall. The Tiny London Shop Behind Some of the Very Best Libraries. 6 February 2016. The New York Times. 2 February 2016. London’s Heywood Hill curates impressive collections for discerning customers in 60 different countries — and specializes in the obscure..
2. Web site: Alison Flood . Prize of a lifetime: London bookshop offers free books for the rest of your life | Books . The Guardian . 30 September 2016 . 11 July 2017.
3. Web site: About - Heywood Hill . heywoodhill.com . 7 February 2016 .
4. News: Lady Anne Hill. 11 July 2017. The Independent. 31 January 2007.
5. News: Elizabeth Forbes: Musicologist and critic who translated librettos and wrote nearly 100 obituaries for 'The Independent'. Elaine Padmore. The Independent. 19 November 2014.
6. News: The Interviews - John Saumarez Smith. 13 February 2024. Sheila Markham. December 2003.
7. News: John Saumarez Smith obituary. 15 February 2022. The Times. 18 November 2021.
8. Book: Christopher Hibbert. Ben Weinreb . The London Encyclopaedia . 11 July 2017. 2008. Macmillan . 978-1-4050-4924-5 . 395–396.
9. Web site: My Space: Mr Nicky Dunne . 28 July 2014 . Fletcher . Mansel . . 11 July 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171201035540/https://www.mrporter.com/journal/journal_issue150/2#1 . 1 December 2017 . dead .
10. News: Kerridge . Jake . How the Queen's favourite bookshop is surviving against the odds . 10 November 2020 . The Daily Telegraph . 10 November 2020.