The Silver Moon Bookshop was a feminist bookstore on Charing Cross Road in London founded in 1984 by Jane Cholmeley, Sue Butterworth, and Jane Anger. [1] [2] [3] They established Silver Moon Bookshop to share intersectional feminist rhetoric with a larger community of readers and encourage open discussion of women’s issues.[4] The shop served both as a safe space for women to participate in literary events and a resource center to learn about local feminist initiatives. The owners of Silver Moon Bookshop eventually expanded into the publishing field through establishing Silver Moon Books, [5] as well as creating the store newsletter Silver Moon Quarterly.
In 1989, Silver Moon Bookshop won the Pandora Award for "contributing most to promoting the status of women in publishing and related trades". After 17 years, the shop closed on November 18, 2001.[6] [7]
Initial funding for the Silver Moon Bookshop was supplied by the Greater London Council (GLC). Before the GLC was disbanded in 1986, it delivered grants to many feminist organizations[8] and independent bookshops. The GLC was committed to eliminating barriers that prevented minority communities from accessing art and entering creative industries. This mission aligned with Silver Moon Bookshop, whose objective was to provide public access to literature written by marginalized women.
In addition to the GLC grant, Silver Moon Bookshop primarily obtained funding through family and friend donations, as well as bank loans. Many of the store’s applications for grant-providing organizations – such as the Westminster City Council – were denied for not meeting proper criteria. In total, Silver Moon Bookshop was able to raise €47,214 prior to opening, in order to fund store renovations and stock purchasing costs.
The GLC assisted in procuring the address 68 Charing Cross Road, a prime location on the well-established booktrading street in Central London. Because Cholmeley wanted to make women's writing more visible, she “didn’t want to open in sort of an outer borough, [she] wanted to say, you know ‘51% of the population –We’re here, we’re good and we absolutely deserve to be in the center of things'”.[9]
In May 1984, Silver Moon Bookshop officially opened for public booktrading. Its name derived from the two symbols of womanhood from a poem by Sappho.
Almost all of the books available for purchase at the Silver Moon Bookshop were written by women.[10] Authors whose work was featured included Barbara Wilson, Ellen Hart, Claire McNab, Katherine V. Forrest, and Val McDermid. Non-fiction books written by male authors were included if they discussed the history of real women. Silver Moon Bookshop had prominent representation of female authors of color. Books that described the Lesbian and Black female experience were featured on the main shelves, rather than demoted to less visible sections of the store. Teachers and librarians utilized Silver Moon Bookshop as a book supplier and feminist resource, which increased public accessibility of diverse literature.
Silver Moon Bookshop was dedicated to providing ethical compensation and benefits to store employees. The owners opposed capitalist hierarchies that fostered a culture of power imbalance. However, Silver Moon Bookshop's short-lived use of job rotation as a feminist collective practice led to inefficient decision-making and miscommunication with customers.[11] Eventually, Silver Moon Bookshop established a “dual structure” model, which was a modified hierarchy system that still guaranteed all employees a voice in everyday shop functions. Additionally, the owners facilitated monthly staff meetings to discuss important business decisions, as well as quarterly staff social events. Promoting respect in the workplace without sacrificing business performance allowed Silver Moon Bookshop to operate longer than other feminist bookstores.
Silver Moon Bookshop frequently hosted visits from female authors, including Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Paule Marshall, Barbara Wilson, Jeanette Winterson, and Sandi Toksvig.[12] One noteworthy event was a book signing by Maya Angelou, which generated a large group of visitors that lined the outside of the store. Additional programming included creative writing classes and feminist literature discussion groups.
Silver Moon Bookshop served as a hub for feminist information-sharing and activism. Women’s political organizations and writing collectives promoted their groups on the store noticeboard and distributed handouts advertising upcoming events. Additionally, free copies of gay and lesbian newspapers were provided to customers by the store noticeboard, such as the Pink Paper. Silver Moon Bookshop donated to intersectional feminist organizations such as Feminist Audiobooks, which worked to increase literary accessibility for women with hearing impairments.[13] Employees provided support to female clientele experiencing abuse by directing them to nearby women’s centers and suggesting books written to help sexual violence victims.[14] Due to Silver Moon Bookshop’s commitment to uplifting women in the community, Cholmeley explained that “sometimes [she] felt more like a social worker than a bookseller”.
In May 1984, The Silver Moon Café was established in the basement of the Silver Moon Bookshop. Almost all of the menu items sold at the café were produced or sourced by women. Café membership was exclusively offered to female patrons, in order to curate a designated safe place for women to convene together. The café eventually evolved to become a central gathering point for the local lesbian community.
Silver Moon Café experienced criticism for solely offering women membership. When Cholmeley applied to the City of Westminster for an alcohol license, the café was turned away because there was not a male toilet provided in the female-only establishment.[15] Additionally, Cholmeley noted that female customers treated her with respect in the bookshop, but would treat her like “wallpaper” when she took shifts working in the café in a foodservice role. The café was eventually shut down after 18 months of operation.
In 1990, Cholmeley and Butterworth established an associated publishing business, Silver Moon Books.[16] Silver Moon Books primarily publishes lesbian mystery and romance novels. The mission of Silver Moon Books is to promote intersectional feminist literature and diversify the male-dominated publishing world.[17] Books published include the lesbian romance novel Under the Southern Cross by Claire McNab in 1992, the anthology Diving Deep: Erotic Lesbian Love Stories by Katherine V. Forrest and Barbara Grier in 1993, and the lesbian detective novel First Impressions by Kate Calloway in 1996. The most recent book published by Silver Moon Books was in 2021.
The Silver Moon Quarterly was a recurring newsletter established by Butterworth.[18] The Silver Moon Quarterly promoted recent lesbian book releases through literary reviews and recommendations. Additionally, the newsletter publicized future shop programming, such as author signings.[19] Butterworth and Cholmeley found that advertisement from the Silver Moon Quarterly played a significant role elevating business and heightening global visibility of feminist literature.
While there were high production and delivery costs, Cholmeley believed the Silver Moon Quarterly was a worthwhile investment because “there [were] millions of women who [did] not have access to women's writing, and this [was] a means of reaching them”.
During April 1996, there were at least 6,000 people who had signed up to receive the publication. The Silver Moon Quarterly gained an international audience, as one quarter of the subscribers lived outside of Britain.
To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Silver Moon Bookshop, the publication By the Light of the Silvery Moon was released in 1994. Honoring Silver Moon Bookshop’s promotion of LGBTQ+ women’s voices, the publication's 15 short stories included themes of feminism and lesbianism. Authors featured included Lisa Tuttle, Ellen Galford, Lisa Alther, Liza Cody, Merle Collins, Zoë Fairbairns, Sara Maitland, Ellen Galford, Elizabeth Jolley, Shena Mackay, Suniti Namjoshi, Hanan al-Shaykh and Sarah Schulman.[20] The short stories were edited by Ruth Petrie.[21]
On 29th February 2024, Harper Collins published Jane Cholmeley's book of Silver Moon's story A Bookshop of One's Own.[22] This was reviewed in the TLS review by Libby Purves who said that: "Cholmeley is an energizing riot, full of humour and grit, and her story is well worth telling."[23]
Silver Moon Bookshop experienced backlash from people who opposed feminist, lesbian-identified spaces. Cholmeley explained how hostility toward the shop was motivated by misogyny, as she received “threats from extremists who threatened to firebomb [them] because [they] should ‘go back to the kitchen’”.[24] In addition to arson threats, the shop fell victim to hate-mail, people pulling out weapons, and male tourists flashing female customers. On several occasions, the police needed to be called by the shop.
Silver Moon Bookshop experienced book raids, alongside LGBTQ+ bookstores Gay’s the Word and Lavender Menace Bookshop. Additionally, Section 28 of the Local Government Bill was passed in May 1988, which prohibited publishing literature that contained themes of homosexuality. Cholmeley opposed this legislation, believing it was discriminatory toward the LGBTQ+ community and forcibly silenced lesbian authors. Associated with the outcome of Section 28, the store received lesbian book deliveries from America that were tampered and delayed by customs.[25]
Silver Moon Bookshop closed on November 18, 2001,[26] as Europe’s largest women’s bookstore.[27] The bookshop closed due to rising rents from the Soho Housing Association[28] and waning numbers of tourists. Additionally, large chain bookstores opened near Charing Cross Road that could afford to discount their books. Silver Moon Bookshop struggled to maintain competitive rates compared to these commercial enterprises.
In 2001, Silver Moon Bookshop was incorporated into Foyles, a UK bookstore chain. Foyles established a Silver Moon at Foyles department, which specifically promoted female authors and feminist literature. Butterworth expressed warmth toward the acquisition and held high hopes for the future of the Silver Moon brand under Foyle’s direction. The Silver Moon at Foyles department closed in 2004.[29]