Pompey fan's championing of books is what we all need | Simon Carter

He might not be everyone’s cup of tea – particularly if you live in an SO postcode –but I fervently wish there were many more people like John Westwood.
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And, no, I don’t mean football fans who plaster themselves in tattoos and change their name by deed poll.

Instead, we should all bestow our eternal thanks on Mr Westwood for his day job – running a bookshop.

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‘Books are special things and nothing beats going into a bookstore. Seeing them, touching them, smelling them – it is a special place.’

Bookseller John Westwood supporting Portsmouth Football ClubBookseller John Westwood supporting Portsmouth Football Club
Bookseller John Westwood supporting Portsmouth Football Club

Wise words, and they were uttered by Pompey’s most colourful supporter after a ‘tumbleweed’ day in his shop resulted in an appearance on national television.

A throwaway tweet about the fact the shop had not sold a single book two days earlier went viral and resulted in hundreds of messages of support and thousands of pounds of fresh orders.

It was a story which saddened and heartened me in equal measure.

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I love books. I’ve got hundreds – sport, music, culture, history, politics, true crime. All bought from bookshops like the one John Westwood has run for decades.

I like books so much I even wrote one a few years ago. It’s about my life supporting a spectacularly unsuccessful football team (no, not Pompey). Copies, to my continuing surprise, are still available on Amazon.

And there you have it – three words which provide a heartbreaking epitaph on the tombstone of many retail outlets up and down the country. ‘Available on Amazon.’

I’ve never met Mr Westwood, but he speaks a lot of sense. ‘I’ve carried on this store for my father – if you want to be rich you don’t go into the book industry.’

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Very true, and I also speak from personal experience. If you want to be rich don’t spend a vast amount of time (as I did) writing a book. We can’t all be Bill Bryson or JK Rowling, can we?

In an age where libraries are being earmarked for closure, and our youngsters don’t possess as many books as their parents did, it’s certainly imperative we support Mr Westwood’s shop with the same fervour he follows Pompey. Just with less bell-ringing.

Will Megxit savings shore up NHS, libraries and police?

Staying on the library closure theme, Hampshire County Council recently announced it could soon be closing 10 of the 48 libraries that fall within their jurisdiction.

That would save around £1.7m a year.

Of course it would be sad to lose one, but cutting local services once seen as vital to the community no longer comes as a surprise.

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Look at the amount of police stations that have been culled – more than 600 since 2010. Look at the recent news that Poole – a place bigger than Portsmouth in terms of population – would soon have no A&E department.

Perhaps the cash we should be saving from the Sovereign Grant once Harry and Meg scoot off can come in useful.

Violence and mud – but we loved 70s’ and 80s’ football

It annoys me immensely that my footballing childhood has been airbrushed out of history.

The national media now routinely refer to ‘Premier League records’ rather than ‘top flight’ records.

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Alan Shearer (260 goals) is the PL’s all-time top scorer, while Jimmy Greaves (357) netted all his in the old First Division. Why should Shearer be revered more for scoring fewer goals in the same tier of English football?

Okay, football in the 70s and 80s was scarred by hooliganism and at times played on mudbaths.

But in many ways the game was way better then, before Murdoch’s cash cow was furiously milked until the wretched creature’s udders were blistered red raw.