Books are my business: bookseller Amanda Dunne Fulmer

Amanda Dunne Fulmer was recently shortlisted for Individual Bookseller of the Year at the British Book Awards. 

Amanda Dunne Fulmer is a bookseller in the award-winning children’s bookshop Halfway Up the Stairs, in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

She was recently shortlisted for Individual Bookseller of the Year at the British Book Awards. 

Halfway Up the Stairs was shortlisted in the Children’s Bookshop of the Year category.

How did you become a bookseller?

I did a degree in communications and film and rapidly realised that film was not for me. So I did a master’s and I was doing a bit of lecturing. 

I moved to the UK and became an A-level teacher for a while, then I started working in Waterstones, which was fantastic. I ran the cash office in the Covent Garden branch, which was a great experience.

The children’s bookseller there was very enthusiastic and I just started picking up things like Philip Pullman and stuff like that for my commute home. 

I’ve always been an avid reader and I love children’s books. And then baby number one came along.

When he started school in the UK, I would go in to read with the kids, and when we moved back to Greystones, I was a volunteer librarian in his primary school, and my next two children went there.

Then a friend of mine said they knew someone who was opening a bookshop. I met Trish [Hennessy, owner of Halfway Up the Stairs] she offered me a job and I’ve been there since it opened in 2019.

I have found my place, I love it. Nearly two years ago I decided to do the M Phil in children’s literature in Trinity, which was a brilliant experience — I have my graduation next month.

What is a typical day like for you?

A lot of my job involves running our subscription service. Based on the information we gather on every reader, I choose a book specifically for that person. 

I handwrite a card for each book that goes out, so it’s always addressed to the individual reader. I give one or two lines about why I think they’re going to enjoy the book and what’s interesting about it.

I try to bear in mind as well when they’ve got something going on — it might be their birthday, or they might be starting secondary school or have the junior cert or whatever. 

Aside from that, it’s just the business of being in a bookshop, processing deliveries or contacting customers about orders.

We also do a lot of hand-selling as because we’re a specialist, we find people actually travel to us, and a lot of people will come in and say they need a book about starting school or one that is a positive reflection on autism, or something about loss. 

And so we try to give everybody the time and consider what they’re looking for.

What do you like most about what you do?

I love when I get it right. I love the chats with people — we have some great regulars and I love hearing how things have gone with a book. 

I also get lots of emails back from people who have subscriptions, and I’m so glad to hear that a book hit the right mark for them, that’s very rewarding.

So that is probably my favourite bit, when I get a reaction from a child and I know actually, yes, I have nailed this one and they’re going to come back and trust us to give them another recommendation.

What do you like least about it?

I hate getting it wrong. I’m a bit of a perfectionist in that respect. It’s the teen thing that bothers me most. 

There needs to be more books for that age group. 

Reading, as we all know, falls off when they go to secondary school, but it’s a time when they could really do with books, as they could just do with the headspace and the break.

Three desert island books

They are actually all children’s books. The first one is The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I read it as a child and I’ve reread it multiple times. It’s a brilliant fantasy, and mixes Arthurian legend and classic good versus evil.

The second one would be Savage Her Reply by Deirdre Sullivan, which is an amazing book. She writes the most poetic prose and you can read it on a lot of different levels, it’s just really beautiful.

And my last one would be Nation by Terry Pratchett; it’s set on a desert island, which probably helps. 

I sometimes wonder if he wasn’t actually some kind of oracle or psychic because a lot of things in his books are becoming more and more relevant and topical every day.

And as always with Terry Pratchett, it’s really really funny.

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