But first a little history about the Dillons name.

Waaay back in 1912 (???) Una Dillon opened a wee academic bookshop in London. This grew into the magnificent Gower Street store serving Central London's universities. In the 1980s Dillons was bought out by a company called Pentos who, in true Thatcherite style, opened Dillons stores across the country and incorporated other bookshops into the chain including Hatchards, Claude Gill and, of relevance to us, Hudsons. More about Hudsons later. Around the same time Tim Waterstone started his chain of stores and a bitter rivalry ensued changing the face of British bookselling for better or worse. Pentos also owned Rymans and Athena, the latter of which suffered greatly during the 1990s as it epitomised the 80s in all its tacky glory. As the post-Thatcherite recession deepended Pentos went into receivership in 1994 (???) and Dillons, which on it's own was a viable company, was bought by HMV. Now things have come full circle as HMV/Dillons have merged with Waterstones and new rivals are on the scene – the American chain Borders on the hight street and Amazon et al on the web – and bookselling is about to change again.

But enough corporate shenanigans. Back to our store. Hudsons opened in 1940 (???) at XXX New Street and established itself as Birmingham's main bookshop. As the Midland Bank building became available in 1993, Pentos saw the opportunity to have a flagship store outside London to make Tim Waterstone go green, so they moved Hudsons to 128 New Street and rebadged it Dillons.

After years of being bought, sold, moved, renamed, merged and the rest, this history of this shop can be rather overwhelming. So on the whole we ignore it. The shop might have a big "d" on the front of it, but we don't act like a flagship any more. As head office decides that the Waterstones brand is the stronger (as if branding had any importance in bookselling) Dillons New Street finds itself more or less out on its own with the ability to go our own way. And to be honest we prefer it that way. It means we can do kooky things like this web site on company time. And it also means we're one of the most successful stores in the group. Odd that.

But this rambling belongs on the Agenda page, so I'll conclude with an estate agent's guide.

The store has four floors connected by a sweeping staircase in the middle (which was not actually an original feature). The first floor has a balcony overlooking the store where pianists and jazz bands often play live music. The second floor has a central balcony overlooking the store and a blue glass domed ceiling. The ground floor can be cleared away for events seating up to 400 people. The lower ground floor is partly in the old bank vaults with the original slate floor. We've got around 1,000,000 books, special offers on new titles and back list, staff who know what they're talking about, most of the time. I could go on, but you really need to see it for yourself. As a vision of what bookshops can be, it's a damn good one.