Liverpool bookshop opens thanks to mystery donor's cash boost

Nathan Connolly had dreamed of opening an independent bookshop

A bookshop has opened in time for Christmas thanks to a mystery donor.

The team at Dead Ink Books in Liverpool launched a crowd-funder over the summer summer to turn their dream of opening an independent bookshop into reality.

They found the "perfect" premises on Smithdown Road, but the landlord wanted a lump sum upfront in order to secure the lease.

Owner Nathan Connolly said: "This premises came up, it felt right and it was everything we envisaged."

He continued: "The issue was the owner required guarantors and the full first year's rent and that wasn't something I could afford to do. My earnings didn't cover the amount I needed to be a guarantor for.

"We'd done crowd-funding before for our publishing business so that's something we decided to do for this project."

Dead Ink Books has been an independent publisher since 2011

He said it looked like they were not going to reach the goal but were then contacted by "someone very kind and very generous" who offered the remaining £7,000.

"It meant we could open the shop," Mr Connolly said, adding the mystery benefactor wanted to remain anonymous.

An anonymous donor came forward and gave £7,000

He said the benefactor liked the aims of the company to publish and promote books by local authors and that because the business is also a publishing house, authors, agents and publishers would be based on a Liverpool high street, not only in London.

"We are part of the community, they can interact with publishing, it's not something that's happening behind closed doors," he said.

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Dead Ink Books has been an independent publisher since 2011 and was also awarded funding from Arts Council England.

Mr Connolly said they have plans to put on events, especially some for children.