Who's behind this?

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We’re currently an acting team, comprised of volunteers. Except for the actual shop staff, none of us are getting paid for this – we’re doing it because we believe that Wood Green/Turnpike Lane has lost something important, so we want to build something new. We'll run elections in our first Annual General Meeting (to be scheduled post-coronavirus).

Darren  was chairperson of TUSH (the tower hamlets users of short life housing cooperative) for five years. Providing affordable homes for single people using the cooperative model. He worked in social services for ten years specialising working with young adults with learning difficulties and severely challenging violent behavior, until he retrained as a physics teacher and specialist in creativity and thinking-skills development. At fifty years of age he realises he knows only a tenth of what he should by now and hopefully a book shop may help.

Tim West is an old man with ill-advised fashion sense. He also co-ran the Big Green Bookshop, and is the current acting General Manager and Vice-Chair of the All Good Bookshop co-operative.

Tim has over 25 years of experience in running bookshops and events. If you live nearby or went to the Big Green Bookshop, you’ll almost certainly already know and love/tolerate Tim.

This means that we’ll have a huge amount of benefit from his experience, so we’re very excited that he’s going to be part of the campaign and project.

A haunter of bookshops since childhood, Carmel is an ex-local government employee, writer, editor and occasional bookseller who worked in the Big Green Bookshop on a full-time, part-time and ad hoc basis from 2013. She has previously worked in the National Army Museum book and gift shop, as well as New Era Books, a communist bookstore. She takes an interest in all things literary and has recently run a read-in-situ group for Haringey Literature Live.

Farouk Sohawon is a local community activist and a retired publisher with over thirty years' experience in the industry. He has always been, unsurprisingly, a passionate advocate of reading and education.

 Emma is an arts education professional with 15 years’ experience across the cultural and heritage sectors. She specialises in delivering outreach and diversity and inclusion programmes and has worked for local and national organisations including Birmingham City Council, The National Gallery and Tate. Emma is an avid reader and passionate about the potential for the All Good Bookshops to enrich our local community.

Richard is a highly driven operations professional with over 20 years’ experience working for major international development charities, a world class art gallery and the largest university in Europe. Richard is also a lover of good bookshops and wants share this with the local community.

Ben Sohawon is a local businessman who grew up in and has been a resident of Harringay for nearly forty years. He has grown up surrounded by books, and has even occasionally been accused of reading them.

Lucy has a background working in research and public policy, covering a range of topics from health and social care to advertising and the creative arts. As a lover of books, bookshops and all things related, she got involved with the All Good Bookshop to make sure there continues to be a welcoming and community-minded bookshop for everyone in Wood Green.

Sam is a creative professional delivering editorial and business improvement services to small businesses. She previously spent eight years as a commissioning editor for a trade publisher. She got involved with the project in a bid to ensure her daughter grows up somewhere with a local bookshop.