75 years of McLeod‘s Booksellers in Rotorua

Jemma Morrison, McLeods Booksellers manager picture. Photo: Phil Campbell.

Any town the size Rotorua which retains an independent book shop has to have something going for it. And McLeod's Booksellers has it in shelves – character.

For from within and looking from the outside, unalloyed character has shaped its image since it opened 75 years ago, in pre-Word War 2 New Zealand.

Tonight marks the 75th anniversary since the shop opened in Tutanekai Street.

First opened by A J Coates, the shop soon fell into the hands of entrepreneur Ken McLeod, in 1943, who pumped for Rotorua (starting with his 30,000-population club) before it was bought by Trevor Thorp in 1968.

The canny Trevor, who died in 2005, had owned a shop at Otorohanga, but saw the potential of the Rotorua offering. Within a few short years, McLeods Booksellers became an institution.

Trevor, who bought his son David in in 1979, saw the value of independent ownership. They could and did order niche books, they looked after, in fact pandered but not unctuously, to their local clientele.

If not in stock, they ordered. In time, these stock jocks in a book shop forged a steady and loyal client base.

Trevor and David could boast they were among the first shops in the country to entertain the celebrity promotion.

At any given day, celebrated authors would drop in for a signing, and sports stars, and, well, plain stars, too. But they also paid more than lip service to local authors, and herein rested their innate charm.

McLeods has exemplified Carlyle adage of infinite room in small spaces – this shop replete with books never seems crowded.

On assignment late one evening, the British comedian Alexei Sayle sat chewing the fat with Dave Thorp and this correspondent.

Alexei, who featured in two of the Indiana Jones movies with Harrison Ford, was travelling between Wellington and Auckland.

We engaged in a topic du jour – how, but for the digital age, US President Bill Clinton would not have faced impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Story for another time, perhaps.

We can also interpret through a newspaper feature and two books – one by erudite historian Philip Andrews and the second of 30 pages by the witty and clever Jeshel Forrester – that economics has played a major part in the four sites the shop as occupied.

Many at political level have wailed at the emptiness of the CBD, in keeping with CBDs throughout the country.

But McLeods shifted four times by about 100 metres within the CBD, despite rental increases which drove out many other businesses over the years.

One picture in Phil Andrew's book depicts the staff behind the great former All Black Colin Meads.

Mentioned in the text are such names as Naomi James, Ngaio Marsh, Nevil Shute and Richard Gordon (Doctor in The House) who attended book signings.

Trevor Thorp was a fair sportsman in his own right. Not only was Trevor a competent golfer – he partnered not infrequently the All Black Dr Mark Irwin – but he kept regular company with the great cricketer Bert Sutcliffe.

From Otorohanga, Trevor played many years at representative cricket level for Midlands; his powerful batting became fodder of legend.

Another close friend was Peter Wild, the Nelsonian and highly respected member on the executive of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, who had retired to Auckland.

Direct selling, the digital ages and variations on marketing (not forgetting the vast income streams for leading sportsmen and women have rendered reliance on money from book sales/tours obsolete) may have impacted on the local bookseller.

But there are few signs the final chapters for independent sellers are coming into view.

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