Jo’s new job

If a husband and wife with the family name of Page owned a bookshop, what would they call it?

Pages and Pages of course!

And that’s where Jo has just started a new job. It’s a rather ambitious decision as it’s full-time, the shop is the other side of Sydney and she has also just started a Master of Arts in Information and Knowledge Management at UTS. The course is part-time, but with the job and the travel she’s going to be rather busy!

I met Jo for lunch earlier in the week to have a look at the shop and to see how she was coping. It’s in the middle of the old Mosman shopping centre and the street is lined with expensive cars and the footpaths are busy with rather well-to-do people and their dogs.

The bookshop is divided into two parts: the main shop is in front and at the back is a separate children’s bookshop that also contains the ABC Centre. Jo is responsible for the children’s section and the ABC Centre. She likes her workmates and the wealthy and (sometimes) wacky customers.

As for the travel, she’s making good use of the rather long train and bus trip to familiarise herself with the young adult novels she sells.

As an aside, Mosman seems to have some sort of pull on the family: my grandfather grew up there, my grandmother worked in the kiosk on Mosman wharf before she married my grandfather, Stuart and Tara have just bought a home there and now Jo is working there.

Like to hear one of the funniest bookshop sketches ever? Have a listen to

      1. John Cleese and Marty Feldman

. This is the soundtrack from an episode of the BBC TV series “At Last the 1948 Show” originally broadcast on 1 March 1967. (If anyone can find the video please let me know.)