“Rest in peace, Andy”
Andy’s Book Cupboard in the Barbican(Image: PlymouthLive)
Today’s featured reader letters in our sister print title The Herald include tributes to a forces veteran turned Barbican shopkeeper as well as the debate around Take Back Power activists, Trump v Starmer and opinion polls.
Get in touch – tell us what you think. You can comment below or email [email protected] to be featured.
‘Cultural light on the Barbican extinguished’
A relative newcomer to Plymouth, arriving from London a decade ago, I was immediately attracted to the fascination of The Barbican.
One of The sweetest joys to be found was ‘The Book Cupboard’ – three storeys of wonderful literature set in The Old Customs House built in the 1700s, which was also an Orderly Room for The Plymouth Division of the Marines (not yet Royal).
I believe this bookshop was the creation of the gallant veteran that was always in command there – Andy [surname not known], past Scots Guards and Royal Marines.
I found Andy to be the most knowledgeable guide and mentor, of few words but all of them positive – a very genial person.
I love history. It was all to be found in The Book Cupboard: biographies, atlases, history – world, national and local. And the ghosts of school libraries: Henty, Biggles, Buchan and Orczy.
If the book you wanted was not there, and still existed in the world, Andy would acquire it for you as a matter of personal pride. His costs were remarkably reasonable.
He seemed to manage all of this somehow and with increasingly limited support in later years.
On about Friday 13th of February I was due to collect some items: Andy had left a message saying he had gleaned them. That day, I arrived 10 minutes too late… Andy had left.
It is a tragedy that I am writing this about him in the past tense. I now understand from his shop neighbour that Andy was due to have a standard heart procedure.
But then a ‘bereavement’ sign was placed in the window.
It seems that the old soldier had marched off parade – much too soon before the retirement he so richly deserved.
It is my perception that a warm light of culture has been extinguished in The Barbican. It is a local tragedy and the passing of an era. Rest in peace, Andy.
Ian Moore (RM retired)
Andy, owner of The Book Cupboard, as sketched by talented Plymouth artist Tony Bond(Image: Tony Bond)
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‘Liberating’ food from supermarkets is theft
Members of Take Back Power have launched a campaign of liberating boxes of food from supermarkets, which is, to my mind, stealing!
They should be prosecuted, regardless of the fact they redistributed the food to local food banks. They obviously feel very strongly about this, so I suggest that they themselves buy the food, and take it to the food banks, but perhaps they don’t wish to use their own money for this. However, I believe many supermarkets donate food to local food banks anyway, and also have containers where customers can donate any extra items they buy to charity.
Margaret Tucker
Perpetrators should be prosecuted
Whilst one can understand the Take Back Power activists’ good intentions, ‘liberating boxes of food’ from supermarkets for food banks is pure and simply theft. That is illegal!
Those involved are thieves, not liberal-minded do-gooders. They are criminals. Driving off of a fuel forecourt without paying is theft. Stealing something from a retailer without paying is theft.
Hopefully all their stunts have been retained on CCTV and perpetrators can be identified for “future discussions” with the police.
Bob Gelder
Starmer must stand firm against Trump
Mocking and insulting other world leaders, especially UK and EU, is Trump’s stock in trade. He goes out of his way to denigrate them publicly, then has the brass cheek to ask for their support.
Giving in to a bully only leads to more demands from that bully. Starmer was wrong to allow UK bases to be used (who believes US will keep to allegedly “defensive” purposes), but he is absolutely right to refuse to become more involved in Trump’s war of choice on Iran. Entirely predictable that Iran would fight back in whatever way it could. Unable to compete militarily with US power, it effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz by attacking shipping trying to pass through it.
Trump boldly claimed in seven days US had “won the war”, “didn’t need UK warships” or countries “only willing to help once the war was won”. Now he demands UK and others send ships and men to open up the Strait at considerable risk.
Not surprisingly, few countries have seen that as being in their own national interests as opposed to Trump’s. Starmer must stand firm.
David Stanbury
Opinion polls are virtually worthless
Julian Briggs (‘Older people DO care about climate change’, March 16th) is entitled to his opinions, but an internet search for a Yes Minister episode about opinion polls makes it clear that opinion polls are virtually worthless.
The only polls that really matter are the election results for 2026 and beyond, because we now have a political party which does not support the climate change agenda.
I am willing to bet that the Reform party will get a good deal more than one-seventeenth of the vote from every age group.
Bernard John Toolan
