Draft:Atticus Books

Atticus Books is an independent bookshop originally founded in Liverpool in 1974 by Tom Flemons. Known for its literary events and countercultural stock, it became a meeting place for writers, artists, and musicians in Liverpool’s 1970s literary scene. The shop later relocated to Lancaster, where it continues to operate as a not-for-profit community bookshop.

History

Founding and Early Years (1974–1978)

Atticus Books opened in 1974 when Tom Flemons took over the lease of an upstairs café called The Masque on Clarence Street, Liverpool, above the record shop Probe Records. Having previously worked at Collets Bookshop on Charing Cross Road and the Anglican Bookshop Mowbrays on Margaret Street in London, Tom Flemons combined radical and traditional bookselling experience when establishing Atticus.

The shop specialised in modern and contemporary fiction, with a focus on American paperbacks, which Tom Flemons sourced directly to avoid delays between British hardback and paperback editions. His ability to identify remaindered and out-of-print titles made Atticus popular with students, academics, and musicians drawn to Beat literature and avant-garde writing.

A local chess group met in the shop in the evenings and eventually became the Atticus Chess Club, which remains active in Liverpool.

In an interview with Simon Warner on his Substack publication, writer Jeff Young, recalling the 1970s Liverpool literary scene, described Atticus as “a great shop called Atticus which was like Liverpool’s answer to City Lights”. He noted that William S. Burroughs had visited the shop for a reading and signing, and that he bought most of his “Beat library” there, crediting the shop with shaping his attitude to life and art. The visit by William S. Burroughs is also discussed in A. J. Lees’s book Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment.

Hardman Street Era (1978–1990s)

In 1978, Atticus moved to 43 Hardman Street, a more central location in Liverpool. The new premises became a gathering place for the city’s literary and artistic community. Regulars included Jeff Young, Dave Calder and Dave Ward of The Windows Project, Adrian Henri, Carol Ann Duffy, Sylvia Hikins, and Ramsey Campbell.

The shop hosted readings and signings by visiting writers and performers including William S. Burroughs, John Cage, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Michael Horovitz, Brian Patten, and Gilbert Shelton, illustrator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy’s Cat. Figures including Ken Campbell (during his tenure as Artistic Director of the Everyman Theatre) and Roger Eagle of Eric's Club were also known to visit, alongside Jayne Casey.

A 1994 article in The Independent described the Hardman Street location as “a tiny second-hand book and record shop … always worth a look”, noting its distinctive front display featuring a James Joyce cut-out.

Atticus was part of Liverpool’s wider network of independent cultural organisations, including Bluecoat Chambers and the feminist collective News from Nowhere. In the 1980s, the shop began to focus on second-hand books. A hardboard cut-out of James Joyce by designer Geoff Johnson became its emblem, and Jill McArdle joined to help run the shop and organise events.

Lancaster Expansion and Later Years (1990s–2001)

In the 1990s, a second Atticus shop opened in Lancaster, managed by Tom Flemons, while Jill McArdle continued to run the Liverpool branch. The Lancaster shop hosted literary and arts events including a ghost story competition and a DaDaFest. During this period, writer and broadcaster Ian Marchant worked in the shop.

The Lancaster branch closed in 2001 when Tom Flemons left to take on a reader development job in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent libraries, later studying at the SOAS.

Revival and Music Era (2010–present)

Between 2010 and 2014, Tom Flemons’ son Kit ran the shop as Atticus Accordions, a music store that collaborated with the Lancaster Music Festival. The band The Lovely Eggs performed there during the first festival in 2010.

In 2014, Tom Flemons returned to Lancaster to reopen Atticus as a not-for-profit bookshop supporting the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre in Indonesia, where he had previously volunteered. Although the shop is not a registered charity, it operates on a not-for-profit basis. Since its reopening, Atticus has continued to host readings, performances, and exhibitions.

Atticus also hosted experimental projects, including adaptations of public-domain silent films incorporating poetry and text, developed in collaboration with musician and poet Bill Pook.

In 2024, Tom Flemons suffered a stroke and the shop temporarily closed before reopening in 2025.

Legacy

Atticus Books has been described as a cornerstone of Liverpool’s and Lancaster’s literary counterculture, comparable to San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore. It has played a role in shaping the intellectual and creative life of Merseyside and North Lancashire across five decades.

In Ghost Town: A Liverpool Shadowplay (2021), Jeff Young recalled Atticus as “a destination in your imaginal map of the city … a place of bookish atmosphere that smells of coffee, where Debussy plays quietly on the radio.”

See also

• Probe Records
• News from Nowhere
• Virago Books
• The Lovely Eggs