Christina Foyle

Christina Agnes Lilian Foyle (30 January 1911 – 8 June 1999) was an English bookseller and owner of Foyles bookshop.

Christina Foyle
Born(1911-01-30)30 January 1911
London, England
Died8 June 1999(1999-06-08) (aged 88)
OccupationFoyles bookshop owner

Early life

Miss Foyle (as she liked to be called) was born in London, the daughter of William Foyle, a leading bookseller, owner of Foyles, on the Charing Cross Road in the West End of London. The shop had been established in 1904 by William and his brother Gilbert Foyle. Another brother was Charles Henry Foyle, inventor of the "folding carton" and founder of Boxfoldia.[1]

At the age of seventeen, after leaving a Swiss finishing school, Christina Foyle started working at her father's bookshop, and never left.[1] She was the only one of Foyle’s three children who made a career in the business.[2]

In 1930, when she was nineteen, Foyle created the world's first public literary luncheon, bringing together notable writers and other distinguished figures, to meet members of the public. The idea came to her from talking to Kipling, Shaw, H. G. Wells, and other writers while they were buying books, and thinking that others might enjoy such a chance. It also followed on from the literary lectures, without food or drink, started by her father, which were less successful.[2]

On one occasion, Foyle recommended The Forsyte Saga to an elderly customer who was looking for something to read on the train. He bought a copy, but returned it to her a short time later inscribed with the words "For the young lady who liked my book – John Galsworthy."[1]

Career

For almost seventy years Christina Foyle presided over the Foyles literary luncheons.[1] They usually took place at the Dorchester or the Grosvenor House Hotel, and usually a guest speaker (who included Bertrand Russell and Margaret Thatcher) spoke in praise of a book, as well as the author.[2]

In May 1936, the Left Book Club was established, and about the end of 1936 a group of “neo-Tories” proposed the creation of a right-wing book club. William and Christina Foyle undertook to organize it, and the Right Book Club was launched at a luncheon at the Grosvenor House Hotel in April 1937, with Lord Stonehaven, the recently-retired Chairman of the Conservative Party, presiding.[3] The Right Book Club republished titles with conservative and classical liberal themes.[4]

In 1945, control of the shop passed to Miss Foyle. It was under her that the shop stagnated, with little investment and poorly paid staff who could be fired on a whim. She resisted unionisation of bookshop staff, sacking most employees just before they had worked there six months, when they would gain limited job protection rights.[5] She refused to install electronic tills or calculators, and orders would not be taken by phone. The shop would, however, order expensive books from as far off as Germany without prepayment.

The shop operated a payment system that required customers to queue three times: to collect an invoice for a book, to pay the invoice, then to collect the book: because sales staff were not allowed to handle cash.[6] There was a shelving arrangement that categorised books by publisher, rather than by topic or author.[5] A quote of this period is: "Imagine Kafka had gone into the book trade."[7] In the 1980s a rival bookshop placed an advertisement in a bus shelter opposite Foyles: "Foyled again? Try Dillons".[7]

Foyle met many leading literary and political figures during her life. Her collection of personal correspondence included a letter from Adolf Hitler, responding to her complaint about Nazi book-burning. Her literary friends included Kingsley Amis, Charles de Gaulle, D. H. Lawrence, Yehudi Menuhin, J. B. Priestley, George Bernard Shaw, Margaret Thatcher, Evelyn Waugh and H. G. Wells.

The Foyle Foundation

The Foyle Foundation was founded in 2001 under the terms of Christina Foyle's will. It makes grants to other UK charities, mainly in the fields of the arts and learning (until 2009, also health). The 2010 accounts showed funds of over £76 million.[8] Among other grants it made a large donation to the appeal to purchase the oldest intact European book, the St Cuthbert Gospel, for the British Library in 2011/12.[9] To the year ending June 2010 £41.4m worth of grants had been offered by the Foyle Foundation.[10]

Screenwriter Anthony Horowitz has said that Miss Foyle was the namesake for the title character, Christopher Foyle, in the ITV series Foyle's War.

See also

References
  1. Pearson, Richard (13 June 1999). "Christina Foyle, Owner of London Bookshop, Dies at Age 88". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  2. "Christina Foyle The power behind the biggest bookshop in the world, as well as a legendary series of literary lunches", The Guardian, 10 June 1999, accessed 7 September 2021
  3. Bernhard Dietz, Neo-Tories: The Revolt of British Conservatives against Democracy and Political Modernity (1929-1939) (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018), p. 108
  4. Right Book Club - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  5. John Walsh, "Foyles, the bookshop that time forgot", The Independent, 23 January 2003.
  6. Michael Handelzalts, "Foyled and found again", Haaretz, 30 May 2003.
  7. Warren Hoge (11 June 1999). "Christina Foyle, 88, the Queen of the London Bookstore, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  8. "About us", Foyle Foundation website. Retrieved 17 April 2012; accounts are a linked PDF
  9. "British Library acquires the St Cuthbert Gospel – the earliest intact European book", BL Press release. Retrieved 17 April 2011
  10. "School Playground Funding Guide".
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