James Daunt on the Turnaround at Waterstones

James Daunt is Managing Director of the Waterstones chain of bookstores in England. Has been since 2011. We met at the Picadilly store in London to talk about, among other things, J.P. Morgan, New York silver spoons and beggin bowls,genuine passion, store energy, author event programs, bookshops as social places, identifying up and coming writers, booksellers who read, booksellers who treat publishers with suspicion, Waterstones stopping selling shelf space, caring enthusiasm, plastic flowers, personality, how to display books, book-selling being visual, recommending books, Amazon, algorithms, slippery squids, zero returns, the value of books, uniforms and and demystifying Kindle.