The '˜Basil Fawlty of books' is selling his business in Hawes

HE WAS a shopkeeper dubbed the “Basil Fawlty of books” and whose rudeness sparked more than 20 complaints.

Steve Bloom, owner of Bloomindales high in the Yorkshire Dales, was branded “the bookseller from hell” by the chairman of Hawes Parish Council who mounted a campaign in January to get him to change his ways or be forced out.

Now Mr Bloom has decided to sell the business but denied that he was being forced out of town.

Mr Bloom, 64, who famously charged browsers 50p and admitted calling a GP from Shropshire who was perusing the shelves “a pain”, said it was his choice to sell up and the campaign to have him kicked out had failed.

He said there were a “number of factors” that made him decide to put a handwritten sign in the window saying “book shop for sale”.

“I must have been feeling a bit low,” he said.

Within days a buyer came forward and the sale is now going through.

He admitted one factor in the sale was the “aggravation” at the beginning of the year when he was in the headlines for his rudeness, leading him to admit at the time that he was “not really a people person”.

He did not like visitors to Hawes pointing him out, saying: “That does happen and when I hear it, it aggravates me, it’s like being gawped at.”

Mr Bloom said the parish council, which applied pressure on the hall where his shop is based, tried to get him out following the complaints.

“They failed to get rid of me, they could not get rid of me, so I won,” he said.

But he admitted by choosing to leave, he has given his opponents the “victory” they desired.

After 15 years in the shop, Mr Bloom said he will continue in the book trade, selling at fairs and online.

The row began in January when it was revealed Mr Bloom had prompted a string of complaints.

At the time John Blackie, chairman of Hawes and High Abbotside Council, said the organisation had discussed the “dreadfully rude and offensive” bookseller five times since 2013, and in the past four years had received more than 20 complaints.

The decision to charge people an entry fee was often the cause of the upset, Mr Blackie said.

“I’m afraid we have the bookseller from hell,” he added, calling the shop a ‘discredit to Hawes’.

“He seems to have a strategy unlike anybody else’s,” Mr Blackie said. “He charges 50p, people object, and he is very rude to them. Yet he feels that improves his business.” He added: “The trouble is, he is doing a disservice to the other traders, to the reputation of the town, which is very much a friendly town.

“We welcome people to come and visit us.”

At the time Mr Bloom had been wrong to insult his customers. But the 63 year-old bookseller said the council had given the matter “more importance than it deserved”. At his home near Settle, he said of the offending remark to the complaining customer: “I regretted it as soon as I said it.” But he insisted his 50p browsing policy was a way of finding out whether customers were serious or not.

Coun John Blackie, chairman of Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council, said there had been two recent complaints about Bloomindales from visitors to the market town, including a party of 15 who left and decided to spend their money in nearby Dent instead.

He said: “There has been no witch-hunt.

“The only event that might be described as the trappings of a victory will be the cheer as he leaves Hawes for the last time.”