Waterstones and WHS: a tale of two retailers

Waterstones endured a chequered history from 1982, when Tim Waterstone founded the company, to 2011, when James Daunt took over. By the time of Daunt's appointment, it was in a terrible state. The Guardian's tenebrific headline-writing punsters wrote:

'Waterstone's future looks positively Daunting [arf, arf]

'Waterstone's new owner has parachuted in the man behind Daunt Books to run it. Can he bring a much-needed independent outlook to the ailing bookshop giant?'

Walking into a Waterstones 14 years ago was like walking into an abandoned home counties village hall. The parish council couldn't give a toss, everything was piled up in corners, and I swear there was a whiff of psychological damp.

I remember being round the watercooler that week, and the consensus was, 'Bloody good appointment'. We all loved Daunt's small chain - Marylebone is always in contention for the best book space in Britain - and respected him as a smart reader and bibliophile. Simply put, we agreed he had taste. He was not a bean-counting, marketing flaneur.