Yesterday, the Chapter1 bookstore filed for bankruptcy.
Having started the business in 1993, the original owners of the English-language bookstore gradually took a back seat, with current owner purchasing the Belair-based bookstore a number of years ago, putting her own passionate mark on the business and investing into modernising and expanding the business.
Chapter1 opened its doors in October 1993; the following year Chris Wilson took over ownership with Pauline Probyn beoming a partner in 2000. Pauline retired in 2012 with Chris following suit in a couple of months' time; both remaining in Luxembourg. Marketing Consultant Caroline Mühlfenzl took over the business in 2012, and Sue Morris remained on the staff to provide continuity until she reired, with Jane Mottet coming in as Manager.
Just a few weeks ago, it closed its second outlet in Luxembourg, the ambitious 130 m2 Book Loft in Howald, located above the Éirelux store on Rue des Bruyères, which it had opened to great fanfare on 1 July 2016, with His Excellency British Ambassador to Luxembourg, John Marshall, there in an offical capacity.
Both locations had become well-known for book-readings featuring both local and internationally-renowned authors, with authors from Ruth Dugdall and Daniel Pembrey, to local celebrity chef Anne Faber, all drawing the crowds. The main bookstore also hosted regular Saturday-morning book-readings for young children, which transferred over to the Book Loft when it opened this time last year, wiunder and around the Reading Tree.
In the early beginnings of Chapter 1, it got it reputation for its extensive range of greeting cards in English as well as its Sunday newspapers and weekly and monthly magazines. A large part of its business was school books, both for the European and international schools here as well as local Luxembourgish public schools with English on their curriculum.
A couple of months ago, Little Britain in Mamer also closed its doors for the last time. Both will be sorely missed.
Photo (below, outside the Belair bookstore in 2012, L-R): Pauline Probyn, Caroline Mühlfenzl, Chris Wilson; (bottom): the Reading Tree at the Book Loft
