Mark Dickens, 60, and Emma Legan, 54, first connected as pen pals. Over the years, their friendship blossomed into romance, and they have now been together as a couple for more than 35 years.
From pen pals to business partners
In that time, they worked together in Waterstones but knew they always wanted a bookshop to call their own. Mark told the ECHO: "It's been a dream of ours. We looked around for a while and finally found a premises suitable to get started."
Although Emma was a store manager, they were without entrepreneurial knowledge, instead learning along the way how to start up and run a business. Mark added: "It's been smooth but a few hiccups along the way, as to be expected. A few sleepless nights here and there but we got through them!"
A warm welcome from the community
Together, they opened The Magpie's Tale on Botanic Road, Churchtown, on Saturday, August 1. The launch was welcomed by resounding praise from the village residents and even Alice from the Wonderland novel adventures who swung by to meet and greet families throughout the day.
Mark said: "The response has been absolutely brilliant. We definitely wanted to bring something unique and the response has been great. We have had a lifelong passion for books and reading and spent most of our working lives among them in and around Southport."
A unique and cosy space
The shop is furnished with reclaimed and repurposed furniture, and decorated with hand painted touches as Mark is also an artist and illustrator. The Magpie's Tale's first visitors praised the shops "beautiful;" standards, saying it "fits so beautifully into our lovely village"
The shop includes a vast variety of genres including contemporaneity and fiction to crime and romance. Although The Magpie's Tale is first and foremost a bookshop and not a combination of a café, the pair hope to host small events sometime in the near future.
Mark said: "To an extent, we're just a tiny cosy shop with reading chairs, but we're happy for people to come and enjoy the space."
Customers can also enjoy book ordering services, loyalty cards and personalised recommendations from both Mark and Emma. He added: "We're always happy to talk."
