The Great Big Book Exchange - sometimes referred to as the Exchange or The Great Big Book Exchange - was a large bookshop located on South Road in Darlington. It had a unique system, where instead of buying a book, you traded for it.
The Exchange was formerly owned by Terrance for forty years, giving him a familiarity with every book in the store. Upon his disappearance, Simon inherited it the Exchange, and his friend Kelly worked as a clerk in his absence.
The Exchange contained the only copy of the Aja'ib, which was stolen from Hyspero by Terrance.
Iris Wildthyme compared the Exchange to Aladdin's cave and the Library of Alexandria. (PROSE: Enter Wildthyme [+]Paul Magrs, Iris Wildthyme (Snowbooks Ltd, 2011).)
History[]
On a Saturday in the 2000s, Simon and his grandmother came into the Exchange to shelter from rain. From this first event, Simon grew to become closely associated with Kelly and Terrance.
Sometime in the 2010s, Terrance disappeared after taking the Objet D'Oom from the Begins at Home, leaving the Exchange to be inherited by Simon. However, Simon was prevented from taking over the business when he teamed up with Iris Wildthyme, Panda, and Barbra to try to stop Anthony Marvelle from reaching Hyspero. (PROSE: Enter Wildthyme [+]Paul Magrs, Iris Wildthyme (Snowbooks Ltd, 2011).)
Behind the scenes[]
- The Exchange originates from Paul Magrs' novel Exchange, which not only featured the Exchange, but Simon, Kelly, Terrance, Simon's grandmother Winnie, and Ada Jones.
- There was a follow up, The Great Big Book Exchange [+]Paul Magrs, Magnetic North (BBC Radio Four, 2004)., which was written for BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Reading. Simon (although left unnamed), Terrance, Ada, Winnie and the Great Big Book Exchange return in this story, and in one scene in the story, the main character gets The Three Doctors from the Exchange and imagines the bookshop as being like Omega's anti-matter universe.[1] Also, the short story is seemingly a biographical piece written by Paul Magrs, but written also from Simon's POV.