Vale Roy Farrell

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of our founder, Roy Farrell, early in the new year, at the grand age of 94

Roy had already had an extensive career in the book industry by the late 1970s, when he and wife Liz opened Farrell’s Bookshop in February 1978.  They had met when both working at Robertson and Mullins bookshop in Elizabeth Street Melbourne, which would eventually evolve into the well known chain Angus & Robertson.  Roy later worked for publishing company Thomas Nelson, before they decided to strike out and open their own bookshop.  Mornington was lucky to win out over their other potential destination, Albury (which lost out mainly because their children didn’t want to move there!).  Initially opening in the Mornington Village building (upstairs not far from where the new Aldi store is located), they soon needed more space as the local community embraced their new bookshop and its proprietors, moving to its current location in the early 1980s.

We have shared here a few old newspaper articles that capture some of Roy’s time at the helm of Farrells for 20 years before passing the business into the hands of Ian and Meredith Horton in the middle of 1998.  Of his passing, Ian and Meredith said “we were honoured when Liz and Roy invited us to continue to nurture the shop which they had founded.  We have wonderful memories of our friendship with them”.

Roy was a man who was passionate about books and reading, and our Peninsula community have benefited tremendously from his and Liz’s decision to share that passion via our little bookshop.  Generations of families have enjoyed browsing the shelves and taken home heart-given recommendations from an enormous number of booksellers.  What a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

Roy will be remembered privately by friends and family, with no formal service planned at this time.  We send our love and very best wishes to Liz and Andrew Farrell.

A Farrell’s staff gathering (circa late 1980s / early 1990s):
(L-R) Sam, Jo, Lisa, Roy, Liz, Irene, Kathy, Cathy, Sarah 
(to the best of our knowledge! Apologies if mistakes!!)

Always the storyteller – the perilous art of bookshop proprietary! 

The end of an era – retirement and passing of the torch

A fond farewell to the community

Audiobooks by Libro.fm

Another way in which Libro supports indie booksellers is by making advanced listening copies of new audiobooks available to our staff so we can review them for you, just like we do regular books! 

Here are some of our favourite Libro listens recently:

This was the book that made me want to walk extra laps of the block and drive further in the car just so I could keep listening.  A pacey, punchy story of queer relationships and the idea that you can choose to “do” family your own way.  The narration was A1 and completely raw which aligned with the story brilliantly.  Clear character voices that matched the visual I had in my head.  Twists and turns galore, I absolutely loved this – would make a great book club read too.

Reviewed by Belinda

The Mushroom Tapes is the ideal book to listen to on Libro. The three authors initially intended their discussions and research to form the basis of a podcast, which makes the text translate perfectly into an audio format. Each author narrates their writing and it reads as though you are in the room with them partaking in a natural conversation. This book is as much about the ethics of journalism when reporting on true crime as it about this infamous murder case.

Review by Suzie

KATE

SUZIE

JACQ

INDY

TENNIELL

MAHLI

JEMMA

JAMIE

BELINDA

SARGE