Maldon Nub News aims to be supportive to EVERY element of the community from business and shops to people and charities and clubs and sports organisations.

We will be profiling some of these local businesses and groups regularly over coming weeks in a feature called UP CLOSE IN MALDON in the hope that we can be a supportive springboard for your full return to business as usual.

This week we talk to Olivia Rosenthall, owner of Maldon Books in High Street, Maldon. During an in-depth Q and A session she reveals why she set up her business in Maldon as well as her affection for the community and her gratitude for its support during the current crisis.

OPENING her own bookshop in Maldon truly was a dream come true for Olivia Rosenthall and her first three months there were better than she could have hoped.

The entrepreneurial 27-year-old had spent a few years working in bookshops and the vision of her own business grew. When mum Yolanda noticed an empty premises in the heart of Maldon town centre, Olivia couldn't wait to take a look – and she wasn't disappointed.

The beautiful Georgian-fronted building on the High Street, next to the Blue Boar pub and close to All Saints Church, was perfect for what would soon become Maldon Books.

Olivia says: "Maldon used to have its own bookshop, so it seemed the right thing to be opening a new one there.

"The landlord was so helpful and with his aid we soon had the shop exactly as I wanted it."

In December last year and in the midst of great excitement in the local community, the shop was opened. The first months of trading were a huge success, bucking the trend of independent bookshop closures in a town centre where small businesses seem to thrive.

And then coronavirus struck.

Even now, it is obvious when speaking to Olivia that she doesn't have words to convey exactly what she felt as she locked up her beautiful shop a few days before the final lockdown announcement came, not knowing if she would ever open it again.

She looks away slightly for a moment and her almost constant smile vanishes, just for a few seconds, as she says: "It was such a hard and strange thing, that something that had been going so well suddenly had to stop."

Then her face lights up again, as she adds: "But our supplier told us about home delivery services so we decided to give it a try – and everyone was just so brilliant and so kind and generous. The people of Maldon who supported us throughout were phenomenal.

"There were some people who ordered books every single week throughout the whole time."

Now Maldon Books has been open again for more than two months and the business is looking ever stronger.

Olivia says: "It's incredible that we still have the same number of customers coming to the shop this long after re-opening.

"It is amazing and it makes me really hopeful for the future now."

Olivia has agreed to contribute regular book reviews to the Maldon Nub News website – look out for them on maldon.nub.news