Wairarapa’s Hedleys Books is the oldest family-owned and run book retailer in the country, a New Zealand publishing icon that’s survived two world wars and the global pervasiveness of Amazon. Teaming with them to celebrate their 110th year, “was an unmiss- able opportunity to embrace my inner book geek,” says Karen. Always prone to lingering for too long in book stores, “Mikhail literally has to drag me away from the shelves when we visit Book Soup in LA or Tsutaya in Tokyo,” she leapt at the chance to curate her own personal “library” of must-reads in collaboration with David Hedley. Together, the pair have personally selected 110 beautiful titles representing their combined favourite choices from their current it-list and a combined lifetime of reading, both ction and non- ction. Be it Karen’s love of twentieth century classics such as Mrs Dalloway and Bonjour Tristesse or David’s pop culture interests around rock luminaries David Bowie, Lou Reed and George Harrison, it’s an eclectic range with a great read for everyone.

The perfect companion to a good book is, without a doubt, tea and cake. And so, every Saturday from November 4th, the pop-up book store turns into a literary salon serving up summery, season- ally-inspired cakes by The Caker’s Jordan Rondel and delicious organic teas by Storm & India.