BOOKSELLER Tony Vettese says he loves his job so much that they'll have to prise him out from behind the counter and carry him out in a box when he shuffles off this mortal coil.
Almost as soon as he was born Tony loved nothing more than to have his head in a book.
After a varied career that included selling candyfloss in Morecambe, a stint in the Army and a number of years working at Morecambe's former Pleasureland site (later named Frontierland), Tony finally established his own second-hand bookshop.
Now he says he couldn't be happier working in his ramshackle and deliciously atmospheric bookshop. Row upon row and pile upon pile of tantalising books are crammed into the shop with one of the area's best views of Morecambe Bay.
His shop has become a much-loved feat-ure of Morecambe's seafront with a loyal following of book fans.
And it's not just his shop that draws people in – his daughter's 17-year-old dog Trixie, complete with designer T-shirt, likes to greet visitors at the door.
Tony reveals that, no matter what the weather is like, Trixie likes to shiver and quake to get people's sympathy and oodles of stroking. A canny canine if ever I saw one!
In fact, she worked me so well that I ended up doing half of this feature with Trixie stuffed inside my coat to 'keep warm'.
Love
However, keeping a bookshop up and running is no easy task. For the first few years as owner of The Old Pier Bookshop Tony also worked as a taxi driver to make up the shortfall.
"I was doing it for the love of it," he says.

As we chat there is a steady flow of customers into the shop. The regulars know what they're looking for and go straight to the appropriate sections. The new customers exclaim about the sheer number of books and the slightly musty,old-world atmosphere. They adore rifling through the thousands of books on subjects including detective fiction, fantasy, sci fi, transport, children's fiction, military history, general fiction, women's fiction, music, theology, art, TV, film, photography, travel, gardening, horror, classics, poetry, sport, natural history – the list is endless.
Working away in the shop, Tony's passion for books shines through. He knows where everything is, despite it not being in alphabetical order and his customers enjoy rooting through the countless tomes.
"What a fantastic shop – I could stay here for a week," gushes one elderly female tourist from Tunbridge Wells. "I've never seen a shop like it!"

The care Tony shows for his customers is partly what makes people return to his shop again and again. He will always try to find what they want and keeps a special selection of the most popular second-hand books close to the counter, including Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road'; 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess; 'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding and plenty by Spike Milligan.
Though not a 'sand grown 'un', Tony has developed a great love of Morecambe over the years. He is always eager to find old books on Morecambe and old photographs of the town. As we sit by the door of the shop he shows me a fascinating book he has just come across at a car boot sale, compiled by the members of the Morecambe and Heysham Photographic Society. It is leather-bound and characteristically musty: redolent of Morecambe's past.
Retain
Although Morecambe's Central Pier had burned down by the time he opened his bookshop, Tony wanted to retain some of that history by naming the shop after the once magnificent structure.
"I thought it would be nice to keep the name of the pier and we have The Pier Hotel next door," he says.
Tony's mum and dad, Maria and Fiorendino, named him Aronne when he was born in Hamilton near Glasgow. His mum was born in Italy and his dad was born in Scotland to Italian parents. Fiorendino moved to Italy as a child and then back to Scotland where he met Maria (nee D'Arpino) in 1951.
They had Giovanna, Civeta (a girl who sadly died as a baby), Tony, Lio and Andrea (known as Andy).
In 1961, when Tony was four years old, the Vetteses moved to Morecambe – but only by chance.
Fiorendino intended to look for a house and business
in Blackpool, but he took a
wrong turn and ended up in Morecambe.
"He saw this place and decided to buy it," explains Tony. "It used to be a lingerie shop called Elsie Binns and next door was Rex's Café. There was a baker's at the back of the building and a hairdresser's."
When the family moved in they opened a café and called it The Ramblers. It was hugely popular with customers queueing down the street at lunchtimes during the summer season.
"We ran it together," says Maria, who has popped into the bookshop for a chat. "It was a good business. If you came here at dinner time you couldn't get a seat. We served fish and chips, not Italian food because Fiorendino didn't want to. We got into The Daily Mirror Good Food Guide twice. I worked 18 hours a day in the café until I was 70 years old."
The café was featured on an early Ruby Wax show: "She was a lovely lady to talk to," says Maria. "She wasn't well that day – full of cold – and kept asking for more and more coffee. She asked some rude questions. She also went to Smokey Joe's and West End Beach.
"We had Ian Paisley in one time and I said said 'good job he didn't know I was a Catholic!' He was actually quite polite."
The café also attracted Coro-nation Street star Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) and wrestlers Pat Roach, Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy.
"Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy were fighting on the pier then they came here and sat opposite each other, taking up two seats each," says Maria.
"The food they had! Big Daddy had fish and chips, and Giant Haystacks had pie and chips. They were huge. Pat Roach told me he'd had to lose that night."
Despite not having been given the opportunity to learn to read as a young girl in Italy, Maria successfully ran the business with Fiorendino until they retired. Maria's sister, who was also denied the chance to learn to read, ran a successful business of her own. Business acumen clearly runs in the family.
As a boy Tony went to St Mary's Primary School and got through all the 'Janet and John' books in a matter of days.
"Reading was the only thing I was good at," he says with a smile.
Then he went to Our Lady's RC High School in Lancaster and left with no qualifications: "I just liked having my head in books. My old English teacher walks past the shop and shakes his head."
At the age of 17 Tony joined the Army and was in the Royal Artillery. He was based at Salisbury Plain for nearly five years, which he describes as "a wonderful, old place".
He also toured to Germany and Cyprus on exercises.How-ever, he tired of the Army and paid his way out so that he could return to Morecambe.
"I was very lucky because the same year our battalion went to Northern Ireland. The section I was in got blown to bits in Armagh. I lost four good friends.
"When I came back to Morecambe I worked for a while in the coffee shop and then at Morecambe Pleasure Beach (Frontierland), looking after some of the rides. It was an experience and I'm glad I did it."
He also worked at Lancaster Glass Fibre in charge of quality control in the pressing shop. Another stint at Frontierland followed then he went back to the café. When Maria and Fiorendino retired and closed the café, it reopened as a gift shop, but not for long.
"For years I had been putting books in the café," says Tony. "I had too many at home. It started off with a shelf and I put more and more in."
The shop was reborn as the Old Pier Bookshop in 1994 and Tony had no trouble stocking it: "I could empty the shop and restock it within a month.
"Over the years I've bought the entire stock of six bookshops. One just gave me his entire stock."
Tony says he loves biographies and the smell of old books.
Sci-fi
So what are the most popular kinds of books at the Old Pier? "The detective section is popular and so is the sci-fi and fantasy section," he explains.
"I like a certain amount of disorder, but I know where all the books are. I tried to do it alphabetically but it just didn't work. Two days after I'd organised it, it was mixed up again."
During our chat Trixie has been trotting in and out of the shop greeting customers. She is really Tony's daughter Becky's dog. Tony is incredibly proud of 22-year-old Becky, a dancer on the London stage and teacher for Stagecoach theatre school.
Tony is certainly a lucky man. To be able to work and indulge a passion at the same time is a rare thing. Looking out of his doorway towards the Mediterr-anean blue of Morecambe Bay he adds: "I just can't see myself doing something different.
"And where else am I going to get a view like that!"
* The Old Pier Bookshop is open 10am to 6pm in winter and 10am to about 9pm in summer.


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