December 11, 2009
Over on the SPCK/SSG News Blog we have issued a call for creditors to speak out about the monies owed to them by Messrs J Mark and Philip W Brewer.
Following the Interim Manager’s call for creditors to submit claims, we now have some degree of national media attention, and there may never be a better opportunity than this to speak out.
December 4, 2009
Matt Wardman writes:
We have a letter published in the Church Times this week about the former SPCK bookshop chain. Kudos to the CT for putting it outside the paywall, where everyone can see it.
A fuller version, with a few points about the J Mark Brewer attempt (known to us as the Great Texan Wild Goose Chase) to dodge debts by putting a sort-of conflation of various bits of his organisations into Bankruptcy in South Texas, declaring lots of debts but none of the assets, is in this week’s Bookseller – but they don’t always put letters online.
From Mr Phil Groom and others
Sir,
We must thank the Interim Manager appointed to oversee the Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, and Saint Stephen the Great, charities for his work in stopping the rot in the former SPCK bookshop chain, and recovering the shops (Durham Cathedral Bookshop excepted) from Philip and J. Mark Brewer. At least we are now on the way out of the woods.
We note, however, the notice from him in The Bookseller last week suggesting that creditors “who believe that they have a valid claim against the Trustees of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust incurred before 1 July 2007” should write to him at: The Interim Manager, Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3BT, under “ref. S8703” before the close of business on 16 December.
This causes us some concerns. The Interim Manager is completely right that this whole affair has been made fearsomely complex by the use by J. Mark and Philip Brewer of at least seven different corporate entities over the past three years. These comprise three charities, three private companies, and a company limited by guarantee, some of which have similar or identical names, and all controlled by various permutations of the Brewer family members.
The notice as published seeks creditors of “St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust”, without identifying a specific charity number, and restricts the call to debts incurred before the end of June 2007. Given the confused governance and business relationships, we suggest that the Interim Manager needs to cast a far wider net, at least initially.
We are also concerned about the deadline for responses. The SPCK bookshop chain was a business with worldwide links, and the range of creditors may well include cathedrals, communion-wine suppliers, development charities, craft businesses, religious communities in Eastern Europe, a consulting engineer, and others. All of these creditor groups appeared in Texas court documents in 2008.
We urge all creditors, and potential creditors, to get in touch with the Interim Manager using the contacts in the notice, and/or those given on the Charity Commission site stsgct@gothamerskine.co.uk, via email, or by phone on 020 7490 1880.
We hope that a specific contact will be made with the hundreds of suppliers identified in the court documents. We also hope that the deadline for responses will be extended to a more realistic period, perhaps to the end of January 2010.
PHIL GROOM
MATT WARDMAN
SIMON BARROW
November 27, 2009
July 21, 2009
Today, July 21st, marks a significant milestone in the history of reporting on the former SPCK Bookshops: it’s exactly one year on to the day when, if J Mark Brewer had had his way, that reporting would have not only ceased but would have been wiped out completely.
Thanks to the encouragement, help and support of many friends who stood by me when Mr Brewer breathed his threats of legal action against Dave Walker, myself and others, that didn’t happen: the reporting and scrutiny not only continued, it intensified.
Interim Manager's Notice - "No entry to this building is permitted..."
We are now at a point where we see the tables comprehensively turned on Mr Brewer: he himself has been issued with an effective ‘Cease and Desist’ order by the Charity Commission, who have taken over the St Stephen the Great Trust and seized control of the shops, as per the notice shown here, which has been placed in former SPCK/SSG bookshop doorways up and down the country.
More info and further reflections here: Cease and Desist: One Year On
December 24, 2008
Get the Goat this Christmas
Every year I’ve taken to buying a goat from World Vision instead of sending Christmas cards to my online friends and supporters. This year is no exception: you’ll find the official e-card here.
Thank you for your support and friendship through the past year.
A very Happy Christmas to you all, and my very best wishes for the year to come.
A Request
I’m sharing this year’s goat with the SPCK/SSG Bloggers. I hope most of you are familiar with the SPCK/SSG situation: it’s taken up a lot of my time this year, time that would most likely have otherwise been spent on developing UKCBD and this blog. I make no apology for that, but I do regret the need for it.
The only thing needed for evil to succeed is for those who know better to do nothing. Make no mistake about it: the Brewers are evil men. They took SPCK on trust and they have violated that trust: they have betrayed employees and suppliers. They have attempted to stifle free speech. They have reneged on a covenant, a covenant that they freely entered into and signed in the presence of a witness, to maintain shops as outlets for Christian literature. They have attempted a fraudulent bankruptcy filing on the USA courts. Their treatment of their employees has driven at least one man to a nervous breakdown; another committed suicide. All of these points are matters of public record and can be independently verified.
Yet they continue to operate so-called ‘Christian’ bookshops around the UK whilst people who should know better continue to trade with them, supplying them with books and other products that enable them to continue their devious business practices.
So to my request: please show your support for and solidarity with the former SPCK/SSG employees and suppliers who have not been paid — whose Christmas celebrations are blighted because of the Brewers — by reading and signing the two petitions to rescue the Durham and Chichester shops from the Brewers:
If you have already signed those petitions, thank you. Please spread the word and ask your colleagues and friends to read and sign them too.
Luke’s account of the nativity includes these words from Mary:
The Lord has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
Let’s make 2009 the year in which workers and suppliers are paid and in which the Brewers are brought down, brought to book for their crimes and sent away empty.
Thank you.
September 17, 2008
First, my thanks to everyone who has expressed concern over or offered support — whether publicly or privately — about the ongoing shenanigans with the former SPCK Bookshops. If you’re new to the situation, please read SPCK/SSG: My Story, a brief account of my own involvement.
In general I’ve tried to keep reporting on this situation separate, in the dedicated SPCK/SSG Blog, but we are now at a point where some things may be about to be resolved and wider media attention to the story seems likely.
To summarise:
At the end of August J Mark Brewer (the Texas attorney who threatened me, Dave Walker and several others with libel action if we refused to stop reporting on this situation) had his case thrown out of the US Bankruptcy Courts with prejudice and as having been submitted in bad faith. This month, Randy Williams, the Trustee to the US Bankruptcy Courts, filed a motion for sanctions against Mr Brewer and his law company, Brewer and Pritchard, P.C.
Brewer has responded with an acknowledgment of some fault but has by no means pleaded guilty to all charges: his full response may be downloaded as a pdf from the SPCK/SSG Downloads page, and Matt Wardman and David Keen have offered some helpful analysis of Brewer’s response.
Meanwhile, back here in the UK, Employment Tribunal hearings for at least 30 former bookshop workers are scheduled to take place tomorrow, Thursday 18th September, in Bury St Edmunds. Please keep those concerned in your prayers.
To conclude, for now:
Mark and Philip Brewer’s behaviour and their frankly abominable treatment of their staff, present and former, as well as their reprehensible attitude towards their customers and suppliers, impacts on the entire Christian book trade and risks bringing all of us into disrepute. On the SPCK/SSG Blog we have therefore issued a call for anyone with potential evidence that may help with any future legal actions against the Brewers here in the UK to step forward with that evidence: Collecting the Evidence. Links to relevant material may be posted publicly via the comments or may be submitted privately, direct to me.
Thank you.
August 24, 2008
With the near-total collapse of the former SPCK/St Stephen the Great Bookshops under the auspices of brothers Phil & Mark Brewer and with Sarum College Bookshop in meltdown — or not, depending on your point of view — it would be easy to become despondent over the state of Christian bookselling here in the UK. Is it all really going down the pan?
In a word, no. At least seven, possibly eight, new shops and businesses have risen or are now rising from the ashes of SPCK’s ruin, harnessing much of the expertise of the booksellers treated with such contempt by the Brewers and restoring much of what the Christian communities in those areas have been deprived of.
Melanie Carroll was amongst the first to make a comeback as an independent bookseller in Lincoln with Unicorn Tree Books in the Central Market. Melanie was the manager of both SPCK Lincoln and spckonline.com before both were effectively destroyed by the Brewers: her story emerges bit by bit in the Unicorn Tree Books Blog as well as in her comments posted here.
Leicester managed to break free from the Brewers in November 2007 as reported in the St Paul’s Oadby blog, a story soon picked up by Dave Walker. Questions were raised: was the Leicester shop truly independent or were the Brewers playing fast and loose with leaseholds via a franchise? Eventually, in June this year, the shop’s new owner, the Revd Peter Hebden, put an end to speculation with a declaration via a comment on the SPCK/SSG Blog that the shop was indeed truly independent. The shop is now trading as Christian Resources, Leicester.
In Cardiff, City United Reformed Church — who had hosted SPCK for many years after the rising cost of city rents meant that they were unable afford their previous premises — became so angry over the Brewers’ shenanigans that they simply locked them out whilst they drew up plans for a new shop. Again, the SPCK/SSG Blog comments section became the place where the story was told. Churches Together Bookshop was opened on July 22nd 2008.
Truro Christian Bookshop - Excerpt from the Truro Coracle, July 2008
The SPCK/SSG Truro branch changed hands early this year and has been trading independently since 1st February 2008 as Truro Christian Bookshop. This was reported in the July 2008 edition of The Coracle, Truro’s Diocesan newsletter, and once more noted by a visitor via a comment in the SPCK/SSG Blog.
In Birmingham, Annette Anderson, former SPCK branch manager, has established The Gift Centre in the Indoor Market on Edgbaston Street, from where she offers a full range of Christian and inspirational cards and gifts, children’s books, and a selection of church requisites such as incense and charcoal, helping to fill the gap left by SPCK’s closure.
In Norwich, former branch manager Steve Foyster has plans well underway to resurrect the former shop and café as a new company to trade as Norwich Christian Resource Centre. Earlier this month Network Norwich reported that “Virtually all the ex-shop and cafe staff will be re-employed at the new centre, which has been one of Steve’s other hopes over the past months.” More info may be found in the Diocese of Norwich Clergy Mailing, 7 August 2008: Christian Resource Centre set for resurrection.
The gap left by SPCK’s demise in Exeter has been at least part-filled by Bridge Books, a new independent shop opened in July by John & Margaret Robertson in what looks to be a superb location overlooking the river at Okehampton Street, just a short walk away from the city centre.
Finally, we come full circle back to Salisbury: the optimism expressed by Sarum College over the future of their bookshop under the “stewardship” of librarian Jenny Monds may or may not be misplaced. If the shop survives, it will certainly owe that survival at least in part to the demise of SPCK Salisbury; and we can be certain that Salisbury hasn’t seen the last of Sarum’s former bookshop manager, Mark Clifford: booksellers of Mark’s calibre don’t simply crawl away and die — as Mark himself has said, watch this space…
High Street Christian bookselling on the way out? Don’t believe a word of it!
And if you’d like to help liberate another Christian bookshop from the Brewers’ increasingly desperate grip, please consider signing the SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info petition, Rescuing Britain’s Christian Heritage: Durham Cathedral Bookshop.
August 3, 2008
UKCBD > Christian Book Reviews > Arts & Media > The Dave Walker Reposts
The Dave Walker Reposts Dave Walker and Matt Wardman (Ed)
ISBN: (N/A)
The Wardman Wire, 2008 (130pp)
Free Download
Category: Arts & Media
Reviewed by: Phil Groom
Sometimes things don’t work out as planned, even for highly placed business men and lawyers. Taken largely from the “Save the SPCK” pages on Dave Walker’s The Cartoon Blog, this publication reveals the sad and sorry story of the demise of the SPCK Bookshops following their handover to SSG, the Society of St Stephen the Great, in 2006 — and ends abruptly with a note from Dave dated July 8th 2008 on his silence following the tragic suicide of Steve Jeynes, former manager of the SPCK/SSG bookshop in Worcester.
Or rather, I should say that silence from Dave seems to be where Mr J Mark Brewer (co-owner of the bookshops with his brother, Philip) wanted it to end. Unfortunately, Dave’s not the silent type: he kept on blogging, in his own quirky way, telling the story, reporting evenhandedly and watching with astonishment as the Brewers’ business strategy fell apart.
Trouble is, Dave’s not an especially noisy guy either: he’s a cartoonist who expresses himself in pictures. He doesn’t shout or scream. So when Mr J Mark Brewer sent Dave a “Demand to Cease and Desist” — which if it was anything like the one he sent me was full of self-righteous indignation, allegations and threats of legal action — Dave backed down.
This proved, in retrospect, to be the best move that Dave could have made: the blogosphere exploded with indignation as “Of Course I Could Be Wrong” blogger, MadPriest, declared war by launching a campaign to send Dave Walker solidarity messages to Mr Brewer whilst fellow Anglican priest Sam Norton retrieved some of Dave’s missing posts from Google’s cache and reposted them on his own site.
Alongside this, political blogger Matt Wardman — who compiled and published this report — launched an ongoing and growing campaign in defence of Dave’s right to free speech, whilst Unity, a self-proclaimed “big bad atheist blogger with a penchant for digging into the detail” has been systematically taking Mr Brewer, his business dealings and his correspondence to pieces on his blog, Ministry of Truth. For a more comprehensive round-up of blogs and others picking up on this situation see the Wardman Wire My Name is Dave Walker post index.
Enough by way of introduction, however. Perhaps the best snapshot summary of Dave’s posts has been given by blogger Exigency In Specie:
When you read the posts, Dave spent a good deal of time trying to moderate those reactions in order to thoughtfully report events that he believed should be of concern to a wider audience. As a relatively high profile site he primarily acted as a central resource for collecting together information from the geographically diverse chain. Care in what was written was uppermost, even when emotions grew – you can easily find points where he calls for cool heads, and where he removed comments that he himself deemed were close to the line.
From: Learning the Lessons, 30/07/2008
My own reading concurs: Dave is no irresponsible or reckless blogger. Which begs the question, why the heavy handed intervention?
Dave’s last SPCK related post appears on p.113. Then follow several pages of
These appended articles can be read online, of course, but I’d recommend downloading the entire document (pdf, 2.3MB), either here or from The Wardman Wire and reading it at your leisure.
As you read it, please be sure to send us your comments and feedback. If you run your own blog, please remember that it could be you being chased by angry lawyers next time. Please don’t sit back and hope it doesn’t happen to you: blog the story, join the fight and spread the word. And pray. Pray for the ex-SPCK booksellers whose lives have been wrecked by this fiasco. Pray for those of us standing with them. Please pray for Mr Brewer: despite all he’s said and done, nobody wants to vilify him, I hope: that’s emphatically not what this is about; but I would like to see some justice for these booksellers, and I would like him to respond in a more civil way than we’ve seen thus far.
Finally, when you come across some of the funnier stuff, do have a laugh. Remember, Dave Walker is a humourist.
You’ll find continuous updates in the SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info blog. Thanks for reading…
Phil Groom, August 2008
Phil Groom is this site’s Webmaster and Reviews Editor. He’s a regular contributor to Christian Marketplace magazine and is the manager of London School of Theology Books & Resources. Any opinions expressed here are personal and should not be taken as representing the views of London School of Theology or of any other group or organisation.
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June 20, 2008
Dave Walker has compiled an index of news reports and correspondence about the SPCK/SSG saga in the Church Times blog, which helpfully supplements his own Save the SPCK section. To that I’d like to add the UKCBD SPCK/SSG News Section, this site’s reports and reflections and the various reports in the Bookseller:
SPCK | SSG | St Stephen the Great. Should probably also add this rather long and meandering thread at Ship of Fools, “SPCK” bookshops.
Taken all together that’s a huge amount of information with considerable overlap, but it leaves no one with any excuse to say they didn’t know what was going on.
One of the things we (that is, Dave, Phelim and myself: not sure whether anyone else was in on the conversation) discussed briefly at the SPCK Booksellers Get-together back in May was the idea of setting up a dedicated SPCK/SSG blog. This would take some of the pressure off Dave, especially in July when he’s going to be busy blogging and cartooning Lambeth (brilliant cartoon in today’s Church Times, btw: had me in stitches. thanks, Dave!), and will help keep a continuous spotlight on the situation, which neither Dave nor I can necessarily do with our respective blogs.
I’m quite happy to set the blog up at WordPress, although anyone reading is equally capable of doing that: WordPress really does make blogging incredibly simple. But what I can’t do is run it single-handed: I think it needs a team of three or four people, possibly more.
So, do we have any volunteers from amongst our readership? You’ll need a WordPress ID: signing up for that will take you less time than it’s taken me to type this sentence. Then you’ll need to leave a comment using your WordPress sign up email address (this will not be made public) so that you can be set up as an author/contributor. SSG/ENC moles need not apply!!
Over to you, people…
Update 5/8/2008: SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info was launched on 26/6/2008. On 22/7/2008 Dave Walker was harassed into taking down his ‘Save the SPCK’ pages by J Mark Brewer: more info here.
