Other special events included a celebration of publisher Faber and Faber's 80th anniversary with staged readings of works by their authors John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Alan Bennett, Tom Stoppard and David Hare.

The publisher Faber & Faber is in Queen Square, though at the time when T. S. Eliot was editor the offices were in Tavistock Square.

Crook has a deal with publisher Faber to illustrate and write a children's book.

Matthew Hollis, 33, a poetry editor at the British publisher Faber & Faber, who has published a poetry collection called "Ground Water," said the retreat offered a break from the job pressures in London.

But Oswald, who won the TS Eliot award in 2002 for her collection Dart, said today in a statement released by her publisher Faber & Faber that she was withdrawing from the running for this year's prize.

The publisher Faber is offering the historian Ben Wilson's new book, "What Price Liberty?

Open seven days a week, the shop is also the base for a book club, a creative writing course with publisher Faber and Faber, authors' evenings and it hosts non-book events including an environmental movement and art exhibitions.

Robert McCrum, the editor in chief of the British publisher Faber & Faber, agreed.

He wrote a number of short pieces for a booksellers trade journal about life in a fictitious bookshop, which attracted the attention of Charles Monteith, an editor at the British publisher Faber and Faber.

A bookseller who rose to become managing director and later chairman of the publisher Faber and Faber, Evans also served as a governor of the British Film Institute.