Last time I went shopping for books in Muswell Hill, north London, Bridget O’Connor was still working behind the till in the Muswell Hill Bookshop. A friendly and vivacious bookseller, Bridget was also a screenwriter and author of the short story collections Here Comes John (1993) and Tell Her You Love Her (1997). She died in 2010, aged 49.
 
I set out to walk from Stoke Newington to Muswell Hill on the second-longest (and probably second-hottest) day of the year. I don’t want to load up with...