BYLINE TIMES IMPACT: Find out about the changes you made happen
A far-right bookshop endorsed by a series of prominent right-wing figures – which sells books by Hitler, Goebbels, and Mosley, and whose social media account called for millions of people to be removed from Britain – has found itself being looked into by police.
Until August, Oldspeak Bookshop had a physical presence in the leafy and affluent Suffolk village of Long Melford, which has a trade in quirky independent shops.
Oldspeak became a darling of the far-right, stocking white nationalist and Nazi literature before the store said it had been hounded out by “constant hostility” in the area.
Its name is taken from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which “Oldspeak” is the ordinary English that the regime’s engineered language, “Newspeak”, is designed to replace.
Before its closure, the shop displayed a Union flag in its window bearing the words ‘Remigration Now’ – the term typically used to demand the forced expulsion of significant numbers of people, including those here legally, who are not deemed to be ‘British’.
The store’s account on Elon Musk’s social media platform X has frequently endorsed far-right material, including:
Posting a photograph of the shop front in June with the caption “Mood #millionsmustgo”.
Replying to GB News’ Tom Harwood, saying that the black England footballer Marcus Rashford’s parents’ nationalities mean “he cannot be English”.
Quote-tweeting a clip of commentator Connor Tomlinson – a Restore Britain-linked activist and backer of the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory – arguing that entire communities four generations deep should be stripped of citizenship, detained, and deported and posting: “Not sure what the problem is here.”
Replying to a social media user who noted that people dislike a business that backs the disappearance of millions of foreign nationals with: “I don’t think they should simply disappear. Plenty of them should be hanged too.”
Replying “not yet” with a laughing emoji, when asked whether Nazi flags (including a British Union of Fascists lightning bolt, and Swastika-emblazoned Union flags) are among the ones “these people are terrified about”.
Oldspeak Bookshop continues its trade via its website, where its list of independent publishers includes Antelope Hill Publishing – which the US-based Southern Poverty Law Centre has described as a white nationalist publisher.
Alongside some critical histories of Nazism, titles available through the website include Adolf Hitler’s collected speeches (a blurb states “he may have been Man of the Century”); The Rise of the Reich written by the SS itself (with a description praising its ‘mythic grandeur and martial clarity’); British Union of Fascists Leader Sir Oswald Mosley’s My Life; Joseph Goebbels’ Battle for Berlin; and publications on ‘anti-white racism’ and demands for ‘remigration’. The shop has run a promotion with the discount code “RemigrationNow”.
Despite losing its physical presence, Oldspeak’s owner, Joanne May – who is not from Long Melford and has previously run businesses in Essex – said she is “honoured to return” to the Battle of Ideas festival in London later this month, with a stall selling books by speakers.
It is organised and hosted by the Academy of Ideas think tank – the founder and director of which is Baroness Claire Fox, an independent peer in the House of Lords. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Prominent Backers, and a Police Report
In September, May – who runs Oldspeak’s X account – posted a photograph of two young Muslim men waiting at a bus stop in Long Melford, one dressed in prayer clothes, with the caption: “It’s started.” (Their faces were not blurred in the original).
Responses to the post included “doesn’t look good there. Remigration solves this” and “nowhere is safe I’m afraid!”. One user posted an image of a flamethrower being used with the words “don’t mind me. Just watering my Muslims”.
Suffolk Constabulary told Byline Times that a member of the public had contacted the police “after a reportedly offensive photo was posted on social media that showed two individuals, believed to have been taken from within Long Melford”.
“Enquiries currently remain ongoing, while the two people pictured have been spoken to by officers,” the police spokesperson said. “Anyone with information is asked to contact Suffolk police quoting reference 37/57288/26.”
Local resident and writer Simon Edge told Byline Times he believed May expressed “racist” views which she “flaunted by flying far-right flags outside her shop”.
“What made matters much worse was the public praise she received from some very senior politicians, including members of the House of Lords,” he said.
Edge argues that, if politicians had endorsed a bookshop expressing antisemitism “as opposed to Islamophobia, the media would have been all over it”.
Oldspeak has a number of endorsements on its website, including one apparently by former Conservative and now non-affiliated House of Lords peer, and director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Lord David Frost, in which he praised meeting “Jo” on the shop’s opening day, urging readers to visit and buy. This came before much of the far-right material associated with Oldspeak surfaced online. Lord Frost did not respond to a request for comment.
Another endorsement on social media came from Boris Johnson’s former spokesman Lord Ross Kempsell in July – shortly after Oldspeak posted a photograph of its ‘Remigration Now’ flag.
On X, he tweeted a photograph of a copy of 75 Brexit Benefits by Gully Foyle, captioned “Only 75?” and “with thanks to the great @oldspeak_books”.
Lord Kempsell, publisher of the Guido Fawkes blog, told Byline Times: “I obviously had no knowledge of these posts as I just bought a book from a book stall at a conference and, it goes without saying, I don’t agree with the content.” The post now appears to have been deleted.
Another testimonial is from the criminally convicted far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’), which states “support this brave lady,” seemingly referring to owner Joanne May.
There is also a video of James Orr – the recently suspended former Reform UK policy chief and Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge University – on the BBC podcast Radical with Amol Rajan in an episode first broadcast in July 2025, 10 months before the shop’s ‘Remigration Now’ posts.
On the programme, Orr describes visiting what he calls “the country’s first conservative bookshop”, followed by a shout-out to owner “Jo”. He did not respond to requests for comment.
The Backlash
Announcing the bookshop’s physical closure, in a statement published by GB News on 10 August, Joanne May described the “constant hostility” towards Oldspeak, uncertainty over which customers were genuine, and her decision to go fully online, while also searching for premises “in a friendlier location”.
Long Melford’s local newspaper, the East Anglian Daily Times, called Oldspeak a “right-wing bookshop” and prominently featured claims it had been hounded out of the village over its politics.
Oldspeak Limited applied to be struck off the Companies House register on 18 August, with a first Gazette notice published on 25 August. The website currently has a £5 sale on all items.
In response to Byline Times, Oldspeak Bookshop’s X account said: “It isn’t illegal to close a limited company and run as a sole trader instead.”
A planning application for a bookshop and café went to Babergh District Council in February 2025, according to GB News, and Oldspeak opened shortly after approval. It regularly held talks by far-right authors.
Resident Simon Edge described its positioning on its launch as respectably conservative, heavy on conservative philosopher Roger Scruton – who still has a dedicated section on the website – plus the (often co-opted) socialist writer George Orwell, and right-wing historian David Starkey.
Oldspeak’s social media presence, however, soon became more extreme – building an audience by amplifying harder-right accounts, as well as Islamophobic and ‘Great Replacement’ material, both in its stock and in its social media posts.
Its website describes it as “Britain’s ONLY dissident bookshop” – having previously been billed as “a home for conservative thought”.
In February, Oldspeak’s account posted: “Arm your mind. Restore Britain,” an apparent nod to Rupert Lowe MP’s far-right party.
In March, owner May posted on it: “I remember me and my mum talking over 20 years ago about not voting for the BNP because the powers that be might find out our names and pass them to Muslims when they get in power and hang us. And then we laughed thinking we’d gone over the top.”
In May, the account hit out at “certain Tory/Reform types” being “sneering and dismissive” towards Restore Leader Rupert Lowe. “Why the hostility towards an Englishman who’s actually willing to stick his head above the parapet and fight for his fellow Englishmen?” it posted.
In response to Byline Times’ questions about the bookshop and the photograph of two Muslim men she posted on X, Joanne May said: “Haven’t you got anything better to do?”
May then blocked the author’s account on X, with some of her followers directing abuse at this reporter, including racist language. One account – registered as having been set up in Croatia – sought to identify “the Jew” behind this publication’s right of reply requests.
May shared this reporter’s Byline Times email in full to her X followers, saying: “Oh no. @josiahmortimer thinks I’m going to be sitting at home worried that he’s spending his time writing about me.”
“They also think I might believe they will print any answers I give in good faith. They have also never heard of sarcasm. @BylineTimes” – appearing to refer to some of Oldspeak’s social media posts that this publication put to her.
On 9 October, the bookshop’s X account posted a video of a visit from police about its post photographing the two Muslim men in the village, and responses featuring racist comments. In it, a police officer says: “I would advise that you be very aware of what you are posting.”
Joanne May’s video of the interaction has received more than 2,000 shares. May falsely named Simon Edge as responsible for the police visit.
He told Byline Times he received a “deluge of poisonous verbal abuse and physical threats” from people in the aftermath. Edge has passed full details of those messages to the police.
Josiah Mortimer is Chief Reporter at Byline Times
Got a story? Get in touch in confidence on josiah@bylinetimes.com