Meet Our Team

The Penny University Bookstore was founded by Annabel Townsend in 2020. (Annabel has an astounding sense of timing…)

Wishing to bring together her love of coffee with a love of books, Annabel switched from running cafes and her own coffee-related academia to the world of bookselling. Her first book about her business ventures, ‘It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time’ came out in 2018, and the follow up, A Thousand Lives was published in 2023.

When not dealing with an unwelcome amount of bookstore spreadsheets, Annabel reads mostly creative nonfiction, balanced with a lot of Terry Pratchett novels. Her recent favourites include ‘Psychogeography’ by Will Self, ‘Immigrant City’ by David Bezmozgis and of course, ‘’Good Omens’ Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Nicole Mae is our full time bookseller and has been with us since Day 1. They are a poet and film maker, and their talent for photography has meant they now run The Penny University’s social media efforts too!

Nicole is also a published poet and their two poetry books, ‘Youth’ and ‘Screaming Sweet Nothings’ are available in store. They are currently working on a YA novel as well.

Nicole is our resident poetry expert, and their favourite books of the moment are ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ by Ocean Vuong, ‘Disintegrate/Dissociate’ by Arielle Twist and ‘All About Love’ by bell hooks.

Roshi Bourassa is a well-read, creative, coffee lover with a talent for making jewellery too! You can find her handmade book-themed necklaces and bookmarks in store now, and she can usually be found slinging the shots at Tuppenny and selling books at our off-site events. If you like your coffee extra strong, she is the person to make it!

Roshi is a horror fan, and her favourites are Books of Blood by Clive Barker and Please Kill Me (the uncensored oral history of Punk) by Legs McNeil.

Piers Hill is our part time bookseller and appears at the main bookstore twice a week as well as looking after some of our events. Piers reads a lot of fantasy novels; favourites include Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and has been re-reading The Princess Bride.

Erin Friesen is our barista extraordinaire at Tuppenny, and runs entirely off coffee and sarcasm. Although Erin has been handling the coffee side of operations for many years already, her first introduction to the bookselling venture came when she fell over Annabel’s bicycle when trying to pick up a copy of Little Women.

We’re not gonna lie, Pete the Cat is not the hardest working employee, but he does bring a certain charm to the place.

Pete is not in the store everyday, but visits occasionally. When he’s here, we post a sign on the door as an alert for anyone with cat allergies!