Notting Hill bookshop

映画『ノッティングヒルの恋人』（原題: Notting Hill）で主演の二人が出会う舞台となった古書店が廃業の危機に瀕しているとのことです。実はわたしもミーハー気分でのぞいたことがあります。実に残念です。以下、わからない箇所があるので、指名解説をお願いします。（UG）
１）the backdrop for the romanceのbackdropとは？→土方くん
２）a last-minute buyerとはどんな意味？→佐藤さん
３）gross (v)ではなぜgrossという動詞が使われているの？→竹石さん
４）a handful of writers and poetsのa handful of ~が伝えるニュアンスは？→杉内くん
５）...it has the Notting Hill noveltyとは？→小林くん（静岡在住）
６）...it is the same sad story that we're seeing in high streets all over the countryとは？→高橋くん
７） Loads ofではなぜloadsが使われているの？ついでにindependent bookshopとは？→荒野くん
８）she was willing to volunteer のニュアンスは？→増田さん
９）Portobelloってどんなところ？→荒野くん（再び）

Notting Hill bookshop fights closure with poets and writers
The Travel Bookshop played a starring role in the 1999 film with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, but is now due to close
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 August 2011 19.36 BST
The Travel Bookshop was the backdrop for the romance between Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) and bookseller William Thacker (Hugh Grant) in Notting Hill. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext
Poets and writers are engaged in fighting to save a west London bookshop which served as the backdrop for the on-screen romance between Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in the film Notting Hill.
The Travel Bookshop, which is due to close in two weeks unless a last-minute buyer can be found, is offering all its stock at half price. The shop's staff have been told that they will be made redundant after its owners failed to find a buyer.
The 1999 film which starred Roberts as a Hollywood star who falls in love with the store owner (Grant), grossed more than $360m (£220m) and the bookshop remains a popular tourist attraction.
A campaign has been launched to save the store with a handful of writers and poets offering to volunteer a day a week to help run it if a new buyer can be found.
Poet and journalist Olivia Cole, 30, said that she had spent a great deal of time in the bookshop and didn't want it to close.
"It's an amazing specialist bookshop and it has the Notting Hill novelty but it is the same sad story that we're seeing in high streets all over the country. Loads of independent bookshop are having a bad time. With a bookshop like that being so unique and so well loved, I was amazed when I heard it was closing," she said.
Cole, who said she also used the store "for work and day-dreaming" said she was willing to volunteer one day a week in the hope that lower running costs might attract a buyer.
"We [are] hoping to rally writers and poets and volunteers to the idea," she said. "The thought that you could run into a poet or writer while doing your book browsing would also add to the appeal."
On Tuesday, actor Alec Baldwin who played Roberts' boyfriend in the film added his voice to the campaign by tweeting about the store's predicament. "Save the Travel Book Shop," he wrote.
Saara Marchadour who managed the shop for two years until last month said that the economic downturn had hit the 32-year-old store hard and that she was saddened by its likely demise.
"I was shocked when the shop was threatened with closure. It's a great waste of talented staff and 30 years of history. It's another piece of what makes Notting Hill and Portobello interesting and I will be very sad to see it go. I hope new owners reopen it," she said.
Marchadour said the Travel Bookshop was rebuilt for the film with a different interior in an antique shop in nearby Portobello Road. She added that this would sometimes disappoint the hundreds of tourists who would visit the store every week.
"I often heard them say, 'This isn't the real one.'" Marchadour, 31, said local celebrities including the director of Notting Hill, Richard Curtis, also visited the store to purchase books.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/aug/23/notting-hill-bookshop-fight-closure