Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop, Biggar
Located in the small town of Biggar, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Atkinson-Pryce has been shortlisted for the Independent Bookshop of the Year twice. The shop is currently offering virtual browsing and taking orders by email.
Book Case, Hebden Bridge
Located in the beautiful Calder Valley, The Book Case is the perfect local bookshop, and a wonderful stop-off for visitors and hikers. The shop is open for online orders.
Canterbury Christchurch University Bookshop, Canterbury
This academic bookshop started life in a student union cupboard four decades ago, but has since grown into an impressive and well-loved campus bookseller. We’re pleased to report that the team is now able to provide a remote book ordering service to students and staff. Orders can be placed via the website for delivery direct to a home address.
Church House Bookshop, London
Church House Bookshop in Westminster is the Church of England’s official bookshop. They’re currently offering free UK delivery on online orders.
Far From the Madding Crowd, Linlithgow
This award-winning bookshop has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with its varied events schedule and much-loved festivals. Open for contactless home deliveries and postage to anywhere in the UK. Customers can check out availability in real time on the website.
Forum Books, Corbridge
Forum is a much loved local bookshop, nestled in the village of Corbridge, Northumberland. Determined to continue their vibrant events programme during the pandemic, Forum Books has teamed up with 3 of the UK’s best Independent Bookshops – Linghams, Bookish & Booka Bookshop – to work together on an exciting series of ‘At Home with…’ author events! See the website for details.
Heywood Hill Bookshop, London
Heywood Hill in Mayfair has been selling old, new and antiquarian books with titles focused on literature, history, biography and travel since 1936 – a tradition that carries on to this day. The subscription, rare and library services are operating currently.
Housmans Bookshop, London
Founded following the end of World War II, Housmans’ mission is to promote ideas of peace. The bookshop has temporarily suspended its online shop in solidarity with warehouse and delivery workers but you can still support them by creating a wish-list on their website. The team will let customers know when these online orders can be fulfilled.
Hyndland Bookshop, Glasgow
Set up by two former librarians, the Hyndland Bookshop is situated in an attractive part of Glasgow’s West End and has been an integral part of the high street for over 20 years. Orders can be placed via email and telephone. Details on twitter.
Libreria Bookshop, London
Libreria in Shorditch features a curated selection of contemporary titles in an architect-designed space. Postal orders are currently being taken.
London Review Bookshop, London
The London Review Bookshop lies just around the corner from the Yale office and, in normal times, is a regular haunt for staff and authors alike. Not least, we suspect, because of the excellent cafe attached to the shop. Customers can order via the London Review Book Box website where the team has put together a selection of some of their favourite books – new and old.
The Portobello Bookshop, Portobello
This fabulous independent bookshop based in the seaside community of Portobello, just outside Edinburgh opened in July 2019. Orders for home delivery are taken via their online shop.
Word Bookshop, London
The Word is an independently run bookshop, catering for the students and staff of Goldsmiths College and the local neighbourhood. The bookshop is currently closed to customers but is still selling books, and delivering (free!) locally.
Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Tetbury and Nailsworth
With two branches – one in Tetbury and one in Nailsworth – the Yellow-Lighted bookshops delight with their array of books across a wide range of subjects. During lockdown their aim is to replicate the ‘Yellow-Lighted’ buying experience through the newly launched website.
The Aldeburgh Bookshop, Aldeburgh
Established in 1949, with Benjamin Britten being one of the shop’s first customers, the Aldeburgh Bookshop celebrated its 70th anniversary last year. The bookshop is currently taking orders by email and a home delivery service is available.
Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, Edinburgh, Ely and St Andrews
Those who walk through the striking blue doors of a Topping & Company Booksellers (be it in Bath, Edinburgh, Ely or St Andrews) often get a chance to engage directly with the author through one of their many lively events. Sadly, these have been postponed for now. However, their online shop is still open for business, with free UK delivery for orders over £50 and just £2 otherwise.
Bookends, Carlisle
Set within the county of Cumbria, Bookends of Carlisle is an independent bookshop with about 20,000 new titles across all subjects. Orders can be placed via email or their telephone order line.
The Suffolk Anthology, Cheltenham
The Suffolk Anthology is a charming bookshop based in the beautiful Suffolks area of Cheltenham, a city with a thriving literary community and a strong poetry scene. The bookshop is taking orders and offering recommendations by email.
New Bookshop, Cockermouth
Situated in Cumbria, on the edge of the Lake District, the New Bookshop delights with its array of books on a wide range of subjects. As well as offering book recommendations, the bookshop is able to deliver books and cards locally or send them by post to customers further afield.
Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh
Voted Independent Bookshop of the Year for the whole of the UK and Ireland at the British Book Awards 2019, the Golden Hare bookshop truly delights with the wide range of books in stock. The bookshop has an online shop where customers can browse to find their ‘Golden Hare literary fix’.
Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh
This long standing radical bookshop currently offers a ‘Lucky Dip’, where the bookshop chooses a book from a variety of subject areas for customers and delivers it in Edinburgh by bicycle.
Bell Bookshop, Henley-on-Thames
Located in the attractive market town of Henley-on-Thames, this bookshop stocks over 20,000 titles across a wide range of subjects. Orders can be placed by phone or email.
Cogito Books, Hexham
Cogito Books is an independent bookshop with a unique and carefully curated collection of titles, beautifully presented in a welcoming and relaxed environment. Orders can be placed by email or by phone.
The Kew Bookshop, Kew
Located just outside Kew Gardens Station, this bookshop packs a wealth of titles for both children and adults into their enticing premises and (in happier times) is a local hub for author events and book clubs. The bookshop currently accepts orders from all over the UK and offers free postage.
News from Nowhere, Liverpool
This radical bookshop is run by a charismatic and non-hierarchical women’s collective who have provided employment, training and experience for women, in bookselling and running a business since the early 80’s. Orders can be placed online.
Brick Lane Books, London
Located on East London’s most famous street, the Brick Lane Bookshop has been trading for over thirty years. The shop has a particularly large stock and offers a wide and varied selection of titles. Orders can be placed via their online shop.
Newham Bookshop, London
Since 1978, Newham Bookshop has been serving the community in East London and providing a fabulous selection of educational and children’s books, along with those on history, politics, and social studies. Orders are taken via email or phone for titles currently in stock.
Pages of Hackney, London
Located in East London, the iconic blue bookshop now has a ‘Lockdown Shop’ where books in stock can be purchased and sent to individual customers by post.
Primrose Hill Books, London
Known to be visited by celebrities, the iconic Primrose Hill bookshop is just two minutes walk from the wide open space of Primrose Hill. The bookshop is taking email and telephone orders for local delivery. Books can also be sent by post.
West End Lane Books, London
This small but long established independent bookshop in north London was well placed to tackle bookselling in Lockdown, having invested much time, energy and enthusiasm into their social media presence and a trademark personal relationship with customers over the years. Orders can be placed by email.
The White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough
The award-winning White Horse Bookshop can be found in the historic market town of Marlborough. The bookshop is currently taking orders through their website, with free postage for those over £20.
Penrallt Gallery Bookshop, Machynlleth
Located in Machynlleth, the Penrallt Gallery Bookshop stocks a carefully selected range of great books to inform and inspire you in both Welsh and English. They are busy taking orders for local or postal delivery.
The Little Ripon Bookshop, Ripon
This charming, family-run bookshop in North Yorkshire delights with its impressive array of events, varied stock and competition-winning window displays. Orders can be placed by email.
October Books, Southampton
This friendly, not-for-profit, co-operative bookshop was recently shortlisted for Independent Bookshop of the Year. It’s currently offering local deliveries (zero emissions obviously), gift wrapped care packages and online events.
The Borzoi Bookshop, Stow-on-the-Wold
The Borzoi Bookshop has been firmly established in the Cotswold market town of Stow-on-the-Wold since the late 1970s. Orders are currently being accepted by phone, email or website form and delivered free of charge within a 10-mile radius of Stow. The bookshop is also offering free postage for up to three paperbacks.
Warwick Books, Warwick
Located in the central Market Place, Warwick Books is the town’s only independent bookshop. The owners are curating ‘Mystery Book Bundles’ from shop stock, available to be purchased by local customers – or sent to friends and family.
The Yellow Lighted Bookshop’s dedication to ethical values deserves a special mention – from responsible sourcing (bags made 100% from recycled paper, using 100% renewable energy, recycling and re-using everything they can, using website provider who uses green energy) to active involvement in local charities (money from their bag sales currently goes to the local Women’s Refuge) and raising money for schools (in 2018 thy raised more than £6000 for primary schools in Gloucestershire!) – the bookshop truly lives what it preaches!
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop has just opened a new website and is currently taking orders online.
Although the bookshop emphasises the importance of face to face contact with its customers, its aim is to replicate the ‘Yellow-Lighted’ buying experience through the newly launched website. The blog pages to the right (under ‘recent posts’) feature what’s on their tables right now.
To find out more visit The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop’s website, Facebook page or Twitter account.
In the meantime, let the bookshop’s motto keep our spirits up this month:
”So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me and reminded me that there are good things in the world.” — Vincent van Gogh, 1877
1. The Fitzwilliam Museum was founded over two centuries ago. How has this rich legacy influenced your bookselling vision?
I am incredibly lucky to have such a fantastically diverse and many-layered collection to influence my book buying. The Fitzwilliam Museum houses a world-renowned collection of over half a million beautiful works of art, spanning centuries. Artefacts from Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Cyprus sit alongside European, Islamic and Asian treasures. Textiles and fans, furniture and clocks, coins and medals, arms and armour, manuscripts, music, prints, drawings and paintings. The diversity and breadth can sometimes be overwhelming alongside my desire to highlight as many different facets of the collection all at once. I would need a lot more shelf space!
2. What is the history of the Fitzwilliam Museum Shops? How do the exhibitions and collection displayed at the Museum inform your buying?
We are part of Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises, a charitable company owned by the University of Cambridge and set up to support the Fitzwilliam Museum and other Departments of the University. We started out as a small concession stand here at the museum in 1974, selling a selection of postcards and pencils, which has grown to a large open plan area in the Courtyard extension, next to the Museum’s Cafe. I’m pleased to say we still sell postcards and now a lot more besides…
That first stand has evolved into four shops across Cambridge, The Courtyard Shop, the Cambridge University Botanic Garden Shop, The University of Cambridge Museums Shop on Kings Parade and our latest space at the Museum of Zoology, which opened in 2018. Our stock at the Courtyard is hugely influenced by the Museum, the permanent collections and exhibitions, with an enjoyable and eclectic mix of art, history, literary favourites, seasonal trends, and the city of Cambridge.
3. What do you want the Fitzwilliam Museum Shops to bring to the museum experience and to the Cambridge University campus as a whole?
A visit to a museum, whether it’s a day out for the family, a school trip, academic research, or just a shelter on a rainy day, can be a wonderful thing, and I hope that our shop adds to the whole experience.
Our aim is to inform, inspire and amuse. I like to be able to provide something for all our visitors with titles for adults and children; a light introduction, a detailed and authoritative text, or an irreverent pastiche. I hope the books we choose will remind you of a happy experience in the Museum or in Cambridge, perhaps teach you a little more about the fantastic things you have seen and hopefully encourage you to come and have another look!
4. What sort of books do you find your customers are most interested in? Do they generally correlate with the Fitzwilliam Museum’s featured exhibitions?
Our books cover a huge range and I take a lot of pleasure sourcing material to cover as much of the permanent collections as we have room for. The most popular titles do tend to cover the most visited areas of the museum, ancient civilisations, medieval armour and manuscripts, Renaissance and Impressionist paintings are always top of the list.
The real fun, however, comes from choosing the stock for an exhibition, where the focus is beyond the usual and we are able to delve deeper into well-loved subjects or branch out into little known areas. This is where I find the work of our book reps to be invaluable, it would be a lot harder without you!
Our current main exhibition Feast & Fast: The Art of Food in Europe, 1500-1800 has been particularly interesting. A multi-sensory exhibition presenting novel approaches to understanding the history and culture of food and eating. From flamboyant and sumptuous banquets, to contemporary and controversial issues of the origins of food, overconsumption and our relationship with animals and nature. Yale has provided us with a wealth of titles for this and many other exhibitions and subjects.
The current favourites are from The Global History, Edible Series range, each title explores the history of a particular food. I must admit to have been underwhelmed at first glance by a rather unexciting cover, but they are packed with fascination once you get inside. Just goes to show that sadly I do have to judge covers, but thankfully gems can be found beneath! One of the first lessons I had to learn as a book buyer.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shops in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
Our Feast & Fast exhibition will be closing on the 26th of April and the atmosphere in the museum always tends to be a little bit more exciting at the open and close of a big exhibition, with lots of events scheduled.
During the Cambridge Literary Festival we will be hosting a book signing on Saturday 18 April to coincide with Frances Spalding talking to Celia Paul about her book Self Portrait.
Our two spring shows highlight how adults and children view pieces from our collection in two very different exhibitions.
Inspire – A celebration of children’s art in response to Jacopo del Sellaio’s Cupid and Psyche: This exhibition of art made by primary school children celebrates the creativity of local schools and teachers and champions the on‐going importance of cultural learning for young people at a time when the arts in schools are increasingly under threat. (10/12/2019 to 22/03/2020)
Virtue, Vice & the Senses: Prints 1540 – 1650 – A look at the spread and development of prints representing abstract qualities such as the Five Senses, Seven Virtues and Deadly Sins. (17/03/2020 to 14/06/2020)
I am now looking ahead for stock to compliment our two summer exhibitions, Gold of the Great Steppe, and The Human Touch. Opening at the end of May and June each promises to be a hugely exciting show with extravagant launch events and of course some really interesting reading inspiration.
Here I’m afraid I will have to leave you hanging, as further information is yet to be announced. If you’d like to know more you will just have check-in online or better yet come and see us!
1. When you first set up this shop, what was your bookselling vision? What do you hope the shop brings to the People’s History Museum experience?
The museum wanted to create an independent shop filled with books and unique gifts and from the beginning the idea was that we would operate as a shop with a museum attached and not the other way around. So the shop didn’t just have to be for museum visitors, people could come and visit us as an alternative to the high street.
We cover 200 years of social history in our collection and galleries, so the variety of titles reflects that; from books about the industrial revolution and universal suffrage to current struggles for equality. Because we focus on non-fiction titles only, we hope that the shop enhances the People’s History Museum (PHM) experience and builds on what people have learnt and enjoyed during their visit.
2. How do the exhibitions and collection displayed at the People’s History Museum inform your book buying for the shop?
The exhibitions, events and collection are a big part of the book buying process and we link the shop to the museum as closely as possible. Every year we have a new programme theme for exhibitions, events and learning sessions and I research the theme, looking at what’s coming up to tailor the shop to this. The programme for 2020 is on the theme migration so this will influence the books I buy this year and the new shop range will launch in March to mark the new community exhibition opening. As Sally from Yale will tell you, if we don’t cover it in the museum or it’s not related to the programme theme then I’m less likely to stock it, I can be quite strict!
3. What are your bestselling titles at the moment? Do they generally correlate with the museum’s featured exhibitions?
Our bestselling titles at the moment are essay collections and classic works such as Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, Common Sense by Thomas Paine, and Why I Write by George Orwell – all radical thinkers featured in our main galleries.
We do see a link to the museum’s changing exhibitions reflected in bestsellers too. 2019 marked the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre and our changing exhibition was Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest (open until 23 February 2020) so we found that we sold lots of books on the two topics.
One of our bestselling books for 2019 was First in the Fight by Helen Antrobus and Andrew Simcock. It tells the story of 20 radical women of Manchester who were shortlisted in the campaign for the first female statue in the city since 1901. This book was quite a special one for us because of its links to the museum. It takes its name from a suffragette banner we acquired and displayed in 2018. The book launch was held here in November and it was a brilliant night.
4. How have you found running a bookshop as part of a larger museum?
I’ve been running this shop for almost three years and I absolutely love it. I recently graduated from a Museum Studies MA so I get to combine my love of books with helping to contribute to vital commercial income that supports the museum’s work (as we are a charity).
I really like that I get to use my knowledge to recommend specific titles to visitors but also getting the opportunity to work with different publishers, sales reps and local makers. The shop is a key part of the visitor experience and it’s great that everything is so intertwined with what we do at the museum.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
Next month marks 10 years since we reopened in our current building so we will be throwing a birthday party – where I will launch our new Radical Book Club! Every second Thursday on our Radical Late openings, where the museum, shop and cafe are all open until 8.00pm, we will be holding events and discussions about new releases and classic titles showcasing some of the best books PHM shop has to offer.
1. The Camden Arts Centre is such an exciting, vibrant space for showcasing contemporary art! What do you most enjoy about the shop being located there?
Being a part of Camden Arts Centre really enhances the customer’s visit as the stock reflects the current and past programme. Artists, staff and educators all recommend books that diversify the stock. Our visitor base is very diverse from young children through to elderly visitors with and without an arts background. The bookshop is fully accessible and is a welcoming space to browse and purchase books, stationary, greeting cards and artist editions stocked for our visitors.
2. How do the exhibitions and performances held at the gallery inform your book buying?
The exhibitions, public programme and education programme all greatly inform our book buying. For each new exhibition and artist residency Camden Art Centre produces a file note which is a small publication that includes an essay and a reading list suggested by the artist. These reading lists inform our book buying and we often continue to stock these items, which means our stock is continually changing and evolving directly from artist’s suggestions!
3. Which books do your readers prefer to buy? Are exhibition catalogues more popular or are your customers interested in a range of genres?
Current and past exhibition catalogues are always popular as are exhibition recommended stock. However, customers purchase from the full range of stock and art theory, philosophy and children’s books are very popular.
4. Your list of recommended titles includes a variety of titles from David Olusoga’s Black and British to Elizabeth Bishop’s Poems and Lubna Chowdhary’s book documenting the outcome of her 6-month residency in the ceramics department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. How do you decide on your recommended reads?
Our recommended titles are mostly directly influenced by artists we have worked with or are currently working with. Lubna Chowdhary was artist in residence in 1994 and has produced artist’s editions for Camden Arts Centre to raise funds for the exhibition and education programmes. Staff also recommend titles and often customers will too!
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
In 2020 Camden Arts Centre will be launching an exciting new website. We are also working on producing a catalogue for a group exhibition titled The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree which investigates the subjectivity and being of plants: their significance to wisdom-traditions, and how we engage with and activate them in culture, counter-culture, art and music. The exhibition opens in Spring 2020.
1. What do you hope your bookshop brings to the Canterbury Christ Church University campus?
Our bookshop is located at the heart of the campus adjacent to the University Chapel and the Touchdown Café. It is often said that the neat triangle made by chapel, coffee shop and bookshop provides sustenance for the soul, body and mind of students and staff at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU). Our bookshop is university-owned and staffed by booksellers with a long experience in the book trade both from a campus and a high street perspective. Being university-owned means we work closely alongside academic staff, with the Student Union when it comes to campaigns, and with student groups and societies – such as the CCCU Bookclub.
From humble beginnings the bookshop began life in a student union cupboard forty-two years ago and has evolved into a fully-fledged academic bookseller. We’ve refurbished several times over the last 20 years, always growing in size, but last year, a reduction in retail space meant a radical re-think in how we provide resources for students to help them succeed whilst at university. A lot of attention was spent on detail as well as on our stock. So for example, the new bookshop includes island units which are on wheels. This allows us to be totally flexible not only in how we display stock, but also how we adapt the bookshop at different times of the year, for new promotions and for events.
As a campus bookseller we are finely tuned to the needs of our customers, undergraduate to postgraduate; and we are able to react quickly – whether obtaining a customer order for the following day, or promoting and supporting a conference the following week. This semester, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology new to CCCU felt students at a university with a campus bookshop didn’t realise how lucky they were. A Senior Lecturer in Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work once said of the bookshop:
“It belongs to us – we can have a say in what is provided, stocked and offered to staff and students in a timely way. It is run by colleagues who understand our programmes, our requirements and who are open to new ways of working. They are student and staff centric, they go the extra mile.”
An academic recently praised the bookshop for “always helping her find the books she didn’t know she was looking for”. Surely this has to be our goal, the goal of booksellers everywhere. This is what we do to support and help enrich academic life on campus.
2. You regularly support university events such as public lectures and book signings. What has been your favourite event of 2019?
We’ve just finished supporting the Canterbury Festival, where the series of talks ranged from Bettany Hughes on the history of Istanbul to Chris Lintott’s lecture on how crowd research is helping us better understand the cosmos. Next up we’re providing the festival bookshop for the Folkestone Book Festival – a ten-day extravaganza of talks which opens with a lecture from celebrated novelist Ben Okri. This year the theme is the shape of things to come, given HG Wells’ association with the town. Then, on campus in December, we’re supporting the Education Faculty’s Newly Qualified Teacher conference, as well as several book launches by academic staff. Even the end of semester is a busy time and we open throughout the year only closing for public holidays.
I think our favourite event of 2019 was supporting a fascinating lecture given by Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid, who is Professor in English & Environmental Humanities at Kent University. His talk illustrated how our bodies have evolved and in many ways failed to adapt over time, and what the future holds. Having read his previous book Footnotes: How Running Makes Us Human, his new book Primate Change: How the World We Made is Remaking Us is highly recommended.
3. What types of books are your customers buying? Do you find that, as a university bookshop, you are primarily selling academic titles, or are non-academic books just as popular?
Our customers buy textbooks in business, law, healthcare, education, life sciences, social & applied sciences, arts & humanities. Trade fiction and non-fiction is also popular, especially titles related to subjects studied at CCCU. So yes, academic titles are definitely what we sell most of. However, looking at our current Top Ten, predictably Cite Them Right is at the top of the tree, but we can also see the novels Johnny Got His Gun and Little Women alongside Bad Education: Debunking Myths in Education, Child Development and Fundamentals of Project Management: Tools and Techniques.
We work with reps from trade publishers such as Faber, and Penguin Random House as well as, of course, academic publishers. Our future depends on publishers and booksellers working together. This working relationship at its most successful is embodied in our very own Yale rep, Josh. Together we talk and pick out forthcoming titles which will match our customer base.
We stock newly published titles including novels, so The Testaments was big for us, and now the new Philip Pullman. We rejoice in the freedom to choose less well-known authors and perhaps books that we feel deserve a new readership. A couple of years ago we created a window display for one book: All the Devils are Here by local author David Seabrook. Due to the great work by Backlisted (the magnificent books podcast presented by John Mitchinson and Andy Miller) this title was brought back into print by Granta.
Being part of the Department of Library & Learning Resources, we’re happy to check library availability of textbooks and give Dewey numbers to students to help them locate the book they’re after. Using Stephen Fry’s escalators and stairs analogy when it comes to printed copy or digital download – it’s all about providing options for students, whether the book is required as a physical copy to be purchased or borrowed, or as an e-book, or to be accessed on a digital platform. Students we help in this way do think of their campus bookshop when it comes to their next assignment, research project or seminar.
4. If you could recommend one book published in the past year, what would it be?
A wonderful book published this year which we recommend to absolutely everyone, but especially to our Mental Health Nursing students is Heartland: finding and losing schizophrenia by Nathan Filer. The book is full of warmth and compassion, is well-researched, and has the power to help change our attitude and understanding of schizophrenia and what it means to be mentally unwell.
Books we’re looking forward to include new novels from David Mitchell and Scarlett Thomas – and our top recommendation for 2020 is A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry which is due in March. It is a masterpiece.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
In terms of events, there’s the Booksellers Association Academic Book Week which takes place 9-13 March 2020 when we’ll be working again with our comrades in academic bookselling as well as with lovely publishers such as Yale. We are supporting the UKLA Writing for Pleasure conference at CCCU with a very exciting author yet to be announced. Previous keynote speakers have included Michael Rosen, Anthony Brown, and Piers Torday. We’re also providing the conference bookshop for fifth Annual Canterbury History Weekend with Michael Wood, Dan Jones and a host of historians!
1. The Borzoi Bookshop has been an integral part of Stow-on-the-Wold for more than 40 years. What do you hope your shop brings to the local community?
Over the years there have been huge changes in the shops in Stow so the first thing I would say we provide is continuity. The only shops that have been here longer than us are the chemist and the butcher. We now have grandparents, parents and children from the same family visiting us, and although this makes us feel old, we know that they feel very comfortable and at home in the shop. We have a good relationship with the local primary school, and we deliver books to the old people’s home and to the surrounding area.
We have recently taken part in a new venture – Stow Art Week – which was a combined event with all the galleries in the town. Lastly we are delighted to be the box office for Music at Stow which has a series of concerts throughout the year. We were very touched at the response by the community to our move. We were showered with gifts and cards and it was very humbling to realise how much we are appreciated by this community.
2. How did the name The Borzoi Bookshop come about? Tell us more about the shop’s four-legged friends from over the years.
The Borzoi was named after the two Borzoi dogs who lived in the original shop set up in the 1970s. The shop has always had dogs. Anthea came to work with Bubbly, then Tike the Staffie joined the team and now Brock, the Jack Russell terrier, is in charge of meeting and greeting. He was happy to move from Church Street as he rather enjoys visiting the other shops in the courtyard. He is much loved by tourists missing their own dogs and is constantly being photographed; he has recently been featured in Bertrams Booktime magazine.
3. Back in April, you moved premises. What was the reason behind the move and how have the past few months been?
The old shop in Church Street was rented and the owners wanted to sell the property, so we made the big decision to move elsewhere. We closed in Church Street at the close of business on Saturday 30th March and opened again on Monday – 1st April! We couldn’t quite believe we had done it and it was hugely exciting to welcome the first customer! The regulars love our new premises.
It is light and we have a completely new look. We have the most lovely shelving made especially for us by an amazing local craftsman. He tolerated our indecision, and guided us through the pitfalls of easy access, lighting and positioning of the shelves. We have seen a rise in footfall and we have been thrilled with the response to the new premises by customers and tourists.
4. With the shop based in the Cotswolds, you must get an exciting range of customers, from locals to tourists from all over the world. How do you stock your bookshop to appeal to your varied customer base?
A very good question. Our customers range from those who live here all the time, to weekenders from London and tourists from indeed all over the world. When we are ordering books there are particular customers we have in mind who cover some of the categories. We trawl the lists looking for unusual books you would not usually find in a country bookshop. However, we must also remember those who want a memento of their visit to the Cotswolds so we have a selection of local photographic books – large and small. There are wonderful gardens and houses to visit so we stock coffee table books about these and the village of Adlestrop (Edward Thomas and Jane Austen) is close by so we have a good selection of poetry and literary books.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop that you’d like to share with us?
We hope to build on the increased footfall and actively encourage children from the local primary school to come and visit us. We have a new member of staff who was a primary school teacher and a librarian who we hope will help in our endeavours to reach out to children. As Chipping Campden Literature Festival continues to grow we will be supporting this fantastic event with our pop up bookshop. In the past few weeks we have set up a new website – please do take a look!
1. When you set up shop back in 2009, what was your bookselling vision? How has your shop developed and grown over the past 10 years?
We set up the shop in 2009 at probably the worst time for independent bookshops, with the rise of ebooks and all the talk in the media about the death of the book. Our vision was to stand against that negativity and defend the book, to encourage both children and adults to read, and to add something to Ripon. We were only a small shop in a small city, but we felt that what we were doing was important and if we could make a go of it then anyone could do it in every town across the country, and we still feel like that!
Over the last 10 years, we have established the business, built links to local schools, run and been involved with an array of local events, and played an important role in our community. In September 2018 we expanded into the shop next door and more than doubled the space we initially opened back in 2009. It has been fantastic to have all that extra space to use, and we are now able to host bookclub, storytimes, events and workshops etc. in the shop itself.
2. As mentioned above, 2019 marks a decade of The Little Ripon Bookshop. How are you planning to celebrate this important milestone?
Our little shop was 10 years old in July, and our new shop will be one in September, so all year has felt something like a celebration! We are planning on celebrating our joint tenth and first birthdays this autumn, and it will be a matter of bunting, birthday cake, bubbly and some special offers… We love a bit of a do!
3. You are well-known for your fabulous window displays. How do you go about creating these visual masterpieces? Which of your booksellers take the lead?
We have always seen the shop windows as the most obvious way of engaging local customers and we’ve set out to have fun with them! Phoebe is our main creative force in designing the windows and she has had some notable successes and won us some competitions with gigantic book replicas, tentacles and all sorts. We’ve also had a number of children’s book illustrators come and ‘take over’ our children’s window with their characters – including lions, unicorns and anteaters! Our aim is to promote our favourite titles and tempt people into the shop, and it always helps if the window shows we’re having fun.
4. The Little Ripon Bookshop has a bustling events schedule. What has been your favourite event from the past year?
We’ve had some wonderful events ranging from a cookery demonstration to a Harry Potter Night, from Coffee with Crime to Poetry and music. One of our all-time favourite events was our Alan Johnson interview accompanied by Ripon Grammar School’s Man Choir singing a medley of Beatles hits! Notable highlights this year have included a piratical event with the wonderful Jonny Duddle, our Unicorn Workshop with the incredible illustrator Jane Ray and a visit from Sally Urwin, a Northumbrian farmer with a nappy-wearing lamb. We’re always keen to do as much as we can with more authors and illustrators and to really put Ripon on the map for events.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
Christmas is obviously our most important time of year and we’re planning a fabulous late-night shopping evening with themed cocktails! Last year we developed a lovely VirGINia Woolf cocktail to refresh our evening shoppers and this year we’re planning something even more delicious. On the children’s side of the business we will be hosting ‘The Great Big Book Hullabaloo’ in October to celebrate reading for all the Year 3 children in Ripon. The aim will be to ‘Get Loud About Reading!’ and we plan on doing just that!
1. Tell us about the history of Far From The Madding Crowd. How did you come to run this celebrated bookshop in the heart of Linlithgow?
There has been a bookshop here since the mid-1970s, originally known as The Linlithgow Bookshop. My mum started as a bookseller there in the 1990s and when the original owner wanted to retire, she bought the business. In 2012, larger premises became available, so we moved in and changed the name of the shop. This was also when I took an active role in running the shop. We chose the name Far From The Madding Crowd because we both love Thomas Hardy and it encapsulated what we were trying to create here: a space where people can come to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and lose themselves in the joy of browsing a bookshop. Since then we’ve built upon our wonderfully loyal customer base and vastly increased our range of books and the number of titles we stock – we are constantly reorganising floorspace to fit just one more bookshelf in!
Mum stepped back from being involved in the day-to-day running of the shop in 2015 and is gradually moving into full retirement, so I’ve spent the last few years developing the business in different ways – we do a lot more author events these days, as well as two annual book festivals. I am always looking for ways in which we can strengthen our community ties, whether through school outreach work or partnering with other local businesses. There’s so much scope with a bookshop to engage people and promote literacy; it’s exhausting but the most satisfying job I’ve ever done!
2. Last year, you won an Independent Bookshop Innovation Award from Pan Macmillan. How have you benefitted from this?
We were absolutely thrilled to be awarded one of the Macmillan 175 Innovation grants: it has enabled us to secure the future of our schools festival for the next three years, as well as developing the digital strand. This is a project that means so much to everyone involved and I am so pleased that the team at Macmillan were able to recognise its importance to the local area and the potential it has for the future. It was a wonderfully thoughtful scheme offered to celebrate one of the very best publishers operating in the UK today – we have so much fun planning events with Pan Macmillan and this award was really the icing on the cake in a brilliant year.
The West Lothian Schools Festival is really close to our hearts; it’s so good to know that we’ve created something that has long-term benefits for the whole community. Over five years we have expanded the festival and now every June around 1800 children from ages 5-16 attend over three days in one very large tent! There is an author session for every primary year group, plus one combined session for secondary age students. We have worked incredibly hard to build a network of support that includes the local arts association, West Lothian Council and Scottish Book Trust. With help from the Pan MacMillan grant this year we introduced a digital strand of the festival for pupils and teachers to use a free classroom resource and next year our digital expert, Becka Wright, has offered to train older pupils in interview techniques and how the equipment works. Everyone involved in the project agrees it is incredibly rewarding and is invested in making it as sustainable for the future as possible.
3. Far From The Madding Crowd houses an exciting range of genres, as well as two specialist departments. Tells us more about Little Owl’s Room and the Scotland Room, and their importance in your vision for the shop.
We try to stock as wide a selection of books as possible and since we moved into larger premises it has been brilliant to be able to specialise in both Scottish titles and above all in children’s titles. We are firmly on the tourist trail during the summer months which means we sell a lot of historical guides, walking books and maps, but increasingly we find that Scottish titles sell all year round. Scotland has a vibrant publishing scene: companies like Birlinn, Sandstone, Canongate and Luath are producing high quality books, both fiction and non-fiction, and of course Tartan noir continues to have broad appeal. We are proud to stock so many Scottish authors and publishers to show locals and visitors alike the breadth of choice that’s available.
For us, the children’s department is the heart and soul of the shop. Located downstairs, it is absolutely packed with titles from first books to young adult. We have a huge selection of classics, the latest bestsellers and a large reference section. As well as books we stock The Puppet Company, Orchard Toys, craft kits, games and jigsaws; pocket money corner is always busy after school and at weekends. Every Saturday we offer free storytelling in The Bothy at the back of the shop and while we sadly recently lost BB, our world-famous storytelling rabbit, we’ve currently got a visiting guinea pig Pugwash, who’s helping out with cuddles.
At Far From The Madding Crowd we believe there’s a book that’s just right for everyone, whatever stage your reading is at, and we are pretty sure that we’ll be able to find it amongst our extensive stock! It’s really satisfying when a customer finds a book that fits the bill, especially if it’s one of our more niche titles. We feel that by offering a wide selection of mainstream and lesser known authors and genres together in one shop, we can be the general bookshop that a busy market town needs, while also offering something a little bit unusual if people are feeling adventurous!
4. This year, you have launched Linlithgow Literary Lunches. Can you tell us about this new venture and how it began?
This is just about my favourite new thing for 2019: authors + food = a winning combination! The idea came about following our first ever weekday lunchtime event, which was such a huge and surprising success we wanted to find a way to make it a regular thing, without it becoming too overwhelming for us booksellers. We are lucky in Linlithgow to have so many great independent cafes. Our personal favourite is The Granary; we approached the owner who happily was as excited as us about the idea and the rest is history! The series has proved incredibly popular so far with every single lunch selling out – guests are treated to a three-course set menu, followed by a chaired author talk and then a signing opportunity. We are looking forward to the autumn series, starting with Claire Askew in September, followed by Sandra Ireland and then James and Tom Morton in November who will be talking about their beautiful book, Shetland: we can’t wait!
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop that you’d like to share with us?
This year we have moved away from a lot of the non-book products that we used to stock to focus more on our core business of selling brilliant books to people! We are delighted that the sector is showing such resilience and that people are coming back to bricks and mortar bookshops for recommendations and to find books that are slightly out of the ordinary. We are also expanding the range of events that we offer. In September we are looking forward to welcoming David Baldacci as our big autumn event, but we also have authors such as Philip Marsden, Mary Paulson-Ellis and
Karen Campbell heading our way before Christmas. Then in January we’ll be straight into the Further From Festival: 2020 is shaping up to be a vintage programme already.
On a broader basis, I’m involved with our local High Street Traders Association which has recently joined up with Totally Locally – a nationwide grassroots collective that is fighting for town centre regeneration. It’s a really exciting movement to be a part of, shops and businesses all over the country sharing best practice and ideas on how to keep independent businesses thriving in the UK. We took part in the first ever national Fiver Fest earlier this year and we’re looking forward to the next one in October.
We are also looking at more collaborations with local businesses following the success of the Literary Lunches this year: an escape room has just opened next door to us for example, so we’re planning a joint event here in the bookshop with loads of puzzles and mysteries to solve.
As an industry we continue to be under a lot of pressure from internet giants, large chains and supermarkets, out of town retail centres and an out of touch business rates and rent system. However, for those shops that have shown they can adapt to the changing marketplace and offer not just books that are slightly out of the ordinary, but a shopping experience that customers enjoy, the future is looking pretty bright.