BOOKSHOP spotlight

shining a light on the UK's best indie booksellers

This is the part of opt indie books where we celebrate an independent bookshop from across the uk & Ireland and the amazing work they're doing; highlighting the vital role indie bookshops play in their communities and on their high streets. 

Booksellers are on the front line of the industry. Faced with an endless range of choice, each & every bookshop has their own unique selection of books and their own unique way of representing & presenting them. You won't find two bookshops alike, just like you won't find two booksellers who share the same experiences or backgrounds.

A bookshop is only ever as good as its workforce, and a bookseller's knowledge & passion for books is what brings readers back to their shop time & time again. 

Each month we showcase a different bookshop & interview one of the booksellers who calls that shop home...
sometimes both literally & figuratively!

Emma & Chris Murphy

nomadic books, Ambleside

For Independent Bookshop Week, we caught up with a pair of booksellers who’ve taken a truly unique path into the world of indie bookselling. In this interview, we catch up with Chris and Emma of Nomadic Books, who started out selling books from a converted van and are now putting the finishing touches on their brand new shop in Ambleside.
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We chat about life on the road, favourite reads and bestsellers, the challenges of market trading, and the joys of building a brand new space that’s part bookshop, part wine bar, part community hub. It’s a funny, warm and open conversation about what it takes to start something from scratch - and why independent bookshops are such vital parts of their communities.
Join us we talk books, bookshops and booksellers for this year’s Indie Bookshop Week.

Click here for the full interview

TAKE A LOOK BACK AT OUR PAST SPOTLIGHTS...

EMILY ADSETT

The Haslemere Bookshop, Surrey

KATE NIXON

Novel, Sheffield

david torrans

No Alibis Bookstore, Belfast

Eloise Rowe

Falmouth Bookseller, Cornwall

helen wakefield

Edge Of The World Bookshop, Penzance

Lizzie Moss

Heron Books, Bristol

al Verey

Verey Books, Pooley Bridge

nic bottomley

Mr B's Emporium, Bath

Deborah alma

The Poetry Pharmacy, Bishop's Castle

clive judd & maria lomunno judd

Voce Books, Birmingham

alexander call

Bert's Books, Swindon

jim taylor

Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh

Emma Hamlett

Collected, Durham

KELSEY WARD

The Highland Bookshop, Fort William

LOUISE ASHMORE

Read, Holmfirth

Alice Tradwell

House of Books and Friends, Manchester

​CAROLYNN BAIN

Afrori Books, Brighton

freya blyth

The Bookshop By The Sea, Aberystwyth

ROSAMUND DE LA HEY

Mainstreet Trading Company, St Boswells

Cheryl Duffield

The Little Bookshop, Leeds & Skipton

richard drake

Drake The Bookshop, Stockton

sarah shaw

The Book Corner, Halifax

mike sansbury

The Grove Bookshop, Ilkley

heather thomas

Westwood Books, Sedbergh

Tom Rowley

Backstory, London

Jonathan Taylor-Blair

Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh