Everybody has heard this catch phrase which has been used, abused, modified and satirised for years. How many years? Well since 2000 actually, when the owner of a second hand bookshop in Northumberland found a World War 2 poster in a box of books he had bought at auction. He displayed it in his shop, people asked for copies and off it went…viral, international.
The bookshop, purely second-hand, was Barter Books in the pretty town of Alnwick. It is a wonder, a tourist attraction, a total delight. The shop is in buildings that were originally Alnwick railway station. The branch line closed in 1968 and Stuart and Mary Manley opened Barter Books in 1991. ‘Barter’ Books because you can do just that, you can basically swap books or give them unwanted books and build up credit to spend there another time. Alternatively you can just pay in the normal way!
There is a model railway running around above your head, a coffee shop sweetly called ‘Station Buffet’ and if you’re lucky an open fire to sit beside. They play music, at just the right volume. When I was there it was Beatles songs. I was in a bookish kind of heaven and would happily have stayed there all day.
Alnwick is worth your time. The castle there found fame in the Harry Potter films and the gardens and water features are beautiful. A northern treasure.