Category: Libraries & Bookshops

  • Normandy Library

    A sweet little community library that I saw in a small public garden in Lisieux, Northern France.

  • The Book Basket

    After one of my fairly regular bookshelf culls, I put a pile of books into a basket and put it in the porch way of my church. The notice beside it said: ‘Summer Reading. These books are free but you can make a donation to the church if you so wish.’ After only a few […]

  • Riverside Books

    I love the bookstalls underneath Waterloo Bridge on the South Bank of the Thames. You never know what you might come across and I’ve seen books there that I haven’t seen for years. This market is packed away each night, open every weekend and some weekdays. It has been a part of the whole South […]

  • Shakespeare and Co. Paris

    To find a bookshop in your own language in a foreign country is always a joy …and yes, a relief! However, this one has far more going for it than that. It is situated on the left bank of the River Seine in Paris, right opposite Notre Dame Cathedral. It must have had a scarily […]

  • Heffers Bookshop, Cambridge

    I heard of this bookshop years ago, particularly its amazing children’s section but it was only last week that I actually visited. It is large with a wide frontage declaring that it is now owned by Blackwells but seemingly being allowed to keep its own character, built up over the last 150 years. We went […]

  • Vending machines

    I can’t remember the last time I used a vending machine. The joy of coffee flavoured powder and tepid water or the packet of crisps that you paid for but then gets stuck and requires you to kick the machine. However, if I lived near Exeter railway station then all would be different because they […]

  • Quirky places to buy books

    In the small town of Chesham is a community bookshop; a euphemism I suppose for second hand bookshop. The walls are painted a deep yellow and all the furniture: dressers, shelves and sideboards are painted grey. It looks quite classy and the whole place gives off an atmosphere of being loved and really cared for. […]

  • Keep calm and carry on

    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, […]

  • Here is a good day out in East Sussex

    In the small town of Alfriston, or maybe it’s a large village, is a gem of a bookshop called Much Ado About Books. And, there really is much ado, this is not a straightforward bookshop. The building was a house, so it is a series of small rooms, an interesting staircase and a back garden. […]

  • Persephone Books

    A lovely bookshop that I haven’t visited! Before the pandemic and the lockdowns I was working out a bookshop walk in London. There was going to be time for a walk in the park and several vital stops for coffee and pastries and maybe even tea and cake. There were plenty of quite historic bookshops […]