Libraries & Bookshops

I like the feel of Bloomsbury, one of London’s many ‘villages.’ Every area of the city has its own distinct flavour and Bloomsbury is full of interesting learning […]

Oxford Brooke’s University holds the archive of Penguin books. It was fascinating to visit this and listen to the archivist talk about the history of the iconic and […]

In St Alban’s Museum for the rest of the summer is a delightful exhibition about the history of Ladybird books. These books were an essential part of my […]

Having just read Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince, I have been thinking about how many different ways there are that booklovers show that love. There are of course many […]

This is not my list but that of The Sunday Times. At my great age I find I am delightfully encouraged that they choose to let this article, […]

I did a little shopping in Daunts in London yesterday. I was about to write ‘a little gentle shopping’ but it really wasn’t gentle because the shop was […]

I was in Boston a few days ago and one day we travelled by train to Concord, a pretty small town about half an hour from the city. […]

I won’t post anymore of these but I am delighted to find them in so many places, used and not vandalised. Cheering … and full of that nice word community.

Although many would associate the 19th century with much that was dark, dirty and downright bad, it has to be said that there was also a concern for […]

This funny little community library is in Grantchester Meadows in Cambridge. It’s a little bit scruffy and contains a weird collection of things including some children’s board books, […]

Always lovely to find someone who shares some of your views and maybe thinks as you do. I would love to sit down with coffee and cake and […]

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

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

When I was in a tiny village in Somerset I saw a telephone box neatly shelved and full of books; a mini library. Looking this up I found […]

The oldest bookshop in the country is in a tall, five storey building at 187 Piccadilly. Hatchards was opened by John Hatchard, a publisher and anti- slavery campaigner […]

The British Library is a wonder. It contains the Magna Carta and handwritten lyrics of Beatles songs as well as everything else in between and it is free. […]

From history lessons I knew all about the 1815 Corn Laws and the1832 Reform Act but The Libraries Act of 1850 obviously passed me by. It gave boroughs the […]

Despite what I have recently written about libraries, and I do indeed believe they are very important, I really use them very little. I’m not quite sure why […]

The library in the Somerset village where I lived as a teenager was small and square and had once been a shop. It was only open on certain […]

The best relationship I have ever had with a library was as a sixth former in Minehead. By the time I was doing English A level I was […]