The 50 Best Bookshops

2. Edinburgh Book Festival bookshop
A slightly odd choice as it only appears for three weeks (9 to 25 August) every year but, says Bob McDevitt, “it’s an enormous logistical undertaking as it must supply the books for the world’s largest book festival, with over 600 authors all doing signings and all requiring books on an hourly turnaround. Over the past few years the bookshop has grown to include a fair-trade café and a decent selection of current books by authors not attending the festival.”
Where - Charlotte Square Gardens, Edinburgh
(www.edbookfest.co.uk)

3. Much Ado Books
“Alfriston is a tiny, historic village, and Much Ado Books is a really quirky shop run by a friendly American couple,” Peter James explains. “It has current-fiction and non-fiction sections as well as secondhand and rare books. It’s the kind of place you can hang out all day long. They’re got a broad base of customers and I constantly meet people who go there – as much for the atmosphere as anything.”
Where - High St, Alfriston, East Sussex
(01323 871222; muchadobooks.com)

4. The Aldeburgh Bookshop
The Aldeburgh Bookshop, in the Suffolk coast’s prettiest small town, celebrates its 60th birthday next year, and is a former winner of the British Book Award for independent bookshop of the year. Its owners, John and Mary James, run a small annual literary festival, which this year attracted the likes of Julian Barnes, AS Byatt and Will Self.
Where - 42 High St, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
(01728 452389; www.aldeburghbookshop.co.uk) 

5. The Bookshop on the Heath
“This is an absolutely fabulous bookshop,” says John Walsh. The Bookshop on the Heath offers a wide range of second-hand books, maps, posters and first editions. “It’s a great place to go if, say, you’re looking for first editions of Austen, and I also found a brilliant facsimile of Ian Fleming’s James Bond collection there, a complete set with covers by Richard Chopping.”
Where - 74 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London SE3
(0208 852 4786; www.bookshopontheheath.co.uk)


6. Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights
“Mr B’s is only a couple of years old, but has really brought a nice new energy to the bookselling scene in Bath,” says Joel. “Bath has a lot of readers, and there’s quite a lot going on in bookselling there, but Mr B’s is one of the freshest additions. They do cookery, gardening and literary fiction very well.”
Where - 14-15 John St, Bath
(01225 331155; www.mrbsemporium.com)


7. Simply Books
The small village of Bramhall in Cheshire is home to not one, but two, independent bookshops, the Bramhall Village Bookshop, and Simply Books – both of which are beloved of the locals. Simply Books is run by book enthusiasts Andrew Cant and Sue Steel, who came from the education sector and are known for organising fantastic children’s events, as well as the coffee in their tiny café.
Where - 228Moss Lane, Bramhall, Cheshire
(0161 439 1436; www.simplybooks.tbpcontrol.co.uk)


8. Abe books
“If, like me, you love getting original editions, Abe is the place to go,” says Joel. “It brings together the world’s used, secondhand and rare booksellers on one website, and has revolutionised the secondhand bookselling market. A decade ago, if you wanted to find a first edition of F Scott Fitzgerald, you’d spend a lot of time looking at catalogues, making phonecalls, and going round physical bookshops. Now they all have their stock fully listed on Abe books, and it’s searchable just like Amazon.”
Where - www.abebooks.com


9. The Linlithgow Bookshop
“Located in a 16th-century building in the historic West Lothian town where Mary, Queen of Scots was born, the Linlithgow Bookshop is a terrific independent,” says Bob. “It has a wide range of current books specialising in Scottish, children’s, cookery, travel and fiction.” The management also runs a popular loyalty scheme in the hope of taking on the bigger chains.
Where - 48 High St, Linlithgow, West Lothian
(01506 845768; www.thelinlithgowbookshop.com)


10. Tate Modern
It’s easy to forget that Tate Modern is home to one of the biggest bookshops in the country. “When Tate Modern’s bookshop opened it single- handedly transformed the art-publishing market,” says Joel. “It’s a significant player in illustrated publishing, which is incredible for a single location. They can shift huge numbers of £100-£150 books – big, doorstop design books. It caters to both the specialist art market and the general London tourist. You’ll never fail to be inspired by the books in there.”
Where - Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1
(020 7887 8888; www.tate.org.uk/shop)


11. Methvens, Worthing
“The branch of Methvens in the centre of Worthing is quite sizeable, and I like the fact that it looks like a mainstream bookstore from the outside,” says Peter. “It has a prominent location on the high street, and very committed staff who organise very good events with big audiences. They’re just about to launch a really interesting website, which will be much wider than a conventional bookstore website, with clips and animations and talking heads from authors.”
Where - 22-26 South St, Worthing, West Sussex
(01903 206696; www.samedaybooks.co.uk)

12. The Watermill Bookshop
“I stumbled across this one last new year when we were staying at a cottage nearby,” says Bob. “It’s a fantastic watermill conversion (like one of Channel Four’s Grand Designs) into a bookshop, art gallery and coffee house – the smell as you walk in is wonderful. There’s an imaginative sense of design and display throughout the shop, which also does some local and art publishing. They offer four for the price of three on new paperbacks – quite unusual for an independent.”
Where - Mill Street, Aberfeldy
(01887 822896; www.aberfeldywatermill.com)

13. Daunt Books
“All Daunt’s branches are brilliant,” says Joel, “but the original Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street is, I think, the best. It’s in the most spectacular location, a beautiful converted church or community hall. Daunt grew out of a travel bookshop. Instead of just having travel guides, they stock (in the same section) novels by writers from that country, or set in that country, as well as cookery books, history books and non-fiction narratives. Whenever I go on holiday I go to Daunt and buy two or three interesting books about the place I’m going.”
Where - 83 Marylebone High St, London W1
(020 7224 2295; www.dauntbooks.co.uk)


14. Heffers
Heffers is part of Blackwell and has a large stock of academic titles but, says Peter, “it’s particularly famous for its annual crime night. They have literally about 60 or 70 crime writers, some of them better known than others. It’s a whole evening, and probably the best showcase for crime writers in the UK. There’s no other opportunity for genre fans to meet so many writers under one roof at the same time.”
Where - 20 Trinity St,Cambridge
(01223 568568; www.heffers.co.uk)


15. Lovereading
“Lovereading is a very lively and active website, which emails you about every couple of weeks with reading suggestions,” says Peter. The website offers free downloads of opening extracts from many of its books, to allow readers to get a taste for what they’re buying. “It’s very good at selecting both popular fiction and books you may not necessarily have heard of. The site’s critics are quite reliable, too.”
Where - www.lovereading.co.uk


16. Loch Croispol Bookshop
“Probably the most far-flung bookshop in the UK,” says Bob, “this bookshop and restaurant is in the beautiful countryside of Sutherland. It specialises in Scottish books (and does some of its own local publishing) but also have an international flavour to their internet business, with links to other independents around the world.”
Where - 2 Balnakeil Craft Village, Durness Sutherland
(01971 511777; www.scottish-books.net)


17. Any Amount of Books
Any Amount of Books specialises in rare books and first editions. “The staff are incredibly knowledgeable,” says John. “If you went in there and told them you were looking for the prosecution’s case in Bumble vs Cruickshank in 1863, they’d scratch their chins for a moment and then say ‘Ah, yes, I know just the thing – here’s ‘Famous closing arguments from the High Court 1850- 1900’. Or something.”
Where - 56 Charing Cross Rd, London WC2
(020 7836 3697; www.anyamountofbooks.com)


18. Hay Cinema Bookshop
“There are 32 bookshops in Hay,” says John, “ but my favourite is probably the Cinema Bookshop, which was turned from a cinema into a bookshop back in 1965. It’s well organised and laid out, with more than 200,000 secondhand books on every possible subject.” If you’re in town for the Hay Literary Festival this week, John also recommends Addymans, and Hay-on-Wye Booksellers.
Where - Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye
(01497 820071; www.haycinemabookshop.co.uk)


19. Waterstone’s, Canterbury
“Martin Latham, the manager of Waterstone’s’ Canterbury branch, is a real book-trade character,” says Joel. “A great thinker and a bit of an eccentric. He tries to take on writers as staff. David Mitchell (author of Cloud Atlas) used to work there, and plenty of the current staff have either been published or are trying to get books deals. He fosters that atmosphere of creativity among the staff, which is rare in chain bookselling.”
Where 20-21 StMargaret’s St, Canterbury
(01227 456343; www.waterstonescanterbury.com) 

20. The Lion & the Unicorn
“The Lion & the Unicorn in Richmond is one of my favourite children’s bookshops,” says Joel. “It has a real buzz about it; you can go in and get a recommendation for a reader of any age up to the midteens. They’re very special, and the staff all seem to revel in children’s literature. That joy comes across whenever you ask them anything.”
Where - 19 King St, Richmond, Surrey
(020 8940 0483; www.lionunicornbooks.co.uk)


21. Waterstone's Notting Hill Gate
“I have a flat in Notting Hill so this is my local branch,” says Peter. “I like the fact that, almost every week, the manager Mark Barnett organises an event with a local author. He’s made a branch of a chain store into something really quite personal that feels like a local bookshop. Heeven has a stand devoted to local authors, for which each writer has made a comment about their book.”
Where - 39-41 Notting Hill Gate, London W11
(020 7229 9444; www.waterstones.com)

22. The Bookshop, Wigtown
Wigtown is Scotland’s “Book Town”, with a literary festival that grows every year, attracting some of the biggest names in the book business, including Louis de Bernières and AC Grayling. “It’s hard to choose between the 15 or so bookshops in this small town in Scotland,” says Bob, “but the Bookshop is Scotland’s largest secondhand bookshop, and the oldest in Wigtown, offering over a mile of bookshelves with 65,000 titles stocked.”
Where - 17 North Main St, Wigtown
(01988 402499;www.thebookshop.com)

23. Jaffe and Neale Bookshop and Cafe
Jaffé and Neale won the Bookseller’s independent bookshop of the year award last year. It’s also David Cameron’s favourite local bookshop. “It was set up by some Waterstone’s exiles,” Joel explains, “and last year they moved to a really nice new space, with a café that has become absolutely loved by locals. It’s legendary for its carrot cake. There’s also an art space upstairs showing local artists. It brings people in for all sorts of reasons and has a very friendly, welcoming atmosphere. It’s already a fixture of Chipping Norton.”
Where - 1 Middle Row, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
(01608 641033; www.chippingnortonbooks.co.uk)

24. Foyles
“I know there were people who loved it, but I used to struggle in the old Foyles,” says Joel. “Since it was completely overhauled a few years ago, it’s just a great place to buy books. I always come out with something different to what I went in to find. It has a sense of serendipity, and it has combined that now with a bit more logical stock management, so that you can find the things you’re looking for. They’ve also added used-book and rare-book concessions, a jazz record shop, and a café.”
Where - 113-119 Charing Cross Rd, London WC2
(020 7437 5660; www.foyles.co.uk)


25. Waterstone’s, Manchester
“The Deansgate branch of Waterstone’s is huge and labyrinthine,” says Joel. “Mental, but fun. They have superb author events, run really well with big name authors, not just run-of-the-mill signings.” Deansgate is home to Waterstone’s’ biggest science-fiction, fantasy and crime fiction departments outside London, and forthcoming guests of the store include Lord Levy and John Prescott, both visiting to talk about their controversial autobiographies.
Where - 91-93 Deansgate, Manchester
(0161 837 3000; www.waterstones.com)


26. Village Books, Dulwich Village
“Village Books is selling to an obviously affluent market in Dulwich Village, and it does it very well,” says Joel. “It has a touch of class that many independents lack; it feels like a quality shop with a high-value experience, and it can, on that basis, probably extract lots of money from its customers!”
Where - 1D Calton Avenue, London SE21
(020 8693 2808)


27. Borders, Glasgow
This was the first branch of Borders to open in Scotland and, says Bob, it’s still one of the best. “Located in an old bank in the middle of one of Glasgow’s most fashionable shopping streets, it boasts all the benefits of a city-centre lifestyle bookstore – a café, events area, stationery shop, outstanding magazine department, and shelves and shelves of new titles, fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. They also have a lively programme of signings and events (and famously hosted the Monica Lewinsky signing).”
Where - 98 Buchanan St, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
(0141 222 7700; www.bordersstores.com)


28. City Books
“Paul and Inge Sweetman run City Books, and are both former publishing reps, so they’re real book people,” says Peter. “They’re pretty much the only independent in Brighton and Hove, and they have a real passion for books. They do constant events, and they get major authors down all the time. Inge is on Southern Counties radio to talk about books once a week. One of the characters in my last book goes in to City Books to buy a book!”
Where - 23 Western Road, Hove
(01273 725306; www.city-books.co.uk)


29. The Bookshop, Mold
A popular independent in the sleepy Welsh market town of Mold, the Bookshop and its knowledgeable staff can handle all manner of specialist requests. The well-maintained website offers personalised service and has a particular emphasis on children’s literature. There’s also a large selection of walking and climbing titles catering for visitors to nearby Snowdonia.
Where - 33 High Street, Mold, Flintshire
(01352 759879; www.moldbookshop.tbpcontrol.co.uk)

30. Topping & Co, Ely
“Robert Topping is a former Waterstone’s manager,” Joel explains. “He went off, as did many others, to set up his own independent. He did it in Ely, which was clever because it’s a cathedral town with a high-spending tourist demographic as well as a heavy-reading local population. He has brought his own verve and passion for books to his stores (he has another in Bath), which are crammed with books. They have a wonderful sense of abundance. The shelves creak with new discoveries.”
Where - 9 High Street, Ely
(01353 645005; www.toppingbooks.co.uk)


31. Quaritch
Quaritch, established in 1847 by the German born Bernard Quaritch, is one of the capital’s foremost purveyors of rare books and manuscripts. The firm has a broad range of specialisms, including art and architecture, science and natural history, and English literature from the 16th to the 19th century. “It’s where Umberto Eco goes when he’s in London,” says John. “Looking for works on Rosicrucianism by Robert Fludd.”
Where - 8 Lower John St, Golden Square, London W1
(0207 734 2983; www.quaritch.com)


32. Atkinson-Pryce Books
“This is a real community bookshop,” says Bob, “with lots of storytelling, events, a good selection of current books and some secondhand stock.” Atkinson-Pryce is also one of the hosts of the wonderfully named Biggar Little Festival, an arts festival that takes place in October.
Where - 27 High Street, Biggar
(01899 221225; www.atkinson-pryce.co.uk)


33. Blackwell, Oxford
“Blackwell’s flagship in Broad Street is one of the world’s landmark bookshops,” says Joel. “It’s completely higgledy-piggledy. It’s huge and it has fantastic stock. Obviously, it has a great academic book selection, but it carries with it a sense of scale and a sense of history. You can just get lost in there for days. It’s a law unto itself.”
Where - 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford
(01865 792792; www.blackwell.co.uk/shops)


34. New Beacon Books
New Beacon Books has been a feature in Finsbury Park since 1966, when it was established by the political and cultural activist John La Rose. “La Rose opened a black bookshop long before it was remotely fashionable, and long before they gave you grants for that sort of thing,” says Boyd Tonkin. “It’s been crucial not just as a bookshop, but as a centre of black and Afro-Caribbean culture in London.”
Where - 76 Stroud Green Road, FinsburyPark, London N4
(020 7272 4889; www.newbeaconbooks.co.uk)


35. Amazon
The world’s most successful bookshop isn’t one you can walk into. Amazon’s stock has long since gone beyond just books, but it’s still the best-stocked bookshop for most popular titles. And if Amazon itself doesn’t have the book you’re looking for, it almost always has links to outside booksellers who will.
Where - www.amazon.co.uk


36. Blackwell, Newcastle
Boyd recommends Blackwell’s Newcastle branch for its superb stock. The store’s main specialisms cater to nearby Newcastle and Northumbria universities: medical, law and business textbooks. But it also has a very large selection of foreign literature and travel writing and a section devoted to artists’ materials. The events calendar is chock-full, too.
Where - 141 Percy St, Newcastle upon Tyne
(0191 232 6421; www.blackwell.co.uk/shops)


37. Helston Bookworm
This quiet, backstreet shop is close to the main drag in Helston, a charming Cornish town. The towering shelves carry 20,000 secondhand books, among them a substantial collection of Penguin paperbacks and Cornish special-interest titles. Local artists’ work is also displayed at the front of the shop.
Where - 9 Church St, Helston, Cornwall
(01326 565079)  


38. Stanfords
Stanfords is the UK’s premier travel bookshop, with an unmatched range of travel guides and maps. The flagship store in Covent Garden is over 100 years old, and has long been the first destination for generations of travellers of every stripe; from backpackers to package holidaymakers. Past customers include seasoned explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, Ranulph Fiennes and Michael Palin.
Where 12-14 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London WC2
(020 7836 1321)


39. Blackwell, Edinburgh
This branch of Blackwell is housed in the building that was formerly home to James Thin, once Scotland’s largest bookshop. And, says Bob, “It’s a labyrinth for book-lovers. Its location beside Edinburgh University has always meant it’s a good stop for students, although the rest of the shop is equally well stocked, with a great children’s section and exhaustive travel department.”
Where - 53-59 South Bridge, Edinburgh
(0131 622 8222; www.blackwell.co.uk/shops)


40. Warwick Books
“I did an event here last year,” says Peter, “and I just loved it. It’s run by a husband-and-wife team, and you can feel their passion for books. It’s very higgledy-piggledy, but there are seats where you can sit and read.” The bookshop runs events in conjunction with the local library, and this year is organising a mini-history festival in September, as well as its annual literary festival the following month.
Where - 24 Market Place, Warwick
(01926 499939; www.warwickbooks@tiscali.co.uk)

41. Heywood Hill
Heywood Hill sells old, new and antiquarian books, specialising in literature, history, architecture, biography, travel and children’s. “John de Falbe, who runs Heywood Hill, stocked a book by a Slovak author, Peter Pist’anek, called Rivers of Babylon,” Boyd explains. “It was published by a small publisher, but with his own sheer enthusiasm, deFalbe saw it outsell mainstream American thrillers in his store. That’s the sort of thing you should expect of an independent.”
Where - 10 Curzon St, London W1
(020 7629 0647; www.heywoodhill.com)


42. Yeadon’s
“Yeadon’s of Elgin is a wonderful old Scottish independent now owned by Birlinn Publishing,” says Bob. “It has a great selection of Scottish-interest titles and passionate, well informed staff.” Yeadon’s has just had an extensive refit of its Elgin branch, and last year opened a second branch in Banchory, west of Aberdeen.
Where - 32 Commerce Street, Elgin
(01343 542411; www.yeadons. co.uk)


43. Gekoski
“Rick Gekoski’s bookshop beside the British Museum sells authors’ ephemera as well as books,” says John. “Things like a lock of Virginia Woolf’s hair, or Joseph Conrad’s underpants.” Gekoski specialises in modern literary first editions, and his small, select stock includes signed copies of books by everyone from George Orwell to AA Milne. Be prepared to spend big.
Where - Pied Bull Yard, 15A Bloomsbury Square, WC1
(020 7404 6676; www.gekoski.com)


44. Martello Bookshop
“Martello’s is one of my favourite independents,” says Peter. “It’s on the most wonderful, historic little high street, and it’s very small, family-run and passionate. It organises very classy events, like its Sunday lunchtime talks.” The shop runs its own book club, and has a strong section on local history, too.
Where - 26 High St, Rye, Sussex
(01797 222242)

45. News from Nowhere
News from Nowhere, Liverpool’s radical and community bookshop, is a not-for-profit worker’s co-operative offering the sort of subversive literature that wouldn’t be so readily available in your average Waterstones – alongside more mainstream fiction and non-fiction. It’s also the city’s best source of independent, underground magazines and fanzines.
Where 96 Bold St, Liverpool
(0151 708 7270; www.newsfromnowhere.org.uk)


46. WH Smith's Travel, Heathrow
“The ubiquitous WH Smith’s travel branches you get in every station and airport are by far the best performing part of Smith’s, and the best performing (in financial terms) physical bookstores in the country,” says Joel. “What they do brilliantly is provide a really tightly edited range that you can choose from in a hurry. They’ve realised that price isn’t as important as selection. They’ve crammed something for everyone into a very small space. The newest ones are in Heathrow; they’re just incredibly easy places to buy books.”
Where - airports nationwide


47. J&G Innes
J&GInnes, says Bob, is “a beautiful old building and a St Andrews institution, with a good range of children’s, contemporary and classic fiction, cards and stationery, and plenty of golf books!” Lucky that, since it’s less than a mile from St Andrews Old Course.
Where - 107 South Street, St Andrews, Fife
(01334 472174)


48. Wenlock Books
Wenlock Books, in the small Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, is a favourite of bookshop browsers nationwide, despite its rather remote setting. Perhaps it’s owner Anna Dreda’s frequent offers of tea and cake to those who happen to be passing through. A mixture of new and secondhand stock, as well as three regular book groups, are housed in a 15th-century, Grade II listed building. Dreda also maintains a charming blog and newsletter.
Where - 12 High St, Much Wenlock, Shropshire
(01952 727877; www.wenlockbooks.co.uk)


49. The Tombland Bookshop
Boyd recommends Tombland as one of East Anglia’s best bookshops. It has a good selection of antiquarian and secondhand hardcovers on two floors, covering a vast range of subjects. The owners John and Alison Freeman began their business by selling off the overflow of their personal book collection from a market stall. More than 30 years later, they now have a second shop, Freeman’s Corner Bookshop, also in Norwich.
Where - 8 Tombland, Norwich
(01603 490000)

50. Barter Books
One of the country’s largest secondhand bookshops, Barter Books is housed in the warren-like old railway station at Alnwick, a historic northeast market town. There’s a dedicated children’s room and a selection of rare and antiquarian books. You can browse for hours while drinking coffee brewed on the premises, or stop to admire the shop’s famous mural, which features writers from Shakespeare to Salman Rushdie.
Where - Alnwick Station, Northumberland
(01665 604888; www.barterbooks.co.uk)