A BOOKSHOP in Fowey has been announced as a regional and country finalist vying for a prestigious Bookshop of the Year awards title.
The British Book Awards have revealed the regional and country finalists for the 2022 Independent Bookshop of the Year Award, sponsored by Gardners, with this year seeing 62 bookshops from nine regions and countries competing to be named the best independent retailer.
The shops will compete to win their region first, before vying for the overall prize, which will be announced at The British Book Awards winner ceremony on Monday 23rd May 2022.
Among those competing for the South West regional title is Shrew Books in South Street, Fowey, whose proprietor Kate says on the shop's website: “Shrew Books is the latest incarnation of Bookends, the long beloved bookshop nestled in the bustling main street of the beautiful Fowey. I took on Bookends after many years of pining for the life in Cornwall I had left behind to study in London, followed by a career within the book industry that took many forms.
“I have bought and sold books for Waterstones, handled literary rights for the BBC, worked as the book buyer for the Royal Museums Greenwich and assisted literary agents at Janklow & Nesbit UK. I love bookselling above all else, and feel proud to now call Fowey my home.
“At Shrew Books I hope to bring the local community and its visitors a curated range of new books, flagging Cornish writers and Cornish settings, as well as bringing forward some of the most exciting fiction and non-fiction hitting the shelves at the moment. One of my favourite areas of literature is nature writing, so I will always endeavour to source the very best for the shelves of Shrew Books, and children and families are always welcome to while away some time amongst the picture books and brilliant middle-grade novels.
"Taking on Bookends, and setting up Shrew Books, has been a dream of mine for a long time, and I would never have been able to do this without the support and unwavering tolerance of my kind and generous friends and family. I thank them, and hope that you all love this little shop as much as I do.”
The overall Independent Bookshop of the Year winner will also compete to be crowned Retailer of the Year. The Independent Bookshop of the Year Award celebrates those stores that have continued to support local communities with magnificent books, which have provided enjoyment, distraction and succour for the nation’s readers during these turbulent times.
The past two years have seen independent bookshops up and down the UK and the Island of Ireland completely transform their operational models in order to get books into the hands of readers.
This has ranged from bicycle deliveries to local customers, to booksellers rapidly building new e-commerce platforms, while also creating new channels for interactive video content to replace in-person events.
Tom Tivnan, The Bookseller’s managing editor, says: “The received wisdom in the book trade when the pandemic first hit was that independent booksellers might be the most vulnerable. They have proved anything but as through close ties to their communities, indies have flourished for the last two years.
“This year ’s Independent Bookshop of the Year regional and country finalists reflect a broad diversity across the UK and Ireland with the thread of innovation running through, no matter if they are one of the UK’s most venerable indies or one of its newest.”
This year ’s list of finalists see some of the UK and the Island of Ireland’s oldest and newest booksellers go head-to-head. Some of the oldest include P&G Wells (South East), which sits on a site that has been home to a bookshop since 1729, Sam Read Bookseller (North England) which was established in 1887 and Limerick’s O’Mahony’s (Island of Ireland), founded in 1902.
These are featured alongside 12 independent bookshops that have opened their doors since 2019, six of which started life in the pandemic, including The Book Nook Stewarton (Scotland), East Gate Book Shop (South West), Dial Lane Books (East) and Shrew Books (South West).
Despite all the disruptions caused during the pandemic, two of the bookshops have also expanded in the last year, with Corbridge’s Forum Books opening two new shops in the north east of England, and Crouch End’s specialist children’s book shop Pickled Pepper Books adding a second shop in Enfield.
The 2022 regional and country winners will be announced on Wednesday 16th March 2022, with the overall winner being unveiled at a ceremony in Central London. Full details will be announced in due course, but the ambition is to maintain the inclusivity and accessibility that the last two years’ digital events have facilitated, while bringing back the joy, festivity and glamour of the face-to-face experience.
Join the conversation by following The Bookseller on Twitter and Instagram and using #BritishBookAwards
South West England:
Archway Bookshop, Axminster, Devon
East Gate Bookshop, Totnes, Devon
Little Toller Books, Beaminster, Somerset
Max Minervas, Bristol
Persephone Books, Bath
Shrew Books, Fowey, Cornwall
Storysmith, Bristol
The Bookery, Crediton, Devon
Winstone’s Hunting Raven, Frome, Somerset.
South East England:
Books On The Hill, St Albans
Chorleywood Bookshop, Chorleywood
Coles Books, Bicester
The Hungerford Bookshop, Hungerford
Mostly Books, Abingdon
October Books, Southampton
P&G Wells, Winchester
Steyning Bookshop, Steyning
The Book Nook, Hove
The Book Shop, Lee-on-the-Solent
The Haslemere Bookshop, Haslemere.
London:
BookBar, Islington
Burley Fisher Books, Haggerston
Pickled Pepper Books, Crouch End/Enfield
The Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill
Village Books, Dulwich
Midlands
Burway Books, Church Stretton
Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham
Lindum Books, Lincoln
The Rabbit Hole, Brigg
Wonderland Bookshop, Retford.
East of England:
Bookbugs and Dragon Tales, Norwich
Dial Lane Books, Ipswich
Maldon Books, Maldon
Niche Comics & Bookshop, Huntingdon
The Margate Bookshop, Margate.
North England:
Forum Books, Corbridge
Imagined Things, Harrogate
Read. Holmfirth, Holmfirth
Sam Read Bookseller, Grasmere
The Book Case, Hebden Bridge
The Book Corner, Halifax
The Grove Bookshop, Ilkley
The Little Ripon Bookshop, Ripon
Wave of Nostalgia, Haworth
White Rose Book Café, Thirsk.
Wales:
Book-ish, Crickhowell
Chepstow Books & Gifts, Chepstow
Cover To Cover, Swansea
Griffin Books, Penarth
Gwisgo Bookworm, Aberaeron
The Bookshop, Mold.
Scotland:
Far From the Madding Crowd, Linlithgow
The Bookmark, Grantown-on-Spey
The Book Nook Stewarton, Stewarton
The Edinburgh Bookshop, Edinburgh
The Highland Bookshop, Fort William
Timberbooks, Overton.
Island of Ireland:
Bridge Books, Dromore, Co Down
Halfway Up the Stairs, Greystones, Wicklow
Kennys Bookshop, Galway
Little Acorns Bookstore, Derry
O’Mahony’s Limerick
The Company of Books, Dublin.