Louise Boland - Bookshop Tours of Britain

Blackwells, Oxford

So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me and reminded me that there are good things in the world.Vincent van Gogh

Theres something magical about a bookshop. A world of enchantment is yours for the taking from that first shudder of the door and tinkle of the bell to the warm smell of ten thousand books softly waiting and the bookseller hovering discreetly at a distance. What will you pick? Knowledge adventure drama? Will you browse for hours or ask for advice? For the bookseller will be ready to guide you with their wisdom, experience and passion. A bookshop is an Aladdins cave of magical wishes, a promise to transport you away and transform you from the inside out. And from Englands southernmost town to the northernmost reaches of Scotland, from the wilds of the Welsh coastline to the fens of East Anglia, Britain is blessed with some of the most wonderful and enchanting bookshops in the world.

I first started touring Britain by bookshop in 2018. I had just founded a small literary publishing house and wanted to get out and meet with bookshop owners, so as to understand what their customers were looking for and what they, as booksellers, loved to read. These journeys took me to the heart of Britain, to its little towns and villages, criss-crossing each of its counties by gentle backwater roads, embracing, without realising it, the joy of slow travel. On my tours, I met a vast array of people who welcomed me openly, and happily shared their passion for their shops, their jobs, their towns and regions.

I dont entirely know why, but so many of Britains bookshops, particularly the indies (by which I mean ones owned as small businesses or by the community), are located in places of special historic or geographic interest, or of immense natural beauty. Perhaps it is because the site of the bookshop is chosen by its founder, in the place where they would most like to make their home. And being book people, who are of course among the best sorts of people, they choose somewhere wonderful.

Whatever the reason, it is a fact that bookshops proliferate along stunning coastlines, beside dramatic clifftops and splendid beaches; you find them in the villages of the national parks and in sleepy towns set within designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

To travel by bookshop is to see the best parts of Britain, from the regenerated docks of Liverpool to out-of-the-way towns hosting art like Gormleys cast-iron figures staring out to sea at Crosby Beach. It is to travel from the smuggling coves of Cornwall to the moors of Yorkshire, the mountains of Wales, the rivers of the Wye Valley, the highlands and lowlands of Scotland, the rolling hills of the Cotswolds, the ancient forests and cliffs of the South Downs. The tour from Glasgow via Dunoon and Fort William to the Highlands, which I did by car but which could very enjoyably be done by bicycle if you are hardy enough, journeys through what I would argue is some of the most breathtaking landscape in Britain. Leaving behind the buzz of Glasgow, this route takes you by ferry across the Firth of Clyde, and then heads north, along the shores of lochs, through forests and past Glencoe, where shadows of clouds sweep across vast mountain walls made purple with heather, to an idyll of babbling brooks and up to Britains most northerly bookshops on the Orkney Islands.

The beauty of bookshop touring is that no one bookshop is like any other. They might share the same ingredients books, shelves, windows, a till or two but they can be as different from each other as one snowflake is from the next. The heritage of the bookshop, its location, the history of the building it sits within, the particular passions of the shops owner and booksellers all of these have a part to play. One bookshop might be combined with a caf that specialises in cream teas, while another offers meditation and vegan refreshments. Some are set up as community projects, and another might double up as an informal tourist hub for walkers, because the local information centre has been closed down due to cuts.

There are shops like The Edinburgh Bookshop that specialise in childrens books, running a near constant stream of fun events, activities and talks. There are bookshops that focus on radical left-wing literature, like the iconic Liverpool bookshop News From Nowhere, which has been running as a collective since 1974, and stores that bring together a host of LGBT writing, like Sohobased Gays the Word and Glasgow-based Category Is Books. Some, like John Sandoe in Chelsea, London, and the Dorset Bookshop in Blandford Forum, have books piled high to the ceiling and covering every possible square foot of wall space, often twisting up old staircases or ducking into ancient little attic rooms a true bibliophiles delight. In others, books are laid out such that the displays are as much works of art as the books themselves. Take a look at the features later in this book on Barton Books in Penzance or Golden Hare Books in Edinburgh for their original and eclectic aesthetics, which prove a constant draw to book lovers.

Topping & Company, Edinburgh

The Grove Bookshop

Sevenoaks Bookshop

The Grove Bookshop

Barton Books

Then there are destination bookshops, with table after table showcasing some of the best books in the world, hand-chosen by teams that know books like a grand master knows their chess moves bookshops you can and should travel miles to visit. These include Mainstreet Trading in St Boswells, Mr Bs Emporium in Bath, The Watermill Bookshop in Aberfeldy and Daunt Books of Marylebone.

And of course, there are the grande dames, such as Blackwells in Oxford and Hatchards of Piccadilly, London two of my favourite bookshops in the whole world. Hatchards has been in the same premises on Piccadilly for over 200 years. Here you can visit knowing you are going to buy a book where Virginia Woolf s Mrs Dalloway stared into the window and dreamed her dreams. Then there is Foyles of Charing Cross Road, London, which is now a modern and tasteful book-buying space, but which I remember as a crazy confusion of books piled upon books, on chairs, tables and the floor, and with an even crazier till system but that was way back when, and now Im showing my age. Then there is Waterstoness flagship store, also on Piccadilly, which you must visit if only to experience the fact that when you stand in the middle of the store there are over 200,000 books which can physically be in your hands within a matter of minutes. All the knowledge and adventures of the world are truly within your reach.

To some extent, the breadth of differences, particularly among indie bookshops, is a reflection of their individual owners. Bookshops are not really owned by the stereotypical dusty old man shuffling along in his slippers and frayed cardigan, like Bernard Black of the classic bookshop comedy