Bookshop Stories

What does it take to run a bookshop in a tiny Highland village that welcomes thousands of visitors from around the world?This week, Bookshop Stories heads to Ullapool, a picturesque harbour village on Scotland’s northwest coast, where the mountains are dramatic, the landscape is ancient and the population numbers just 1,500.Here, just a short walk from the waterfront, Katharine Douglas manages Ullapool Bookshop, a much-loved independent that’s as closely connected to its surroundings as the people who live there.But bookselling in Ullapool comes with some unusual challenges. In summer, the shop opens twelve hours a day, seven days a week, welcoming cruise ship passengers, ferry travellers and tourists exploring the North Coast 500. Come January, Katharine might go hours without seeing a customer.In this episode, we explore how Katharine balances the needs of a small local community with those of thousands of passing visitors, why geology, Highland history and local fiction are such important parts of the shop’s identity, and how one self-published novel became an extraordinary success story, selling around 2,500 copies through the bookshop alone.We also talk about Katharine’s journey from Edinburgh to Ullapool, the art of choosing books for such a varied audience, and why a village like Ullapool would be a very different place without its bookshop.Plus, Katharine shares her favourite reads, from beautifully crafted short novels to gripping Scottish historical fiction, and reveals the books she recommends to customers looking to rediscover their love of reading.Enjoying Bookshop Stories?Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, so you never miss an episode.Have your say: Take part in our 2-minute listener survey and help shape the future of the podcast.Follow on ⁠Instagram for bookshop photographs, memorable quotes and recommendations from our guests.Subscribe on Substack for more stories, photographs and reading inspiration.Browse our ⁠Bookshop.org⁠ recommendations to discover books featured on the podcast while supporting indie bookshops.

What should an independent bookshop look like? What books should it sell? And who gets to decide?This week on Bookshop Stories, I'm joined by Alex Call, owner of Bert's Books in Swindon, who's built a thriving independent bookshop by doing things very much his own way.After nearly 20 years at WH Smith, where he rose to become head of books marketing, Alex now combines a physical shop with a busy online business, hundreds of book subscribers, author events and a brilliantly entertaining social media presence.But what makes his approach particularly interesting is his philosophy on bookselling. Alex doesn't believe independent bookshops should be exclusively about literary discoveries or carefully curated classics. If someone wants the latest bestselling thriller, he's more than happy to sell it to them. No judgement, no snobbery.We talk about what he learned from corporate bookselling, the realities of running a modern independent bookshop, the importance of understanding your customers and why he's happier and less stressed than ever before.There's also the story of a viral bookshop window display, his unexpected success on Countdown, and why running Bert's Books has made him bolder about what might be possible.💡 Plus, I'd love your feedback on Bookshop Stories. Here’s a link to a short listener survey. It only takes a couple of minutes, and your thoughts will help shape what comes next.Follow Bookshop StoriesBookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on ⁠Instagram⁠ for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories ⁠Substack⁠ for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories ⁠Bookshop.org⁠ storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.

Just a few days ago, Tilly Fitzgerald opened her doors to customers for the very first time. The people of Worthing – along with hundreds more who had been followed Tilly (aka tillylovesbooks) online for years – came out in their droves.But what was going on behind the scenes at Tilly's Bookshop? I caught up with an exhausted Tilly to find out in this special bonus episode.Follow Bookshop StoriesBookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories Substack for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories Bookshop.org storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.

What happens when you've built an audience of 200,000 book lovers online, but what you really want is a little bookshop of your own?For six years, Tilly Fitzgerald has been recommending books on social media, helping thousands of people discover new authors and rediscover their love of reading. Now she's swapping Instagram for the high street, opening Tilly’s Bookshop in Worthing, West Sussex, on Saturday 24 October – the day after this episode is released.In this episode of Bookshop Stories, Tilly talks about her journey from bookfluencer to independent bookshop owner, what she learned working at Waterstones and Chapter 34, and why nothing quite compares to recommending a book to somebody face to face.We also get into the realities of opening a bookshop: choosing nearly 2,000 books for the shelves, renovating a beautiful but troublesome listed building, figuring out what local customers actually want to read, and the extraordinary contribution of her husband Dan, without whom the shop simply wouldn't exist.It’s a funny, honest and wonderfully timely conversation about taking a chance on something you love, and the difference between building an audience online and creating a community in the real world.Follow Bookshop StoriesBookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories Substack for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories Bookshop.org storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.Oh, and if you can spare me 2 minutes, I'd love to get your feedback on the show – and what we can do to make it even better. The survey is here.

In early-1980s Belfast, a young couple opened a shop selling art books, Scandinavian design, bespoke furniture and cappuccinos. They called it Phlox. Decades later, their daughter brought the name back to life in East London.In this episode of Bookshop Stories, Tom Idle meets Aimée Madill, owner of Phlox Books on Francis Road in Leyton, to discover how she's created a new generation of the family business.Aimée talks about growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, losing her mother, working at the legendary Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, and opening Phlox before her 30th birthday. We also explore her extraordinary work programming literary and cultural events at Wilderness and Latitude festivals, the art of recommending books, and what makes a great bookseller.It's a conversation about family, creativity, curiosity and how a good idea can find a completely new life decades after it first appeared.Follow Bookshop StoriesBookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories Substack for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories Bookshop.org storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.

Richard Drake and Melanie Greenwood never planned to become booksellers. Richard was a maths and PE teacher, Mel worked in environmental policy, and Drake The Bookshop began after a visit to a bookshop café in Penrith planted an idea that refused to go away.Eleven years later, their independent bookshop has become part of the fabric of Stockton-on-Tees.In this episode of Bookshop Stories, Richard and Mel talk about building Drake from a tiny start-up space into the bookshop it is today, surviving some incredibly difficult years for Stockton town centre, and creating a shop shaped by the people who use it.But our conversation also explores a bigger question: who gets to think of themselves as a reader?We talk about why children stop reading, whether adults sometimes take the pleasure out of books, the impact of bringing authors into local schools, and why Richard and Mel want more people in Stockton not only to read, but to feel that reading belongs to them.It’s a conversation about books, education, belonging and the relationship between an independent bookshop and the town outside its door.Bookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on ⁠Instagram⁠ for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories ⁠Substack⁠ for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories ⁠Bookshop.org⁠ storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.

Romance is booming, and a string of romance-only bookshops are opening across the UK. But is this the beginning of a lasting change in bookselling – or are we watching a bubble form?For Episode 12 of Bookshop Stories, Tom meets Cassie Simmons, founder of Main Character Books, the romance specialist in London’s Spitalfields Market.Cassie’s route into bookselling was far from conventional. A former patent lawyer who spent years building a successful legal career, she eventually walked away from it to create the kind of physical space she felt romance readers were missing. They talk about the lingering snobbery around romance, the influence of BookTok, why readers increasingly want physical communities as well as online ones, and what a specialist bookshop can offer that even the biggest general bookseller cannot.But with the number of romance bookshops growing rapidly, Cassie is also refreshingly candid about the risks. Does the huge value of the romance publishing market really translate into viable independent bookshops? How much specialisation is too much? And what happens when everybody else spots the same opportunity?Plus: book tourism, “trophy copies”, the realities of running a shop in central London, the strange requests Cassie receives from brands – and Smut Club, Main Character’s wildly popular open-mic night.It’s a conversation about romance, community and what happens when an online reading phenomenon becomes a bricks-and-mortar business. You’re gonna love it.Follow Bookshop StoriesBookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories Substack for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories Bookshop.org storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.rex-verify-ofirav5nnmql

Shaun Bythell never particularly wanted a career. After graduating with a law degree, he deliberately avoided anything resembling one, spending his twenties working on gas pipelines, planting trees, building dry-stone walls and taking temporary jobs.Then, aged 30, he went home to Wigtown for Christmas and the owner of the local secondhand bookshop asked if he fancied buying it.Twenty-five years later, Shaun still owns The Bookshop, now Scotland’s largest secondhand bookshop, and that accidental career has taken another unexpected turn. His bestselling Diary of a Bookseller series has made him one of Britain’s best-known booksellers and brought readers from around the world to Wigtown – although Shaun remains reluctant to describe himself as a writer, preferring “a bookseller who’s written some books”.With his latest instalment, Return of The Bookseller Diarist, out 8 Oct RRP £25 (New Modern Arcade), published on 8 October, I talk to Shaun about the strange path that took him from determined career avoidance to bookselling and authorship, what he has learned from handling millions of books, and why, despite everything his diaries might suggest about customers, he still can’t imagine a job he would enjoy more.We also get into the peculiar economics and “dark arts” of secondhand bookselling, the customers who have inadvertently provided years of literary material, the changing fortunes of Wigtown, and the unexpected international success that means people now travel thousands of miles hoping to find Shaun behind the counter.Plus, Shaun tackles the Bookshop Stories quick-fire questions, revealing the best book he’s ever read, the most valuable book he’s ever handled and the strangest thing he’s discovered being used as a bookmark.Follow Bookshop StoriesBookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories Substack for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories Bookshop.org storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.

When Vicki Shenkin Kerr opened Bàrd Books on Roman Road in East London, she wanted to create more than somewhere to buy books. Drawing on 20 years working in hospitality, she imagined a neighbourhood space where people could browse, drink coffee, stay for a glass of wine, meet friends, hear poetry, play chess or simply spend some time.Two years later, Bàrd has become exactly that – and Vicki has discovered just how deeply a bookshop can become part of people’s social lives.In this episode of Bookshop Stories, Vicki talks about swapping hospitality for bookselling, funding the shop with a personal loan after the banks said no, building much of Bàrd with friends and family, and creating a team that has helped shape the shop in its own image.We also talk about the economics of making an independent bookshop work in London, why Bàrd stays open into the evening, the unexpected return of books and reading as something genuinely cool, and what happens when the community begins to feel that your bookshop belongs to them too.Plus, Vicki shares the books she loves, the title she has sold more copies of than any other, and the book she would give away with every purchase if she were a millionaire.Follow Bookshop StoriesBookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive.Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories Substack for the articles accompanying every episode.You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories Bookshop.org storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories.

What happens when a bookshop owner admits that business is going badly? In 2018, Georgia Eckert closed out a particularly quiet day at Imagined Things, her independent bookshop in Harrogate, having taken just £12.34. Rather than quietly worrying about it, she did something business owners are often told not to do: she told everyone.Her tweet went viral. Authors shared it, journalists called, customers travelled from across the country and thousands of people contacted the shop wanting to help. Georgia believes it may have saved the business.But the story of Imagined Things is about much more than one extraordinary day on the internet. Georgia tells Tom about leaving a secure career as an NHS radiographer to open Harrogate’s first independent bookshop in almost 20 years; why the original Imagined Things was beautiful but almost impossible to find; the realities of building a business without any previous bookselling experience; and why she later asked her customers to help crowdfund the shop’s move to a bigger, more prominent home.They also talk about the art and science of choosing what deserves space on the shelves, the books that surprise her, becoming a mum while running a small business, and why buying from an independent bookshop can amount to something much bigger than simply buying a book.Bookshop Stories is hosted by writer and bookshop obsessive Tom Idle, exploring the people, decisions, risks and realities behind independent bookshops.Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram and Substack for more from the series, and browse books recommended by guests at the Bookshop Stories store on Bookshop.org.