Your bookshops, #33 Scriveners Books

Having previously shared the joy of a trip to Hay-on-Wye, Twitter friend Clare now takes us to Derbyshire, and a highlight from Buxton...

Scriveners Books
42 High Street, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6HB
Tel: 01298 73100 @ScrivenersBooks
Posted: 14th January 2018

Having a week off, me and my boyfriend embarked on a trip from Shropshire to Buxton taking us along the quite frankly amazing A34 with its wonderful views over the peaks. I hadn’t been to Derbyshire in a very long time and never to Buxton, the promise of bookshops of course helped.

First stop was Oxfam, looking for books and vinyl, we found no vinyl but I came away with a gorgeous copy of Mayor of Casterbridge (my third, I just can’t resist different covers) a copy of Return Of The Native also by Thomas Hardy and Philomena by Martin Sixsmith.

We went for a wander up Terrace Road and found a lovely little free museum, which are always my favourites they are normally the best museums. After lunch we decided to have another walk up Terrace Road but to carry on and find Scriveners Books. They are one of the Guardian's top 10 bookshops so I had high hopes, and I was right.

From the outside it already promised so much, it looked cosy and welcoming plus it’s in a very lovely building to begin with.

As soon as you walk in you are surrounded by shelves filled by books, I just happened to look up at one shelf and found Gaglow by Esther Freud which I hadn’t been able to find for years and had earlier said to boyfriend that I would love to find again.

We explored the other floors, which took us further and further up to a tiny attic at the top which contained history and political books. We then made our way back downstairs to the very bottom floor in the cellar which contained a tiny Victorian museum with a range and a Victorian Picture viewer.

I had by this time found four books: Butterfield 8 by John O’Hara, Gaglow by Esther Freud, The Borrowers Afloat by Mary Norton, and Battles At Thrush Green by Miss Read (which is the one Miss Read book my mum has been trying to find for years). My boyfriend found a very nice Penguin copy of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

We had such fun exploring the five floors which are full of old posters and toys, on the floor which contains the very lovely children’s books you are can also find an honesty box where you can pay for tea and biscuits.

Lovely service from the staff combined with what I can only describe as heaven in a bookshop means Scrivener’s on High Street in Buxton is very worth a visit.

Make sure you linger and take your time, oh, and have a look at the first editions cabinet on the first floor, where we spotted a copy of Jane Eyre so old that it credited Currer Bell as its writer!

So in conclusion the Guardian were perfectly right when they mentioned this as a top 10 bookshop... I personally would make it my number one.

Thank you Clare for sharing an experience of a bookshop I've long wanted to visit. It sounds as enticing as I'd imagined.