Bookshop for sale, one previous owner

When I first moved to west Kent I looked up all the local bookshops with the plan of making the most of all the bookshopping opportunities available. I've gradually worked my way around most of them, but some have taken me longer to get to than others. This is one that took a little longer.

Tonbridge, like most towns, has much to recommend it and also to deter you from wanting to visit. In the case of the latter, bad traffic between there and my home town is the main reason for my not visiting, but when I make the effort I find it's generally worth it. One of my favourite places to buy soup in Kent is in this town, and there's a really lovely castle where I like to sit and read a book. There's a river with an historic bridge that I'm sure many take for granted. It's also a good place for a parkrun. But you're not here for tourist information, you're here for the bookshop.

And this week, not only can you read about the bookshop, you can buy it too.

You see the man behind Mr Books in Tonbridge is moving back home to the north, and as teleportation of business and building is yet to be a viable option he's having to leave the bookshop behind. Which means he's had to put the business up for sale.

There's not long left for someone to buy it and I have to admit I don't understand the ins and outs of the sale (and no, I haven't got what it takes to become a bookseller) but it would be remiss of me not to tell you.

Mr Books is a secondhand bookshop of the high end variety. It's found the perfect balance between being absolutely crammed full of books in a small area while also feeling remarkably spacious, clean and tidy. Which is no mean feat. In some cases the shelves are very close together, while in others two people may comfortably pass, so when browsing you need to remember your manners and not barge past.

That said, the shop was still big enough to comfortably house a bookseller (Mr Books himself), me and my boyfriend, a family and another browser or two, so maybe I'm over-exaggerating the small spaces. It's also split over two levels in one room, which adds to the feeling of roominess.

I stuck to the general fiction shelves, but in its current form the bookshop has quite a diverse children's and non-fiction area too. Then up a few steps to where the counter is you find the pricier books. It was tempting to shop here, but knowing how much I spend on books a year I forced myself to stay in the section I could afford – which offered more than enough choice to keep the two of us happy.

Fiction was impressively varied, with personal favourites from the 80s and 90s mixed in with bookshop staples and unexpected gems. I'd initially chosen a science fiction book from one of my favourite authors, but then Joanna Russ' The Female Man caught my attention and all thoughts of earlier books were forgotten as I lost myself in this unexpected find. My boyfriend was also pleased to find a Thames & Hudson World of Art book about Georgia O'Keeffe.

I want to end this post by encouraging you to visit for yourself, but unless someone buys the bookshop it won't be there for much longer. Who's in?

Mr Books
142 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1BB
Tel: 01732 363000
@TonbridgeBlog

Hart of the community

In my mind, Saffron Walden is an historic, rose-tinted town, full of beautiful buildings, sunlight, good manners and the idyllic image of a different time. I've never quite been sure when that time would be, but it's in the past and the women all carry parasols.

On the day of my visit, the reality was only marginally disappointing – I didn't see a single parasol. What I did get to enjoy included blue skies, a stunning library building and a very short walk to Hart's Books (this is obviously a town of readers). But I think I already knew this would be a place of beauty, because Hart's Books was the first bookshop Daunts opened outside of London.

The bookshop is found next door to the site of the original Hart's, so my first encounter was with the two signs next to each other, welcoming me in.* Stepping inside the next sight is of how big this bookshop is, with lots more space than you'd expect in a small town. There's a warmth and lightnes, with the general fiction stretching back to areas of non-fiction and children's books. And because this outlet is a local, community bookshop it follows its own layout, rather than taking on the continental (travel) organisation found in traditional Daunt bookshops.

The books themselves are varied, while also being as intelligent and well-chosen as you'd expect from a local indie bookshop, which meant both my boyfriend and I had plenty of titles to keep us busy. I particularly liked seeing the mix of lighthearted romance next to literary fiction next to all manner of genres, shelved simply by author and leaving the browser to decide what they feel like reading today.

While organisation by genre works, this simplicity of following only the alphabet in the fiction area has introduced me to a wealth of authors I would not previously have encountered and I'd hope opens other people's eyes to the potential of all genres too. So when I spotted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nicholas Sparks and Neal Stephenson within easy reach of each other I liked to imagine one day a browser would take home all three. My one book per shop rule meant I couldn't be that person, so I chose Stephenson's Cryptonomicon this time around. Having recently discovered his works it's a treat to be able to read another.

I also enjoyed simply walking around the beautiful space, which was crammed with attractive details, and we weren't the only people to be making the most of this bookshop, as a number of customers were also busy buying books. This was good for showing me how much the bookshop is enjoyed locally, but bad because my polite British manners meant I didn't feel I could keep the nice bookseller talking when a customer who was obviously in a hurry arrived at the counter. Still, if the existence of another customer is all I've got to complain about, things can't be bad, can they?

As a random way to conclude this week's blog, Hart's Books is also home to a Walking Book Club, which I think sounds like a wonderful idea.

Hart's Books
26 King Street,
Saffron Walden,
Essex,
CB10 1ES
Tel: 01799 524552
@hartsbooks


*I make no apology for the bad photography, if the sun is going to choose to shine on us it can create as many awkward shadows as it pleases.

In search of a good bookshop

One of the things that amazes me about independent bookshops is the places where I find them.

I'm not talking extreme locations such as mountain tops (although I wouldn't be surprised if there was one somewhere), but out of the way, or hidden, so only the most dedicated of bookshoppers can find them. Quinns Bookshop in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, is one such destination.

Ahead of my trip to the market town, I'd run an internet search and seen there might be an independent bookshop in the area, but related web activity was minimal so I was grateful when Twitter provided the same name as a recommendation. I noted its High Street address and set off.

Unfortunately, the Saturday of our visit coincided with a traditional English offering of wind and rain, which means I can't give you much of a description of the town itself because our priority was keeping warm and dry, but this – coupled with plans for later in the day meaning time was tight – meant we very nearly missed the bookshop.

You see, I'd written down the address as High Street, I even checked Google Maps on my phone, but when we got to the road in question there was no bookshop to be seen. We crossed the road and looked again. Still nothing. Then I happened to look into a narrow alleyway, and there it was, a sign pointing the way. Next time I'll take more notice of the first line of an address.

Walking down the alley between the shops, we soon came to small enclosed wilderness of a garden (I write this fondly), hidden within which were two stone rams and the door to the bookshop. It felt like finding the bookshop equivalent of The Secret Garden.

Inside, the bookshop is surprisingly spacious and spread out, so I first made a beeline to the left, where the main room of books is found. Here I enjoyed a well-stocked mix of fiction and non-fiction, with a few titles from the science section particularly appealing to me. For a small market town, there was a large and varied offering.

Carrying on around the shop, upstairs there's a gallery hosting (I believe) local artists, and younger visitors may be drawn to the corner dedicated to Games Workshop. Returning downstairs, further rooms offer more non-fiction, recommends, art materials and then a lovely, cheery children's room. There's easily something for the whole family here.

On my way back through these rooms I became distracted from my earlier purchase plans when I spotted Jorge Carrion's Bookshops, which looks like the ideal read to research even more bookshopping adventures.

Quinns Bookshop isn't somewhere visitors to the town are going to easily find, but if you do visit Market Harborough I urge you to go on your own mini adventure and search out this bookshop.


Quinns Bookshop
Three Crowns Yard,
High Street
Market Harborough,
Leicestershire,
LE16 7AF
Tel: 01858 432313