A community book room

When it comes to long descriptions of bookshop encounters, this week's isn't going to be near the top of the list. The bookshop was small and my time there brief, but what it lacks in big adventures it makes up for with big heart.

Cotswold Book Room in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, was destination two on my IBW2018 bookshop crawl, and the first thing to note on arrival is that this is actually three rooms. The name arises from its origins, which were in a room of a house many decades ago. The location and size of the bookshop may have changed, but the name has stuck, and I think it's a good one.

The three rooms are small and there wasn't a huge amount of stock during my visit, but my boyfriend and I found plenty of books to catch our attention and the reason for the occasional area of space on the shelves was happily explained by the ladies behind the counter. It was these ladies who made the bookshop such a joy.

Conversation flowed easily as they told me about their time running the bookshop, its history and its part in the community. The word community comes up time and again when writing about bookshops, and I make no apology for repeating it here. The two ladies of Cotswold Book Room clearly put a great deal of importance in their community, and hearing about visitors to the bookshop and their other experiences really emphasised the heart within this small, simple space.

Our visit may have been brief but it was filled with laughter and interesting stories, and the ladies happily offered advice as to where might be best to pose with the cape. I picked up M R Carey's The Boy on the Bridge, which may not be the most obvious choice to remind me of such a happy, local bookshop, but it is a book I've long wanted to read so I was pleased to find it among the fiction shelves here.

Cotswold Book Room may not be the most remarkable of destinations, but I really do believe its community is the richer for its presence.


Cotswold Book Room
26 Long Street, Wotton-Under-Edge,
Gloucestershire GL12 7BT
Tel: 01453 843140