Pages sponsored so far:
57,750 pages to go still!
Help Pen Pusher Magazine
by sponsoring pages in the new issue.
Clicking on this button will take you to PayPal, where you can choose your contribution amount and pay securely. (Through PayPal, we can accept credit cards, e-checks, etc. You DON’T have to have a PayPal account yourself.)
Connect with us at
Facebook and
MySpace
This is not a blog
My Favourite Bookshop
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that independent bookshops are disappearing like crow’s feet at an airbrushing studio. Now that big chains are swallowing each other and most books are sold online or in supermarkets, it’s hard for an independent bookseller to survive, let alone thrive.
Yet John and Caroline Birkett-Smith, who own Hunting Raven Books in Frome, recently doubled their premises and now have more than 15,000 books in stock. If you don’t find what you want, an order almost always brings next-day delivery; and if you don’t know what you want, the staff will happily discuss options, as they’re all enthusiastic and knowledgeable bibliophiles.
Hunting Raven is in a popular street in the medieval heart of Frome, and the shop itself is part of the buzz of the area. As well as all the usual fiction and non-fiction sections, including maps, there’s a specialist selection of CDs for fans of esoteric classical and jazz; a bargain-book table outside that encourages the passer-by to pause; and inside there are attractive extras like art cards, Penguin mugs, and counter-packs of affordable mini-books. (Although you can’t get coffee here, as with two coffee houses opposite John feels that would be churlish!)
But the real joy of this bookshop is in its amazing selection of children’s books: ‘Children are very important,’ says John. ‘They’re the next generation of readers.’ Accordingly, Hunting Raven boasts probably the best selection of children’s literature in the South-West (including nearby towns of Bath and Bristol) and has staff with a real knowledge and experience of young people.
I asked John why he thinks Hunting Raven is quite so successful – a David to Amazon’s Goliath – and he immediately suggests the convenience aspect: half a million copies available on overnight order, and you don’t have to be home for the carrier or collect from the sorting office. I’d add friendly people with a passion for words … and an Aladdin’s cave of books.
Hunting Raven Books
Cheap Street
Frome, Somerset
BA11 1BN
T 01373 473111
If you have a bookshop you’d like to recommend to Pen Pusher readers,
then we’d like to hear about it – send suggestions of up to 380 words to editors@penpushermagazine.co.uk or alternatively send them to:
Pen Pusher Magazine
13a Myddelton Square
London EC1R 1YE
Koenig Books
The Book Inn
Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights
Topping & Company
Ocean Books
Langtons
Church Street Books
Oxbow Books