Bookshop Stories
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Ranking history
About the show
Latest episodes
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Episode 12 | Romance isn’t a trend. But are romance bookshops?: Cassie Simmons, Main Character Books (London)
October 2, 2026 · 1 hr 2 minRomance 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…
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Episode 11 | Meet the accidental bookseller (and accidental author): Shaun Bythell, The Bookshop (Wigtown, Scotland)
September 25, 2026 · 1 hr 4 minShaun 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…
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Episode 10 | Can a bookshop replace the pub? Vicki Shenkin Kerr, Bàrd Books (London)
September 18, 2026 · 1 hr 2 minWhen 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…
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Episode 9 | Can honesty save a bookshop?: Georgia Eckert, Imagined Things (Harrogate, Yorkshire)
September 11, 2026 · 1 hr 3 minWhat 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…
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Episode 8 | How do you reinvent a 50-year-old bookshop? Cathy Hayward, Kemptown Bookshop (Brighton)
September 4, 2026 · 1 hr 5 minWhat do you do when you take over a bookshop that has already survived for half a century? Kemptown Bookshop in Brighton celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026. It opened in 1976 and, remarkably, Cathy Hayward is only the third owner in…
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Episode 7 | Should you ever open a bookshop with your mum?: Linda Furniss and James Firth, The Stripey Badger Bookshop (Grassington, Yorkshire)
August 28, 2026 · 60 minWhat happens when your mum's lifelong dream becomes your career? Linda Furniss had wanted to own a bookshop since she was five years old. Her son James Firth had just finished an astrophysics degree and needed a job. It was James who…
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Episode 6 | What it takes to survive 50 years in bookselling: Ron Johns, Falmouth Bookseller, Cornwall
August 21, 2026 · 56 minWhat does it take to survive more than 50 years as an independent bookseller? Ron Johns started working in the book trade in 1969. Five years later, armed with £800 borrowed from his dad, he opened his first bookshop in Plymouth. Today, at…
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Episode 5 | Can you build a bookshop simply around your own tastes?: Seb Reilly, Plunder (Ramsgate, Kent)
August 14, 2026 · 1 hr 10 minMost businesses start by asking what their customers want. Seb Reilly did the opposite. After leaving what he calls a "proper job", Seb opened Plunder in Ramsgate: a pirate-themed independent bookshop, tearoom and immersive smugglers'…