We head out to Church Stretton in Shropshire this month, and take a look at a vibrant independent bookshop with a long history.
Burway Books can be found in the centre of Church Stretton, a busy market town that lies at the heart of the Shropshire Hills. We celebrated our 34th birthday in September, and proud owner Ros Ephraim hopes to be selling books for many more years to come. “I started the bookshop because there was not a good poetry section in any bookshop in Shropshire at the time. I had worked as a voluntary bookseller in Shrewsbury Arts Centre for a year and have lived and breathed books all my life, so starting my own bookshop seemed a logical and very enjoyable way to make a living.” Ros can still be found behind the counter, along with several enthusiastic part-time helpers who she employs to help run the busy shop, all of whom have a literary background and enjoy the challenges of finding, recommending and selling books (our oldest bookseller retired in May at the age of 80!).
Earlier this year we were very proud to be shortlisted for the Aurum Independent Bookseller of the Year award, particularly as we were nominated for this by our customers. Ros has built up a following of loyal customers over the years,both locally, nationally and even internationally, many of whom like to be able to pop in and see a familiar face when making enquiries and ordering books. Continuity is an important factor in our shop’s success: it is only small, but stocks a huge variety of books, particularly those that cannot normally be found in the large chain stores and supermarkets. This means that we often have back list titles in stock that customers struggle to get elsewhere. If we do not hold a book in stock we are generally able to obtain it within 24 hours and customers are often surprisedand delighted that we can provide this service. We also specialise in books by local authorsMalcolm Saville (whose children’s books were very popular from the 1940s onwards), A.E.Housman, and Mary Webb (Gone To Earth was made into a Hollywood film). Phil Rickman,who writes crime thrillers featuring a diocesan exorcist, is one of our contemporary local authors who recently visited the shop to sign copies of his10th book in the series, and Ian Marchant and Kate Long (writer of the bestselling Bad Mother’s Handbook) have also been popular recent visitors. Being situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty means that we sell many local walking books and Ordnance Survey maps and we are always happy to suggest walks and sightseeing trips as we know our local area well. We hold a very large selection of maps for the whole of the UK and Europe and customers often visit us before going away on holiday. We run a variety of events throughout the year, including talks by authors, book signings, discussion groups -our “Girl’s Night In” event, which was run as part of Independent Bookseller’s Week, was so popular that it has become a regular feature.
We also have special offers on books from time to time which helps bring in new customers, and we run a loyalty scheme for our regulars. We encourage our customers to take part in book surveys and competitions and we were thrilled when two of them each won £100 of book tokens in the recent National Book Tokens quiz. Our current bestsellers include: The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies, Resistance by Owen Sheers, the Shardlake mysteries by C.J. Sansom (Dark Fire, Revelation etc), The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, Great British Wit by Rosemarie Jarski, Morville Hours by Katherine Swift, To Dream of the Dead by Phil Rickman, A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman, The Sky Is Always There by Camilla Carr (Camilla recently did a very powerful and moving talk for us about her time as a hostage in Chechnya). "Our shop’s only small, but stocks a huge variety of books, particularly those that cannot normally be found in the large chain stores"