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Simon & Schuster UK is one of the leading book publishing companies in the UK. The group is based in London with sister companies in the US, Canada, Australia and India. Within the UK division,
BOOK RETAILER OF THE YEAR W H SMITH TRAVEL
THE SHORTLIST Books2Door
Bookshop.org Monwell
Round Table Waterstones
W H Smith High Street
W
H Smith Travel wins this award for the third time in eight years, having burst back to life since the end of
Covid-related travel restrictions in 2022. While year-on-year sales comparisons
were inevitably impressive, there was also a sense that the business had emerged from the pandemic with new resilience and fresh ideas. It had its usual ample share of sales of the year’s blockbusters—notably from Sally Rooney, Bella Mackie and Liane Moriarty. But it also showed it does not rely on big international names and is committed to promoting backlist books and new voices too. The in-house Richard & Judy Book Club is instrumental in that, breaking several début authors last year and selling nearly half a million copies of its featured titles. Newer initiatives included a partnership on non-fiction with entrepreneur Steven Bartlett. The business opened three new standalone
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bookshops in 2022, at Luton and Manchester airports and Edinburgh Waverley station, plus new concept stores with bright book depart- ments. It meanwhile relocated and revamped its concessions within Harrods and Selfridges in London—special shopping environments that provide more proof that the W H S Travel team can do far more than pile-‘em-high bookselling. Authors and publishers admire the forward-
thinking, collaborative buyers and booksellers, who help books reach readers that other retailers cannot. “Their knowledge of the books world is immense and their intuition for bestsellers is second to none,” said one grateful sales director. “The new stores are inviting and engaging
bookshops, and the books they are selling surpass the expectations of the sort that a travel shop might sell,” the British Book Awards judges added. “It is an impressive bounce-back from a very difficult few years.”
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