booksellers’ work, and young people’s mental health was at the heart of the shop’s mission from the start. “We are developing strong connections with the local schools, colleges and clubs, and run communit support groups and clubs in the shop, some in shop hours and some outside of shop hours,” Clark explains. “These groups and communit support networks are the most important element that drives our work.”
Festival firsts
This year, the booksellers also created a Communit Interest Company called the Alton Arts Festival. “Goldfinch provides the director for the Literary stream, responsible for the literary programme for the inaugural Alton Arts Festival, a 10-day multi-stream event in July 2024,” Clark tells me. Featuring over 100 events, an arts festival of this scale is a first for the town.
Events have also helped support the shop in the post-Christmas period, at a time when the booksellers are “conscious of customers’ tight- ening budgets”. But Clark notes that a “book is still an affordable luxury” for many, and special editions remain particularly helpful in allowing the booksellers to provide value for their customers, especially when competing with the discounted prices found elsewhere. As budgets for books continue to be tight in the year ahead, Clark says that publishers can help support the booksellers’ work by provid- ing a “clearer set of consistent processes”, reducing the overhead on their time. Higher discounts would also help the indie shop remain competitive in the current climate, enabling the booksellers to continue their work towards creating “the conditions for a thriving communit”.
Top picks
Earth John Boyne Doubleday, hb, 18th April
The Guest B A Paris Hodder & Stoughton, hb, 20th Febuary
The Ministry of Time Kaliane Bradley Sceptre, hb, 14th May
Birdeye Judith Heneghan Salt, pb, 15th May
Independent Bookshop Top 20 Title
Author
1 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow... 2 The Wager
3 Demon Copperhead
Gabrielle Zevin David Grann
Imprint Vintage
Barbara Kingsolver Faber
4 Deliciously Ella Healthy Made... Ella Mills Woodward Yellow Kite 5 Empireworld 6 Charles III
7 Lessons in Chemistry 8 Bunny Bonanza!
9 Small Things Like These 10 Politics On the Edge 11 The Marriage Portrait 12 Hidden Potential 13 Food for Life 14 Antarctica
15 Before the Coffee Gets Cold 16 Strong Female Character 17 The Spy Coast 18 Babel
Sathnam Sanghera Viking Robert Hardman Bonnie Garmus Jamie Smart Claire Keegan Rory Stewart
Maggie O’Farrell Adam Grant Tim Spector
Claire Keegan
Tess Gerritsen R F Kuang
19 Beastlands: Race to Frostfall... Jess French 20 The Whalebone Theatre
Joanna Quinn
Macmillan Penguin
ISBN (+978) ASP 1529115543 £9.97
David Fickling Faber
W H Allen Vintage Faber
Kawaguchi & Trousselot Picador Fern Brady
Brazen Bantam
Simon & Schuster 1471183706 £10.90 0571376483 £9.96 1399717908 £21.88 0241600412 £19.80 1035027415 £21.82 1804990926 £9.94 1788453066 £12.92 0571368709 £8.95
Jonathan Cape 1787332713 £21.95 Tinder
1472223883 £9.96 0753560044 £24.86 1529919660 £12.94 0571382217 £9.99 1529029581 £9.94 1914240478 £10.97 0857505194 £19.65
HarperVoyager 0008501853 £9.91 Piccadilly Press 1800784062 £7.51 Penguin
0241994146 £9.99
Week ending 27th January 2024. Unless otherwise stated, charts use data from Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market, representing print book sales through around 6,500 retailers. Any title discounted by more than 74.5% is ineligible for inclusion.
From the shop floor
W H Smith records ‘strong’ start to financial year but high
street drops
W H Smith has had a strong start to the financial year, with total UK revenue for the 20-week period to 20th January 2024 up 15% year on year. In a trading update, the retailer said it had seen a “strong performance in the UK”, and that the travel business was “growing”. However, like-for-like performance on the UK high street for the 20-week period was down 3%.
Words and Pictures to open in south London in the spring
Words and Pictures Children’s Bookshop will open in the spring in Herne Hill, south London, in partnership with the 2024 Stepping Into Stories Kids’ Lit Festival. The store will host a pop-up bookshop selling
signed books in the local Station Hall during the week of the festival, from 30th January to 4th February.
Judges announced for Brick Lane Bookshop story prize Author Vanessa Onwuemezi,
C&W AGENT LUCY LUCK
Granta editor Dan Bird and C&W agent Lucy Luck will judge the £1,000 Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize this year. The award is open to writers based in the UK, with the longlisted stories to be published by the bookshop in an anthology.
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