At the heart of publishing since 1858
Issue 5962
Editor's Letter All involved O
ne of my favourite weeks in The Bookseller calendar is the release of the Independent Bookshop and Small Press regional and country finalists, which
we put out as part of the run-up to the British Book Awards. It’s a big task: across both we had more than 150 submissions, leading to shortlists that are made up of 63 bookshops and 50 small presses (see pp40–41). If you want a piece of good news to get you through the rest of February, read this and understand it. On the bookshops side, as fellow judge Tom Tivnan
reports, this year’s finalists include some of the UK and Ireland’s oldest and newest booksellers. Among them are P&G Wells, which sits on a site that has been home to a bookshop since 1729; Sam Read Bookseller, which was established in 1887; and Limerick’s O’Mahony’s, founded in 1902. These are shortlisted alongside 12 independent bookshops that have opened their doors since 2019, six of which started life in the pandemic, six of which started life in the pandemic, including The Book Nook Stewarton and the East Gate Book Shop.
On the small press front, we see last
For me The Bookseller is never better than when the sum is made up of parts from across the trade
year’s winner Sweet Cherry go again, in competition with some notable newcomers (not necessarily new to publishing, but new to these lists), including the 20-year-old The Irish Pages Press/Cló An Mhíl Bhuī, Onwe Press, Rily Publications and Eye Books. London remains the region to beat with 14 publishers in contention, including previous joint region winners Boldwood Books and Magic Cat, and newbie Mensch Publishing, set up by Richard
Charkin. But Scotland and the North of England also remain incredibly strong areas for publishing—take note, HarperNorth!
Publishing has a reputation for being London-biased, and though these shortlists do not exactly refute that argument, they do at least rebalance our perspective. In the late 1980s, in the wake of Waterstones’ expansion, The Bookseller ran an article wondering if bookshops could thrive in the North of England; when I speak to some publishers outside London today, they rightly ask me if The Bookseller still holds that view of publishing outside England’s capital. I’d hope that the work we do under the British Book Awards umbrella, as well as our regional and country focuses, dispel that notion. Anyway, few could argue with this week’s Scotland Focus, or the Creative Scotland supplement and its conclusion that despite the pandemic: “Scotland’s books industry and literature sector has made it through the (hopefully) other side in rude health”. I would imagine our Wales and Ireland focuses will report similar findings. For me The Bookseller is never beter than when the sum is made up of parts from across the trade, including from places as far apart as Caerphilly, the Isle of Lewis, Belfast and Sawtry. What keeps us together is not the centrifugal pull of “big London publishing”; this industry, like its product, cannot and should not be constrained either by convention or boundary. Now, that is something worth celebrating— wherever you are.
In next week’s magazine Market Focus: Travel
Philip Jones @philipdsjones Contents18th February 2022 06
In the midst of this pandemic, [writing the book] was a huge kernel of joy that lit up our lives
Lead story
Scottish indie booksellers share their pandemic lessons
TheBookseller.com Books Author Profile 48 Books New Titles: Fiction 50 Country Focus: Scotland
Book of the Month
Te Lead Story ........... 06 Author Profile: Douglas Stuart ........... 08 Monstrous Regiment ...... 10 Author Profile: Dean Atta .. 12 Literary agencies ......... 16 Q&A: Black & White ....... 18 Scots-language publishing . 19 Opinion ................. 22 Scottish Nature writing ... 24 Author Profile: Carrie Marshall ........... 26 Category Spotlight . . . . . . . . 28
This Week
News Review ............ 36 Bookshop Spotlight ....... 38 Te British Book Awards .. 40
Books
Author Profile ............ 48 Children’s Previews ....... 50
Data
The bestseller charts ...... 42 Jobs in Books
Recruitment ............. 60 05
18.02.22 ISSN 0006-7539 2 4 At the heart of the book trade since 1858.
‘I loved this book, such an intimate portrayal of emotional landscapes and the pull of the moon’ RAYNOR WINN
tray £5.95
The new book from the bestselling author of The Outrun and winner of the
The new book from the bestselling author of The Outrun and winner of the W wright Prize’
ainwright P
cover.indd 46
14/02/2022 17:29
Cover photography: Sarah Blesener
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