THIS WEEK


THE GROVE BOOKSHOP IS POPULAR WITH BOTH LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS


Bookshop Spotlight The Grove Bookshop


owned by Kevin Ramage, who is also the pro- prietor of Bristol’s Bookhaus, Aberfeldy’s The Watermill and Lyme Regis’ Lyme Bookshop. The rest of the team comprises assistant manager Amy Verit, account manager Neal Casey, returns specialists Nikki Ford and Liz Jones, “Instagram supremo” and creative writing teacher Emily Devane, and the shop’s “design queen”, Korina Reynders. On the weekends, Hunnah Weller and Eve Dyson also work at the shop.


From fiction and children’s books to titles with a local focus, nature writing and arts books, the shop has something for every reader. “We love supporting local writers, and we are currently focusing on short stories and novellas, something Emily is passionate about,” Sansbury says. “For the past 18 months we have also featured a dedicated Independent Publisher of the Month table, giving space to books and imprints which would otherwise be hidden on the shelves,” he adds. Publishers on the list have included Fairlight, Handheld Editions, Bluemoose, Fitzcarraldo and Pushkin Press.


The Grove Bookshop ? 10 Te Grove, Ilkley LS29 9EG


The Grove Bookshop’s premises has housed many incarnations of stores, but one of them was just meant to be


Melina Spanoudi @mspanoudi F 10


reshly baked bread, pianos, wine and tobacco used to be sold in the premises that today house the well-known Grove


Bookshop in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. The store was opened 45 years ago by a couple, the Townsons, who wanted to give the town an indie bookshop. “It has now been a bookshop for longer than any of its previous incarna- tions,” manager Mike Sansbury tells me.


21st July 2023


“The fact that the shop has been here for so long means that it is a well-known and much-loved part of Ilkley life, almost as synonymous with Ilkley as Bety’s tearooms and Ilkley Moor itself,” he says. The shop’s customers include academics, young families and commuters to Leeds and Bradford. “Our customers have high standards and wide interests, which means we have to work hard but, on the plus side, we get to learn a lot in the process, so our stock is oſten informed by the interests of particular regulars,” Sansbury explains. “We are oſten asked for raffle prizes for local schools, and in December, instead of the usual voucher, we offered a Bookseller for a Day experience, and demand was enormous!” Sansbury has been at the shop for more than a decade, aſter having worked at Tate Liverpool, Waterstones and Oxford Universit Press. For about 20 years, the shop has been


Eyes on the prizes The booksellers want to cater to their customers’ interests and the team has a lot of literary knowledge between them. That helps in selecting the titles they stock, as does meeting with publishers and endeavouring to read extensively. Prize shortlists affect their decision-making process as well, with the Jhalak Prize having featured particularly heav- ily on their shelves in the past few years, and Sansbury adds that the team “try not to forget the Booker, which is announced in the middle of the Ilkley Literature Festival”. The bookshop has recently focused on


further building its events programme. The team has been hosting readings and local book launches in store, while also holding author events in bigger venues. “This year we have welcomed Julia Chapman, Jeremy Dyson and Francesca Simon, and held local launches for novelists, poets and even a town planning lecturer,” the manager tells me. The team has a good relationship with various publishers, who are supportive of the booksellers’ work, but Sansbury adds that a more detailed knowledge of the area could be helpful at times. “Some might perhaps benefit from having a map of the north on permanent display; we oſten have requests to stock a local author who turns out to live in Sheffield,” he tells me. “We’re both in Yorkshire, but they are 50 miles away!”


The past few years have proven that locals


view the Grove Bookshop as an essential part of their communit. This period has


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