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Bookshop of the Quarter: Spring 2015
A former 'Independent Bookshop of the Year', One Tree Books is a vibrant independent bookshop in Petersfield, Hampshire. Whether you wish to browse the comprehensive range of fiction, visit the first floor for world music, travel and reference, or settle down with a new book, coffee and cake in the cafe on the ground floor, all customers are made welcome by the friendly booksellers, led by manger Sally Jay. The shop is also bursting with a broad range of greetings cards, wrapping paper, unusual gifts for children, stationery, jigsaws and board games.
One Tree are the bookseller of choice for a number of local literary festivals including the West Meon Festival of Books – West Meon is a charming village where our editor, Gail Pirkis, grew up. Slightly Foxed has held several events at both West Meon and One Tree as the shop is a short step from Petersfield station and an hour from London, so staff and authors can easily commute.
The bookshop runs not one but two book clubs, one for new books and another for classics, and also offers a Book Doctor service whereby a personally selected book is sent to the happy recipient every month. Tim O'Kelly, owner and founder of One Tree Books, writes up his recommendations and accounts of life among books on 'Tim's Blog' which always provides an interesting read on their website. The shop also sells tickets to local theatrical and literary events.
We do urge you pop into this blue-fronted bazaar of books, browse the shelves and enjoy the coffee!
One Tree Books
7 Lavant Street
GU32 3EL
www.onetreebooks.com
Bookshop of the Quarter: Winter 2021
'Our not-for-profit independent bookshop is in a Grade II listed building in the centre of Crediton, a market town just outside Exeter. Owned by 300 community shareholders, we strive to run a brilliant bookshop with a variety of titles to suit a wide range of tastes, and to make a positive impact in our community.'
In Pursuit of an Ideal
Sue Gee on Joy Grant, Harold Monro and the Poetry Bookshop
On 1 January 1913 a new kind of bookshop opened in London. Located in a rundown street off Theobalds Road, it occupied three floors of a Georgian house, and was presided over by an idealist whose private income – largely derived from family-owned asylums – never quite met the shop's expenses. This was Harold Monro, poet, publisher and editor of The Poetry Review, to whose subscribers he announced his intention of opening a bookshop 'devoted to the sale of poetry, and of all books, pamphlets and periodicals connected with poetry'. For the next two decades he was to put the Poetry Bookshop at the heart of the London poetry scene. The other figure bestriding literary London at this time was Ezra Pound: in tempera­ment, taste and ambition the two men could not have been more different.
Bookshop of the Quarter: Autumn 2021
'Our space is truly beautiful. Savoy is housed on the ground floor of an historic hotel that was built in 1888. It was empty and in disrepair when a local philanthropist purchased the space in 2013. He approached Annie Philbrick, the owner of Bank Square Books in Mystic, Connecticut, and said 'If I build a bookstore that doesn't cost you anything, will you run it?' Conversations like that do not happen every day! Annie agreed to run it and the space was renovated from top to bottom. Savoy Bookshop & Café opened in Westerly, Rhode Island in 2016 and became the sister store to Bank Square Books, which is about 15 minutes away. The wood shelving, creaky floors, tin ceiling, exposed brick, and the large wrought iron staircase really make it the perfect setting for a bookstore.'