Times are tough for many small traders at the moment, but it appears business is booming for Bristol’s independent booksellers, with four new shops opening in the city this autumn: Heron Books in Clifton Arcade, The Good Book Shop in St George, the Small City Bookshop Redfield and Rova on Christmas Steps.
Despite the constant drain of social media and streaming services on our time, and the ever-looming presence of Amazon, people are increasingly turning to local bookshops when looking for ways to spend a bit of their disposable income.
Earlier this year, the Booksellers Association (BA) revealed that the number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland had grown for the fifth consecutive year. The BA's figures show that at the end of 2021, it had 1,027 members, the highest number since 2013, a year that followed two decades of falling numbers.
