Watkins Books, Soho London

The roots of Watkins Books can be traced back to 1894--the dawn of the golden era for the esoteric and the occult, when founder of the theosophy movement Madame Blavatsky urged John Watkins to set up London's first mystical bookshop.

Over the years, Watkins has established itself as one of the world's oldest bookshops specialising in mind, body and spirit titles titles and related subjects, recently celebrating its 100th anniversary in its current location at 19-21 Cecil Court, Soho. In the 1980s, the shop opened up its basement, doubling the amount of bookshop space; more recently, the shop acquired new premises at 13-15 Cecil Court to house its extensive non-books range of crystals, Tarot cards, incense and religious artefacts.

Today, Watkins holds 60,000 titles on subjects ranging from alien abduction and astrology through to magic, mediums and earth mysteries. While the business' inhouse astrologers, palm readers and healing therapists are based at the Esoteric Centre next-door, the bookshop has retained Tarot expert Swami Krishna, who has sat in the shop's window every day during opening hours for the past five years.

On the ground floor at Watkins are the fast-moving, more accessible titles, some of which are also stocked by chain booksellers, such as Susan Jeffers' Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. This section attracts customers with a general interest in mind, body and spirit titles who may buy straight from the shop's top 40 chart; readers with more unusual pastimes head to the basement and its books on the great traditions.

Overall, the most popular books are titles on angels, wicca, fairies and yoga, but Aleister Crowley's texts on magic such as 777, which date back to the early 1900s and can sell for around £500 are also in demand. The current in-vogue subject area is non-duality teaching, led by Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, which has dominated Watkins' top 40 chart for the past four years.

Stephen Gawtry, editor of the Watkins Review catalogue, attributes Tolle's success to a general shift of the mind, body and spirit world into the mainstream over the past 20 years. "The explosion of interest in Eastern spirituality in the 1960s has filtered through to the point where authors such as Graham Hancock are bestsellers," he says. "This is aided by films and television shows such as 'Buffy', 'The X-Files', 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Constantine', which are bringing aspects of the occult and the esoteric world to a much wider audience."

But as mind, body and spirit titles become more accepted, Watkins has found it increasingly hard to compete on price with the chains; future growth will concentrate on expanding its rare and antiquarian sections, which make up around a quarter of the total stock. In contrast to the new books, which come from specialist publishers and distributors such as New Leaf (US) and Bookspeed, antiquarian books are offered to the shop by customers--often in the form of a whole occult library.

The internet, which has also helped track down rare books from around the world, will prove an even greater resource from the end of 2006, when the full Watkins catalogue will be available online. "Watkins is a magnet that draws people in," says Ricky James, manager. "I feel privileged to be in the company of like-minded people, at the centre of developments in all my areas of interest."

Harriet Dennys