Two independent bookshops open in Bristol

Two new independent bookshops are opening in Bristol, with one launching in October and the other opening for business earlier this month.

StorySmith Books is due to open in Southville, South Bristol, around the 24th October and will sell fiction, classics, non-fiction, art books and children’s titles. The owners are Emily Ross, who previously worked in production for publishers Usborne, Hachette Children’s Books and bloomsbury, and her husband Dan.

“Books and bookshops are my most beloved hobby and it’s been an ambition of mine for a long time to open a bookshop,” Emily Ross told The Bookseller. "A great bookshop can be so valuable to a community as a place to switch off from the world and discover new things, or engage with other book lovers. I wanted to create a bookshop where everyone in the community feels comfortable, accepted and welcome.”

The shop will be “small and friendly” and will stock bestsellers as well as titles customers wouldn’t come across in high street bookshops or when shopping online, she said.

Ross will also offer coffees and is planning on launching a programme of events, book clubs and workshops. The first event is an evening of spooky tales with Tom Cox, author of Help the Witch (Unbound), and two-thirds of the tickets have already sold.

Max Minerva’s, another independent bookshop, opened in Henleaze, Bristol, earlier this month. The shop was opened on the site of an old independent bookshop, Durdham Down, by husband and wife team Jessica Paul and Sam Taylor, and stocks fiction, children’s books, non-fiction, stationery and gifts.

Taylor, who co-founded Bristol Story Lab, will launch a series of children’s writing classes next month.