Waterstones and the Booker Prize Foundation to launch The Booker Library at Piccadilly store

Waterstones and the Booker Prize Foundation are launching The Booker Library, an immersive pop-up shop that will be brought to Waterstones Piccadilly on 13th November and will remain open until the end of December 2024.

The collection will showcase more than 600 of the winning, shortlisted and longlisted titles from the prize’s 55-year history. The books are also available online, in one place, at The Booker Prize website.

"The Booker Library will be a distillation of contemporary literary history, offering a snapshot of a half-century’s worth of fiction: we are so proud to give this a home in our iconic flagship bookshop," said Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones.

Located on the Lower Ground floor at Waterstones’ flagship bookshop, The Booker Library will cover 44 bays and offer customers the chance to explore every in-print title from the Booker Prizes’ backlist. It will also include interactive features like audio and events.

"When we re-designed our website, thebookerprizes.com, we thought of all the books that had been recognised by the prize since 1969—whether they’d won or been shortlisted or longlisted—as forming a collection," added Gaby Wood, the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation. "We imagined them without hierarchy, as an incredible set of hundreds of books that had gone on to become classics of contemporary literature. We called this collection The Booker Library."

Wood added: "I’m not sure we dared to hope then that our virtual backlist would one day be available to browse in person. So this partnership with Waterstones is idyllic. We couldn’t be more grateful to Bea and her colleagues for bringing it to life."

A wall will showcase the 58 winners forming the centrepiece, alongside audio of winner speeches and actors performing extracts from recently shortlisted books. Special objects will be on display, including an exhibit of the bespoke bound editions of this year’s shortlisted books, created for the authors by members of Designer Bookbinders, as well as a newly commissioned life-size version of the Booker Prize trophy, Iris.

Purchases will be marked with an exclusive Booker Library stamp, and the first 400 visitors who purchase a book will receive a limited-edition Booker Prizes tote bag illustrated by Iris de Moüy.

The launch event for the Booker Library will see the newly-announced winner of the Booker Prize in conversation with Wood on the evening of 14th November. Tickets can be booked online.