Waterstones to open pop-up bookshop on tiny Scottish island

Waterstones is to create a pop up bookshop on the Scottish island of Benbecula, which has just 1,300 residents.

Bookseller Robin Crawford will make the 275-mile journey to the tiny island in the Outer Hebrides from the Waterstones bookshop in Dundee, taking with him 600 books to sell to the community and donating an extra 50 to the library at Sgoil Lionacleit.

The pop-up bookshop will run for two days on 6th and 7th June at Sgoil Lionacleit School, the only secondary school serving the islands of Benbecula, North and South Uist.

Crawford, a keen Western Isles enthusiast and author of Into The Peatlands (Birlin, due out in September 2018) will open the bookshop to pupils, parents and the wider Benbecula community, offering a hand-picked selection of books in English and Gaelic for readers of all ages.

The venture has come about through a partnership between the bookselling chain, First Minister’s Reading Challenge and Scottish Book Trust.

Crawford said: “I am delighted to be making this journey to create a bookshop experience for book lovers on Benbecula.”

Marc Lambert, c.e.o. of Scottish Book Trust, added: “As one of the pilot secondary schools for the First Minister’s Reading Challenge, we have been working with Sgoil Lionacleit to develop their reading culture and build partnerships that increase access to books. The Waterstones pop-up shop is one of a number of initiatives undertaken by the school to give reading a high profile. It will be a great opportunity for its pupils and wider community to explore a range of books, and to celebrate all they have done to support the First Minister’s Reading Challenge this past year.”

The First Minister’s Reading Challenge is open to all primary schools in Scotland, as well as six secondary schools that are part of a pilot project to expand it.