Books / Bookshops
New bookshop opens with focus on supporting Bristol authors
A book-loving husband and wife team have opened a new bookshop in Bristol city centre.
Shambles Bookshop opened on Saturday morning in St Nick’s Market selling new books with a particular emphasis on supporting Bristol authors.
Shambles owners Laurence and Anna Tuck hope that Shambles will complement the existing offering in the market which includes nearby long-established secondhand bookshop Beware of the Leopard.
Opening a bricks and mortar store was not the original plan for the Easton-based couple, who even had the idea for a miniature bookshop on a cargo bike based in various locations on the Bristol & Bath Railway Path before seeing an advert for a vacant unit in St Nick’s.
There was a steady stream of customers on opening day on Saturday – photo: Martin Booth
Laurence said that he hopes that Shambles Bookshop – named after the historic word for a market – will bring “a bit of colour and fun, and a celebration of books and reading”.
“We want it to be a celebration of embracing the unknown with a lot of shorter reads as well; a lot of poetry and short story collections.”
Within the shop, the 800 titles on the shelves will be, in the words of Laurence, “curated in terms of mood or vibe; books that we feel complement each other no matter the traditional category or genre that they might be put in”.
This unique categorisation – including ‘natural & earthy’, ‘speculative & otherworldly’, ‘introspective & tender’ and ‘uplifting & hopeful’ – might also be seen as a “shambles”, Laurence admitted.
But he added: “It’s reflective of the world that we live in, our own personalities and organisational flavours.”
Artist Hannah Crossley has designed the colour scheme and logo of Shambles Bookshop – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
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