Guardian and Observer books season 2011

Independent bookshops in north-west England

Your guide to independent bookshops in Merseyside, Manchester, the Isle of Man, Cheshire and Lancashire
Broadhursts of Southport
Broadhursts of Southport Photograph: Dan Kenyon

Cheshire

Bookshop
70 Stockport Road, Marple, Stockport, Cheshire SK6 6AB, 0161-427 4921

The epitome of a friendly local bookshop, with a decent spread of fiction, non-fiction, local history, children's and reference books, and very few bells and whistles. The owner, Gwenda Birkbeck, has built a loyal clientele from the traditional virtues of a bookseller: keeping a fresh and interesting range in stock, and offering a cheerful and personal service. "We like not to copy a big shop, but get things in that might be slightly different," she says.

Nantwich Bookshop
46 High Street, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5AS, 01270 611665

There are few more spectacular settings for a pile of books than this beautiful Tudor merchant's house. The owner, Steve Lawson, puts the venue to good use, creating a well-proportioned bookshop stocking around 7,500 titles on the ground floor, and a cafe on the first, which also spills out on to the pavement on warm days. The range of books is broad, with a dedicated children's section, and there are regular events with local authors – plus more well-known ones such as Phill Jupitus.

Simply Books
228 Moss Lane, Bramhall, Cheshire SK7 1BD, 0161-439 1436

This is a lovely local bookshop and cafe with a broad range of titles and many awards to its name. Its success, since Andrew Cant and Sue Steel opened it in 2002, is an inspiration to other novice booksellers. "We're always trying to think one or two things ahead," says Cant. More like four or five. There are author events, birthday parties with costume characters and 10 different book clubs, as well as two activity mornings for children and afternoon tea each month, which comes with a reading. Do not assume you'll just be popping in.

Cumbria

Bookends, the Carlisle Bookshop
56 Castle Street, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 8JA, 01228 529067

You might not realise it from the outside, but this is actually a large bookshop with 30,000 different titles spread across five rooms. All genres and topics are covered somewhere – and there is even a small range of children's toys – but the heart of Bookends, and its foundations, lie solidly in Cumbrian writing. So you'll find that the novelist and biographer Margaret Forster, being Cumbrian by birth, is well represented, as is her husband, Hunter Davies. Local celebrity Melvyn Bragg has sometimes been spotted prowling the store. The proprietors, Gwenda and Steve, also own the Bookcase further up the road, which specialises in secondhand and antiquarian literature and hosts signings.

Bookends of Keswick
66 Main Street, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5DX, 01768 775277

Much smaller and more recently established than the Carlisle branch, this shop is in many ways its little brother – but it defers to nobody for bustle. Throughout the summer months, when it stays open into the evening, the tourist trade keeps the shop floor humming with the sale of maps and walking guides. Kids' activity books and general reading are also well catered for, so you'll always find some Wordsworth to declaim across the fells.

Fred Holdsworth Books
Central Buildings, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 9BS, 01539 433388

It is 55 years since this shop was founded by the man who gave it its name. For many visitors and locals it is now virtually impossible to imagine Ambleside without it. Arthur Ransome, in the old days, used to come here regularly to check that his books were in stock. Even today, staff still use a wooden till, and are expected to calculate the change in their heads. The shop is no museum, though. Within its broad range, there is a surprising emphasis on contemporary and esoteric fiction.

New Bookshop
42-44 Main Street, Cockermouth, Cumbria CA13 9LQ, 01900 822062

This family-run bookshop has a lot of space to play with and makes the most of it by offering a little bit of everything. These days that includes a coffee shop, newly opened in the spring, which does a roaring trade in cakes and light lunches. The books represent just about everything a reader could want, with a strong showing of maps, travel guides and books on Cumbria. You'll also find regular author events, poetry evenings and reading groups.

Sam Read
Broadgate House, Grasmere, Cumbria LA22 9SY, 01539 435374

It has changed location once, and owners many times, but there has been an independent bookshop called Sam Read in these parts since 1887. As you might expect, it's getting one or two things right. With a beautiful setting, on the corner facing Grasmere village green, it offers a small but well-chosen selection of fiction and novels, with a special emphasis on children, Lakeland titles, and arts and crafts. In 2006, it was named best UK independent bookshop by the Times/Independent Alliance.

Sutton's Bookshop
48 Market Street, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7LS, 01229 588858

The pleasure of a good bookshop lies not just in its books, but in its opportunities for nosing around. In this respect, Sutton's is a marvel. The 200-year-old building may not be large, but it is well equipped with nooks and crannies, with a broad range of new and secondhand books split evenly across two floors (with a third to follow shortly). Trading until a year ago under the bulkier name the Bookshop at the Tinners' Rabbit, the shop is now under new ownership, and draws readers from throughout Ulverston and its environs.

Isle of Man

Lexicon
63 Strand Street, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 2RL, 01624 673004, 

Established in 1936, Lexicon is the oldest bookshop on the Isle of Man and you'll never find one like it anywhere else. The shelves are heavy with books on Manx history and motorsport, a reflection of the local passion that reaches its apotheosis in the famous TT motorcycle race. This goes beyond the books to include a large number of die-cast models and artworks depicting all manner of exciting machines. Manx to the max.

St Paul's Bookshop
Church Walk, St Paul's Square, Ramsey, Isle of Man IM8 1LA, 01624 813733

You only have to look at St Paul's to see the story of its success. What began a little over 35 years ago as a small local bookshop gradually expanded through the walls of first one and then two of its neighbours to become the extra-large general book and gift shop that it is today. Loyal customers now travel from across the island to browse its range, with especially good secondhand and local sections.

Lancashire

Pam's Bookend
67 Queen Street, Great Harwood, Blackburn, Lancashire BB6 7QP, 01254 882477

Keith and Pauline Wheeldon only moved to Great Harwood four years ago, and when they arrived they had never run a bookshop before. Yet today they are part of the fabric of their small town, as their little shop, a former grocers, has been since the 19th century. The bookshop stocks a broad range of titles, with a strong leaning towards children's books. Keith says they like to choose things that are "a bit different". The couple also host various events in conjunction with the local schools, churches and colleges.

Plackitt & Booth
87c Clifton Street, Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire FY8 5ER, 01253 796958

Some kind of witchcraft must have been involved in helping Alison Plackitt and Patrick Booth fit 6,000 titles into this small but inviting place, yet they insist they have. Customers' tastes, in part, give shape to the selection, leading to a strong range in history, biography and children's books. That said, the couple pride themselves on having read and enjoyed a large proportion of their stock. There's usually an event once a month, with Erica James and Victoria Hislop among past guests.

Silverdell
61 Poulton Street, Kirkham, Lancashire, PR4 2AJ, 01772 683444

Some people turn up their noses at the new generation of coffee-selling bookshops, so whatever would they think of Silverdell, where the co-founder also makes and sells artisan ice creams? "We are a proper bookshop," Elaine Silverwood insists, and she and her business partner, Sue Wardell, have the awards to prove it. Their range is good enough for anyone, with a particular strength in children's books. And any shop would envy Silverdell's guests, who have included Terry Wogan, Sarah Brown, Andrew Flintoff and Michael Caine. Each had an ice cream created in their honour.

Greater Manchester

Cornerhouse
70 Oxford Street, Greater Manchester M1 5NH, 0161-200 1503

A leading contemporary art and film centre, Cornerhouse is also home to a splendid bookshop, stocking more than 2,700 specialist exhibition catalogues, artists' books and the like.

EJ Morten
6 Warburton Street, Didsbury, Greater Manchester M20 6WA, 0161-445 7629

So delightfully old-fashioned is Eric Morten's bookshop that you might feel almost awkward to be browsing it without a weskit and mutton-chop whiskers. Tucked into a cobbled side street, the shop is surprisingly large inside, and would be easy for a person who'd never heard of it to overlook. There are not many of those left in the village, however. A large selection of all kinds of new books keeps the regulars occupied for hours.

Ian Allan
5 Piccadilly Station Approach, Manchester M1 2GH, 0161-237 9840

Are you interested in transport, military matters, or model railways? If not, you will struggle to find much excitement at Ian Allan. However, for those who are, this place may be worryingly close to paradise. Owned by the publisher of the same name, this bookshop is one of four branches across England and Wales and it stocks, across two floors, a larger range of factual books about machines and fighting than some people would believe existed. There are some novels and DVDs, too, provided they cover these same themes.

Portland Bookshop
1 Oxford Road, Manchester M1 3GH, 0161-272 6060

What kind of bookshop you find here depends entirely on when you go. From September to Christmas, it's a scene of academic bustle, full of students stocking up with armfuls of business, accountancy, science and law textbooks – a reflection of the university faculties nearby. At other times of year, this is an altogether quieter place, with a small general section that entices just a trickle of passing trade. Such seasonality is precarious, but fresh vigour has been injected recently by secondhand section, which looks set to grow.

Travelling Man
4 Dale Street, Manchester M1 1JW, 0161-237 1877

Comic book shops can seem rather daunting places to outsiders. But Nabil Homsi's four Travelling Man outlets have changed all that. Go into the Manchester branch and you will find not just a lot of comics, graphic novels, manga and roleplaying books – although it does have many thousands of those – but also a large, light, welcoming environment browsed by men and women, young and old, lawyers and labourers alike. The idea that guides Travelling Man is simple: it should be as easy to buy your first comic book as it is to buy your 14,000th.

Urmston Bookshop
72 Flixton Road, Urmston, Greater Manchester M41 5AB, 0161-747 7442

Former teachers Frances and Peter Hopkins opened this little shop a year ago, aiming to be an active presence in the Urmston community. They host book clubs, craft days, film nights, storytime for under-fives and a monthly Books and Buggies session for parents and babies.

Merseyside

Broadhursts of Southport
5-7 Market Street, Southport, Merseyside PR8 1HD, 01704 532064

With a very large range of new, secondhand and antiquarian books spread across four floors, Broadhursts is an institution in this part of the world. Founded in 1926 by Charles Broadhurst, and now owned by his former employee Laurie Hardman, it is among the oldest in the country. "We stock everything apart from heavy-duty science and technology titles," says Hardman, whose bookshop also hosts regular signings from authors such as Michael Palin and Terry Pratchett.

News From Nowhere
96 Bold Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 4HY, 0151-708 7270

Only a handful of radical bookshops remain these days, selling books that "empower people to change the world and themselves for the better", as Mandy Vere puts it. She's not the boss at News from Nowhere; this large shop is run entirely by women as a workers' collective. An institution in Liverpool, it remains very busy, hosting regular events with figures such as Alexei Sayle, Tony Benn and Jeanette Winterson. Magazines, world music and fair trade crafts complement the large range of books on broadly leftwing themes, from feminism and anti-racism to global politics and international development. It will not be moved.

Pritchard;s Bookshop
13 Moor Lane, Crosby, Merseyside L23 2SE, 0151-931 1642

Its sister branch in Formby may have just closed down, but this remains an exemplary small bookshop, strong on popular fiction. Steve Pritchard started the business 35 years ago, and still runs it today with a commitment to the local area. There are good links with schools, with whom the shop has hosted authors such as Malorie Blackman and Julia Donaldson, while former Everton and Liverpool players (including Howard Kendall and Ian St John) regularly appear as guests. So well does Steve know his customers now that he is said to order stock with specific people in mind.

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