Demonstration site. Quill & Vane is invented — every price, date and figure is illustrative. Built by SonderVia.
Booksellers since 1974 New · second-hand · out of print Open Mon–Sat 9–6, Sun 11–4

Books, chosen by people who read them.

There is no algorithm behind this shop. What is on the table by the door is there because somebody who works here finished it, thought about it for a day or two, and decided you might like it as well.

This week's table

What is downstairs

Fiction, mostly

Two rooms of it, arranged the way a person would arrange it rather than the way a warehouse would. Contemporary at the front, everything older behind, and a shelf near the till for things we cannot stop recommending.

The second-hand stock changes every week and is priced by what it is, not by what a website says it is worth this morning.

Poetry and nature

Small presses, pamphlets, and the sort of nature writing that is really about people. If we do not have it we will order it, usually for the next morning.

Children's

A whole room with a low window seat and no expectation that anyone sits still. Picture books at the front, and a wall of the things that get read four hundred times.

The reading room, upstairs

A quiet floor with eight chairs, a kettle that works, and no requirement to buy anything at all.

Open to all

Just sit

No membership, no charge, no time limit. Bring your own book if you like — plenty of people do.

Wednesdays

The reading group

Seven o'clock, whoever turns up. We choose the next one together and nobody is quizzed.

By the hour

Hire the room

For a small group, a launch, or a workshop. Twelve people at a squeeze, eight comfortably.

Coming up

Thu 4th
An evening with a local poetReadings, questions, and a glass of something.
£—
Sat 13th
Children's story hourTen thirty, the room upstairs, ages three to seven.
Free
Wed 17th
Reading groupThis month: something short, for once.
Free
Fri 26th
Second-hand late nightOpen till nine, everything on the trestle tables reduced.
Free

Come in and have a look round.

You are not obliged to buy anything, and nobody will follow you about. If you are after something in particular, ask — we probably know where it is.

Find the shop