A Life Style Choice!

Our independent bookshop continues to be a very exciting venture for us – every day really does bring something different.

Running Simply Books is definitely a lifestyle choice!

We’ve met some amazing people, visited places we’d never expected to and been inspired in so many different ways.

From customers who have shared their own amazing stories with us, to authors whose books have inspired us to explore new destinations. Who woud have thought we would climb Mount Sinai or explore the back streets of Barcelona, and we would never have visited and fallen in love with the Isles of Scilly if we hadn’t met Michael Morpurgo!

Why did you set up Simply Books?

I’d always had this ridiculous pipedream about running a bookshop (with a cafe!) ever since visiting Barnes & Noble in Boston in about 1978. I got somewhat diverted by a career in the education service in Manchester (for 20 odd years) so it came as a fantastic liberation to leave the security (lol) of the public sector and set about creating Simply Books from scratch!

My own reading interests…

My own reading interests tend to modern literary fiction, with a smattering of history and politics. I love talking about the books I enjoy (if you’ve been in the shop you may have witnessed this – sorry!).

My favourite books?

A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) and anything by William Trevor.

Why did you set up Simply Books?

I wasn’t going to be involved on a day-to-day basis with the shop – my plan was to continue within the education sector to put food on the table!

Over the summer before we opened I got hooked!

Designing the shop with a blank piece of paper was brilliant, managing the builders not so much fun but good practice for keeping Andrew in line!

I too like talking about the books I’ve enjoyed and sharing them with other people.

My favourite books?

Books with strong female protagonists!