The Cultural and Community Role of Scotland’s Bookshops
The Booksellers Association launched a new research report on ‘The Cultural and Community Role of Scotland’s Bookshops’ on 19th November, to coincide with Scottish Book Trust’s annual Book Week Scotland. The report spotlights the vital and growing role Scottish bookshops play as...
Samantha Rayner’s Bookshop Bulletins
Bookshop Bulletins: Gatherings Substack This year, Samantha has been on sabbatical, visiting some of the UK’s indie bookshops, and gathering information about how they work within their communities, and how they manage their own staff wellbeing. These visits have been recorded...
KVB Boekwerk: The importance of bookshops according to consumers
In 2019, KVB Boekwerk published the results of a survey into the current added value of bookshops for customers and local areas. This year, they are following up on that research. They have engaged with consumers and local organisations to research...
CFP: BRN Conference 2026: Spaces of Bookselling
Bangor University | 9–11 September 2026In association with the Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book “For such a space entails the unexpected. The specifically spatial within time-space is produced by that—sometimes happenstance, sometimes not—arrangement-in-relation-to-each-other that results...
Bookselling as Resistance?
A Conference Report by Carla Schäfer (University of Münster)
Sam Read bookshop in the news
Read more at the Westmorland Gazette
In Memorium: Dr. Frederick Nesta, 1945-2025
It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of our good friend and colleague, Dr Frederick Nesta, Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Information Studies at University College London. Frederick was a regular attendee of the BRN symposium, joining conversations with humour and insight. He will be greatly missed by us and by those studying and working in bookselling and publishing.
Radical Bookselling in the UK in the 1970s – 90s
The Radical Bookselling History Project explore the vibrant history of radical bookshops (1970s-80s): community hubs, activist networks, and pioneers of progressive literature.
