Welsh win for Indy Bookshop of the Year
Book-ish in Crickhowell wins prestigious award at the British Book Awards
Huge congratulations to everyone at Book-ish in Crickhowell (and Abergavenny) for their win yesterday at the British Book Awards in London as they were crowned Independent Bookshop of the Year 2024. It’s the second time Book-ish have won it, and as far as I can tell, they are the only shop to have won the award twice (they won it last in 2020). The team, headed by Emma Corfield-Waters, deserve enormous credit for their innovative, creative attitude to selling books. As well as the tires hard work. Selling books, as we all know, is second only to North Atlantic crab fishing as the toughest job in the world, and this kind of award must come as a real tonic for all those efforts.
But is there an even bigger story here?
This win for Book-ish is not only significant because it is their second win, but because it is the second consecutive win for Wales. Griffin Books of Penarth won it last year. Welsh publishing may be going through the wringer at the moment, but it seems bookshops are going from strength to strength.
Gary Raymond is a novelist, author, playwright, critic, and broadcaster. In 2012, he co-founded Wales Arts Review, was its editor for ten years. His latest book, Abandon All Hope: A Personal Journey Through the History of Welsh Literature is available for pre-order and is out in May 2024 with Calon Books.
But this doesn't really tell the whole picture. I think I'm right in saying there isn't a single independent bookshop in the whole of my county, Caerphilly, and very few in the other valleys-centred counties. It can't be a coincidence that these areas show low child-literacy markers. Yes, people can buy books in other places, but those outlets don't have the inspirational qualities of a really good bookshop.
I'm very fortunate to live very close to Griffin's and striking distance of Book-ish :)