About Mr B's
Emporium of Reading Delights
Mr B's
Emporium of Reading Delights is an award-winning independent
bookshop in the centre
of Bath. A delightful place to browse which showcases quality writing and
offers wonderfully personal service.
The shop
Our shop is a delight in itself. We are in a beautiful, light and airy
Georgian building on the ground and basement floors, with a magnificent
double-fronted window that's gone all wonky over time.
The shop
has old wooden floors, cream shelves, lots of space to move around in,
chairs to flop in and a pot of freshly brewed coffee.
Team B
Nic, Juliette, Harvey,
Caroline and Vlashka (the incredibly friendly and furry shop dog) - are always
available to spend time recommending or searching for books for you (or
to sniff your feet and ask for a pat, in Vlashka's case).
Premium service
We can also
order books for you with almost supernatural speed - usually within 1 - 2 days
and can help find out-of-print titles, U.S. books and foreign
publications too.
We
try to offer an environment and premium service that will make us a viable and
welcoming alternative to the increasingly homogenised high street
bookshops. If there's any more we could do to achieve this aim, please
let us know.
Great events
We have a regular events program
with author readings and signings, launch parties, children's
events and a regular book group. We are delighted to have hosted an
array of wonderful authors at the shop. In our opening year we heard
readings by Christopher Wakling,
Caroline Kington, writer/broadcaster Miles Kington, Jeremy
Seal. We had a "shakespeare, gunpowder & plot evening with
historians Alice Hogge and Claire Asquith. We had an
afternoon tea party and book signing with Mr & Mrs Laurence Llewekyn-Bowen, and a question and answer session with Jeremy Bowen.
We launched "The Art of Skiing" by Jenny de Gex, with a mulled wine and Austrian cookies evening
and a fun festive evening with local author Jeremy Seal discussing the
history of "Santa" through the ages.
In 2007 we've learned
how to free ourselves with the editor of The Idler and author of How to be
Idle and How to be Free, Tom Hodgkinson - we've
hosted Maureen Freely, Helen Dunmore, Matthew Kneale,
Julia Hailes, Patrick Gale, Robert Twigger, A.C.Grayling
and Booker Prize winner Yann Martel as well as some great kids' events - "Jake Jellicoe" a pirate adventure
story by Jo Nadin and a touch-and-feel Santa book by Kate Lee.
To find out more about our
Mr B's Delightful Book Groups,
click here.
Find out more
To read
more about us, our background and how we became, check-out our
blog
published on the
Guardian website.
