Holidays in Britain

I was reading West Wales' thread and thought how about we all let people know about our areas and which places to visit and whether there are any bookshops etc? I live in Worthing on the South coast which has more going for it than a place to retire. The beach is stony but we have a pier and a reasonable shopping centre with expensive car parking. Bookshops consist of Waterstones, Smiths , the Oxfam shop and a couple of second hand bookstores.As I use the library and rarely buy books I don't miss the indies that used to be here, except that they took the novels I write and the chains don't.The charity shops have plenty of books to sell. The three best things about the area are the excellent choice of restaurants and the two theatres, plus the South Downs which is beautiful walking country.There are plenty of buses and trains and easy access to Brighton or Chichester. Is that a good start?

Excellent idea, oldstick! I'll refrain from extolling the virtues of West Wales here (as I may have done it to death elsewhere), but I'll start with mentioning Bristol, where I used to live.

Bristol has a varied historical and cultural heritage, being shortlisted for UK Capital of Culture for 2008 before being pipped at the post by Liverpool. (Not somewhere for seaside holidays like Worthing, though, even if the nearest beach is at Weston-super-Mud, sorry, Mare. Severn Beach, by the way, has no beach; the sand was taken away for sandbags, I believe, during the War.) Since I left there nearly a decade ago, the provision of bookshops has been more than decimated.

Of the chains, Blackwells (formerly the independent George's Bookshop) has shrunk to a shadow of its former self, its main and historic site taken over by a Jamie Oliver restaurant: food for the maw rather than the mind. A large and initially innovative Borders has gone the way of many enterprises. The number of Waterstones has shrunk along with the loss of its apostrophe, from four or five to, I think, two; a particular loss was the University of Bristol branch with its huge range of academic titles; I don't know where students go now, except probably online. There is a branch of Foyles in the Broadmead shopping area, but to me it lacks charm and variety, largely pushing what the big publishers push.

I omit mentioning the ubiquitous WH Smith and The Works for fear of offending gentle souls.

Of independent shops, Clifton Bookshop in Whiteladies Road has long gone, while Chapter & Verse and Pied Piper closed down towards the end of the last century, seen off by Waterstones (complete with its apostrophe then). Whenever I visit Bristol I tend to veer towards Books for Amnesty on Gloucester Road and the Oxfam Bookshop at the top of Park Street, where buying books does you and a whole load of other people good. Further choices are available from here, http://www.inprint.co.uk/thebookguide/shops/location1.php?loc=South%20West&l... but I can't guarantee that it's up to date.

And of course there is LT's own listings at http://www.librarything.com/local/place/Bristol%2C%20England; again I can't guarantee how accurate it is.

If you're in Cornwall, Penzance has Newlyn Books on Chapel Street, which is always worth a nose around for second-hand books. Also on Chapel Street is Chapel Street Arcades, an antiques centre which sometimes has some stalls of books. You'll find new books at the fantastic independent Edge of the World Bookshop: http://www.edgeoftheworldbookshop.co.uk/

A couple of miles from Penzance is the wonderful Cook Book in St. Just: http://www.thecookbookstjust.co.uk/ Lovely books and delicious soup. Well worth a visit.

Over in St. Ives, the Oxfam shop is quite good if you're after second-hand books, and there are two excellent independent bookshops as well: St. Ives Bookseller (http://www.stives-bookseller.co.uk/) and Harbour Bookshop (http://www.harbourbookshopstives.co.uk/).

Your right about Bristol, just Waterstones, Foyles & Stanfords in the centre. The selection in Foyles is depressing. Forbidden Planet is great for fantasy/sci fi books.

To be honest I head to Bath for the award winning Mr Bs Emporium. Fantastic selection, superb staff to help recommend books (v good at this). There is also Toppings & co. great for signed books. Oh and a Waterstones. Plus as a tourist destination Bath is gorgeous & interesting plus a Spa & many cute shops. Bristol has museums, street art, the docks with famous boats

If you visit Birmingham, we still have two large Waterstones in the city centre, with nice staff and a good stock including local authors.

Every High Street has several charity shops, all with a good stock of books, and many have an Oxfam Books.

Stratford-upon-Avon has many second hand and charity booksellers and is worth a visit too, generally, of course!

4 - I agree completely about Mr B's and Toppings in Bath. Two great destinations!

>5 LyzzyBee:
Waterstones in Birmingham, yes, they are surprisingly big, aren't they, within such a short walking distance of each other. I often wondered how even Brum can support two in close proximity.

7: One of the Waterstones (Waterstoneses?) in Birmingham was formerly a branch of the now defunct Dillons bookshop chain. Waterstones took over Dillons and so the branch became a second Waterstones.

I live in Ely, where in addition to a big honking cathedral we also have a Topping bookshop (sister to the one in Bath), which is great for author events and free coffee. And visitors can combine Ely with a trip to Cambridge, which has some excellent bookshops including G. David (antiquarian, academic and general second-hand), The Haunted Bookshop (second-hand children's and illustrated books) and Heffers (academic and general, mostly new but some second-hand too). Plus there's some kind of university there that tourists seem to find interesting.

No one exploring turbulent border history in Northumberland should miss Alnwick's Barter Books, home of the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster.

Though I think the Charing Cross Road in London still beats everything, even Haye on Wye.

I'd recommend a trip to Orkney, the islands off the north coast of Scotland. Fantastic scenery, lots of interesting history from the neolithic right through to WW2. And there are a couple very good bookshops. The Orcadian in the main town of Kirkwall is a very good independent that is run by the local newspaper. Plenty of local history books, guide books and as well as general fiction and other bestsellers.

But my favourite was in Stromness, a remarkable town in itself, which includes one of the smallest bookshops I've ever been in (and Barter Books in Alnwick must be one of the largest!). The shop in Stromness was packed with books, including many recently published books that I'd read reviews of but hadn't seen in the big city stores. Virtually every surface and wall space was covered in books, but the stock had clearly been well selected. It would give many larger shops a good run for their money.

>8 konallis:
Yes, loved the honking or even stonking cathedral at Ely; unfortunately when I visited on a rainy day last year (or was it the year before? Time flies when you age) I spent so much time admiring the architecture I missed the Topping opening times. But did have time to visit http://gdavidbookseller.co.uk/ in Cambridge on the same trip.

We're heading to Chester in a few weeks time - does anyone have any good recommendations for that area? We'll have the car, so not restricted to the City limits.

My idea of a holiday itinerary - castle, country house, bookshop, tea rooms - bliss >:-)

Chester has a couple of nice bookshops. One called Words and Music (secondhand books) is located right on the city walls. LT's venue search might also be helpful :)

Lots of visitors to the Highlands of Scotland are likely to spend at least a little time in Inverness. I'm afraid the town has little to offer to book lovers. There's a Waterstones in the Eastgate Centre although it has a fairly limited range. And also Leakeys - a second-hand bookshop at the very bottom of Church Street in a building that used to be a church. To be honest it's a while since I've been but it's always struck me as being rather expensive. And of course the usual charity outlets including Blythswood (opposite Leakeys) and Oxfam.

From Chester go visit Cholmondeley Castle Gardens. Beautiful gardens worth visiting if only to confound your friends with the pronunciation of their name (which is "Chumlee")

I'm contemplating the phenomenon of British rain today, something that has to be considered for any holiday in Britain.

I was meant to go to a music festival but we've had the picnic in the living room while watching torrential rain fall outside.

15> it does need to be factored in. We had a BBQ yesterday evening. It stayed dry, but was far to blowy to eat outside, so we cooked outside & sat in the dinning room to eat.

>16 Helenliz:
far too blowy to eat outside, so we cooked outside & sat in the dinning room to eat.
'Dinning' room, presumably so called because of the din from the wind outside...

17> Either that or put it down to a terminal inability to spell >:-)

Anyone else in the UK considering going to the Warwick Writing Festival? I know it isn't really a holiday but I thought I'd put it in here anyway.