The Diary of a Bookseller

Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Wigtown – Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop. It contains 100,000 books, spread over a mile of shelving, with twisting corridors and roaring fires, and all set in a beautiful, rural town by the edge of the sea. A book-lover’s paradise? Well, almost …

In these wry and hilarious diaries, Shaun provides an inside look at the trials and tribulations of life in the book trade, from struggles with eccentric customers to wrangles with his own staff, who include the ski-suit-wearing, bin-foraging Nicky. He takes us with him on buying trips to old estates and auction houses, recommends books (both lost classics and new discoveries), introduces us to the thrill of the unexpected find, and evokes the rhythms and charms of small-town life, always with a sharp and sympathetic eye.

Warm, witty and laugh-out-loud funny, this gently meandering tale of British eccentricity will stay long in the memory.
– Daily Mail

Funny and fascinating in equal measure – a must for all those of us who haunt the sepulchres where old books are laid to rest.
– Anthony McGowan

The Diary Of A Bookseller is warm (unlike Bythell’s freezing-cold shop) and funny, and deserves to become one of those bestsellers that irritate him so much.
– Jon Dennis, Mail on Sunday

Peopled with fascinating characters … a sarcastic reminder of the struggles of small business ownership, the importance of community and the frustration of dealing with customers … occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.
– Herald

Wonderfully entertaining … Bythell is a true believer, who makes a passionate case for the importance of books
– Observer