The Hospice Bookshop

I’ve had a soft spot for The Hospice Bookshop ever since I discovered a copy of Joshilyn Jackson’s Gods in Alabama squashed inbetween other novels. Admittedly, it was the image of the open top car surrounded by open blue sky and white clouds that first caught my attention but it was the opening paragraph* that sealed the deal.
Since then, I find it impossible to walk past the bookshop without a secret smile. Of course, I can’t promise you’ll discover one of your favourite books here but they do have a pretty good selection of fiction and biographies and the book are cheap, cheap, cheap. They also sell clothes and bric-​à-​brac and everything goes to a great cause.
* ‘THERE ARE GODS in Alabama: Jack Daniel’s, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus. I left one back there myself, back in Possett. I kicked it under the kudzu and left it to the roaches.’ Joshilyn Jackson

I always look out for cheap bookshops that offer a good range as such a bookshop is a gem and worth going out of your way to pay a visit to. Until I found this place I thought no such place existed, as you always either get a good range or cheap books, but never both. I came here to find that there is a good range of books on offer and left with two autobiographies for £1.50 (that is £1.50 for both) and very pleased with the results of my visit. The staffs here are also genuinely friendly and I honestly cannot recommend this place enough. If you want cheap books, but are fed up with having to go to loads of bookshops just to give yourself the offer of enough range then this is the place to go.

The proceeds of this business go to St Columba’s Hospice which provides care for people with far advanced diseases ranging from cancer and AIDS to extreme old age. The bookshop itself is well laid out with a good selection of books, none of which are in very bad condition. However, it is not simply a bookshop as its title suggests, it also sells childrens’ as well as adults’ clothes like most other charity shops. I spotted a fairly decent tweed jacket being sold for only £9.
The books are all second hand, naturally, and they have a pretty extensive range of airport fiction as well as some classics and even encyclopedias of natural history. Most books are sold for the normal £1−2 and so it’s definitely a place to look if you’re after a cheap, good read.