What Books are Selling at the Moment? A Readers Guide

I often get asked 'what books are selling at the moment?' This question often comes from people in the book industry; writers, publishing reps, literary agents etc. Being an unusual shop it's always hard to say. We sell quite broadly across all our niche categories - everything from 'The History of Commodities & Objects' to 'Trees', 'Birds', 'Foraging', 'Historic Architecture' and more. We also tend not to ride the big waves of publishing events, unless they fall within our particular areas of passion.

On Sunday I managed to take photos of what customers were actually buying on a Frome Independent Market day. After many enriching conversations with readers familiar and new I locked the door at the end of the day with the strong sense: 'this is why I became a bookseller.' The passion customers bring is infectious but also we are doing what we first set out to do (see YouTube video below) which was sell books on nature, landscape, history and heritage: to be part of raising the voices of those authors who we believe matter.

So below are a range of those books sold on Sunday. A mix of fresh publications and backlist picks, each with something to say about what this bookshop represents. Several have recently been on my own reading list, including:

• 'Our Oaken Bones' by Merlin Hanbury Tenison. A highly personal memoir and a commentary on the power of reviving and working with nature, particularly the 'Lost Rainforests' (see Guy Shrubsole) dormant on a Cornish Farm
• 'Moon Tiger' by Penelope Liveley. This novel won the Booker Prize in 1987 and was recommended by a customer after I mentioned my love of ' The English Patient .' The story is told by the historian Claudia Hampton, reflecting on her life and the tumult of the 20th century. A backlist pick that doesn't get anywhere near the attention it deserves.
• 'The Kindest Garden' by Marian Boswall. Marian is a customer yet she was very quiet about her own book until I managed to coax it out of her. The passion she holds for gardening with care comes across so clearly on her Instagram Page and in the pages of this practical guide to regenerative gardening. It's also incredibly beautiful, which always helps.

I hope you enjoy browsing and thank you for all your support and we continue on this journey. Onwards we go

We set out on an adventure with hope in our hearts when creating Sherlock & Pages. You can watch the story begin to unfold in this video we recorded for YouTube over the summer and autumn of 2023 - when we first started. The shop we rented was a salon and needed a total overhaul. It took months of work but we got there in the end. Although we always have more to do and I feel like the final vision for how want Sherlock & Pages to look is still quite a long way away. Still, we are proud of where we've got to so far. You'll also hear about the ideas we had for the books we wanted to sell. How nice it is to sit here a few years later and know that's happening - we are helping in our own small way get the literature we are passionate about in the hands of dedicated readers. Long Live the Hedgerows