Our Story

“We founded Sherlock & Pages with the vision to create a home for the writers and readers who share our passions - landscape, nature, history and heritage. And because the world needs some magic too.”

Luke Sherlock

It started with a walk

Like all the best adventures. A pilgrimage of sorts. From Bath to Glastonbury. Summer 2021. And so it was that Luke and Agathe stumbled into Frome one evening, tired and thirsty. Savouring a pint of Butcombe at the Three Swans they felt immediately welcome. Next day they hiked onwards to the neighbouring village of Mells. Past the old horse chestnut tree where they imagined walking a Lagotto Romagnolo truffle hunting dog, their favourite breed. Luke even wrote about Mells afterwards. A year later they decided to go for it and relocate to Frome. By the end of the year Mona the baby Lagotto was born, ready to join the team. And the bookshop? Luke and Agathe have both worked for over a decade in climate action and sustainability. Outside of work Luke's passion is historic architecture and landscapes, as documented through his @englishpilgrim instagram account. Both wanted community, passion and in the face of so much loss in the world, solidarity. So the idea was born. They'd start a bookshop that would be everything conservation. Real conservation of all we've inherited and all we are responsible to pass on. This would be a place of inspiration and debate, of community, beauty, and a dose of mischief too...

The Renovation Begins

In August 2023 Luke and Agathe were handed the key to 2 Catherine Hill. The bones of this little shop were beautiful and at the bottom of the famous Catherine Hill independent shopping street, it had so much potential. Yet there was a lot of work do. So began 3 months of early mornings and late nights, balancing the renovation of the shop between their full time jobs. Previously the shop was a hair salon, so the task involved knocking down a wall, ripping out a kitchen, rewiring the lights, scraping and repainting the frontage, building the brand visuals and getting them all nicely decorated on the shop and thousands of other little jobs during those hectic months. The shop transformation was recorded for YouTube.

The First Year

One Friday evening in early November 2023 we quietly opened our door to the public for the first time. A few customers wandered in a bought...books. They hadn’t realised we’d just opened for the first time. We were off on our bookselling journey. Christmas rolled by in a haze. Trade was good. Then the reality of high street trading in the rainy post-christmas winter months hit. There were days when we didn’t sell much at all. A viral tweet helped give us a much needed boost. The clouds began to lift, literally and metaphorically. Some of you even began to travel down to Somerset just to visit us. In July we were selected by the Wainwright Prize as their Spotlight Bookshop and in September Faber & Faber selected us Independent Bookshop of the Month. We also launched a YouTube show and in a strange incident our shop was flooded with Vincent Van Gogh postcards sent from around the world.