Receipts From the Bookshop : A Bookseller's Year

"Absolute Heaven" India Knight
"Warm and uplifting" Aj Pearce
"The perfect antidote to the world right now" Jennie Godfrey

Many of us dream of owning a bookshop, but for Katie Clapham it happened by accident, when she moved back to the seaside town she grew up in and went into business with her mum.

Once a week, Katie sits behind the counter and chronicles the day's comings and goings - mostly people who were actually hoping to catch her mother. The triumphs here are small but hard won: a tea crisis averted, a book title correctly identified from a cryptic clutch of clues. Not to mention the emotional rollercoaster of being named the seventh-best bookshop in the country by The Times on a day where takings came to around 16.98.

Customers appear for a browse and a chat, in search of a recommendation or the perfect gift. Others enter the shop for more unexpected reasons - to borrow a screwdriver, locate a priest or simply to ask if there's "a nice place for an omelette around here". Each day brings its own joys and frustrations, though not always in equal measure . . .

Funny, surprising and affectionate, here is a bookseller's year in all its weirdness and wonder - a life-affirming celebration of bad weather, good books and the irreplaceable role of a local bookshop.