posted on 24 Jan 2019

Green Ink Booksellers, Hay on Wye

It may seem unremarkable to discover that a new bookshop has opened in the world’s most famous booktown  but in my view anyone who has the courage and wherewithal to give it a go in the current climate deserves all the praise we can give. In fact it turns out that this is the first new bookshop to open in the town since 2014 – so even more respect is due to them.

I gather that the shop, which is located  at Grove House, High Town in Hay, opened in October of last year and it currently still has something of that newly-fitted-out smell and feel about it. It’s bright and light and gloriously uncluttered but satisfyingly full. I always think it takes time for a bookshop to bed-in and develop a personality and I think it’s fair to say that this is still a work-in-progress for Green Ink. I’m not sure I really spotted a specialism here but the books have clearly been carefully and sensitively selected and their pricing policy is sensible without being either elitist or absurdly cheap. I always think there must be a temptation to under-price your books when you first start just in case you don’t sell anything!

Happily for us, the downstairs room has been allocated to children’s books and although the shelves aren’t stuffed with goodies there was enough here for us to leave with a good armful. I didn’t find that the fiction and literature sections were especially interesting in terms of the stock but that’s not to say there wasn’t good things there - but I’m looking for rarer stuff and that wasn’t so evident. Maybe that will come with time and it certainly makes a return trip a must.

I have no idea what the economics of a second hand bookshop are in a place like Hay but I’m prepared to guess that staying afloat isn’t the easiest of tasks – so we wish them well and, if you’re in Hay, I’m sure you’ll find time to drop in and give them your support.

 

Terry Potter

January 2019

( photograph originally published on https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/17186240.first-new-bookshop-opens-in-hay-since-2014/)