STAFF at a 136-year-old book shop are celebrating after being named as a finalist of a national award.

59 independent publishers have been selected across nine different regions and countries as finalists for The British Book Awards 2023 Independent Bookshop of the Year, and Sam Read Bookseller in Grasmere has been named as one of the finalists for North England.

Will Smith works alongside Helen and Kim, and owner Elaine Nelson.

“I think this is just a really lovely vote of confidence in the whole team,” said Will. “We’re an independent bookshop that’s still going after 136 years which is incredible.

“We all get the tales from customers who come in and say that they used to come as a child with their grandad, or for some people they’ve come every year since 1946.”

Will contributes the bookshop's success partly on adapting to a more digital world on the back of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Online events are now much easier to host now that more people have become accustomed to using technology to connect with one another.

He said: “We’ve been doing a lot of online book events. In 2022 we did eight author events and then we recorded those and put those on our YouTube channel.

“Launch events are just fantastic for us because you get to host an online party for everyone that can’t physically get in the same space.

“The highlight for me was when Jon McGregor came by in April during a tour of bookshops and did a zoom event with us.

“I think it’s just brilliant that peoples' newfound love of reading that they found during the pandemic has carried on.”

The store also prides itself on its Cumbrian author connections.

Will said: “We just did an online launch for Victoria Bennett, a Cumbrian memoir called All My Wild Mothers.

“In the run up for Christmas we were selling Amy Bateman’s Forty Farms, it’s a brilliant local book, and last year we had Polly Atkin’s biography of Dorothy Wordsworth, Recovering Dorothy, which was a big seller - as was Lee Schofield’s book Wild Fell which was another great Cumbrian seller.

“Sophie Anderson, who is a children’s writer, is also brilliant.”

Sam Read Bookseller is also excited to welcome the local village school on World Book Day.

Will said: “Maybe for some of them they’ll be buying their first book, its an important ‘gateway drug’ to the world of reading, and it’s great that we have these connections.”

The bookshops will compete to win their region first, which will be announced on Thursday, March 16, before contending for the overall prize, announced at The British Book Awards winner ceremony at Grosvenor House on Monday, May 15, 2023.