What an amazing birthday present! At an awards ceremony in the Houses of Parliament last Tues, 13th Nov, Mainstreet was named as Britain’s Best Small Shop 2018 from a shortlist of 25 businesses (and 600 entries). The Best Small Shops competition, managed by the Independent Retailers Confederation (IRC), celebrates the commitment and creativity of independent retailers on the UK’s High Streets and the central role they play in their local communities.

National Bookshop Day on 6th October seemed like the perfect moment to award our winners and runners up from the inaugural Summer Reading Diary competition.  The campaign was launched in June to encourage local and visiting children to review up to five books they’d read over the summer holidays.  There were two categories, 4-7yrs and 8-11yr, and two big prizes – win your height in books!

Sat 23rd June saw Mainstreet transformed into a mini street party/festival for the day, with bunting, balloons, cake, books and masses more – all to celebrate the past 10yrs.  We hope you enjoy this photo diary of all the fun…

Mainstreet is celebrating 10yrs this June.  As part of the birthday campaign, Rosamund and Vivian have selected ten books from ten years of bookselling.
“It was very hard to select ten books to represent ten years of Mainstreet. We tried to think of which book had been the most satisfying hand-sell of each year – it’s an eclectic list, indeed many of the books need to be carefully put into the right hands. The list is dominated by fiction, but also includes some very powerful non-fiction titles and, of course, children’s.” Rosamund

On a sunny day in the middle of May with Bill de la Hey…

ALLIANCE WINES LAUNCHING OUR SPRING LIST

What feels like many moons ago I was invited to sit on a panel to judge an award which went by the catchy title ‘The Award for outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literacy in Scotland’. Ok, so it probably wasn’t that but something similar. The panel consisted of six people with one thing in common – we ALL LOVE BOOKS and are passionate about promoting reading for pleasure among children.

Difficult though it is to believe, there was life prior to The Beast from the East. It was possible to wear normal shoes and walk along the pavements of Edinburgh without disappearing into an eight foot snowdrift. I did exactly this last Thursday and was rewarded with a day surrounded by publishers, booksellers and the odd author. The Annual Scottish Book Trade Conference was in town…

I have been away from the shop floor a fair bit in January so I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to…

Twice a year our HOME team spend a few days in London at TOP DRAWER, a design led lifestyle show which each year showcases talented makers and suppliers from the UK and beyond.