This year has been another wonderful one at Mainstreet and we are incredibly lucky to be able to have so much to keep us busy. 

THE TIMES ARTICLE

We started off 2024 with a bang after being named one of the top 7 best browsable bookshops in the UK by the Times newspaper. We were thrilled to be featured alongside some of our friends and see support for bookshops across the country. 

You can read the article published in January 2024 HERE.

AUTHOR EVENTS

Our year is always mapped out with many authors coming to visit us in St Boswells and this year was no exception. We had Sara Sheridan, Angela Harding, Carys Davies, Ian Rankin, Bendor Grosvenor, Kate Humble, and Ben Pendreath, to name a few. With discussions on cooking, crime, history of art, artisan makers, animal all-stars, sustainable architecture, music and much more, it has been a joyful 12 months of reading, listening and learning. 

Rosamund has long admired the author Ben Macintyre, as have many of our customers, so it was a special day when he visited us in September to talk about his latest book ‘The Siege.’ Then, in November, St Boswell’s village hall had a queue like it had never seen before at it’s door when national treasure, Dame Prue Leith stopped by to talk about how Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom. 

SCHOOL EVENTS

This year we fully got back into the swing of organising school events and sharing some wonderful authors with young readers throughout the Scottish Borders and East Lothian. We had Sam Sedgman, and Abi Elphinstone join us and we had a very special visit from Michael Morpurgo for World Book Day in March. 

WINDOW DISPLAYS

Lucy joined Mainstreet in January of this year and completed her first ever window display with us. She designed one of our windows to celebrate the new range of Vintage Red Spine Classics released in July and also helped bring together our winter windows with help from Maya. 

We also got to welcome an array of children’s authors to decorate our very large plate glass windows. These included Lillias Kinsman-Chauvet, Morag Hood, Emily Gravett and Emily Sutton. It is always magical to see artists take on the challenge and bring their books to life on the Main Street. 

BESTSELLING COOKBOOK OF THE MOMENT

2024 saw a cookbook win overall bestseller of the year in the bookshop. Jess Elliott Dennison’s Midweek Recipes has been our Cookbook of the Moment since it was published and we cannot be more thrilled that it has taken top spot. The Kitchen team refer to it for their menu specials and many of our staff also use it at home for quick and delicious meals. 

We hosted Jess for an event to launch her book back in August and you can read more about why we love it so much and chose it for Cookbook of the Moment here. 

MST TEAM WELLNESS

The Mainstreet staff began a little wellness class this year. Although they spend a lot of time in each others company on shift, they wanted to spend even more together! When they can, they do a little yoga session and relaxing together in an evening after work.

LEARNING ABOUT CHEESE

This year, Deli staff members went to different cheese courses to top-up their knowledge of cheese and  better help our customers when creating their cheeseboards. In May,  Jen and Isobel made a trip to the Balmoral in Edinburgh to attend The Guild of Fine Food  retail cheese training course.  The pair learned all about making cheese, tasting notes, how to confidently assist customers in their cheese choices and stocking decisions. You can read more about it over on our Jen’s blog entry, HERE.

In September, Bill and Jen ventured down to London to try new cheeses at the Maturation Arches. They visited two of our cheese suppliers, Mons Cheesemongers and Neals Yard Dairy. While there, they got to see their warehouses and how all of the cheese is kept, matured and distributed. They also got to try lots of tasty cheese that was then bought in for our own cheese counter.

Bill then went onto Battersea Arts Centre to the The WineGB Trade and Press Tasting to discover a few new wines for our Deli shelves and to meet producers.

THE TIMES FEATURE NO. 2

We thought we had had our allotted press back in January but in September we got a mention in The Times Property section. It was incredibly lovely to see our little village featured  in the list of 20 best secret villages. We obviously think St Boswells is the best but to see it as number 9 on the list is confirmation of what we all know is true. The village has a vibrant community, is surrounded by glorious countryside and has lots of history to explore nearby, so really, what’s not to love?

WORDS OF THE WILD

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Scottish Wildlife Trust launched a nature writing competition, Words of the Wild. The Trust was looking for inspiring and original works of nature writing about Scotland’s wildlife and wild places. Rosamund had the pleasure of being a judge for competition and got to read lots of brilliant submissions from across the country. When judging she was looking for storytelling that combined  information with feeling and a sense of place.

You can read the winning piece HERE.

NEW AUDIOBOOK PLATFORMS

It has been a very exiting year for audiobooks. At Mainstreet we are big fans of an audiobook but with the decline in CD’s, it has become increasingly difficult for us to actually present our customers with an alternative way to buy audiobooks in a physical form. However, 2024 saw two new solutions to this problem.

Spiracle is a haven for booklovers. They are an independent platform that aims to create a bookshop experience online where booklover’s can enjoy browsing, discovering and discussing works in the audio form.  Their ‘Audiobook in a Card’ allows us as booksellers to curate our audio recommendations.  You can discover your next listen through humans rather than algorithms. We have a range of their titles in the bookshop and their elegant cards make a great gift!

You can read more about how it works HERE. 

Voxblock is our best recommendation for children’s listening. Aimed at children, but can also useful for the older generation who want fuss free listening, these players let you listen to audiobooks without the need for Wi-Fi or any app downloads. They come with built-in speakers, as well as a headphone jack, and feature a bedtime mode. However, the real beauty of Voxblock is their audiobook format. Their books come in a physical form and let you collect your own shelf of titles, just like regular books. You can find both the players and the ‘books’ in the bookshop and discover more about why we are so excited about this company  HERE. 

HOME HIGHLIGHTS

Michelle and Rosamund always enjoy discovering new suppliers to stock our Home Department with. They are about to head off to this year’s big Top Drawer Exhibition in London, where they discovered some of last’s years Home Highlights.

Sue Ure Maison is a beautiful ceramics company based in France. Sue herself made the trip to Top Drawer at the beginning of the year and showcased her items that caught Michelle and Rosamund’s attention. Both of them adored the tableware on display and knew they had to get some for the shop.  They chose a selection of items from Sue’s Ambit range, as well as a handful of tapas bowls from her ColourPop Studio Collection. Read more about Sue Ure Maison on the blog HERE. 

We have had Donna Wilson items in stock for a little while now but this year her items deserved the spotlight as a Home Highlight. We added the stunning new quartet scarves to the range we already had. These are 100% lambswool and give you endless ways to keep warm as they have four ends, instead of two. The range created by Donna and her team is an artful blend of playfulness and craftsmanship and it’s clear the work goes beyond aesthetics; it’s about bringing joy and personality into our everyday lives. Read more about why we love Donna’s work HERE. 

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING NIGHT

This year our Christmas Shopping Night was bigger and, although we do say it ourselves, better! We had Deli suppliers showcase their products while the fizz flowed and the first mince pies of the season made an appearance.

As well as our usual festivities we were joined by our neighbours in St Boswells, Lynn Rodgie Art (just across the road), and Julia Cunningham’s bags. Our shops both glowed with twinkly lights on the Main Street as customers moved between the two to discover books, cheese, art and local craftsmanship.

BOOKS OF THE YEAR

As always, our Books team face a tough task of selecting their top reads from throughout the year. This year saw them form our biggest list yet, with 59 books making it into the final selection of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. We set ourselves this challenge with the goal of helping you give the gift of books over the festive period but also with the hopes of letting you discover a great read to end the year on a high with.

You can find all of this year’s selection , broken down by category, over on our Books Blog. 

THE GIVING TREE

Every year we set up the giving tree in our shop (and online) and every year we are blown away by the kindness of our community, near and far. The Giving Tree provides the opportunity for customers to give a book as a Christmas gift for children who may not have many books on their shelves at home. Sarah then gift-wrap’s all the books ready to deliver them to foodbanks across the Scottish Borders, with the hope that each child that received a food parcel would also receive a book.

This year we managed to donate over £1000 worth of books to Selkirk Foodbank and the Salvation Army in Hawick.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to every single person who donated in the shop and online! It is always a marvellous end to the year seeing how many books we are able to get into the hands of children at Christmas.

LOOKING AHEAD…

As we move into 2025 there is lot’s to look forward to. With many new books due to be released our pre-orders page is starting to fill up (and will continually be added to) and our book recommendations will be plenty.

Rosamund has been selected to be a judge for the Walter Scott Prize. In the coming month’s she will be devoting herself to the world of historical fiction and have lots of fantastic recommendation to share with you all. The first exciting announcement to look forward to will be on 18th February 2025 when the Longlist for the 2025 Prize will be shared.

We will also be hosting lots of exciting events throughout the year. To be the first to hear about all of the upcoming author events and general Mainstreet news, sign up to our mailing list via the box at the bottom of the page. Or you can follow us on social media (@mainstreethare).

Finally, we would like to wish you a wonderful new year and hope that 2025 is kind to you all. Here’s to another wonderful year ahead.