Over 44 years, the Wivenhoe Bookshop has put down deep roots and become a central part of Wivenhoe life. A visit or call to the bookshop isn’t just about a purchase, it’s a conversation, perhaps a long and discursive one, catching up with friends and making new ones.  There will often be an embrace or a shared cup of tea.  Our interests range from the latest adult fiction and children's books to contemporary poetry, political debate, psychogeography and much more. And we are always interested in what is grabbing your imagination too.

Our love of books, reading and the written and spoken word is about finding common ground, widening our perspectives, and sharing new ideas.

2020 has thrown all of this is the air. We have kept going, even when we had to lock the doors, taking orders by email and phone call, hand delivering locally and still saying hello to those who have ‘clicked’ and want to ‘collect’. It’s been an extraordinary and very challenging year, and it’s made all of us think about what really matters. The ties that bind a local community need to be nurtured and sustained, and Wivenhoe has puts its arms around us and reminded us why we do what we do at the bookshop.

As we find ourselves in lockdown once more, this time as the nights are drawing in, we want to be prepared and sustain each other with our shared passion for reading, our escapist imagination and our essential gregariousness.  A new part of the mix is an online shopping option when you shop with us, which you may have heard about in the news.  It’s a new online platform to support independent bookshops, and when you choose to shop on it, rather than with certain non-tax paying multinational corporations, we get a share of the profit, and you help us to support our business at the time of year that determines whether we sink or swim.  We think we can do this, if you stick with us!

We miss you all - our groups, classes and events and our uplifting daily conversations, but we hope that we can still get to speak to you on the phone or in the street.  Let’s help each other reaffirm what it is to be human and humane, and imagine new possibilities together.

With much love

Your Wivenhoe Bookshop Team