Norwich: Book City

I promise this post wasn't sponsored by the Norwich Tourist board or whatever. I spent 3 good years living and studying in Norwich, most famous for Colman's mustard, Alan Partridge and being 'A FINE CITY' (Stephen Fy). For those unfamiliar with the city, it's well worth a day or weekend trip: it has really great food and bars (but fairly horrible clubs), excellent live music, and is brilliant for Vintage - there's a really good trail of shops running from the city centre to Magdelen Street...

Off piste! Sorry. It's really great for books. 

The Book Hive on London St

As well as being the stomping ground of great writers, it's amazing for buying books. My favourite bookshop in the world (apart from Barter Books in Alnick, Northumberland, which deserves and may get its own post) is the Book Hive on London St. It's an amazing space, where you can just tell that each book is lovingly placed and ordered and spotlighted for very good reasons. 

When I lived there I spent ages looking at the displays and finding books that the staff had obviously read and loved and wanted to share. They have a fantastic array of art books, and a GREAT upstairs for proper fiction that makes you feel clever. They often have readings and events on from one of the numerous Norfolk-based creatives. (And it's parallel to my favourite bar in the city, Frank's Bar, which does a Shakshuka I still dream about...) You'll definitely find something brilliant to take home by a homegrown talent. The staff are the business too, and clearly love to read, so ask for their recommendations or what they've been reading lately. 

Well worth your time as a book lover in Norwich is trawling through the innumerable charity shops. The indisputable King is Oxfam Books on Bedford St, (Oh! Coincidently on the same street as Frank's!) which boasts a big fiction section, loads of sheet music and a good range of retro comics. The staff are (usually) friendly and helpful, and if you sweet talk them will go a-hunting through the sacred upstairs to find more obscure texts if you like. Another good bet is the Oxfam on Magdalen St, which has furniture, so if you fancy a big creaky reading chair to sip whisky and read Proust on, you're sorted. It's a favourite location for students to do their end of year book drop, so expect lit criticism, philosophy tomes and history books pencilled with notes of desperation and despair. Just how I like my secondhand books. 

So if you like books, go to Norwich. It's a couple of hours from London, less from Nottingham and Liverpool, and is really lovely. You might end up buying my old copy of Old Goriot.