James reads everything and anything, and loves it when a random recommendation leads to the discovery of a brand new favourite author.  Through membership of a book group, he has driven a taxi round Edinburgh, fought the Japanese in Burma, sold hot dogs in New Orleans, trudged across post-apocalyptic America, gone through puberty in the 80s, and delivered babies in a maternity ward, all lives lived through the magic of reading.  He can usually be found slurping tea and doing a crossword, and agonising over what to read next.  He LOVES David Mitchell and Sarah Waters, John Le Carre and William Shakespeare, Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Strout, Julian Barnes and Jonathan Coe.  Bedtime stories with his three children are golden times…especially when one of them chooses Tintin or Funny Bones or The Secret Seven.  He takes a book just about everywhere because you never know!

Louise reads on the go, in the car, stood up, sat down, or in a queue – in fact, if she sees a queue she’ll join it just to get a bit of reading in! Her three children run to her with books, which makes her heart sing.  She loves children’s fiction but also enjoys reading modern fiction and autobiographies. Raynor Winn, Matson Taylor, Sarah Crossan, Mary Lawson and Sarah Moss are her favourites. When she isn’t reading, she’s writing huge lists on beautiful stationery, performing magic with maths, and painting pebbles to hide around Holmfirth.  When it comes to cake, only chocolate will do, thank you.  The children’s section of the shop is her pride and joy.

Honor loves stories with strong female characters; Serena Patel’s Anisha books, Rooftoppers, The Explorer and anything by Katherine Rundell and all of Jasbinder Bilan’s books. She has recently discovered the wonder of reading in her head, and can often be found sitting up in bed past lights out reading…about how to conquer the world!  She loves Brownies, sweets, getting muddy in the outdoors, crafts and Netflix, and is very, very excited that her family have a bookshop. She is counting down the days until she can work with us.

Arthur spends ages poring over his non-fiction collection, and can tell you all sorts of random facts about the Titanic, dinosaurs, sharks, The Great Fire of London, lighthouses, pirates and mountains.  He also loves Horrid Henry, but is taking far too much inspiration from the character for his parents’ liking!  He is the funniest boy in Holmfirth, if not the whole of West Yorkshire, has terrible taste in cartoons, and can be mostly found surrounded by mountains of Lego or playing Minecraft.

Evie adores books about animals, fairies and Maisie Mouse, her greatest love of all.  She will only consider a book up to her standards if the main characters are animals, but has made an exception for Each Peach Pear Plum, a book she has read one million times.  Her lungs are enormous, a Darwinian necessity when you’re the third child in an already raucous house, and expresses her will freely and with gusto. Sometimes in the shop, too… Evie is also in training to work in the shop but still needs a lesson in customer service. “What do you want, lady?” doesn’t quite meet our expectations! Evie loves life and lives it triumphantly.

Penny has been a bookworm since discovering the Famous Five and Just William aged 5 and working in a bookshop has been her dream ever since!  She and her sister spent many a happy hour ‘cataloguing’ their books as children. If she has a specialism it would be 20th century literature and is a huge fan of the Jazz Age so F Scott Fitzgerald is a particular favourite.  Her reading pile never goes down and she loves most genres of books.

Penny has recently been blessed with grandchildren and is enjoying introducing them to the joy of books. In addition to reading she can be found trying to keep fit at the gym and the byways of Holmfirth, growing healthy weeds in her garden, sewing and baking (hence the trying to keep fit!)

Jim grew up in Holmfirth and has loved books since reading Roald Dahl’s The Magic Finger in infant school.  Over the years his favourite books have included The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Big Sleep, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Catch 22, The Siege of Krishnapur, Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina.  One of the worst parts of growing up is realising there are many, many more good books than there are hours to read them, but he is doing his best. He also writes books for Children: Baby’s First Bank Heist was published by Bloomsbury in 2018.

Clare will read anything that takes her to a different time or place, which doesn’t narrow it down much, and adds so much to her reading list from recommendations that it could be classed as a hobby in its own right. The absolute best bit of any book is that very specific moment where it tips over from being possible to put the bookmark in to absolutely can’t put this down until its finished! Favourites include Ready Player One, The Night Circus, Station Eleven and anything by Terry Pratchett. She loved the Hobbit so much her first dog was called Bilbo, and she loves Snoopy so much her current one is called Lucy. When not reading, walking or playing with her children, Clare can be found asleep in the corner! She may also occasionally sing and apologises profusely in advance.

Ruth is an avid reader, she’s particularly fond of beat literature from the 60’s, poetry, feminist literature and novels where not much actually happens. She is currently loving the Elena Ferrantes and reading lots of young adult fiction for her children, with a sideline in crime and modern literature, but honestly, any novel will do.

When not buried in books she grows flowers by the armload, irons teatowels, walks her two mad labradors and daydreams about living on her own island. Her current favourite word is ‘retronym’.”