There we were, happily curled up on comfortably roomy wicker-chairs, besides a toasty coal fire, a vintage paperback in one hand, deliciously warm coffee in another and an alarmingly teetering pile of books on the table. The cosy fire-crackling, paper-rustling fug was broken occasionally by the daughter, who would burst in, eyes dancing with the joy of discovering one more gem — clutching Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle now (‘Jacqueline Wilson loved this as a little girl. Can I please, please have it?'); a vintage Broons and Oor Wullie Scottish annual later (‘we've got to buy this; Granpaw Broon is so ridiculously funny!') — and run off before we could refuse. Not that we wanted to. After all we had — even though it seemed more holiday than hard work — made the long journey down from Edinburgh, just to hunt for books!
Quaint location
Located in Alnwick, a handsome village in N.E. Britain, Barter Books, (housed in an outstanding Victorian railway station) is the brainchild of Mary and Stuart Manley. Marrying interest (Mary's passion for books) and need (a large overdraft), they started the book shop in what was then Stuart's factory in the lovely old station, where the last train plied back in 1968. And a visit to what is easily one of Britain — and perhaps Europe's — largest second-hand bookshops is, as friends pointed out, clearly a pilgrimage of sorts, where, even as you walk in, your favourite deity (take your pick from Jane Austen, George Orwell, Shakespeare among 30 others) beams down at you from a fantastic, life-sized 40-foot mural!
After much rubber-necking and open-mouthed staring — at the little model-trains chugging overhead, the sparkling lines of poetry strung around the shelves, the writer's mural (yes, again, it's so splendidly eye-catching!) — we wandered into what was, over a century ago, the third class Ladies Waiting Room. Settling into the comfy wicker chairs, and admiring the station-turned-shop's many original features (purpose-designed by William Bell, late 1880s, to impress visiting Royalty), we agreed that the bookshop easily deserved its legendary status… for we were as taken by the old waiting room's hand-made chutney-green tiles, the fine timbered ceiling, the splendid cast-iron fire-places, as we were by the tens of thousands of titles on display.
Since it opened in 1991, Barter Books — as the name suggests, old books are swapped around for other old ones! — has always been the place where, says Mary, little old ladies, ardent book collectors, kids and their parents, dogs and their owners are all enthusiastically welcomed and encouraged to browse. Such is the attraction of the shop that friends reminisce, with lashings of nostalgia, about whole weekends spent among the brimming book-shelves; the chatty taxi-driver (from Alnmouth station) talks of ‘a fair number who turn up just for that famous bookshop', and this, mind, is in a town dominated by the celebrated Alnwick castle! High season, we're warned, gets seriously busy, and the children's room, says Stuart, gets wrecked on a daily basis! (Which explains why they have a separate room devoted to kids' books; though, the more valuable first editions are cleverly tucked away elsewhere!). And with the kids happily entertained by a cheeky Horrid Henry or the resourceful Railway Children , the parents are free to explore the rest of the enormous bookshop in peace…
Enormous, of course, barely begins to do justice to the scale of the shop. Lovingly and painstakingly restored by the Manleys, the high-ceilinged space — adorned with striking murals and ably supported by decorative cast-iron columns — houses masses of books, about 350,000 of them (‘that's just an estimate, going by shelf mileage and general guessing; anybody who disputes it can come around and count!' laughs Stuart). Immaculately lining the dark wooden shelves, the books are, thanks to a 40-member team, neatly grouped into categories that boggle the mind and gladden the heart at once! Where steam trains once pulled in, travel and gardening, natural history and religious books stand cheek-by-jowl; fiction and romance, vintage humour and Penguin crimes — among other best-selling genres — grace the shelves by the old waiting rooms; rare, beautifully bound copies, some many centuries old (a 17th century book on Italian Inventions, costing £17,000 is their dearest book, says Stuart) are, naturally, displayed in glass cabinets.
Wide variety
We pick our favourites (many costing a modest fiver) and heap them onto the thoughtfully provided shopping baskets. Around us, old couples hunt down rare railway books, a father and son have a hearty laugh reading aloud passages from old, beautifully bound copies of Punch , young girls plonk themselves on the bright, squishy sofas, their noses buried between Twilight sagas, and a lady with a silky black Labrador (‘it's our first visit here and we love it!') is visibly delighted at the extensive pets section, and the fact that the shop has kindly provided a bowl of water for her beloved pooch….
Back on the train, we ignore the beautiful scenery unfolding outside, choosing instead to chuckle over How To Be Poor (George Mikes, £4.60) and Doctor Doolittle and the Green Canary (Hugh Lofting, £3.60), daydreaming of another trip to what has been hailed by the New Statesman as ‘The British Library of Second-hand Book-shops'. A sobriquet, we agree, it well and truly deserves…
Quick facts
Location: Alnwick is in Northumberland, in N.E. England, about an hour by train from Edinburgh/Newcastle.
Station: Alnmouth for Alnwick
Barter Books is a £8 taxi ride from Alnmouth station.
The bookshop is open every day except Christmas.
