We speak to Gloucestershire’s independent bookshops and ask for their book recommendations for September

The kids are heading back to school after a summer of fun and reading is back on everyone’s radar. This month, we speak to the county’s independent bookshops to ask for their recommendations for readers of all ages, as well as a great local author they’d like to highlight. From love stories and poetry to picture books and young adult thrillers, we hope this gives you inspiration to update your family’s bookshelf.

Rossiter Books
Rossiter Books is a family-run, independent chain of six bookshops, the fourth of which opened in Montpellier Street Cheltenham in March 2022. Andy and Victoria Rossiter lead a team of enthusiastic and knowledgeable booksellers, offering a carefully chosen range of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. The shop offers a great mix of new books, established bestselling titles, and has an ordering service for any titles in print.

Picture Book: Torla and Smorla and the Deeper than Average Hole by Kes Gray and Chris Jevons.
Early Reader/First Chapter Book: Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea by R. A Montgomery.
Middle Grade: Lottie Brooks vs the Ultra Mean Girls by Katie Kirby.
Young Adult: Almost Nothing Happened by Meg Rossof.
Adult Fiction: Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.

Local author shoutout: Earlier this year we worked with Tweedy – heading out with him to two local schools where he gave his usual side-splittingly funny performance and shared his book, Tweedy: The Clown Who Lost His Nose. We are all big fans of Tweedy and it’s very special to give children the chance to meet him at their schools.

Sophia Vadhati is a debut YA author and we recently held a launch party for her in our shop. It was great to connect with Sophia at the start of her journey as a published author.

The Cleeve Bookshop
The Cleeve Bookshop is a family friendly, independent bookshop situated in Bishop’s Cleeve, just outside Cheltenham. They run regular Toddlers Story Time and Writers Workshop events and their website specialises in Signed First Editions, Sprayed Edges and Exclusive Editions.

Picture Book: Grotti by Leonie Lord
Early Reader: Bunny vs Monkey Series by Jamie Smart
Middle Grade: Tyger by SF Said
Young Adult: Hidden Treasure by Jessie Burton
Adult Fiction: U Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Local author shoutout: Jackie Kabler and Amanda Reynolds

Books & Ink
Books & Ink Bookshop moved to picturesque Winchcombe in 2019 after 14 years in North Oxfordshire and is run by owner, Sam Barnes. They stock mainly antiquarian and second hand books, with a small selection of new books, some vintage bears and artisan dark chocolate too!

Picture Book: Otto The Top Dog by Catherine Rayner. A gorgeous gentle tale about Otto the Dachshund, kindness and sharing.
Middle Grade: Twice Upon a Time by Michelle Harrison. Can stopping time solve a murder? Join the Morrow twins in their quest to find out.
Young Adult: This Tale is Forbidden by Polly Crosby. A dystopian world where the tradition of fairy tales is used to suppress and control women. 16 year old Nesta, however, has other ideas.
Adult Fiction: Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones by Jackie Morris & Tamsin Abbott. Exquisitely illustrated by Herefordshire artist, Tamsin Abbott, with beautiful poetic tales of myth and fable by Jackie Morris; a book to treasure for years to come.

Local author shoutout: My favourite Gloucestershire author of all time has to be Ursula Moray Williams who gave us so many wonderful classic children’s stories, including most famously, Gobbolino The Witch’s Cat and Adventures of The Little Wooden Horse.

Cornell Books
Cornell Books is a second-hand bookshop with three rooms spanning the ground floor of an early 16th Century building on Tewkesbury High Street. Originally a merchants house and then The Wheatsheaf Inn from 1503 to 1956, the building was taken over by Caroline Cornell, her husband and late father in 2004. They have been booksellers in Tewkesbury since 1996.

The shop has a large stock of art, architecture, history, poetry, topography, military history, transport and Folio Society books, along with paperback crime novels, vintage sci fi novels, literary fiction, historical fiction, children’s classics, natural history books, travel writing by Tewkesbury author John Moore, and vintage books published by Penguin and Puffin. Their Antiquarian books cover every subject you can think of, and they also have a table and boxes of books all priced at just one pound!

Recommendations: We would recommend the classic book on the town, Tewkesbury by Anthea Jones, and the book Map Cover Art by John Paddy Browne, which is a gloriously colourful book of all the artist illustrated covers of the maps published by the Ordnance Survey from 1897 to 1990.

Octavia’s Bookshop
Octavia’s Bookshop is an award-winning independent, nostalgic, magical bookshop that specialises in children’s books and great recommendations. Established in Cirencester 2011 and still thriving, they also offer a selection of titles for adults and run regular author events.

Picture Book: My favourite is Three Little Monkeys by Quentin Blake.
Early Readers: We are huge fans of the Tiny Dog series by Rose Lihou.
Middle Grade: Our must reads are the M. G Leonard Adventures on Trains series, all Lauren St John books, and Hannah Gold’s incredible animal stories (especially her new one, Turtle Moon).
Young Adult: For teens, we most often recommend Laura Wood’s wonderful historical romances, and Holly Jackson and M.A Bennett’s books for the thrillers.
Adult Fiction: A bestseller and favourite book of all our booksellers is Darling by India Knight. An absolutely charming retelling of Nancy Mitford’s Pursuit of Love.

Local author shoutout: We love doing book events with local celeb and best-selling children’s author Ben Miller. We also had a great signing this year with Tweedy the clown!




The Borzoi Bookshop
Borzoi Bookshop is located in the centre of Stow-on-the-Wold in the heart of the Cotswolds. They are an independent bookshop that has been trading for more than 40 years, owned by Sarah Dennis and managed by Clare Blick. Borzoi Bookshop stock a huge range of books across all genres for adults and children, plus greeting cards and wrapping paper. Their team are all avid readers and enjoy the challenge of finding the right book for each of their customers.

Picture Book: The Biggest Dog in the Book by Ben Lerwill, illustrated by Mark Chambers. This fun story introduces different dog breeds and involves playful repetition throughout.
Early Reader: My Teacher is a Diamond Thief by Pamela Butchart, illustrated by Thomas Flintham. When Izzy and friends get a new teacher, they are immediately suspicious. Another hilarious tale about primary school life from this winning author/illustrator team.
Middle Grade: Cecily Sawyer - How to be a Spy by Iona Rangeley, illustrated by David Tazzyman. A thrilling, mysterious and very funny adventure as Cecily learns how to be a spy.
Young Adult: Sisters of Fire and Fury by Laura Bates. An empowering and courageous tale of a daring sisterhood in which true chivalry means fighting for what you believe in.
Adult Fiction: The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Intelligent, moving, witty and raw – this is a triumph of a novel intertwining themes of depression, divorce, isolation and failure with those of love, community and literature.

Local author shoutout: S. W. Perry. His new book is Cairo Gambit, an enthralling thriller set on the cusp of the Second World War.




Cotswold Book Room
The Cotswold Book Room was founded in Wotton under Edge in 1950, meaning this year they celebrate their 75^th birthday! Since 2020, the bookshop has been owned and lived in by Cathy and Gideon York who have brought with them their love of books and readers. They are supported by a small but perfectly formed team of keen booksellers. They have a broad selection of both fiction and non-fiction books, and are particularly proud of their dedicated children’s room, which is full of colourful, fabulous books.

Picture Book: Super Duper Penguin Slide by Leonie Lord.
Early Reader/First Chapter Book: Rabbit and Bear by Julian Gough and Jim Field.
Middle Grade: The Shrapnel Boys by Jenny Pearson.
Young Adult: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
Adult Fiction: Frank and Red by Matt Coyne.

Local author shoutout: We are lucky, here at the Cotswold Book Room to have an author working in our midst! Laura Pashby, bookseller extraordinaire, is the author of two books: Little Stories of Your Life and Chasing Fog, a lyrical memoir about finding fog and fog finding you.




Fireside Bookshop
Fireside Bookshop is a family-run second-hand bookshop, founded in 1980, which relocated from Sussex to Stroud in 2021. They have a huge range of stock covering everything from fiction to history, art to folklore, academic texts and antiquarian books. Their shop stock reflects their interests and that of their wonderful local community, but they have  thousands more titles on their website and regularly buy new collections to add to their shelves.

Picture Book: The Green Ship, written and illustrated by Quentin Blake. The story is beautifully written and a favourite bedtime story for my young children.
Early Reader/First Chapter Book: The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl. It’s the perfect length to bridge the gap between a picture book and a novel, and the characters are glorious! It was published in novel format as well as a picture book edition.
Middle Grade: Stig of the Dump is a fantastic classic by Clive James. It’s full of adventure and great for children who can confidently read.
Young Adult: Love Nina by Nina Stibbe is the autobiographical writings of a young woman who goes to be a nanny at a literary family home in London. It isn’t strictly a YA book but it’s wonderfully funny and a lovely read for young adults.
Adult Fiction: I have just finished reading Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of Gaiety which has Atkinson’s usual wealth of twists and turns. Her characters are rich and so brilliantly written – it’s a joy to read. It’s fun enough for a holiday read and dark enough to keep you hooked!

Local author shoutout: In Stroud there are so many wonderful writers and I would recommend local poet, Adam Horovitz. He has published several collections of poems as well as a beautiful book inspired by Cider with Rosie and the landscapes that Laurie Lee drew so much from. He has just published a new collection of poems titled Slow Migrations.




R&R Books
Ron and Ruth have run R and R Books in Nelson Street, Stroud since 2002. The shop is a general second hand bookshop, which aims to sell good quality books at affordable prices.

Children’s Books: The Chronicles of Narnia books are a great read for aged 7+ – and lots of adults love them as well!
Young Adult: Agatha Christie is an author who appeals to teenage readers who have perhaps read Robin Stevens’ Murder Most Unladylike series and want to try some other mystery novels.
Adult fiction: There’s just so much to choose from; classics like Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy, mid-20th century authors Graham Greene and Nancy Mitford, and those wonderful Golden Age mystery writers Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham.

Local author shoutout: One of our favourite local authors is Jilly Cooper. Ruth particularly likes her early novels which all have girls’ names as the titles.