Receipts from the Bookshop

Last summer, Katie Clapham began chronicling life at the seaside bookshop she runs with her mother. Over the course of a year, her weekly letters - now a popular Substack, Receipts from the Bookshop - have shared the comings, goings and eavesdroppings that make up the particular world of Storytellers Inc. The triumphs here are small, but hard-won: a tea crisis averted, a book title correctly identified from a cryptic clutch of clues. There's the emotional rollercoaster of playing Receipt Chicken with the till paper; being named the 7th Best Bookshop In The Country by the Sunday Times in a week where daily takings hovered around £16.98. The constant low-key suspicion that more than one customer could mean a flash-mob. Shot through this irresistible year-in-the-life is a love of talking to people, of being part of a fading coastal town, of observing the change of seasons (from Covert Rain to Obnoxious Rain) - and, of course, a love of books themselves. But above all, this is the story of a mother and daughter who took a chance on each other and decided - one facing retirement, one facing future unknown - to try something different, together. Tender, funny and thoughtful, Receipts from the Bookshop is one great love letter to everything we hold dear: small towns, small shops, book chat, weather chat, mums, kids, dogs, and just the right snack at 11am . . .