Books by and for independent women

Battle of the Bookshops: Scarthin Books in Cromford

Stepping into Scarthin Books is like stepping into my childhood daydreams: nooks and crannies at every turn, clues and trivia posted above the stairs, a café tucked away with cakes and colourful tea cups, hiding places made of bookshelves… An adventure in books! Set over several floors of a converted residential property (there’s still an actual bath in the bathroom) in the picturesque Derbyshire village of Cromford, this bookshop welcomes visitors from far and wide. According to the shop’s website, they “Specialise in surviving…  and can only survive in this beautiful but congested and hidden place because we offer the Compleat Bookshop Experience and a service both Quirky and Competent.” That they do. Pinned around the shop are snippets from stories and obscure quotes – if you can identify them you get £3 book credit (£5 for the really difficult ones), and there was a Utterly Unfair Tall Fathers’ Book Prize as shown below: if Dad’s head can touch the beam without jumping or tip toes, his children get book credits.

They also offer exhibitions and events, a comprehensive ordering service and very knowledgeable staff, a café (where I had amazing pea soup with warm baked bread) and a secret room beyond the roof. No, really. If you venture out of the café, up the stone stairs, past the roof and around, you can enter a small room that contains the Foreign Language section, a huge chest freezer and a fully functioning piano. Add to this the snow covered cobbles outside and views of the frozen lake in the winter sun, and I really was in heaven.

Scarthin Books is ramshackle and it is quaint, but most importantly, it’s full to bursting with thousands and thousands of books. They stock everything from rare poetry collections to new releases, philosophy throughout the ages to antique cartography books, and have a children’s room that boasts over 9000 separate titles! I was also amused by the delightfully positioned Sexual Psychology section – located right near the loo so that an innocent wait for the facilities is anything but. If it’s order and polished surfaces you are after, go elsewhere. Actually, go to Scarthin Books, scramble up the stairs past teetering towers of print, and realise the error of your ways – if this shop can’t convert you to the charm of overflowing independent bookstores piled high with literary treasures, nowhere can.

Alex Herod