Independent Bookshop Week: The Yorkshire stores championing reading for pleasure and bringing communities together
Amanda Truman has a celebratory week ahead. Not only has her shop, Truman Books, been chosen as a champion for the 20th anniversary of Independent Bookshop Week, it will be marking its own milestone too – five years since launching in Farsley, Leeds.
When 52-year-old Amanda’s 20-year career in the travel industry ground to a halt during the Covid pandemic, she sold her house in London and moved north to Yorkshire, settling in the city of Leeds where she’d studied many years earlier. "It felt like a year to be bold,” she reflects. “We all had time and space to think about our lives and how we wanted them to look. This idea to open a bookshop kept cropping up in my head so I thought let’s give it a go.”
That was back in 2021 and since then Amanda, the daughter of an English literature teacher, has firmly embedded Truman Books in the local community. The shop and cafe was selected by The Booksellers Association as a champion for this year’s Independent Bookshop Week, starting Saturday, as a result of its engagement and how it encourages reading for pleasure. There’s weekly children’s storytime sessions, a young readers’ review panel, a monthly book club social and big read events, and Truman Books is also a presenting partner for Farsley Lit Fest.
Amanda, who is organising a community takeover of the shop next week with curated displays of ‘top five’ books from local authors and businesses, says: “If a bookshop gets behind a particular title, they’re talking about that book to people day in day out...So I think independent bookshops are important particularly for bringing debut authors to the attention of readers. I also think they're important in the community (for bringing people together)...I think in an increasingly digital world people are hungry for real life connection.”
Truman Books is not the only Yorkshire shop that has been chosen as a champion to represent the independent bookselling sector and its impact. Barnsley-based The Book Vault, co-owned by 55-year-old Keith Cowans and his mother Ivy Doherty, 79, launched in 2019, with the pair hoping to bring “books, reading and the enjoyment of that back to the town centre”.
Between them, they have backgrounds in literacy, language and education and the shop features a dedicated children’s area, reflecting their commitment to accessibility and learning. The Book Vault works with school and community organisations, supports Barnsley Libraries’ author events, hosts a romance and romantasy book club, and collaborates with local poets and writers including Milly Johnson and Joanne Harris on events for readers of all ages.
To kick off Independent Bookshop Week, it will hold a poetry reading and open mic night, with other events including a visit from author Matt Coyne and a comic workshop taking place through June. Keith says: “We are passionate about bringing the joys of reading to Barnsley...Independent Bookshop Week is a celebration of the impact that stores like ours bring to culture and the economy across the nation.”