Visit our bookshop in Hay-on-Wye
Selling shiny new books plus beautiful cards, ceramics, candles, tote bags and more, North Books opened in the autumn of 2022.
We offer cosy spaces to browse and comfortable nooks to nurture your love of reading.
We host regular author events, book signings and two book groups and operate a coffee bar. For all our up to the minute news, please follow us on Instagram and Facebook. We send quarterly newsletters - please do sign up - simply scroll down and add your name and address.
This year for Independent Bookshop Week (14-21 June) we are twinning with translation specialists, Heloise Press.
During the week a variety of authors will be taking a shift on the bookshop floor:
Kathy Biggs (The Luck, Scrap, Attention All Shipping) will join us in the afternoon of Thursday 19 June.
Julie Brominicks (The Edge of Cymru) is here on Friday 20 June and
debut author, Sophie Calon (Long Going) will be signing on Saturday 21 June from 3pm, when Heloise’s founder and publisher Aina Marti will also be on hand for bookselling chat.
There will be other treats in store, the ‘bookola’ (as we have coined it) and High Five national book tokens to giveaway as well as goodie bags.
Explore our eclectic selection
Find inspiring new fiction including contemporary women's voices, fantasy, young adult and children’s. Browse our range of non-fiction titles focusing on the environment, nature, sustainability and politics, plus our selection of Welsh literature and books by local authors.
If you can’t visit in person you can buy from us online via bookshop.org.
Search on bookshop.org
We host regular book launches
in the shop
next up…
Jay Griffiths - one of Britain’s finest environment writers - in conversation
Wednesday, July 9 5.30 to 7
with a wine and Welsh cakes reception
"If bravery itself could write, it would write, I believe, like she does.” — John Berger
"Her work isn't just good - it's necessary.” — Philip Pullman
"Mighty ... a masterpiece" — Maria Popova (on 'Wild')
“An original and exciting mind, Jay Griffiths’ voice is a light beam in the fog of twenty-first century debate.” — Barry Lopez
"Majestic, powerful and uncompromising, she writes like four kinds of gorgeous" — Bill McKibben
Entry a fiver. Email jules@northbooks.co.uk.
Discover our new gift idea
Are you looking for a special gift for that bookish friend or relative? In which case, we are delighted to present The Bookshop Breakfast voucher which entitles you and your guest to spend time together in the bookshop ahead of opening hours. Read more…
North Books recommends…
Brand new bookgroup for 2025 - Found In Translation - see events for info
Stitches & Stories June choice -
A Single Thread
Pre-order this year’s hot releases, like Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (pub 25 Sep)
email jules@northbooks.co.uk
Out in paperback on 12 June
this hotly awaited sequel to Cecily
email jules@northbooks.co.uk
Signed copies of new releases are available in the bookshop (at no extra cost). Or you can purchase from North Books through @bookshop_org_uk now! https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10764/9780008736903
The hotest fantasy titles available instore and at @bookshop_org_uk link: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10764/9780356522968
Committed to sustainable business
It's really important to us that all of our suppliers and the goods that we sell are as sustainably sourced as possible.
This includes things like packaging and display materials as well as the miles that an item has travelled to reach us.
When we can, we buy locally and would encourage you to as well. Where we spend our money matters. An example of this policy is with our in-house tote bag which was designed by Hay-based print designer Prints of Hay and printed by a Cardiff-based community-based screenprinting workshop Printhaus. The bags themselves are made from ethically sourced organic cotton which is lighter on the planet.
