The Mold Bookshop shortlisted for top retailer title

The Mold Bookshop is one of 77 independent bookshops listed across nine different regions and countries, in the British Book Awards 2024 Independent Bookshop of the Year Award, sponsored by book wholesaler Gardners.

The awards celebrate stores at the centre of local communities, bringing passion and knowledge to the shop floor.

Caroline Johnson from The Mold Bookshop said: "We are over the moon to be a regional finalist for the Independent Bookshop Of The Year award.

"Our continued success is due to the strong support we get from our loyal, local community. I am also grateful to my colleagues for their unwavering support over the last 12 months."

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Caroline has been a part of the Mold business for more than four decades. She added: "My book-selling career started in a city bookshop where I also met my husband. I moved to Mold in 1981 to become the manager of The Bookshop.

"Six years later my husband and I were able to buy the business. A few years ago my husband retired and a old school friend joined us, and she now helps me to run the business.

"We have been trading in Mold High Street for over 40 years, a generation of readers has grown up with us and we love to see how many of our customers who visited us as children are now bringing their own children to The Bookshop.

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"Being part of the local community is very important to us and we now regard many of our customers as friends, who will quite often call in to share their news."

Tom Tivnan, The Bookseller managing editor, said: "One of the things that is driven home by the selection process for this award is how lucky book buyers in the UK and Ireland are as we are truly in an independent bookshop renaissance.

"This year's cohort is one of the strongest I have seen in my 15 years judging this award. Indies have come out of the pandemic and into a cost-of-living and business rates crises, yet still through innovation and creativity thrive as never before.

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"They are lynchpins for our high street, bringing jobs, footfall and communities together. You can't really pin these indies down as they encompass general booksellers and those who sell into niches; or new shops which have bravely opened in the shadow of the pandemic to businesses that have literally been trading for centuries.

"But if there is a through-line it is that their collective knowledge and passion shine through and prove once again how much better shop floor expertise is than an algorithm."

The regional and country winners of the Independent Bookshop of the Year award will be announced on Tuesday, March 12, whilst the overall winner will be revealed during The British Book Awards ceremony at Grosvenor House London on Monday, May 13.