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BookBar brings people together through books. We are a bookshop, events and social space, serving wine, coffee and the best book recommendations. Our Shelf Medicate Prescription and Consultation Service prescibes bespoke book recommendations for aspiring and avid readers. Welcome to BookBar an independent bookshop and social space in London BookBar brings people together through books. Come and visit our bookshop, wine bar and events space in Islington or Chelsea, join us for one of our in person events, browse and order books online or join our BookClub. Upcoming Events BookBar Presents... An Evening with Maria Semple and Nina Stibbe Mon 25 May BookBar Chelsea More info Details Sufiyaan Salam in conversation with Gurnaik Johal | BookBar is Five Festival Wed 03 Jun BookBar Islington More info Buy Tickets Claire Daverley in conversation | BookBar is Five Festival Thu 04 Jun BookBar Chelsea More info Buy Tickets Buy our Book of the Month* and get a paired glass of Invader Orange for £5 *for collection only Order your copy of Transcription Order your copy of Frida Slattery What's New? Talking Classics by Mary Beard Price £16.99 The Village on the Edge of the World by Herta Müller Price £16.99 Weimar : Life on the Edge of Catastrophe by Katja Hoyer Price £30.00 Rough Edges by Natasha Carthew Price £20.00 Up All Night: A History of Going Out by Imogen Willetts Price £25.00 Hungry : A Biography of My Body by Katriona O'Sullivan Price £18.99 Said the Dead by Doireann Ni Ghriofa Price £18.99 Selfish Girls by Abigail Bergstrom Price £9.99 Elisa's Pick Elegy, Southwest by Madeleine Watts Price £10.99 Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler Price £9.99 The Kitchen Book by Ella Risbridger Price £26.00 Jess's Pick Tree by Aya Koda Price £11.99 Esme's Pick The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri Price £10.99 Polly's Pick Cathedrals by Claudia Pineiro Price £11.99 Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer Price £16.99 Bimbo by Ashley James Price £22.00 The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout Price £18.99 Upcoming Event! American Fantasy by Emma Straub Price £18.99 Smallie by Eden McKenzie-Goddard Price £16.99 Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller Price £18.99 Amy's Pick Solace House by Will Maclean Price £20.00 Fruit Fly by Josh Silver Price £16.99 A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz Price £22.00 Porcupines by Fran Fabriczki Price £16.99 Browse our full list of recommendations Books we can't wait to recommend in 2026 Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez Price £16.99 It Comes in Waves by Rukky Brume Price £16.99 Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein Price £16.99 Hard Place by Gab Torr Price £16.99 Mrs Dickens by Emily Howes Price £20.00 Tillinghast by Clare Cavenagh Price £16.99 Uprising by Tahmima Anam Price £16.99 Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer Price £16.99 All In by Claire Powell Price £16.99 Skin Contact by Elisa Faison Price £18.99 The Devoted by Catherine Cho Price £16.99 Whistler by Ann Patchett Price £20.00 Natural Disaster by Lisa Owens Price £16.99 Amy's Pick The Children by Melissa Albert Price £18.99 Chandler's Pick Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel Price £18.99 Partita by Barbara Kingsolver Price £20.00 Land by Maggie O'Farrell Price £25.00 Chrissy's Pick Stations by Louise Kennedy Price £20.00 Chrissy's Pick John of John by Douglas Stuart Price £20.00 Chrissy's Pick I Want You To Be Happy by Jem Calder Price £14.99 Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead Price £22.00 Chrissy's Pick American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee Price £22.00 The Traveller's Library by Chandler Bray Price £16.99 Browse our full list of recommendations Signed Copies Signed MEDesque : Everyday Recipes with Mediterranean Roots by Georgina Hayden Price £26.00 Signed Go Gentle by Maria Semple Price £20.00 Chandler's Pick My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein by Deborah Levy Price £18.99 We all love! Transcription by Ben Lerner Price £14.99 Signed What Am I, a Deer? by Polly Barton (Author Edition) Price £16.99 Signed Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy Price £16.99 Signed Jesus Christ Kinski by Benjamin Myers Price £18.99 Signed Night People : How to Be a DJ in ‘90s New York City by Mark Ronson Price £25.00 Signed Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors Price £9.99 You Are Here by David Nicholls Out of stock Amy's Pick A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle Price £10.99 Signed A Long Winter by Colm Toibin Price £12.99 Signed New Cemetery Price £14.99 Signed No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes Price £20.00 Signed Ferment : The Life-Changing Power of Microbes by Tim Spector Price £25.00 Signed We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad Price £16.99 Signed Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood Price £16.99 BookBar Favourite! Ungone by Hannah Patterson Price £10.99 Signed Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi Price £22.00 Amy's Pick Dusk by Robbie Arnott Price £16.99 Signed Tart by Slutty Cheff Price £16.99 Signed Picture Imperfect by Jacqueline Wilson Price £22.00 Browse our full list of recommendations bookbar bookbags Our iconic canvas BookBags are the perfect size for your daily essentials. Buy a BookBar Tote now! The BookBar loyalty card In partnership with Ambler Primary School. Buy a book and get a stamp. When you get ten stamps we'll donate a book to a child from Ambler. Visit our bookshop, wine bar, events and social space at 166 Blackstock Road to get started. Follow us on Instagram for our latest recommendations and news @bookbaruk Load More Check out our famous BookBar playlists, courtesy of BookBar's resident DJ

Wherever you're going this Summer, take our selection of the most sizzling stories with you Pool-side or park-side, here's our pick of the paperbacks to accompany your Summer

Shelf Isolation: 7 Historical Novels to Escape to in Lockdown When reading, I love nothing more immersing myself in another time or place I have never been, where I am propelled into the lives of characters whose world is so removed from my own. It's why I love historical fiction. Here are some of my favourites, that will, I hope, be the perfect escape. The Epics WolF Hall, Bring Up The Bodies and The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel If you haven’t yet read these evocative novels, now is the time. Telling the story of the rise and fall of Henry VIII’s right hand man, Thomas Cromwell, every page seethes with the life of the Tudor court and the sounds, smells and sights of the sixteenth century. This is far more than just well-written historical fiction; this is vibrant world-building, biting and vivacious. £9. 99 Add to Basket Outside the Gates of Eden by Lewis Shiner Two teenagers meet in the summer of 1965 and, inspired by their hero, Bob Dylan, decide to form a band. The novel follows them through the next five decades, into the Summer of Love, the hope of those years, and the disillusion that followed. Described by George R.R. Martin as ‘a brilliant requiem for our generation and all our dreams’, it’s an epic about music and friendship, with a phenomenal soundtrack to boot. £25.00 Add to Basket Washington Black by Esi Edugyan When field slave Washington's plantation in Barbados is taken over by two Wilde brothers, he is taken on as the eccentric 'Titch' Wilde's personal servant. Titch is an eccentric scientist whose lofty ambition to build an aerial machine will take Washington on a life-changing - and perilous - adventure. Supreme adventure writing unlike any other that was deservedly shortlisted for the Booker Prize. £8.99 Add to Basket The Love Stories Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave An exquisite and unsentimental Second World War novel, which follows Mary, a debutante who leaves finishing school unfinished to join the war efforts. Although Mary is disappointed at the lack of glamour at being appointed a school teacher rather than a spy, what follows is a stunning love story set on the home front that so beautifully evokes the period. Love is Blind by William Boyd When conscientious piano tuner Brodie is offered a job in Paris, he jumps at the chance to leave Edinburgh to escape his puritanical father. When he falls in love with a rising opera singer, his passion takes him around Europe, and leads to devastating consequences. Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous change of nineteenth century Europe, Love is Blind is an extraordinary novel about love and fate, with such a rich setting, you can’t help but feel that you are travelling Europe with Brodie. £7. 99 Add to Basket £8. 99 Add to Basket The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser In 1936, a group of bright young things descend on the country house of an older family friend for a long weekend. There passions are lit, mistakes are made and when the weekend is marred by a sudden and tragic death, each leaves with secrets that will reverberate over the coming years. It’s a glorious period piece with brilliant characters that unravels the way that we often walk blindfolded towards political and personal crisis. £8. 99 Add to Basket The Thrillers Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Lesbian bodice ripper, twisting thriller, historical caper, Fingersmith defies genre. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves – fingersmiths – under the rough care of Mrs Sucksby and her ‘family’. But when she is sent to be the companion to a wealthy young woman, her life changes forever. Fingersmith is a jaw-dropping, rip-roaring romp through Victorian England that wins BookBar’s award for most shocking plot twists. £8. 99 Add to Basket The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton Set amidst the New Zealand gold rush of the 19th century, Eleanor Catton’s novel is a superbly plotted, epic historical thriller. Over the course of this 800-page novel, thirteen men come together to solve three crimes: the disappearance of a wealthy man, the suicide attempt of a sex worker and the discovery of a huge fortune in a wastral’s home. A magnificent historical drama. £9. 99 Add to Basket This Lovely City by Louise Hare Lawrie has sailed across the ocean on the Empire Windrish to begin a new life of Blitz-wrought London, spending his days as a postman and his nights soaking up the jazz scene of Soho's music halls. But when he makes a terrible discovery and finds himself on the wrong end of a murder investigation he realises his new home isn't quite as lovely as he thought. This vibrant novel is so much more than a crime novel. It's an evocative story about prejudice, love and family that's full of heart and hope with a buzzing post-war London setting. £12.99 Add to Basket

The Grief of the Sea by Jennifer Edgecombe Bryan Wynter's 'Landscape, Zennor' by Jennifer Edgecombe (from 'The Grief of the Sea') The dark is the sea that has soaked through, dripping into buckets already full - night-time in the day; the granite blackened, the fields dimmed, the moon in each headlight. With each stroke of the paddle, you tried to keep time with the sea - the blue pulling you deeper into the undertow. In the gallery, my small body of water rests in front of your canoe your final form, unmoored. Buy Hardback Buy Paperback

Choose a book, add a card and let us know what message you'd like to include and we'll send a parcel straight to your loved one. Cards Kinky CARDS Lockdown Love Make someone's day by sending them a card. Birthday Wishes Other Occasions Thank You Happy-Making Scenes Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler Price £9.99 The Kitchen Book by Ella Risbridger Price £26.00 Tree by Aya Koda Price £11.99 Esme's Pick The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri Price £10.99 Polly's Pick Cathedrals by Claudia Pineiro Price £11.99 Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer Price £16.99 Bimbo by Ashley James Price £22.00 The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout Price £18.99 Upcoming Event! American Fantasy by Emma Straub Price £18.99 Smallie by Eden McKenzie-Goddard Price £16.99 Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller Price £18.99 Amy's Pick Solace House by Will Maclean Price £20.00 Fruit Fly by Josh Silver Price £16.99 A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz Price £22.00 Porcupines by Fran Fabriczki Price £16.99 Signed MEDesque : Everyday Recipes with Mediterranean Roots by Georgina Hayden Price £26.00 The Return of the King: Book 3 by J.R.R. Tolkien Price £9.99 The Two Towers: Book 2 by J.R.R. Tolkien Price £9.99 The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 by J.R.R. Tolkien Price £9.99 BookBar BookClub: The Correspondent with Virginia Evans Price £18.00 Picked your card? Now choose a book to send with it. Browse our book recommendations

Privacy Policy We receive, collect and store any information you enter on our website or provide us in any other way. In addition, we collect the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information and purchase history. We may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information, and methods used to browse away from the page. We also collect personally identifiable information (including name, email, password, communications); payment details (including credit card information), comments, feedback, product reviews, recommendations, and personal profile. When you conduct a transaction on our website, as part of the process, we collect personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address. Your personal information will be used for the specific reasons stated above only. We collect such Non-personal and Personal Information for the following purposes: To provide and operate the Services; To provide our Users with ongoing customer assistance and technical support; To be able to contact our Visitors and Users with general or personalized service-related notices and promotional messages; To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred Non-personal Information, which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services; To comply with any applicable laws and regulations. Our company is hosted on the Wix.com platform. Wix.com provides us with the online platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you. Your data may be stored through Wix.com’s data storage, databases and the general Wix.com applications. They store your data on secure servers behind a firewall. All direct payment gateways offered by Wix.com and used by our company adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers. We may contact you to notify you regarding your account, to troubleshoot problems with your account, to resolve a dispute, to collect fees or monies owed, to poll your opinions through surveys or questionnaires, to send updates about our company, or as otherwise necessary to contact you to enforce our User Agreement, applicable national laws, and any agreement we may have with you. For these purposes we may contact you via email, telephone, text messages, and postal mail. If you don’t want us to process your data anymore, please contact us at hello@bookbaruk.com. We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it. If you would like to: access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you, you are invited to contact us at hello@bookbaruk.com

Visit bookbar Address and Contact 166 Blackstock Road, London, N5 1HA 020 3457 5186 | hello@bookbaruk.com Opening Hours Monday - Closed Tuesday - 10am-6pm Wednesday - 10am-9pm Thursday - 10am-9pm Friday - 10am-9pm Saturday - 10am-9pm Sunday -11am-6pm ***Please check our events programme before visiting. If there is an event happening in the shop, we will be closed to anyone who doesn't have a ticket. We also keep Google up-to-date with any opening time changes.*** Accessibility Information There is a step to enter the shop and steps throughout the space. The bathroom is down a flight of stairs in the basement level. Outdoor seating is accessed at street level. Laptop Policy We love being a space that inspires creativity. However, we are also a busy retail and social space. We therefore limit laptop use to our downstairs Book Cellar and ask that laptop users only use laptops on weekdays before 6pm. We do not allow laptop use anywhere over the weekend. We ask that customers refrain from taking video and phone calls at all times. Feel free to bring your own book, notebooks and pens any time. Address and Contact 11 Chelsea Manor Street, SW3 3TW 020 3668 3422 | chelsea@bookbaruk.com Opening Hours Monday - 10am-6pm Tuesday - 10am-6pm Wednesday - 10am-9pm Thursday - 10am-9pm Friday - 10am-9pm Saturday - 10am-9pm Sunday -11am-6pm ***Please check our events programme before visiting. If there is an event happening in the shop, we will be closed to anyone who doesn't have a ticket. We also keep Google up-to-date with any opening time changes.*** Accessibility Information Our bookshop and outdoor seating can be accessed at street level. We also have an accessible restroom available. Laptop Policy We love being a space that inspires creativity. However, we are also a busy retail and social space. We therefore limit laptop use to our bar stools and ask that laptop users only use laptops on weekdays before 6pm. We do not allow laptop use anywhere over the weekend. We ask that customers refrain from taking video and phone calls at all times. Feel free to bring your own book, notebooks and pens any time. stay in touch Follow us on Instagram @BookBarUK Book orders Order online or email the shop for collection or to arrange delivery Join our mailing list Sign up here Events enquiries events@bookbaruk.com Press enquiries hello@bookbaruk.com

Stuck in a reading rut? Want to get into the habit of reading but don't know where to start? Or simply want to expand your reading tastes? Our Shelf Medicate Prescription and Consultation Service is designed to help cure any literary ailment. Just what the doctor ordered. Shelf Medicate Subscriptions Stuck in a reading rut? Want to get into the habit of reading but don't know where to start? Or simply want to expand your reading tastes? Our Shelf Medicate Subscriptions are designed to cure any literary ailment. Just what the doctor ordered. Purchase a Shelf Medicate Subscription and receive a book delivered to your door every month, personally selected for you by BookBar's literary experts. Choose between the hardback or paperback subscription. You'll then meet with our expert for a consultation before embarking on your reading adventure. Paperback Subscription Paperback Subscription 12 months 1 book a month £230 (includes P&P) Add to Basket Hardback Subscription 12 months 1 book a month £350 (includes P&P) Add to Basket 6 months 1 book a month £125 (includes P&P) Add to Basket 6 months 1 book a month £190 (includes P&P) Add to Basket Give a BookBar Gift Voucher If you can't decide which Shelf Medicate Subscription to give someone you love, buy a BookBar voucher, and let them choose their subscription, book a consultation, or order their own books. Continue

The Coming-Down Time by Robert Selby Shadows on the Barley by Robert Selby (from 'The Coming-Down Time') When our train goes over the river sending all the bridge bats aquiver into the pink evening; when the poplar’s shadow on the barley is not wanting for company and the castle turret is gleaming, it’s time for that part of the day, a few hours at least, that we can say are ours. The train slows down into the freedom beyond the tunnel, into the redbrick commuter town where we can peel off our office flannel, excited like kids home from school, flinging windows wide, excitable for the kettle’s click, the shower, for the can’s nozzle in every flower; then you, in your PJs already, post-shower bob a glorious melee, feet up on the kitchen table reading the paper you didn’t get to on the morning train because, again, we had slumped together in sleep, in a jerking, dribbling heap, dreaming of shadows on the barley. Add to Basket Praise for The Coming-Down Time 'Vivid, precise and stamped with a very English restraint, these poems deftly connect people and place across the span of a long century. There are images, echoes and correspondences here that resound as truthfully and as poignantly as a village church bell.' Melissa Harrison '... a marvellous anatomy of English life over the past century, working outwards from its gripping evocation of a family centre in East Anglia by a writer who is at once poet, local historian and naturalist. The book focuses on the extraordinary development of war experience into the familiarity of the period which is 'now and England' showing in its final part how everyone's personal life is in direct descent from the personal lives of ancestors.' Bernard O'Donoghue 'War and peace, past and present, love and death: The Coming-Down Time has a large reach, but makes its themes feel intimate by catching them in language that is at once simple and capable of wonder. It's a striking achievement: moving and intelligent and memorable.' Andrew Motion

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I've heard it said that there is nothing better than curling up with a good book. I disagree. There is nothing better than sharing a good book. This is BookBar's philosophy. At BookBar, books are social. Welcome to BookBar! BookBar is a bookshop, wine bar, events and social space centred around celebrating the social side of reading. At BookBar, we believe there is nothing better than sharing a good book. The joy of unravelling the characters and plot points with a friend over a glass of wine or coffee, hearing inspiring ideas at a book club, sharing in the community a love of reading inspires. This is BookBar's philosophy. BookBar is a fun, warm, welcoming space for people to discover and socialise around books. Dedicated to celebrating the social side of reading, it's a place to come and hang out, like your favourite wine bar or your kitchen table. It's never about how many books you've read that year or whether you've read the latest prize-winners. At BookBar, books are social. We bring people together through our events and create community around books, with music, readings, wine tastings and, yes, even 'Books and Bangers', our DJ night in the bookshop. Our prescription programme Shelf Medicate is designed for anyone at all who has the desire to pick up a book and our BookClub welcomes readers from all around the UK to read a book and attend a virtual author event each month. You can discover all our latest reviews and recommendations from our passionate team of book-loving baristas on the BookList, follow us on our Instagram and Twitter feeds, and subscribe to BookBar's mailing list for all the latest news and tips. Whether you're an avid or aspiring reader, we hope you have as much joy discovering books through BookBar as we do in sharing them with you. As featured in