The Complete Guide To: Book towns

WHAT IS A BOOK TOWN?

A location that celebrates the written word, and welcomes travellers whether they are avid readers, writers or merely browsers, wanting to visit a town with an extra twist. These towns and villages have a delightfully disproportionate number of second-hand and antiquarian bookshops, and sometimes also have other associated businesses based on writing, reading and publishing.

The idea is that a mainly rural town - in attractive surroundings and with historic interest - will find a new life through the book business by attracting well-read visitors. This may seem an unlikely path to success in the age of the internet, which has halved the number of second-hand bookshops in Britain, but curiously, Book Towns are on the increase. There are five in Britain: Sedbergh and Atherstone in England; Wigtown in Scotland; and Hay-on-Wye and Blaenavon in Wales. The concept has also spread to mainland Europe and the US. There are now around 20 locations worldwide describing themselves as Book Towns or Villages.

BUT I CAN FIND ANY BOOK I NEED ONLINE...

Finding an out-of-print title may be just a click or two away, but that was never the only reason for going to a second-hand bookshop. For many, spending a day wandering around bookshops is heaven. And there are thousands of book enthusiasts whose great joy is to find a rare volume to add to their collection. If they can then peruse their purchase over a drink or a meal, so much the better. The supporters of Book Towns have hit on a simple truth: to the bibliophile, there is nothing quite like finding for yourself the book you were after - and, along the way, some books you weren't. Why else would one emerge with such satisfaction from a bookshop with a copy of a favourite childhood story, an obscure collection of poetry, and a Thirties cookery book? And there's another potent attraction: the smell of bookshops, like that of bakeries, is irresistible.

WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM?

"King Richard" Booth of Hay-on-Wye, a town set in pretty countryside on the England/Wales border, started the ball rolling. He set himself up in the Norman castle - or what remains of it after various sackings and fires in this fought-over border town - along with several thousand books. His brainwave, after returning to his home town in 1961 after university, was to open the largest second-hand bookshop in the world. Initially, it occupied the former fire station. Before long, it was attracting other booksellers, and Hay now has nearly 40 bookshops - and the claim of being "the greatest little book town in the world" (www.hay-on-wye.co.uk).

Booth's own stock of going on for a million titles is in the castle (where, in the grounds, there is a 24-hour open-air "honesty" bookstore) and in a time-warp emporium in Lion Street (01497 820 322; www.richardbooth.demon.co.uk). He promulgated his ideas about revitalising towns with books via the International Organisation of Book Towns (www.booktown.net).

WHAT CAN I DO IN HAY?

The main tourist occupation is browsing through the wide-ranging stock of occasionally chaotic bookshops around the castle and in the former cinema, with its collection of 200,000 books (Hay Cinema Bookshop: 01497 820 071; www.haycinemabookshop.co.uk); or in the niche bookshops, such as Boz Books (01497 821 277), which specialises in 19th-century literature. The Poetry Bookshop (01497 821 812) is the only one in England devoted to poetry, and is a tranquil oasis; at the other extreme is Murder and Mayhem (01497 821 613), with its striking wall decorations and its window full of Agatha Christies and Sexton Blakes. A list of bookshops can be found on the Hay website (www.hay-on-wye.co.uk), and leaflets are available at the tourist information centre in Oxford Road (01497 820 144).

The profile of Hay has been further raised by the Hay Festival, set up nearly 20 years ago and now the literary festival of choice for budding and bestselling authors. As befits its status, Hay has a selection of suitably comfortable accommodation and appropriately smart food. The Swan offers special Bookworm Breaks (01497 821 188; www.swanathay.co.uk). The Old Black Lion claims - as do other inns in the region - that Cromwell stayed there (01497 820 841: www.oldblacklion.co.uk). Creeper-covered Kilverts (with a large garden advertised as the perfect place to read your purchases) is named after the Victorian diarist who often visited Hay (01497 821 042; www.kilverts.co.uk). There's even an up-market B&B with an indoor pool, The Seven Stars (01497 820 886; www.theseven-stars.co.uk).

CAN I ESCAPE?

If you fancy a break from books, there are the Black Mountains, visible from the town square, and the river Wye, and you can explore them courtesy of Paddles and Pedals (01497 820 604; www.paddlesandpedals.co.uk). Its office is at Hay-on-Wye Newsagents, 15 Castle Street. If, on the other hand, you can't go for more than an hour without books, head 45 miles south across the hills to Blaenavon. Blaenavon Book Town (www.booktownblaenafon.com) was launched in 2003 on World Heritage Day - to mark the selection by Unesco of Blaenavon as a World Heritage Site because of its role in the Industrial Revolution - with the opening of a dozen bookshops. It was masterminded by one-time bookseller James Hanna, an American inspired by Richard Booth.

For a while, there were more bookshops in a few hundred yards of Broad Street than in some London boroughs. Two years later, though, Hanna left for Atherstone in north Warwickshire, and, in the end, only two good bookshops remained: Broadleaf Books (01495 792 852), with an eclectic stock focusing on natural history and photography; and Browning Books (01495 790 089; www.browningbooks.co.uk), which is strong on children's books. But there are signs of a rebirth, with three bookshops moving into restored listed premises in the next few months - one general interest, the others specialising in music and industrial history.

Blaenavon's industrial roots are still there for all to see, notably, a multi-furnaced ironworks that helped turn South Wales into the most industrial place on earth. Today, the site - the most intact ironworks in western Europe - is an ancient monument as compelling as the Acropolis or Colosseum. With its 18th-century brick chimneys and workers' cottages, this is the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Open 1 April-31 October, 9.30am-4.30pm, 10am-5pm Saturday and 10am-4.30pm Sunday; £2.50. The tourist information centre is here, too (01495 792615; www.blaenavontic.com).

There's also St Peter's, the neo-Gothic church built by two ironmasters in 1804, with cast-iron font, pillars and tomb covers, and opposite is the magnificent Blaenavon Workmen's Hall, built and paid for by the local workforce to house a library, reading rooms and a concert hall. By summer, the old school will be the World Heritage Information Centre. You should visit, too, the Big Pit (01495 790 311; www.nmgw.ac.uk/bigpit) - the award-winning national mining museum. The thrill here is an underground visit guided by former miners. Open February-November daily 9.30am-5pm (to 4.30pm in December and January); admission free.

Accommodation in Blaenavon is not plentiful, but the recently refurbished Rifleman's Arms (01495 792 297) - with a popular restaurant and rooms - has a good name, along with the Red Rooster bed-and-breakfast (01495 791 840).

WHAT ABOUT THE ENGLISH BOOK TOWNS?

Newest kid on the block is Sedbergh - strategically situated between the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District - which got in there smartish, beating Atherstone in North Warwickshire to the title of "England's Book Town" in May 2006 (www.sedberghbooktown.co.uk). An old market town with narrow lanes and cobbled yards, Sedbergh is on the edge of the Howgills - the range of hills described by Alfred Wainwright as "a herd of sleeping elephants". Hence the bookshop called The Sleepy Elephant (01539 621 770; www.sleepyelephant.net), which also sells textiles, and has a special book section on the subject, as well as on needlework, art and design, literature and children's books.

The new Dales & Lakes Book Centre (015396 201 25) houses a co-operative of book dealers and the tourist information centre. Other newcomers are the Foundry Bookshop (01539 621 620), specialising in railways and militaria, and Westwood Books (015396 21233), which moved from Hay and turned the former cinema into a bookshop.

Local inns are the Bull Hotel, a 17th-century coaching inn serving real ale (01539 620 264; www.bullhotelsedbergh.co.uk) and the Dalesman Country Inn, serving home-made sausages and pies (01539 621 183; www.thedalesman.co.uk).

Atherstone used to be known for hat-making, and the plan is to make it equally well known for books. This Warwickshire town, on the old Roman road of Watling Street (now the A5), was a stopover for Henry Tudor en route to the Battle of Bosworth. And it is where James Hanna came to advise on Book Town practice after leaving Blaenavon. For a while, he owned a shop in the Georgian market square. He has left now but the Book Town spirit is still thriving (www.atherstonebooktown.net).

There's Throckmorton's (01827 717 570), with its wide-ranging stock and special crime-fiction section; Sit-a-While (01827 722 593), which combines children's books with a café selling home-made cakes; and Butler's Book Emporium (01827 717104), which opened in November.

Appropriate books have infiltrated into less likely places: the latest addition is the Booktown Bistro in Atherstone College refectory on Ratcliffe Road (01827 718 356). Books on wines and spirits can be found in the Chapel House Hotel (01827 718 949; www,chapelhousehotel.co.uk); and The Red Lion Hotel (01827 713156; www.atherstoneredlion.co.uk) sells second-hand books in its King's Library.

AND THOSE IN SCOTLAND?

Wigtown, in Galloway, became Scotland's National Book Town in 1998 (www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk). The sign as you arrive says, "Wigtown. Welcome. Bide A While", and that is easy to do - it is a charming town, with pretty public gardens, colour-washed houses and the Galloway Inn. There is a fine County Hall, with a viewing room to observe the local celebrities: a pair of nesting ospreys. When they return to the nest, or when an egg is laid, a bell is rung.

Wigtown also has one of the biggest selections of sci-fi books in Scotland in a range of shops, including Transformer (01988 403 455). It has around 20 other bookshops, such as the children's-books specialist Box of Frogs (01988 402 255). The oldest bookshop in Wigtown - and the biggest second-hand bookshop in Scotland - is called simply The Bookshop (01988 402 499; www.the-bookshop.com). Reading Lasses (01988 403 266) has the biggest women's-studies collection outside London. It also has a highly rated café with home-made soups, locally smoked salmon and Galloway cheeses - it even got a mention in the recent book by Alex Kapranos, lead singer of Franz Ferdinand.

Authors attending Wigtown's spring and autumn literary festivals tend to stay at the Kirroughtree, outside nearby Newton Stewart (01671 402 141; www.kirroughtreehouse.co.uk). In town, there's Lochancroft, a self-catering cottage, owned by a bookshop owner (01988 402 499; www.lochancroft.com). Another good option is the Galloway House Estate in nearby Garlieston (01988 600 694; www.gallowayhouseesate.co.uk).On the organic farm there are three properties: Stables Bothy, Stable Cottage and High Lodge, a restored 18th-century gamekeeper's cottage (powered by a small windmill and solar panels).The Bladnoch Inn (01988 402 200; www.bladnoch-inn.com), opposite the distillery where festival events are held, serves home-cooked food.

DO I HAVE TO STAY IN BRITAIN?

No, you can take your pick from Fjaerland in Norway, Montolieu in France or Montereggio in Italy. Each has different bookish attractions and specialisms. Or you could go to America - Stillwater is a Book Town in Wisconsin, where one of Richard Booth's original employees specialises in theological books. One of the earliest Book Towns in Europe, inspired by a visit to Hay-on-Wye, was set up in 1984 in Belgium at Redu, in the Ardennes. One of its 23 shops, De Eglantier, even has a section on the top floor for books in English called Crazy Castle, "in honour of the King of Hay, Richard Booth". For details on the International Organisation of Book Towns, see www.booktown.net.

FESTIVE READING

Most of the Book Towns have festivals, at which book-lovers can rub shoulders with book-writers. The grandest is the Guardian Hay Festival (24 May-3 June; www.hayfestival.com) and this year there will also be a fringe festival (25 May-2 June; www.hayfringe.co.uk).

Blaenavon's Spring Festival, which will have arts and literary aspects, runs from 5-7 May.

Wigtown has literary festivals in the spring (5-6 May) and the autumn, from 28 September to 7 October (www.wigtownbookfestival.com) and from 8-11 June there is The Festival of the Book (www.wigtown.org.uk).

Sedbergh's main Festival of Books and Drama runs from 25 August to 8 September, but there is also a Festival of Ideas from 20-22 July; "philosophy for everyone" (www.sedbergh.org.uk).

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