‘People are so happy we exist’: indie bookshops grow despite retail slump

After decades of decline, the sector has recorded three years of expansion. Some of the newest booksellers explain how they’re bucking the book marketJames Ashmore admits that he and his wife Louise “had a good five minutes of just smelling all the books” when the stock arrived for their new independent bookshop, Read., in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.“It’s like when you get a book for Christmas, but we got 35 boxes which we cracked open. It was brilliant,” he sa