Hello, Happy Sunday!

It’s been a while, a long, long while since we’ve put together a bookshop newsletter, but hello, we’re here, back in the swing of things and incredibly excited to update you on all things The West Kirby Bookshop.

We’re hoping to bring you a newsletter update at the tail end of every week, highlighting forthcoming events, recommended reading & new releases, cultural highlights in the region, and the much anticipated bookshop expansion.

So here’s our first instalment. Enjoy!

Upcoming events

We’ve got a really exciting couple of months ahead, with authors visiting West Kirby for our Summer events programme. This coming week, we’ve got two fabulous guests with us…

Crime writer, Kelly Mullen will be with us on Tuesday 27th May at 7pm, to celebrate her brilliant debut novel, This is Not a Game. Kelly’s debut has been praised by the Guardian, the Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, and by many others and is a sure-hit for fans of writers like Janice Hallett, Tom Hindle, Richard Osman and Agatha Christie.

Kelly will be reading from the book, before being in conversation with Jordan from the bookshop, answering questions from audience and signing copies of This is Not a Game. Further information & tickets can be found on this link here, or get in touch with us to reserve you place. We’re really looking forward to this one, so come along!

On Thursday 29th May at 7pm, we’ll be welcoming the acclaimed Argentinian author of Tender is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica to West Kirby, to celebrate the publication of her latest novel, The Unworthy.

Agustina’s books are firm bestsellers at the bookshop, so if you like your fiction dark, mysterious & unsettling, then this one is for you! Agustina will be in conversation with Jordan from the bookshop, before answering questions from the audience and singing copies of her books. Further information and tickets can be found here.

June events, in brief…

• Thursday 5th June- Guadalupe Nettel (The Accidentals / Still Born)
  Fiction in translation, short stories.

• Tuesday 10th June- Rowe Irvin (Life Cycle of a Moth)
  An Observer Debut Novelist 2025, literary fiction.

• Friday 13th June- Charlie Colenutt (Is This Working?)
  Non-fiction, politics/ contemporary culture.

• Friday 20th June- Rochelle Dowden- Lord (Lush)
  Debut novel, literary fiction.

• Tuesday 24th June- Leor Zmigrod- (The Ideological Brain)

  Non-fiction, psychology, neuroscience.

Tickets for all events can be booked via our website, in store, or send us an email or message on social media. If you can’t make an event and would like to reserve a signed & dedicated book, let us know!

A recommended read

Jordan recently finished Anna Bailey’s latest novel, Our Last Wild Days and says:

‘with a keen, observant eye to detail, Anna Bailey has demonstrated incredible skills as a master of character study, with a compelling plot that cements Our Last Wild Days as a must-read literary thriller of 2025. Capturing life on the margins in the Deep South, with exquisite yet heartbreaking explorations of misogyny, violence, friendship and memory, Our Last Wild Days pulses with life and propulsive energy that we see in work by the likes of Colin Walsh, Willy Vlautin, and David Lynch. I'll be thinking about this book and its beautifully realised characters for a long time.’

Book club

Our 3 fiction book clubs met this week to discuss Elizabeth O’Connor’s debut novel, Whale Fall. As always, we had really interesting conversations and lively analysis that focused on some of the novel’s key themes. Next month, we’ll be discussing Yasmin Zaher’s debut novel and recent winner of the 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize, The Coin.

Our book clubs are fully booked at the moment, and we’ll be contacting people on our wait list soon to offer out available places but fear not, the shop expansion will mean our selection of book clubs will also be expanding… more very soon!

Bookshop expansion updates

The West Kirby Bookshop is expanding, to a premises over 5 times the size! We made the announcement last weekend and have been overwhelmed with all the love, support and motivating words. We haven’t had the chance to respond to everyone on social media so please take this as a big THANK YOU from us <3

It’s been 3 years on the West Kirby high street and quite simply, we’ve outgrown our current shop. We love the beautiful stained glass, the intimate events, the cosiness of the children’s room, but we have lots of ambition, ideas and energy, and are looking forward to the big expansion!

We don’t want to be spamming you all too much, but our weekly newsletter updates will give you the lowdown on all of our plotting & planning, as we work towards opening the new premises at the end of July. Fingers Crossed.

We’ve had lots of questions about the move, so hopefully this list of FAQs will answer some of them…

*Where is the new premises?

We’re currently at 6 Grange Road, the new shop is 20 Grange Road. Even closer to the train station and on the same side of the road, so you really can’t miss it!

*When will the new shop be opening?

At the moment, we’re working towards a grand opening day at the end of July, but this may all change as construction work continues. We’re anticipating being able to confirm the opening celebrations at the end of June, so keep your eyes peeled…

*Will you be hiring new staff?

We’ve hired a third member of the team, who’ll be joining us at the start of July, and we can’t wait to introduce them to you all! With the size of the new premises, and our expanding events programme, it is likely we’ll be hiring again later in the year, so please do keep an eye on our socials & newsletter if any positions become available that we need to advertise for. At the moment, we do not accept CVs.

*Will there be a cafe?

Nope! It’s really important to us that we continue to support our good friends running all the wonderful independent coffee shops in the town, so we encourage you to pick up a flat white and pastry elsewhere before visiting us, and you’ll be more than welcome to enjoy these in the bookshop. (that’s not to say we can’t make you a cuppa’ when we put the kettle on)

*What are the new opening hours?

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! We’ll be sticking with Wednesday- Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 11am-4pm to start, but will reassess as we establish ourselves in the new premises.

*Will the bookshop be wheelchair accessible?

The bookshop is all on one level, and there are no steps into, nor throughout the shop.

How you can support us (please!)

We won’t be Crowdfunding or Kickstarting our way to the new premises, but we’d be really, really grateful if you’d support the bookshop as we expand. You could do this by:

• Shopping with us online, here!
  If you aren’t local to the bookshop but love what we do and are excited about The West Kirby Bookshop 2.0, please consider buying books from our Bookshop.org affiliate page.

• Shopping in store & ordering with us!

  Our current premises will remain open until around 2 weeks before we open the doors to the new bookshop. In the meantime, it’d be amazing if you stop by for recommendations, browse our bookshelves, and order with us. We can often get books within less than 24 hours (quicker than Am*z*n!), so shop local!

• Attend our events!
  We’ve got a really buzzy events programme over the next few months- an interesting selection of fiction and non-fiction, establishing and emerging writers. Our events are always well attended, with a lively atmosphere, engaged conversation and complimentary drinks on arrival. Check out our full event listing here.

• Buy a pal a gift voucher!

  Did you know we sell gift vouchers? These can be redeemed in store and via email. If you’ve got a friend or family member’s birthday soon, maybe a WKB voucher would be an ideal present? Vouchers can be purchased in store and online.

• Help us spread the word!
  We appreciate any support you can give us as we expand the bookshop. Recommending us to your nearest & dearest, sharing our content on social media, and even just stopping by to say hello.
  

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  That’s everything for now!. Have a great week ahead, hopefully see you at some events, and more very soon!
  
  Jordan & Dan