While many businesses have had to adapt in the last year, judges for the Independent Bookshop of the Year for the UK and Ireland were especially impressed with how Sevenoaks Bookshop had coped.

Crowning it the winner, judges said: "Its small but indefatigable team responded to the challenges of lockdowns, moving to web, phone and e-mail orders during months of closure and dispatching around 3,500 books to loyal customers - many of them personally delivered by foot and bike."

The bookshop emerged twice the size it was before, taking over adjacent premises and launching a dedicated children’s area. It also did not furlough any book sellers.

The team said of their win: "We're so proud of our place in the Sevenoaks and book-loving community."

To celebrate their win, and ahead of Independent Bookshop Week, which starts on Sunday, June 19, we asked the team for some of their own winners...

Top books selling in the shop right now:

1 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers: Everything you want in a novel – gripping, sad, happy, quirky, and so well imagined. With beautiful Kentish scenes, picnics and fruit picking to provide the backdrop.

2 Grave’s End by William Shaw: A crime book hidden gem, clever and well written with Kent being the prime setting.

3 A Walk From The Wild Edge by Jake Tyler: Finding emotional recovery, solace and hope in the wild Kentish countryside. Personal and relatable.

4 Thomas Hennel: The Land and Mind by Jessica Kilburn: The wonderfully expressive art of Thomas Hennel, beauty from the rural.

Top 3 (other) independent bookshops in Kent:

There is a resurgence in Kent Independent bookshops which is tremendously heartening and hopeful. Over the past couple of years some great new shops have opened including Moon Lane in Ramsgate, the Margate Bookshop and Tales on Market Street, Faversham.

Top reasons to read:

1 For some beautiful Kentish scenery... Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

2 To fill your heart... Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (Beloved by every bookseller here who’s read it, it’ll pull you heart like no other)

3 To fill your soul... Love After Love by Ingrid Persuad (An amazing novel all about choosing and building your own family, coping with loss and unusual friendships that stand the test of time)

4 To fill your belly... Ripe Figs by Yasmin Khan (everything in here looks delicious!)

Find out more at sevenoaksbookshop.co.uk

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