UK's First Fantasy-Exclusive Bookshop Opens in Bebington Village

Local TV

Paper and Word brings a magical, immersive space for fantasy fans of all ages, offering books, artisan products and events in a beautifully restored 100-year-old building.

Transcript

00:00A new independent bookshop selling exclusively fantasy books has opened in Babington Village,

00:05Wirral. Joining the growing movement of specialist genre bookshops, Paper and Word

00:10stands apart as the UK's first bricks and mortar bookshop dedicated entirely to fantasy literature.

00:17My purpose was to give people things that they couldn't get elsewhere but that I think

00:23that they want and it's to file of as well. The shop's the brainchild of Abby Munro who's spent

00:28seven years running the business online. She first made her mark with book themed products all

00:34designed to enhance the reading experience. When you're immersed in a book it feels so much

00:40like it's yours and it's your universe and your new friends on these pages and you know to then

00:45share that with other people is just really really special. After a successful Kickstarter campaign

00:51Abby's now brought her vision to life offline offering a curated selection of fantasy books

00:56for all ages and tastes from classics like Tolkien to contemporary authors alongside independent presses.

01:03We have had a long journey to get here. We also ran a Kickstarter as part of the initial stages I guess

01:13that had a huge huge reception. We raised £26,000 through the Kickstarter and people had loads of

01:21different reward options I guess with that from sort of stickers up to one of my favourite things is

01:27that people could have a star on the ceiling. Abby says the location was a dream noting that the old

01:33florist building's shape reminiscent of an open book and its proximity to a lamppost said to inspire C.S.

01:39Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The big thing for me was where it was. I really wanted it to be in

01:45Bevington Village but it was only this building or another that felt perfect to me and they both had

01:51very long-standing tenants and one day we walked past and it was vacant so we were like it's time.

01:57Beyond Retail, Paper and Word plans a programme of events to bring the fantasy community together

02:03including author signings, book clubs, midnight releases and reading lock-ins. Although fantasy is quite

02:09big at the moment there's a lot of fantasy readers like on book talk and things like that you know it

02:16is a much bigger genre than it has been before. I do still find that when you go into bookshops it is

02:22still one of the smaller sections so us being able to niche down just into fantasy means that we can have

02:29the titles that people expect but we can also have things that they wouldn't expect or they haven't

02:34heard of or editions that you wouldn't find. For local readers and visitors it offers more than books

02:40it's a place to step into stories connect with fellow fans and celebrate imagination. You know people

02:46that haven't really thought that they enjoyed reading have realized actually I just wasn't reading the

02:52right thing and now you know there's this whole new world of books that is opening up to them and

02:57it's really amazing.

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