Bookends ofKeswick

Bookends of Keswick is the smaller of two Lake District shops run by the Matthews family, who have traded as booksellers since 1978. Steve Matthews oversees the group's antiquarian and secondhand side from Carlisle, while his daughter Lucy runs the newer sites and organises events; the Keswick branch, on Main Street, concentrates on full-price fiction and a deep stock of Lake District and Cumbrian titles, from fell-walking guides to local memoir. Anything not on the shelf can be ordered in through the same system used at the Carlisle shop. The shop's window display changes with the season, and staff hand-sell rather than rely on bestseller tables.