East GateBookshop

Nigel Jones and his partner Claire opened East Gate Bookshop on Fore Street in December 2020, after meeting years earlier while both worked for Ottakar's. Between them they carry over thirty years in the book trade, and they built the shop around subjects they know well: nature writing, identification guides and environmental titles sit alongside fiction, children's books and a shelf reserved for local authors. The premises had been earmarked for a solicitors' office before the couple took the lease instead. Open seven days a week from nine until five, the shop has twice been a regional finalist for the British Book Awards' Best Independent Bookshop in the South West. It remains a two-person operation in a market town that keeps several bookshops trading at once.