The SecretBookshelf

Jo Zebedee, a science-fiction novelist, and Chris Disley opened The Secret Bookshelf in Carrickfergus in 2019, in a courtyard off the Scotch Quarter. In 2024 it became the first Northern Irish shop to take Independent Bookshop of the Year at the British Book Awards — the island-of-Ireland title — and won it again in 2026, which for a small-town shop against city rivals is no small thing. It runs a book festival of its own and has added a dedicated children's room. A bookshop run by a writer, in a harbour town under a Norman castle, and by the trade's own reckoning twice the best independent on the island of Ireland.