Visit our bookshop in Hay-on-Wye
Selling shiny new books plus beautiful cards, ceramics, candles, tote bags and more, North Books opened in the autumn of 2022.
We offer cosy spaces to browse and comfortable nooks to nurture your love of reading.
We host regular author events, book signings and two book groups and operate a pop-up cafe on a Friday from 10-12pm. For all our up to the minute news, please follow us on Instagram and Facebook. We send quarterly newsletters - please do sign up - simply scroll down and add your name and address.
We are a registered participant in World Book Day 2025 and are taking two local authors into a local Primary School plus the books will be available in the bookshop in exchange for WBD vouchers.
Explore our eclectic selection
Find inspiring new fiction including contemporary women's voices, fantasy, young adult and children’s. Browse our range of non-fiction titles focusing on the environment, nature, sustainability and politics, plus our selection of Welsh literature and books by local authors.
If you can’t visit in person you can buy from us online via bookshop.org.
Search on bookshop.org
We host regular book launches in the shop
Two 2024 events in the bookshop…
That I was particularly proud to host was the launch by Hay Writers of four new pamphlets that members had committed to press. I’ve rarely seen the bookshop so full of joy and laughter.
In November, on a more serious note, a fundraiser was held for The Prison Phoenix Trust and £559 was raised on the night. In support of the four activists who had been sentenced to long sentences for their campaigning with Just Stop Oil and specifically the youngest member of the group, Cressida Gethin, who had been a volunteer in the bookshop in 2024.
Discover our new gift idea
Are you looking for a special gift for that bookish friend or relative? In which case, we are delighted to present The Bookshop Breakfast voucher which entitles you and your guest to spend time together in the bookshop ahead of opening hours. Read more…
North Books recommends…
Hay Reads suggested April author -
Local author Jasper Fforde
Stitches & Stories February choice
Get up to speed with this year’s Booker winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10764/9781529922936
To compliment the range of new fiction we have in stock, we now have a range of Persephone press.
You may be familiar with the distinctive grey covers and end papers (beautiful inside covers) and they can make the perfect present for the voracious reader as these titles are reissues of once forgotten titles with plots and characters that remain timeless. Everything about Persephone smacks of authenticity rather than gimmicks. They celebrate 25 years and 150 books this year.
Fans of Anne Tyler will look forward to a NEW novel out on 13th February 2025. You can pre-order the forthcoming title Three Days in June from North Books through @bookshop_org_uk now! https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10764/9781784745752
The hotest fantasy titles available instore and at @bookshop_org_uk link: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10764/9780008597016
Committed to sustainable business
It's really important to us that all of our suppliers and the goods that we sell are as sustainably sourced as possible.
This includes things like packaging and display materials as well as the miles that an item has travelled to reach us.
When we can, we buy locally and would encourage you to as well. Where we spend our money matters. An example of this policy is with our in-house tote bag which was designed by Hay-based print designer Prints of Hay and printed by a Cardiff-based community-based screenprinting workshop Printhaus. The bags themselves are made from ethically sourced organic cotton which is lighter on the planet.
