Finally meeting Beverley

A day out with family in late May took us to a town and a bookshop I've long wanted to visit. As you would expect, it was both worth the wait and made me wonder why on earth we haven't been to this market town sooner.

Located around half an hour north of Hull, during our semi-regular visits to the city we've often said we'd like to visit Beverley. Initially because we childishly liked that it's got a human name, then because the more we heard of the place, the more interesting it sounded.

We arrived on an exceptionally* sunny Sunday and began with an exploration of some of the landmarks before having a wander along the high street to find a physically cool cafe for some delicious vegetarian lunches. Next came ice creams and a mooch around the market before we headed to the main event: The Beverley Bookshop.

I'll admit the five of us were a little tired by the time we finally made our way there, but as you would expect I soon perked up when I saw the beautiful display of books on offer.

From the front door, you enter a bright and modern space with tables of recommendations stood to attention as if ready to greet you. These are surrounded by shelves of fiction – including my favourites of science fiction and the classics – with one bookcase particularly catching my eye: fiction in translation.

There's something about translated books that always grabs my attention. I'm not sure if it's the slightly different outlook of reading about ideas and experiences from another part of the world; or maybe it's the often similar outlook despite the many thousands of miles between us; or perhaps it's that smaller bookshops don't always have the space to dedicate a whole bookshop to international authors. Whatever the reason, I often find myself drawn to such shelves whenever I stumble across them, and the particular appeal of this translation bookcase was that it was full but not overwhelming: when you have no idea about any of the authors or titles on display, having limited options is definitely a good thing.

Anyway, I've devoted a lot of this blog to that one bookcase because of how fascinated I was at the time. It's also where I eventually, inevitably, selected my purchase: The cafe with no name by Robert Seethaler. In case you're wondering, I also read the book almost immediately after purchase. It falls into the "similar outlook despite the miles" category and was exactly the calm escape I needed at the time.

[Photo to come as soon as the engineers replacing a radiator vacate our living room, where most of the books are shelved.]

Moving on, the ground floor also includes the till – where the bookseller was being kept very busy with customers – and a sweet children's area. To one side a staircase took us up to the non-fiction section, which was smaller but still nicely stocked. I particularly liked their coverage of nature-themed topics.

I didn't chat long with the bookseller because of how busy they were, but during our brief exchange I could sense their enthusiasm for this family-owned bookshop which has been around for many years (I think they said around 30, it was too hot to remember everything).

Then it was time to move on to find somewhere to sit for a cooling drink before exploring a few more independent shops on our way home.

We had an enjoyable day exploring the town and I'm sure we'll be adding The Beverley Bookshop to our regular destinations list during future visits to the Hull branch of our family.

The Beverley Bookshop

19 Butchery Row, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU17 0AA

*Back then it really did feel like the May heatwave was unusual, how little did we know it was simply the start of a series of waves for 2026.