Bourne Bookshop, in North Street, celebrates third birthday having launched six months before lockdown

A town bookshop which launched just six months before the first national covid lockdown is celebrating three years in business.

The opening of Bourne Bookshop on August 31, 2019 realised an ambition for owner Karen Smith and husband Peter.

The independent shop made a great start, coinciding its launch with the Bourne CiCLE Festival.

"I had thought about starting a business for a while, and it seemed the ideal thing to try because I love books and reading and there wasn't a bookshop in Bourne at the time," Karen recalled.

"The town was full of people for the cycling and the shop was really busy so we had a brilliant start and they started coming back.

"It was going really well right through until March when everything ground to a halt because of lockdowns."

Karen took phone orders and did home deliveries to help the shop survive and it has gone on to thrive.

"When we reopened things went well," she added.

"Our customers were still there and stayed loyal. They have been absolutely superb.

"And I have great staff working with me - I couldn't do it without them."

Going up against online giants such as Amazon would seem daunting, but independent shops do have their advantages.

And social media has actually helped, with many walk-in enquiries from younger readers searching for authors trending on TikTok.

"When you go into a shop you can browse and see something that you might not necessarily find when you type something into a search engine," Karen said.

"And there is nothing like a personal recommendation."

The North Street shop marked its anniversary with a week of offers on books, games and jigsaws, and Karen feels they are in good enough shape to cope with the latest challenge facing businesses - the cost of living crisis.

"The last few months have been challenging an d trading conditions have been testing because people have other things they have to prioritise, but we are just looking forward to coming through it and moving on.

"Starting up was really nerve racking, but I'm so pleased that I did it even with Covid - it's a great thing to have done."