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Watermill Shortlisted Again for Award
For the third year running, the Watermill bookshop in Aberfeldy has been shortlisted to the last eight for the prestigious The Bertrams ? THE Independent Bookseller of the Year Award in this year’s Bookseller Retail Awards.
 The largest bookshop in the rural Highlands, the Watermill, which opened in 2005, offers a unique combination of contemporary art gallery, music department and coffee shop alongside around 5,000 titles displayed on former machinery of the watermill. It prides itself on offering a service to the local community better than it would experience either online or in a city.
Fully committed to its local community, the Watermill also runs a unique weekly children’s reading group programme, with a weekly ‘story-time’ where members take turns to read from new and classic titles as well as taking part in lively discussion and enactments of favourite scenes. The reading groups review books for the bookshop’s newsletters and website.
In addition to its programme of writer’s workshops and regular events with local and national authors, The Watermill also publishes its own books of local interest. In October, the bookshop will publish a history of nearby Pitlochry, as well as commissioning an author to write a history of the Aberfeldy area for 2009.
Team Tribute
Owner Kevin Ramage commented: “This nomination is a wonderful tribute to the team at the shop and their ongoing efforts throughout the year to build a shop that has deep roots both in the local and the wider community. We hope that this nomination is an acknowledgement of the exceptional children’s reading group which we run.”
The Bookseller, the book publishing trade’s leading magazine, launched the Bookseller Retail Awards four years ago. Dedicated to identifying and praising the best book retailing in Britain, the awards include thirteen categories recognising independent booksellers, children’s specialists, bookselling and general retailing, individual managers, marketing campaigns, supply chain initiatives, expansion of the retail market and a category for outstanding contribution to bookselling.
Neill Denny, Editor in Chief of The Bookseller and Chair of Judges, commented: “The local independent book shop is one of the most treasured assets of any vibrant high street. To succeed against the big chains, the supermarkets and Amazon today’s successful independent needs to be a superb all-rounder. They have to know their market and their customers inside out – and all the shops listed here do that brilliantly.”
The winners will be announced on the 18 September 2008 at a ceremony at the Natural History Museum, London.
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