A new independent bookshop opening in the heart of Hastings.
01/01/2025
THE HASTINGS BOOKSHOP: 2020-2025
We’ve made the very difficult decision to close The Hastings Bookshop, after four amazing years on Trinity Street.
We achieved so much in four years; we curated a selection of books that reflects our creative, diverse and outward-looking community in Hastings. We helped create The Hastings Bookshop Poetry Festival, The Hastings Q***r Book Festival and the What We Read Next Bookclub. We set up our newsletter, The Hastings Review of Books. We’ve hosted around 100 events with leading authors from around the country and the world.
I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to run a bookshop in my hometown and I’m so proud of everything we created together! But the reality is that running a small business is extremely hard. Keeping an independent bookshop open, especially against so many odds, was never going to be easy, and running a small business over these last 4 years in particular has taken a huge emotional and financial toll. Our bookshop survived multiple Covid lockdowns (remember those?) and an ongoing cost of living crisis, as well as numerous global, local and personal challenges- but, despite all the setbacks, we kept going. Now it is time to start a new chapter - whatever that might hold.
There are too many people to thank in one post, but I really couldn’t have done this without the love, help and support of my friends and family. A huge thank you to my right hand man, Elliot, who has been a dream to work alongside these past few years. To our wonderful neighbours at Stooge and the rest of the America Ground. Thank you to all the authors who came and gave a talk or a reading at the bookshop, to all of our indie publishing and bookselling colleagues and friends, and most of all to our incredible, loyal customers - all of whom I have loved getting to know, I honestly can’t thank you enough.
Our doors will be open for the last time this week (from Thursday 2nd at 10AM), so please do come and buy some books and say goodbye to the shop. There will be 25% off everything until our final day of trading, which will be on Monday 6th January. Let’s make these last days really special!
Thank you for everything
Charlie x
