One of Sunderland's few independent bookshops broadens its offering with author event

Part independent bookshop and part coffee shop, Books and Bakes opened in The Galleries in Washington just before Christmas and is already becoming a community hub, where people can curl up with a book in the book nooks and chat over coffee.

It was brought to the town by bookworm turned businesswoman Charlotte King who relocated to the North East to pursue her passions in life.

The business has seen a pretty-in-pink makeover of a former sweet shop at the centre that had been empty for some time.

“I’m a bookworm and I love good coffee, so I wanted to create a space where people could come and read the books, chat about the books and enjoy good coffee,” said Charlotte.

“I encourage people to talk about the books or people can just pop in for a coffee if they like. We’re not a library, but I do encourage people to pick up the kind of book they wouldn’t normally and read some pages in one of the book nooks.”

Now, the bookshop has branched into author events with author Rebecca Philipson recently hosting an event to mark the release of her novel, How to Get Away with Murder.

The event was ticketed with all proceeds going to Harbour, a local domestic abuse charity.

Charlotte said she was delighted with the response.

She said: “It was so nice of Rebecca to come along to such a small independent bookshop and to choose Harbour to donate the ticket sales to.

“Everyone had a chance to ask their questions about the book, and it raised a lot of interesting discussion points.”