PRAISE FOR DIARY OF A BOOKSELLER * : *
All the ingredients for a gentle human comedy are here, as soothing as a bag of boiled sweets and just as tempting to dip into * Literary Review *
Written with caustic wit ... a diverting and congenial read * Bookmunch *
PRAISE FOR CONFESSIONS OF A BOOKSELLER -- :
Wonderfully entertaining. * Observer *
Warm, witty and laugh-out-loud funny, this gently meandering tale of British eccentricity will stay long in the memory. * Daily Mail *
PRAISE FOR SEVEN KINDS OF PEOPLE YOU FIND IN BOOKSHOPS -- :
Crisp and often funny - and Bythell is canny enough to temper his pantomime misanthropy with bursts of sweetness * Guardian *
Bythell is having fun and it's infectious ... actually amusing * Scotsman *
Any reader finding this book in their stocking on Christmas morning should feel lucky ... contains plenty to amuse - an excellent diversion * Bookmunch *
The second volume of memoirs by the Wigtown bookseller Shaun Bythell is as absorbing as the first * London Review of Books *
The best parts are irreverently funny and only borderline legal ... he is certainly not self-serving in terms of writing about what he sees as his own failures and weaknesses ... has kept me giggling all week * Scotland on Sunday *
MORE PRAISE FOR DIARY OF A BOOKSELLER -- :
Funny and fascinating in equal measure - a must for all those of us who haunt the sepulchres where old books are laid to rest. * Anthony McGowan *
The Diary Of A Bookseller is warm (unlike Bythell's freezing-cold shop) and funny, and deserves to become one of those bestsellers that irritate him so much. -- Jon Dennis * Mail on Sunday *
Peopled with fascinating characters ... a sarcastic reminder of the struggles of small business ownership, the importance of community and the frustration of dealing with customers ... occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. * Herald *
MORE PRAISE FOR CONFESSIONS OF A BOOKSELLER * : *
Tempted to follow your dream and open a second-hand bookshop? Don't do anything before you read Shaun Bythell ... second-hand bookshops are alive because of people like him. * The National *
Utterly compelling and Bythell has a Bennett-like eye for the amusing eccentricities of ordinary people ... I urge you to buy this book and please, even at the risk of being insulted or moaned at, buy it from a real live bookseller. -- Charlotte Heathcote * Sunday Express *
I tore through the pages, but I was also rather sad when it finished - I could have read much, much more. Any bibliophiles should race to get a copy. * Shiny New Books *
A book and bookshop lover's delight. * Red magazine *
Laconic, droll, opinionated and unconvincingly misanthropic ... Wigtown's Pepys. -- Alan Taylor * Times Literary Supplement *