Warm, witty and laugh-out-loud funny, this gently meandering tale of British eccentricity will stay long in the memory. * Daily Mail *
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 *
Wonderfully entertaining ... Bythell is a true believer, who makes a passionate case for the importance of books * Observer *
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 *
Laconic, droll, opinionated and unconvincingly misanthropic ... Wigtown's Pepys. -- Alan Taylor * Times Literary Supplement *
So sardonically funny it could be designed to de-romance the book trade * The Times *
I was delightedly reading - and I thoroughly recommend to you - a book I was given: The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, the owner of a second-hand bookshop in Wigtown. On the cover, the blurb says it is funny and fascinating in equal measure and I quote that because I couldn't put it better myself. -- Eddie Mair
Gentle, ... funny and immensely soothing -- Alan Bennett
A brilliant, funny and recommended book -- Mike Scott, The Waterboys
Charming and witty and wicked -- Jen Campbell
I generally dislike books about bookselling because they're treacly and self-satisfied, but Shaun Bythell's subversive The Diary of a Bookseller is an antidote. * New York Times (a New York Times Book of the Year) *