Bath’s best kept secret: Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights
With its excellent selection and imaginative decor, this unusual book store in Bath, UK, is a labyrinth that invites booklovers to linger as they look for their next read
On Day 4 of their honeymoon, Nic and Juliette Bottomley sat, gin and tonics in hand, and contemplated their recent visit to an independent bookshop in Seattle.
“We were both working in Prague as lawyers but had reached the point where we knew we didn’t want to do that forever. After getting married in August 2004, we went on honeymoon to Alaska,” Nic says.
The couple’s first stop on the way was Seattle where they visited the Elliott Bay Book Company, one of the world’s best known indie bookstores. The bookshop delighted them, especially the fact that opinion about books was everywhere – from curated displays and proactive booksellers to handwritten notes on shelves and the book selection in the nooks and crannies.
Three days later, on the balcony of a small B&B on San Juan island, they asked the question: “Why don’t we set up a bookshop like that?”
Not long after the couple decided to stop being lawyers. They resigned from their jobs and moved from Prague to Holt, a few miles from Bath, in Somerset, England.
Between the couple, their retail experience before 2006 was Nic’s three months working on a deli counter at a supermarket. But their careers in the law had prepared them for hard work, decision-making, and organisation – skills that would be needed soon.
Before the big move, the couple spent time learning about the supply chain and the way bookstores work. “We had some valuable early conversations with our brilliant trade association, www.booksellers.org.uk, for which, nowadays, I am the Executive Chair. They had useful advice and resources for us as they do for anyone thinking of getting into bookselling as a career,” Nic says.
After they moved, Nic went on a one-month tour of bookshops in the north of England and Scotland to meet booksellers and talk to them about the realities of running a bookshop and to “just see more and more bookshops for inspiration of what to do and not to do”.
“The first thing I learned was what an open and collaborative trade this is – full of people with a passion for what they sell and who are more than willing to share their thoughts on bookselling,” he says.
In the spring of 2006, the couple zeroed in on a location that would work – it was close to the main street but on a side street so the rent was affordable.
“Juliette designed the shop, and we both worked on the stock and other aspects to create a place that would hopefully feel warm, welcoming, and a home away from home for our customers,” Nic says.
Two years after they had their lightbulb moment, Nic and Juliette opened the shabby chic(ish) Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, a bookstore that then stocked 8,000 books.
“A lot of fast learning, hard work, and blind faith followed in the year before we opened the door to the shop in June 2006,” Juliette says.
Today, Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights is one of Bath’s best kept secrets. In a city overrun with tourists, on account of its Georgian architecture and its history as a spa town, the Jane Austen connection, and more recently as the filming location of hit TV series Bridgerton, the store stands out as one of the must-see places in town.
My visit to the store is a highlight of my memories of Bath. The beautiful shop, located on three floors of a Georgian building, is light, airy, and chock-a-block with carefully selected stock that covers a wide range of tastes and requirements. Fiction, non-fiction, self-help, travel, cookery, biographies, children’s books -- there’s something to delight everyone. I’m particularly taken by the claw-foot bath book display, the toilets illustrated by children’s laureate Chris Riddell, and Crime Syndicate, the thriller-focused reading club for adults.
Twice named the UK’s best independent bookshop and anointed “one of the 10 best bookshops in the world” by The Guardian, the bookstore is now a pillar of the local community.
“When we started, Mr B’s had three rooms plus one corridor of books. Now, after expansions in 2008 and 2018, we have 10 rooms. The place is, we hope, a characterful labyrinth where people can get happily lost looking for their next read,” Juliette says.
The bookish décor remains a huge draw, and includes a Tin staircase, where two comics have been wallpapered page by page and in perfect order to form a completely readable wall; and the Wood Between the Words, a zingy children’s room elaborately decorated with murals by a Bristol-based artist.
The Bottomleys have innovated to keep people interested – and trooping in. I love the idea of the Reading Spa in the “bibliotherapy room”, a salon-like space with comfy armchairs, face-out list displays, a coffee pot, and fireplace.
But how did this unusual spa come about in a city that’s been a wellness destination since Roman times? The couple realised early that their strong reputation was due to the connect they formed with customers and their recommendations.
“We sat in a pub opposite the shop and discussed how we could turn that service/recommendation into something that people could buy as a gift. That’s where we came up with the Reading Spa – the idea that people could gift the chance for someone to come in and have a one-on-one with us in the shop, have us listen to their reading tastes, and then recommend a big stack of books,” Nic says.
A spa session typically includes an informal reading consultation about genres, authors, and books with a well-read book seller. The discussion – over a hot beverage and a slice of cake – ends with book recommendations tailored to individual reading tastes. A £60 voucher to spend in store on the day (plus a £10 voucher to be spent later), a mug, and a tote bag to cart all the books in means the spa makes book lovers extremely happy.
Mr B’s now holds around four spa sessions a day; they’re so popular that the store is currently taking bookings from mid-2025 onwards.
“When we look back, it’s incredible how popular it’s become. I think it was a big part of us being named Indie Bookshop of the Year in 2008 and 2011, and now we’ve done thousands of Reading Spas,” Nic says.
As the popularity of the spa rose, Mr B’s began offering Reading Subscriptions. These involved filling in a detailed (but fun!) questionnaire about reading tastes. Afterwards, a team member carefully chooses titles the reader would like and a book is sent to them each month.
“We have thousands of subscribers, dotted all over the world, and it’s been a big part of spreading our joy of recommending the right book for the right person at the right time, beyond Bath,” Juliette says.
Mr B’s is also keeping a laser focus on children, who adore the kids area complete with a full-size wooden tree and a forest mural by street artist Alex Lucas. The store runs two subscription clubs for children: The Torchlit Tales Society (for middle grade readers) and Picture Book Pioneers (for early readers). Book fairs, author visits, and other activities at and with local schools are arranged regularly.
“We engage with kids by talking directly to them in that room when they come to the shop, to help figure out what they might like to read. We try to show them that a varied bunch of grown-ups working in this bookshop is obsessed with books and reading, so it might be fun for them to get obsessed too,” Nic says.
Mr B’s has been routinely hosting book-related events – author interviews and signings, story time, or cultural performances – down the years. The events, now held at the bookstore and other venues across the city, have made the place a popular hangout, a community space that draws people of all ages and interests.
The Bottomley’s innovative spirit led to the birth of the Bookshop Band, which writes songs inspired by books and plays them in bookshops and at literary festivals across the world.
“We wanted to add something new to our author events – maybe food and music. Each time we had an event, they’d read the book ahead of time and write a song inspired by some aspect of that book,” Nic says. Literary events got a new dimension as the band, wedged into the small event space with an array of musical instruments, “would debut one or two songs in front of our amazed guest author and the audience”.
In 2014, spurred by two collaborations with publishers, Mr B’s decides to start its own publishing house, Fox, Finch & Tepper.
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated changing strategy constantly due to the changing rules and regulations. “But we kept one thing the same – a complete unbending focus on looking after customers and recommending them the books they needed there and then. Once the supply chain found its feet, our reading subscriptions became a vital gift for many customers as they involved us sending personalised and beautifully wrapped books to the doors of the subscriber – a boost at any time but particularly when shops were closed,” Nic says.
The lockdown also led to the launch of “Surprise reads!”, “Box-o’teeth” author interviews on Zoom, lockdown podcasts and Mr B’s YouTube Channel with Gemma’s storytime. Mr B’s also increased focus on online sales, and worked to improve their ability to send books all over the UK and the world.
Over the last 18 months, the team at Mr B’s has been concentrating on becoming more efficient behind the scenes.
“But we never sit still long and we’re always thinking about the next fun challenge. This year, we’ve been creating masses of new merchandise to celebrate the shop – postcards, stickers, new mugs and a beautiful new cloth bag. Juliette has also started Hey Doggy, Listen Up, sessions with a therapy dog that allow customers to experience the benefits of reading calmly to the calm Nessa,” Nic says.
A limited hardback edition of Wolf Moon by Julio Llamazares, in collaboration with Pushkin Press, is scheduled soon.
Nic and Juliette are nonplussed when I ask them about their favourite part of Mr B’s. Nic finally zeroes in on the main counter area in the first room. It’s an odd choice, surely? But he explains. “When there are multiple customers in the room and we’re recommending books, they sometimes start recommending to one another. It becomes first and foremost a place where talking about books is happening, with buying just a by-product,” Nic says.
Juliette, on the other hand, enjoys the buzzy children’s room on a busy Saturday, with kids “trying on” books by reading a page or two, and “us telling them why we think they’d like this or that. Just watching young customer engage with books in that colourful space is a joy”, she says.
As I walk out of the colourful, vibrant space, I know my favourite part of Bath’s best kept secret: the Reading Spa, which combines coffee, cake, a bibliotherapist, and books to create the best and most personalised bookshop experience.
Teja Lele is an independent editor and writes on books, travel and lifestyle.