Some bookshops feature in my Booklover’s Guide to Bookshops because I’ve known about them for years and love like old friends; some I’ve not actually visited by my co-author Erica has, and some I’ve been told about with enthusiasm.
The Stripey Badger Bookshop and Cafe is one in the latter category. It was my friend Sarahjayne who told me about this jewel of the dales. If I’m honest I don’ think I’d thought much more about it. Sure, I added it to my map, but Yorkshire is a long way from home and I thought I’d be unlikely to actually visit.
Then two things came about; a friends eighteenth birthday party in Wakefield, and the chance to meet up with another good friend who had recently moved near to Skipton. We’d never visited the Yorkshire Dales before and a long weekend camping near Bolton Abbey seemed . like a sensible thing to do. And Grassington – and the Stripey Badger – suddenly became a whole lot closer.
And I’m so glad it did. Grassington itself is a beautiful little market town in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales, and the Stripey Badger Bookshop & Cafe occupies a commanding three story building at the top of the market square.
It’s actually two shops next to each other – bookshop to one side, and cafe to the other – but you can walk freely between the two.
The bookshop is not overly stocked with titles but what it might lack in quantity it makes up with quality. It is exceptionally well-stocked. I saw many books whilst browsing that interested me, and I did not get tired of browsing (yes, sometimes bookshops can be laid out in such a way as to fatigue the browser!).
We also had lunch their – a poper pot of Yorkshire Tea and a panini. You get table service, but quite cleverly they make you go next door to the bookshop to pay. I bought Geta Thunberg’s No One is Too Small To Make A Difference and John Lewis Stempel’s The Secret Life of the Owl. So I guess their ploy worked!
Most importantly, I will be back.