Our roots, and our mission.
Shrew’s beginnings
Shrew Books is the latest incarnation of Bookends, the long beloved bookshop nestled in the bustling main street of the beautiful Fowey. I took on Bookends in 2020 after many years of pining for the life in Cornwall I had left behind as a teenager to study in London, followed by a career within the book industry that took many forms. I have bought and sold books for Waterstones, handled literary rights for the BBC, worked as the book buyer for the Royal Museums Greenwich and assisted literary agents at Janklow & Nesbit UK. I love bookselling above all else, and feel proud to now call Fowey my home.
Welcome to Shrew
At Shrew Books I aim to bring the local community and its visitors a curated range of new books, flagging Cornish writers and Cornish settings, as well as bringing forward some of the most exciting fiction and non-fiction hitting the shelves at the moment. One of my favourite areas of literature is nature writing, so I will always endeavour to source the very best for the shelves of Shrew Books, and children and families are always welcome to while away some time amongst our picture books and brilliant middle-grade & young adult novels.
Taking on Bookends and setting up Shrew Books had been a dream of mine for a long time, and I would never have been able to do this without the support and unwavering tolerance of my kind and generous friends and family. I thank them, and hope that you all love this little shop as much as I do.
Kate x
