Southsea bookshop Pigeon Books named best in South East in British Book Awards

Pigeon Books, which was launched in 2020 by owners Phil Davies and his wife Mel and is situated at 1 Albert Road in Southsea, has won in the South East England category of the British Book Awards' independent bookshop category - and is shortlisted to be named the best in the country. It comes just over a week after the shop appealed to its customers for support and announced that it could be forced to close if trade doesn't improve. The cost of living crisis, lower footfall than expected and poor weather have all put a strain on business in the area.

Speaking to The News after the win, Phil Davies said: "I found out yesterday morning when I was stood in a queue for the post office and suddenly started getting tagged in all these Instagram posts. I wasn't quite sure that it was legit at first. I've used the term 'rollercoaster' to decribe the past couple of weeks anyway, and this was just another thing that I couldn't quite believe was actually happening."

Phil said he doesn't know what exactly said Pigeon Books apart from the competition, but explained that the shop has played an active role in the local community through involvement with projects like helping to establish Literacy Hubs in Portsmouth and supporting Portsmouth Pride, on top of selling books.

He added: "We've done something very difficult, setting up the business at the time we did, and we've just plugged away at it. That bit of determination to see it through regardless of circumstances hopefully worked in our favour.

"I didn't imagine that we would get to this point [in the competition], so I almost feel like we have won already. We have already achieved more than I hoped to from it. Obviously I would love to get the big prize, but if we don't, I'm not going to be at all dissapointed. To get to this stage is a massive win for us.

"The support this week has been overwhelmingly good and I it continues, that people remember we are here and hopefully we will continue to provide as good a service as we can in return."

You can visit Pigeon Books at 1 Albert Road, Southsea and you can explore and order books from the shop's website here: www.pigeonbooks.co.uk.