England's bookshops should be classed as essential, booksellers argue

Booksellers Association appeals to government to reopen England’s bookshops in second lockdown, as supermarkets and newsagents allowed to keep selling books

The Booksellers Association has called on the government to classify bookshops as essential retailers during England’s second lockdown, as other retailers that sell books like WH Smith and supermarkets get to remain open.

In a letter to government ministers today, the BA’s managing director Meryl Halls described bookshops as “lanterns of civilisation and, for many, beacons of hope”. Keeping them closed while allowing other retailers who sell books to remain open was “potentially ruinous commercially and is also morally problematic”, she wrote.

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