IT’S World Book Day today so I got into the spirit of things early by visiting a hidden gem in the Midlands that is, quite literally, off the beaten track but a firm favourite of bookworms in the know.
Astley Book Farm is the region’s largest second-hand book store, with more than 100,000 books on offer, ranging from rare and antiquarian titles to recently published household names.
Fittingly, it’s based on the estate where George Eliot was born, a literary tie-in that owner Vivienne Mills couldn’t resist.
Reached by a bumpy track off Astley Lane, near Bedworth in Warwickshire, it’s an old farmhouse and outbuildings that, over more than 20 years, has become a hotspot haunt of book-lovers.
Stock, which is added to daily, ranges from evocative old volumes worth hundreds of pounds to bargains in the aptly named Ten Bob Barn, where everything can be purchased for 50p a go.
There’s a huge range of fiction, featuring plenty of big names, and comprehensive non-fiction sections, carefully divided by subject. For younger readers there’s a fun Children’s Hayloft.
Inside, you’ll find a warren of tall bookshelves, with passageways between the different sections leading in unexpected directions and, occasionally, even the odd dead end.
At the far end of the maze is a snug where you’ll find, among other things, the travel books. There’s a large comfy sofa here, and a blazing log burner to ward off the early Spring chill.
I picked up a biography of legendary journalist Walter Cronkite; BBC correspondent Jon Sopel’s account of a year inside Trump’s first term in the White House, and John Le Carre’s A Delicate Truth.
I also bought Booker Prize-winning The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson and The Dark Remains, a crime novel by the late William McIlvanney completed after his death by Rebus writer Ian Rankin.
That’s four hardbacks and one paperback, all in good condition, for the princely sum of £18.50, less than the price of a single new hardback on the high street.
You can read your first few chapters over a snack at the coffee shop which serves coffees, teas, milkshakes and cakes, most of the produce sourced from local suppliers.
In warmer weather – although there were some hardy souls sitting outside during my weekend visit – picnic tables are dotted round a courtyard green so you can snack al fresco.
Astley Book Farm is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10am to 5pm, and Bank Holiday Mondays. Be warned that it can get busy at weekends, particularly during Bank Holiday breaks.
If you’re planning to visit, set the satnav for CV12 0NE but keep a sharp eye out for the sign by the entrance because it’s easy to miss. There’s more info and directions on the Book Farm website.
Paul Cole Writes 
Who doesn’t yearn to browse around a good old fashioned antiquarian or second hand bookshop? Mind you, you don’t have to work for MI6 to realise that bookstores can be pretty daunting, beguiling if not dangerous and spooky places.
In England, arguably the most famous spooky bookshop is at Sarah Key Books or The Haunted Bookshop situated in St Edward’s Passage Cambridge since 1896. This quaint shop is less than a third of a mile distant from Trinity College down a tiny alley in the historic heartland of Cambridge. Rumour has it that a genuine ghost resides there.
We can confirm that members of the Cambridge Five probably bought books at or visited Mr David’s bookshop in the 1930s and sauntered past it on frequent occasions on the way to and from the pubs in Bene’t Street and their rooms in Trinity College.
Search as you might though, despite being tailor made for espionage, few bookshops have become infamous safe houses, dead drop sites or even spy stations. Maybe that anonymity arises because the owners were such sophisticated and successful spies. Put another way, would you have heard about Kim Philby or Aldrich Ames had they not been exposed?
The most successful antiquarian bookshop we know of that was up to its shelves in espionage is the subject of an intriguing news article dated November 16, 2022 in TheBurlingtonFiles website. Well worth a visit and the (advert free) website is like an espionage museum in its own right.
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