One should not covet another woman’s joinery but I struggled with that at the weekend when we visited The Mainstreet Trading Company in St Boswells in the Scottish Borders.  They sell books (mostly) and gifts and have a fabulous cafe but the bookseller in me spent quite a while admiring their shelving and the way that their open plan space managed to feel spacious without being barn-like.  Set up by Rosamund and Bill de la Hey, the shop opened a few weeks ago and already they seem to have built up a good Sunday afternoon trade. 

The stock selection is interesting and like any good bookseller I scribbled down the titles of a couple of books that we’ll have on the shelves soon and the children’s section is well laid out so that parents having a coffee in the cafe (excellent scones) or browsing the rest of the shop can easily keep an eye on their little darlings.  There’s also a gallery space where they can hold author events and and as Rosamund worked at Bloomsbury for many years she has an eviable contacts book so I expect she’ll have some amazing visitors – Michael Morpurgo is doing an event there soon and we might even drive down from Edinburgh to see him.

Definitely worth a visit and there’s lots of other places to visit in the area such as Thirlestane Castle, Abbotsford (Walter Scott’s house) and towns such as Melrose and Galashiels.  Or you could just buy a few books and hole up in the cafe with a coffee for the afternoon.

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