The HeathBookshop

Catherine and Claire, who met on a Booksellers Association training course, opened the Heath Bookshop in Kings Court on the Kings Heath high street in September 2022. The shop was named Independent Bookshop of the Year 2025, recognition for a stock built around new fiction and non-fiction alongside a programme of author events, a book club and a subscription service. A coffee table styled around Kate Bush sits at the centre of the shop, where customers are encouraged to sit with a hot drink rather than browse and leave. The pair built the shop as a community space as much as a retailer, and it now anchors a small local literature and music festival. Its selection is deliberately curated rather than exhaustive, reflecting the owners' own reading rather than a chain's central buying list.