This month, the Eagle Bookshop is celebrating 30 years of independent bookselling in Bedford with events, window displays and prizes.
To launch the month of celebrations, owner Peter Budek and his team offered party bags to the first 100 customers on the first weekend of September – including a £5 book token accepted in all good bookshops (including Eagle Bookshop of course).
Resident poet, Cameron Stuart hosted QWERTY Thirty!, creating personalised poems on his typewriter for lucky customers, while Scrooge and other literary characters including Jane Eyre, Miss Havisham and Shakespeare’s Prospero made guest appearances.
As ever, the window displays are a thing of beauty, giving drivers and pedestrians along St Peter’s Street something eye-catching to look at.
“Some of the displays in the shop may make you smile, and some you can actually help us create,” said owner, Peter Budek.
“We’re looking for photos of friends and customers of the shop taken in 1991 to form one of the displays, so please email them, message them or drop them off in person if you have anything suitable.”
Until 2019, the Eagle Bookshop had its home on Castle Road before moving to substantial new premises on St Peter’s Street. It stocks in excess of 100,000 books from £1 secondhand paperbacks to rare first editions. There really is something for everyone.
A quiz based on a theme of 30, with first, second and third prizes of £90, £60 and £30 gift vouchers to spend at The Eagle Bookshop is running until the end of the month.
Question sheets are available from the shop and the closing date for entries is Thursday 30 September.
Congratulations to Peter and the team on the last 30 years and here’s to the next 30…
