"Just a decade ago, Britain was littered with alluring, dusty, pleasantly smelly little shops packed with mile upon mile of shelves of books. Some survive, but many more have closed their pages for the last time."

"Driving through market towns and turning up on the doorstep of what a few years ago was an exciting shop, one now finds boutiques, organic greengrocers, mobile telephone hawkers or private houses. The second-hand bookshop in the provinces is on its last legs."

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