Bookworm

INDEPENDENTS AT RISKIT'S already hard enough, in the age of the internet, to run an independent bookshop in Scotland. But this week the government revealed that it is planning on making it even harder.

On the face of it, plans to streamline and standardise the sourcing of Scottish school and library books – which at present can be ordered from local bookshops – might look like a good idea. Costs would be cut and the taxpayer would benefit.

But critics such as Birlinn managing director Hugh Andrew point out that the size of the contracts mean that they could only be met by two firms, both in England. Not only would this drain up to 40 million from the Scottish economy over two years, it would create a monopoly that would inevitably use its muscle to demand discounts from Scottish publishers.

Scotland's independent bookshop owners are no less enamoured of the plan by Scotland Excel, the quango in charge of keeping down council procurement costs.

The work they do with schools and libraries, they point out, can't always be easily measured in terms accountants might understand. A book warehousing business based south of the Border, they point out, wouldn't bother taking authors into schools, organising drama workshops for teachers around certain school textbooks, or staging local literature festivals.

At Blast-off Books in Linlithgow, co-owner Harriet Smyth points out, they do all three things. "Our work with local schools and libraries makes up about 30 per cent of our income," she says. "Without it, we'd either have to diversify, selling knick-knacks and toys as well as books – which we don't want to do – or we'd have to fold up. It really is a threat to independent bookshops in Scotland."

SALE AWAY

ICELANDIC volcanoes permitting, Bookworm will this morning be leaving Edinburgh to travel to the Shetland Islands. But although I'm looking forward to making my first-ever visit to Fair Isle, I can't help thinking I should have timed it better.

The reason? Back in Edinburgh, today also sees the launch of the annual Christian Aid Sale at St Andrews's and St George's West Church on George Street. If there is a bigger and better sale of second-hand books in Britain, I've yet to hear of it.

Doors open at 10am, and because this year's patron is Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, the usual cornucopia includes more artworks than usual: from late 18th-century Japanese woodblock prints to a drawing of the Royal Botanics in spring by Vincent Butler and Joyce Gunn Cairns's portrait of Richard Holloway (which someone will doubtless beat me to), there's plenty to delight the eye as well as the mind.

As tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of JM Barrie's birth, there's also a good supply of his books – along with tens of thousands of others. An annual glimpse of paradise for bookworms, the sale lasts (Sunday apart) until Friday.