Welcome
Heron Books took flight earlier in 2025 from our original home in The Clifton Arcade.
Find us in our new(ish) heronry at 7a Regent Street, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4HW.
The shop stocks a range of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books, 4000 of them in a carefully planned cosy space. Heron Books offers personal recommendations and the creation of bespoke gift lists for special occasions, and runs events, including a monthly poetry series and several book groups. Where not already on the shelves, books can be ordered for home delivery by Royal Mail and, if you live really nearby, staff can exceptionally cycle over to deliver them personally.
The shop is a welcoming space. We like nothing more than talking about books; if the book in question features a heron, all the better.
Opening Hours
Monday-Saturday: 9.30am-5.30pm
Sunday: 11am-4pm
7a Regent Street
Clifton, Bristol
BS8 4HW
0117 401 1717
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News
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In Eliot’s Midst – 29 May 2025
I write to you from the town and world of Middlemarch. Judging by this week’s conversations and sales, many of you are joining me, some returning, some making your first foray, thanks to that Guardian list or last week’s dispatch, whichever is the more influential. How I love being back here. George Eliot got it…
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Transient Lists, Enduring Books – 22 May 2026
Upon my word, how I love a good argument. And a good list. One causing several of the other is ideal. Pour me a drink and let’s get stuck in. The Guardian’s ‘100 Best Novels of All Time’ (I think they appreciate the silliness of the title, having published the same one with different content…
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Dear Historians – 15 May 2026
In Dear Historian by Joff Winterhart, the academic Margaret Crypt is courted by a television production company, Giant Past, run by the self-obsessed if charismatic ‘personality’/historian Allan Hands. Margaret thinks the work of a historian involves removing oneself as much as possible, being secondary to one’s subject. Allan, who likes dressing in period costume and…
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The Things That Must Be Said – 8 May 2026
Upon my word, this has been a mighty week in publishing.* Four books were published this week which I think will stand the test of time. (Not necessarily only four but I am yet to read Asterix in Lusitania, Room For Us All by Lu Fraser, or, um, the new thriller from partners in crime…
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Sense and Nonsense in the Gloaming – 1 May 2026
I am going to write about Ben Lerner, Val McDermid and lyrical ballads in the same newsletter. Try and stop me. I’m changing directions like a bat in high rafters – with rapidity, great aplomb and no little nod to the gothic, I’m sure. Transcription by Ben Lerner is as good as my fellow bookseller…
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Prepositions and Persuasions – 24 April 2026
There are myriad exciting new books out. My shelves and I are overwhelmed. Harry keeps pointing at Transcription by Ben Lerner and announcing, ‘That’s how to write.’ I suspect from her previous books that when I do read The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley I will repeatedly say the same about it. I’ve only had…