Welcome
Heron Books, Clifton’s only independent bookshop, can be found in the historic Clifton Arcade on Boyce’s Avenue.
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-Friday: 10am-5:30pm
Saturday: 9am-6pm
Sunday: 11am-4pm
Unit 5, The Clifton Arcade
Boyce’s Avenue
Bristol, BS8 4AA
0117 431 0616
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News
Raising Heron – 05/10/2024
I can hardly express how moved I’ve been by Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, the story of finding a leveret in danger and rescuing it without domesticating it. Chloe Dalton picked up the exposed leveret within mounds of damp grass hoping not to impart her scent but was told by a conservationist that its mother…
Hyper Herons – 28/09/2024
Like Fanta Mentos, The Sopranos, Le Creuset, Florence (the city and the Machine), smoked paprika, the printing press, this contraption, Jodie Comer and the medjool dates they sell at Reg the Veg, the new Sally Rooney novel is worth the hype. I was nervous before reading it and had shunned reviews. I need not have…
Tell Us Everything – 21/09/2024
If you have not met Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton yet, I am thrilled for you because of what you have lying ahead.If you have, I am thrilled at that. There is so much to discuss. Now, at last, Olive and Lucy have met each other. And they keep meeting. In order to tell…
Cardiganed Herons – 14/09/2024
A chill hung over The Downs early yesterday morning as we began setting up for the University of Bristol’s Welcome Fair. My fingers complained of the cold when I attempted to achieve the perfect fan of bookmarks (years of training required). By the time our stall was ready, the sun was offering alleviation and the…
Loitering With Herons – 07/09/2024
Dear Reader, ‘All stories are true.Some would disagree.All narrators are Cretan liars.’ – My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss Last week I was mesmerised by finding Gwen John everywhere, building a portrait of a portrait artist from fiction, biography and poetry. The possibilities of writing shone. I thought about how so many of the…
A Cover Story – 31/08/2024
I do not know if our recent Rainer Maria Rilke event, celebrating Martyn Crucefix’s translation of and decades of work committed to the poet, was the cause of my returning to God’s Little Artist by Sue Hubbard, a poetry collection about Gwen John. Rilke and John became friends in Paris in the early twentieth century.…