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Monday 10am - 6pm Tuesday 10am - 6pm Wednesday 10am - 6pm Thursday 10am - 6pm Friday 10am - 6pm Saturday 10am - 6pm Sunday 10am - 6pm

The Portobello Bookshop

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The Portobello Bookshop

An independent bookshop at the beach in Portobello, Edinburgh. Open 7 days a week, 10am-6pm.

Please use our contact form to get in touch/order: https://theportobellobookshop.com/contact/

06/09/2026

New month = new displays! 🍃🌬️

On our moving shelf this month we’re highlighting some of our favourite climate-related fiction, with everything from Barabara Kingsolver’s novel of Appalachian miracles and Megha Majumdar’s exploration of a near-future India, to Helen Phillips’ examination of the role of artificial intelligence in the climate crisis and Ian McEwan’s look into a world underwater.

Plenty to get lost in! See you soon for a browse. 😊

05/09/2026

Victoria Aveyard is back, and this time it’s with her debut adult novel, Tempest! We’re delighted that she will be visiting the bookshop to sign and dedicate copies, which are now available to preorder. 💫

Tempest is an epic adventure out on the high seas full of vivid characters, captivating romances, and, of course, a lot of pirates. A perfect autumnal treat for all fantasy lovers out there.

And not only that, but you can also order personalised editions of her Red Queen and Realm Breaker series, too! ♥️

NB: Copies of Tempest will be signed and dedicated a couple of weeks after the publication date and therefore made available for collection/posted out around 24th September.

04/09/2026

A wee look into the past couple of months here at the shop…🌅

Beth, Alice, and Grace prepping for our incredible public signing with Alice Oseman for Heartstopper Volume 6 🍂🧡

The wonderful Nicola Sturgeon signing copies of the paperback edition of Frankly. ✨

A very rained-soaked Pickle! 🌧️

Some BTS from Beth, Faye, and Elise 🤭

A very tiny guest joined us behind the till whilst their owner browsed the shop 💛

More BTS, this time from Elise and Euan 🎙️

Victoria “V.E.” Schwab after signing hundreds of copies of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil 🖤

Leo being very hard at work! 🐶

The amazing cake that we had at our event for Alycia Pirmohamed’s Shorelines! 🌊

01/09/2026

September is somehow already upon us and we’re here to highlight the events we’ll be hosting this month! 🍃

Check out this line-up of the fantastic conversations we’re looking forward to this month:

• Thurs 3rd: James Fox with Niamh MacKenzie
• Thurs 10th: Sebastian Barry with Peggy Hughes (Nicolson Square)
• Tues 15th: Rebecca F. Kuang with Katie Goh (Assembly Rooms)
• Mon 21st: Marlon James with Laurence Cook (Assembly Roxy)
• Thurs 24th: Roshni Gallagher & Clementine Ewokolo Burnley
• Wed 30th: Marina Hyde with Frankie Boyle (Assembly Rooms)

Swipe along for more details about each event, and follow the Events link in our bio to sign up and join us!

29/08/2026

Dogs and Bears and new window alert! 💛🩷

Yesterday we had the absolute pleasure of welcoming Max Porter and Dorothée de Monfreid to the bookshop for a signing for the publication of their wonderful picture book Dogs and Bears. To celebrate, Dorothée kindly designed a new window display for us! It’s the perfect amount of fun and light, in a beautiful colour palette, and it creates most excellent shadows (swipe to see). As you can see, we also had lots of fun taking photos with Dorothée and Max - and the squid.

Huge thanks to Dorothée de Monfreid, (who we loved welcoming back to the bookshop after 3 years), and to Sarah Faber Children's for making it all possible.

If you missed the signing yesterday, fear not! We have signed copies of this wonderful and funny story about squabbling dogs and bears in the shop and on our website for you to browse.

26/08/2026

Did you know that the entrance to our Fiction Room is actually home to our poetry shelves? Tucked in the eaves of this archway are many incredible poetry collections that Faye and Marc are here to shout about today (as well as every other day that they’re in the shop) 📚

Whether you’re looking to find your next favourite poet, or if you’re wanting to dip your toe into contemporary poetry more generally, we’ve pulled together a collection of titles that we think are excellent places to start. ✨

25/08/2026

On Wednesday 14th October we’re hosting a Welsh Writers Showcase in collaboration with literary magazines, Gutter and Folding Rock! 🎉

We’ll be welcoming three outstanding writers from Wales to the bookshop: Rhian Elizabeth, Brigid Lowe, and Anthony Shapland. They will each be reading from their work, and talking about kinship between literary scenes that cross borders.

The event will be introduced by Managing Editor of Folding Rock, Kathryn Tann, and we can’t wait to hear from all of these brilliant writers. ⭐

🎟️Tickets are now available over on our website or via the link in our bio.

21/08/2026

*ahem*...is this thing on?🎙️

Ever missed one of our events or wanted to relive a particularly special one? Well, you’re in luck: The Portobello Bookshop Podcast is now up and running! The podcast will be where you can return to some of our incredible events, or indeed keep up with the ones still yet to come, as well as hear some exclusive author interviews and conversations with extra special guests. Looks like your morning commute just got a whole lot more interesting. 🙂‍↕️

To kick things off we’re returning to the wonderful evening we shared with George Saunders in February–a true master of literature, the conversation between George and Heather Parry was one of the most inspirational we’ve ever heard, we just knew we couldn’t launch the podcast without it! There is also a small introductory episode from our Events Manager and Co-Ordinator, Euan and Elise, in which they explain a wee bit about how all of this is going to work.

And, it’s no secret that we’re a team who love to chat (especially about books), so keep your eyes peeled for some special bookseller episodes in which we get stuck into the nitty gritty of the literary world, update you all on what we’re reading, and give you more of an insight into indie bookselling life! 🎉

Available to listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

19/08/2026

Did someone say “Limited £5 Ticket Offer”? Oh wait, that was us! 🎟️👀

We’re excited to be offering a limited number of £5 tickets to the external events we’ll be hosting in and around Edinburgh this autumn. We’ll be joined by an array of amazing writers for a series of unmissable conversations - check out this line-up!

Swipe along for more info, including the all-important venue details.

• Thurs 10th Sep: Sebastian Barry with Peggy Hughes
• Tues 15th Sep: Rebecca F. Kuang with Katie Goh
• Mon 21st Sep: Marlon James with Laurence Cook
• Wed 30th Sep: Marina Hyde with Frankie Boyle
• Thurs 8th Oct: David Shrigley with Michael Pedersen
• Mon 19th Oct: V. E. Schwab with Laura Steven
• Fri 23rd Oct: Min Jin Lee with Nicola Sturgeon

Sign up via the ‘Events’ link in our bio, where you’ll find listings for all of these events and many more!

13/08/2026

We’ve got quite the special today! 🐶💛

Meet Leo, the newest addition to our team! A master of quality control, he’s fond of sniffing around the shelves to make sure all our books are in good condition, nibbling on the cardboard to reduce our waste, and exploring the offices to ensure we’re all working hard! He’s still a wee puppy, but as he gets older you may begin to see him around the shop a lot more. 😊

We thought that with our upcoming event with Luke Healy for his new graphic novel Dogs on Dates, now was the perfect time to showcase Leo’s first lot of recommendations. He’s not had a huge amount of time to read in the past 6 months, but we think he’s off to a great start. If you’d like to take Leo’s advice and come along to Luke’s event then head on over to our website to secure a space!

We hope to welcome you to the shop soon! If there’s a corner missing from one of our bookmarks, it most definitely wasn’t Leo. 👀🐾

Address

46 Portobello High Street
Edinburgh
EH151DA

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 6pm
Tuesday	10am - 6pm
Wednesday	10am - 6pm
Thursday	10am - 6pm
Friday	10am - 6pm
Saturday	10am - 6pm
Sunday	10am - 6pm

Telephone

+441316296756

Website

https://theportobellobookshop.com/

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