Harbour Books

Harbour Books Harbour Books is an independent bookshop in Whitstable, Kent. We sell books, cards and stationery. We are happy to order books, please get in touch for details.

This is going to break a lot of hearts, but trust me, no one is more heartbroken than me to tell you that Harbour Books’...
04/08/2026

This is going to break a lot of hearts, but trust me, no one is more heartbroken than me to tell you that Harbour Books’ wonderful full-time manager David is leaving us for pastures new.

I’ve written and rewritten this post a bunch of times because it is hard to summarise how important David has been for Harbour Books but he’s also such a dear friend and I’ll just miss having him about all the time. Even thought I knew this was coming, I’ve honestly been massively in denial about David’s last day.

So many of you have enjoyed chatting to him about faerie s**t or vampire books or books about gay hockey players, of course, but he’s so much more than that! David has been absolutely instrumental to the running of Harbour Books since he arrived with us in late 2023. We’ve laughed A LOT and cried a little (that one is mainly me tbf, he’s not much of a crier). And I am going to miss him so.

His very last day is tomorrow - Wednesday 5th August so if you want to see him for one last recommendation before he leaves, now is your chance.

Please leave some love for this beautiful bookseller in the comments. I know you will all miss him too.

PS Please find yourself someone who looks at you the way David looked at Juno Dawson. That’s the secret. What a special day that visit was! ❤️

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY Julie! We are delighted to say that Whitstable’s very own Julie Wassamer, crime writer extraordina...
18/06/2026

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY Julie!

We are delighted to say that Whitstable’s very own Julie Wassamer, crime writer extraordinaire, will be in store at Harbour Books this afternoon celebrating the publication of Murder at St Alfred’s, the latest title in her wildly successful Whitstable Pearl series.

Is a town even a real town without a cosy crime series based there?! Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about that.

From 4pm today, Julie will be in store, enjoying a glass of fizz with us to celebrate and chatting away to readers - and of course signing some books! No need to book but it’s first come first serve on books and Prosecco! Come down and say hi!

We are so excited to be able to finally announce that we have been awarded a grant! This grant, from Penguin 🐧 is to hel...
21/05/2026

We are so excited to be able to finally announce that we have been awarded a grant! This grant, from Penguin 🐧 is to help fund a project designed to really engage young people in reading in a way we hope will be both positive and lasting.

The Penguin Children’s bookshop grant is an initiative to support the government’s 2026 Year of Reading and about 40 independent bookshops have received grants up to £5k each.

There is a lot of other noise and PR about the Year of Reading but on a personal level, I want to thank Penguin UK sincerely since these grants will make a real difference to us as an indie bookshop and the young customers (and their families) we aim to serve.

Our project is designed specifically for a YA/teen audience since we know there can be a massive drop off in reading for pleasure at that age and I feel passionate about trying to stop that happening so I cannot wait to tell you all about it. MORE VERY SOON I PROMISE.

For now thank you to and my small but perfectly lovely team Lizi and David for helping me get this over the line. We can’t wait to get started!

As all true Julie Wassmer fans will know, she has a new title in her wildly popular and successful Whitstable Pearl seri...
09/05/2026

As all true Julie Wassmer fans will know, she has a new title in her wildly popular and successful Whitstable Pearl series COMING OUT VERY VERY SOON! (Next month)

To celebrate, we’ll be hosting Julie in store on Thursday 18th June from 4pm where she will be signing books, chatting away and raising a glass of fizz with us.

It’s always a great time when Julie pays us a visit and she’s always happy to dedicate books, so do come along - no need to book, just turn up!

If you PRE-ORDER Murder at St Alfred’s via our website, it’s good for us and it’s good for Julie, so we are offering the book at 10% off for all those who get their orders in ahead of publication.

See you at Harbour Books! 🥳
18.06.26 at 4pm

Last night, we gathered to celebrate the recent launch of Roderick Beaton’s latest book “Europe: A New History.” RB is a...
30/04/2026

Last night, we gathered to celebrate the recent launch of Roderick Beaton’s latest book “Europe: A New History.” RB is an outstanding, world renowned historian (and delightful human) who happens to live in Whitstable. Lucky us.

It was a fabulous evening, and I managed to ask at least a handful of the very many questions I had after reading up on 2500 years of history in less than 350 pages.

If you haven’t “done” any history since school, but you’d like a better understanding of how we all (in the UK, in Europe) ended up where we are now, then this is the book for you! It is exciting, he romps through decades and sometimes even hundreds of years in mere sentences. So it is big, bold, eventful history which makes sense of those disparate events and figures you may have learned about in school by weaving them into a narrative that makes sense. But as you can imagine from a lifelong academic historian, it is also meticulously researched and written.

Fundamentally, Beaton asks us to consider what we mean when we talk about Europe? The answers he offers us, are fascinating. And the perspective we can gain from looking at this much history in one go offers is refreshing.

Roderick Beaton gave a great talk and we had some fabulous questions from our clever community (including some brilliant teens!) All in all, such an inspiring evening. Thanks to all who made it.

We have some signed copies of the book available in store of course!

Address

21 Harbour Street
Whitstable
CT51AQ

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Saturday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Harbour Books posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category