Eleven Broad Street, at the sea end of the hill, four hundred yards north of the harbour wall and two minutes from the Mary Anning statue. Forty years on the same row, since December 2020 in the hands of Kevin and Jayne Ramage. General fiction, the children's room behind the counter, and a dedicated Jurassic Coast collection of walking, maps and fossil hunting.
Two floors of stock on Broad Street, the children's room behind the counter. Walk-in stock rotates weekly. If you're after a specific title, phone the shop on 01297 442594 or email info@lymebookshop.com and we'll pull it off the shelf or order it for the next morning. Michelle, Josh, Zannah, Sarah and Chelsea are the booksellers; one of us is on the till every day.
The contemporary list as it lands, the Booker shortlist on a dedicated bay, the West Country novelists (Thomas Hardy, John Fowles, Patrick Gale, Tracy Chevalier's Mary-Anning novel), and a small modern classics shelf at adult eye level. New paperbacks rotate weekly.
Walk-in stock rotates weeklyThe Jurassic Coast official guide, the 95-mile fossil-hunting map, Paddy Dillon's South West Coast Path Cicerone volumes, and the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre fossil-walks pamphlet. Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures, Patricia Pierce and Shelley Emling on Anning herself. Tide-tables for the Charmouth-to-Lyme beach walk on the wall.
Maps, guides and tide tables in stockA dedicated children's room behind the counter, picture books at little-person eye level, the early-reader shelves, the middle-grade adventure list and the YA paperback wall. The fossil-and-dinosaur section sits next to the picture books, because the under-eights all ask first.
Story-corner reading welcomeJane Austen's Persuasion, set on the Cobb. John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman, opening on the same Cobb a hundred and fifty years later. Dorset histories, Devon-border accounts, the Lyme Regis Museum titles, and the small-press editions stocked nowhere else within fifty miles.
Signed editions on requestModern history and biography, the long nature-writing list the South West does so well (Robert Macfarlane, Adam Nicolson, Helen Macdonald), popular science from the Royal Institution's annual list, the cookbook table, and the gardening shelf seasonal-stocked from Bridport spring through August.
Stock turns with the seasonIf we have not got it on the shelf we can order almost any title in print, usually in 24 to 48 hours. Phone the shop on 01297 442594, drop us a line at info@lymebookshop.com, or fill the order form below. Pickup on Broad Street, posted to you, or home-delivered through bookshop.org if you would rather pay there.
Pickup, post, or bookshop.orgWalk-in stock rotates weekly · phone the counter on 01297 442594 if you are travelling in from Bridport, Axminster or Honiton for a specific title.
The Jurassic Coast runs 95 miles from Orcombe Point at Exmouth east to Old Harry Rocks at Studland. Lyme sits at its visual heart, the Blue Lias cliffs of Black Ven and Monmouth Beach within walking distance of the shop. We carry the official guide, the 95-mile fossil map, Paddy Dillon's two Cicerone walking volumes, and the seasonal Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre fossil-walks pamphlet.
The shop is two minutes south of the Mary Anning statue, unveiled on her 223rd birthday in 2022. We stock Anning's biographies (Patricia Pierce, Shelley Emling), Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures, and the children's editions for the under-tens who arrive in the shop already knowing the ichthyosaur story.
Jane Austen visited Lyme in 1804 and called it "the happiest spot for watching the flow of the tide." She set the Cobb scene of Persuasion here in 1817, where Louisa Musgrove falls on the harbour wall. John Fowles lived in Lyme from 1965 until his death in 2005 and curated the Lyme Regis Museum between 1978 and 1988. The Cobb opens his 1969 novel The French Lieutenant's Woman.
The 1981 film of the Fowles book was shot here. Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Harold Pinter on the screenplay. Five Oscar nominations. The shopfront at 11 Broad Street is in the film. Of course, we have the book on sale in the shop.
✿ The Cobb · first documented 1328 The Cobb is the curved breakwater that wraps the western edge of the harbour. Its first written record is a 1328 document describing storm damage. The wall in the photograph above is what Austen walked, what Streep walked in the 1981 film, and what every fossil-hunter and walker passes on the way out of town.
From the shop door, turn right at the bottom of Broad Street, follow the seafront west for four hundred yards. The Mary Anning statue is on the way, on the seafront grass overlooking Black Ven. We sell the maps and the walking guides on the rack inside the door, so you can grab them on the way past.
The bookshop has stood at the sea end of Broad Street for over forty years, a pebble's throw from the beach. Kevin and Jayne Ramage took it over in December 2020 and have run it alongside Bookhaus Bristol and Grove Bookshop Ilkley. Three independent bookshops, one bookseller's eye.
The shopfront is the same one that featured in the 1981 Oscar-nominated film of The French Lieutenant's Woman. Of course, we have the book on sale.
If we haven't got the book you want on the shelves we can order it, usually in 24 to 48 hours. Phone the shop on 01297 442594, drop us a line, or fill in the form. Pickup on Broad Street, posted to you, or home-delivered through our bookshop.org page ↗ if you would rather pay there.
The booksellers are at the till during shop hours, seven days a week, year round. If you are not sure of the exact title, an author or a subject is enough; we will find it for you.
We are at the sea end of Broad Street, four hundred yards north of the Cobb and two minutes north of the Mary Anning statue. The bus stop at ‘The Square’ is a hundred metres away on the X53 hourly service along the coast and to Axminster rail station. By car the long-stay car parks at Charmouth Road and Holmbush are the local recommendation.
For anything not here, phone the shop on 01297 442594 or write to info@lymebookshop.com. Michelle, Josh, Zannah, Sarah and Chelsea are at the till during shop hours.
Most titles in print are with us in 24 to 48 hours. Phone the shop on 01297 442594 or fill in the order form on this page. We will reply by the next opening day with the price and the expected arrival window. Pickup at the counter, posted to you, or routed through our bookshop.org page if you prefer to pay there.
Yes. The 1981 film, directed by Karel Reisz with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, was shot in Lyme. Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. Five Oscar nominations. The shopfront at 11 Broad Street is in it; the John Fowles novel it is based on is on sale in the shop. Fowles himself lived in Lyme from 1965 until his death in 2005 and curated the town museum between 1978 and 1988.
The statue is two minutes south of the shop, on the seafront grass overlooking Black Ven where she worked. It was unveiled on 21 May 2022, her 223rd birthday, by Professor Alice Roberts and Evie Swire. We stock the Patricia Pierce and Shelley Emling biographies, Tracy Chevalier's novel Remarkable Creatures, and the children's editions on the dinosaur shelf beside the picture books.
Open seven days a week, year round. Summer: Monday to Saturday 9:30 to 5:30, Sunday 10:00 to 4:00. Winter: Monday to Saturday 9:30 to 5:00, Sunday 10:00 to 4:00. We do not close on bank holidays. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are the exceptions; we post the dates on the homepage two weeks in advance.
Signings are arranged through the publisher when an author tours; the next event is posted on the Events page and the Instagram. Local-author signings (the Lyme and Charmouth writers) are usually monthly, by appointment with the bookseller. For the Jurassic Coast walks themselves the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre runs scheduled fossil-walks; we stock the pamphlet on the rack inside the door.
