Bookseller’s Choice of the Week with Malcolm Angel from Gullivers Bookshop in Wimborne

IT CAN be daunting leaving the cosy confines of Gullivers and heading up to London.

Leaving the calm surroundings of Wimborne’s independent bookshop for the frenetic cacophony of the London Book Fair is another thing altogether.

With 25,000 publishers, booksellers, agents and authors in attendance, there are more people in one space at one time than we’re used to seeing in a year, under a roof that would probably cover the whole of Wimborne’s town centre.

Two of Gullivers’ finest visited the book fair, and were treated to a morning of presentations on the titles expected to be bestsellers over the coming months, by authors new and well-known.

We’ll write more about some in coming weeks, but one which is due out soon was of particular interest to us.

Robert Macfarlane’s last book, The Old Ways, detailing his walks along Britain’s ancient tracks, was a Radio 4 Book of the Week and a bestseller in 2012.

His latest book, Holloway (Faber & Faber, £14.99), sees him in South Dorset with artists Stanley Donwood & Dan Richards.

He first visited the sunken tracks of Dorset with his friend, environmentalist Roger Deakin in 2005.

Deakin sadly passed away just a short time later, and Macfarlane’s new book is a tribute to him.

Beautifully illustrated, this was previously only available in a limited print run for a short time last year. Published nationally this May, it is a poetic and enlightening introduction to an aspect of Dorset which to many of us is as unfamiliar as any far-flung destination.