The Cleeve Bookshop will be celebrating its first birthday from 10am on Saturday, April 22, with a free family event featuring a visit from the much-loved children's characters Pip and Posy.

The characters were created by the renowned children's illustrator Axel Scheffler.

The event is free to attend, there is no need to book, and every child attending will receive a free book-related goody bag! This is an event suitable for ages 0 -5.

Will Williams, owner of The Cleeve Bookshop in Mill Parade, Church Road, Bishops Cleeve, said: "It has been an amazing first year for the Cleeve Bookshop and the support from the Cleeve community has been incredible.

"Children's bookselling is massively important to me, so a visit from Pip and Posy seems a wonderful way to celebrate our first birthday! The Pip and Posy books have long been favourites of mine and I was reading them to my children when they first came out!"

The population of Bishop's Cleeve has grown to approximately 17,000, which is a larger population than in Tewkesbury. The most regular customer comment that Will has received since opening is that Cleeve "needed a bookshop" to help ensure that Cleeve continues to mature and grow as a community.

Since its opening, The Cleeve Bookshop has held regular children's events, author talks, poetry and prose writing workshops, and hosts a regular board game evening at the adjacent Bar No.9.

Independent bookshops have experienced a renaissance in recent years, with large numbers of new bookshops opening across the UK and the overall numbers of independent bookshops reaching a 10-year high in 2022.

Will added: "Owning and running your own bookshop can't be beaten for job satisfaction! Although the reality of online and kindle bookselling has made the economics of bookselling much harder, it is also true that post-Covid, people are putting more importance on their local communities and supporting their high streets to survive."