The Rutland Bookshop, Uppingham

This is one of two secondhand bookshops remaining in Uppingham. The other is Forest Books a few doors away.

Elsewhere in the town, Goldmark in now purely a gallery - and well worth a visit if you like 20th century art. There was briefly another shop a few doors down from there (you can still see the books inside, which I suppose makes it a disused bookshop).

And there was a fifth shop, which fronted the market place and had a rear entrance in a yard opening off another street. I had forgotten all about until I came across the ornamental gates featuring books that used to guard that rear entrance.

The Rutland Bookshop specialises in country writers. As these include T. H. White and Richard Jefferies, a trip up its steep, narrow staircases can sometimes prove expensive for me.