Simply Books is an exciting venture for us. We are passionate about the books we sell and our vision has always been to be a bookshop which is very much at the heart of the local community. We both live locally and are proud and pleased to be part of a thriving community and we have established a reputation with our customers for excellent service, imaginative author events and creating a buzz about books.

Andrew Cant I'd always had this ridiculous dream about running a bookshop (with a cafe!) ever since visiting Barnes&Noble in Boston in about 1978 - I got somewhat diverted by a career in the education service in Manchester (for 20 odd years) so it has been a fantastic liberation to leave the security (sic) of the public sector and be setting up Simply Books up from scratch! My own reading interests tend to modern literary fiction, with a smattering of history and politics. I love talking about the books I enjoy (if you've been in the shop you may have witnessed this  - sorry!). My favourite books? - A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) and anything by William Trevor.

Sue Steel I wasn't going to be involved on a day-to-day basis with the shop - my plan was to continue within the education sector - putting food on the table! Over the summer before we opened I got hooked! Designing the shop with a blank piece of paper was brilliant, managing the builders not so much fun but good practice for keeping Andrew in line! I too like talking about the books I've particularly enjoyed and sharing them with other people. Graham Swift, Sebastian Faulks and Ian McEwan are amongst my favourite writers and I'm especially partial to well-written miserable books!