“It’s a family-run business,” says co-owner Richard Drake. “We’re a general bookshop, with an eclectic backlist, and a community space that welcomes everyone. We’ve got a book group and a creative writing group set up in conjunction with the council, for young adults with learning difficulties.”

Top five sellers

• Date With Mystery Julia Chapman
• Oi Goat! Kes Gray/Jim Field
• The Exact Opposite of Okay Laura Steven
• Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk Kathleen Rooney
• Max and the Millions Ross Montgomery

Five recommendations

• Educated Tara Westover
“Astonishingly well-written account of a girl with no official records, battling to educate herself and eventually going to Harvard and Cambridge.”

• The Light Jar Lisa Thompson
“Do ghosts really exist or are they just abandoned imaginary friends? This is the starting point for a brilliant children’s novel.”

• Reservoir 13 Jon McGregor
“A girl goes missing. The search continues, but so does village life. A beautiful, poetic novel about everyday stuff.”

• Cell 7 trilogy Kerry Drewery
“TV culture meets life on death row. Martha appears guilty of murder, but is it that simple?”

• Elmet Fiona Mozley
“A perfect balance between pastoral beauty and dark foreboding. Beautifully brutal story of a family living on the edges of ‘normal’.”

Drake the Bookshop, 27 Silver Street, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 1SX; drakethebookshop.co.uk