Books for people who take books seriously and don't take themselves too seriously.
The Folded Page opened in 2019, on Raeburn Place in Stockbridge — the kind of neighbourhood that still has a fishmonger and an argument about planning permission. It was founded by Nora Calloway, who had spent twelve years recommending books in other people's shops and decided it was time to recommend them in her own. The stock runs to around 4,000 titles: hand-selected, regularly rotated, and chosen on the basis that a smaller selection made with conviction is more useful than a warehouse made with none. Bewick, the shop cat, has no opinion on this but is often found asleep on the poetry shelf, which is an opinion of a kind.
The short answer: a small one. Around 4,000 titles, not 40,000. Every book on the shelf is there because someone on the team read it and thought it deserved to be there. This sounds obvious. It is, apparently, unusual.
We carry literary fiction, translated fiction, poetry, narrative non-fiction, Scottish writing, natural history, and books for children that are actually good. We do not stock airport thrillers unless they are genuinely good — which occasionally they are. We do stock translated fiction from publishers most shops ignore, and we think this is one of the more defensible things about us. Over a quarter of our fiction titles are works in translation. The best contemporary fiction is not being written exclusively in English.
The booksellers here have read the books they recommend. Nora spent twelve years at larger shops before deciding she'd rather run a small one with conviction. Alasdair holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, which he describes as professionally useless and personally invaluable. Marta previously worked at a bookshop in Kraków and leads our translated fiction selection. We argue about books. We remember what you bought last time.
There is also a rotating second-hand section — sourced locally, priced to sell, no guarantee of what's in at any given time. That is not a flaw in the model.
Bewick, the shop cat, arrived uninvited in 2020 and has shown no signs of leaving. He is named after the wood-engraver Thomas Bewick, whose work appears in Jane Eyre. He sits on whatever you are trying to read.
We stock what we'd want to read. This turns out to be a reasonable editorial policy.
Four things, done without fuss. The shop is small by design; the range is not.
Hand-selected stock, turned over frequently. The model is low quantity, high conviction — roughly 4,000 titles rather than 40,000, which means every book on the shelf is there because someone here thought it worth your time.
Specialisms: literary fiction, translated fiction, poetry, narrative non-fiction, Scottish writing, natural history. Celebrity memoirs are stocked only when the celebrity in question is genuinely interesting, which happens less often than publishers would like.
A rotating section sourced locally — from house clearances, donations, and the occasional private collection that arrives unannounced on a Tuesday morning. Priced to sell, not to sit.
There is no guarantee of what will be in at any given time. That is, in our view, the point. Worth checking regularly if you have the patience for it.
Both free. No charge, no obligation, no upselling. If you describe a person for two minutes — their habits, their last good read, what they tend to abandon — a recommendation will follow. We have not yet failed to produce one.
Gift wrapping uses brown paper and twine. It looks like a book, which is considered a feature.
Three reading areas, distributed across the shop. Coffee, tea, and shortbread are available. One table, which seats two at a push. Not a café — a bookshop that happens to have a kettle and some chairs.
Bring a book or borrow one from the shelf by the window. The shelf by the window operates on an informal honour system that has, so far, worked reasonably well.
The Folded Page Book Club meets on the first Thursday of every month at 6:30pm, in the shop. Membership is £5 per month and includes a ten per cent discount on all purchases.
The group has been running since 2021. In that time it has read 47 books, of which 31 were in translation. That is not a coincidence.
Meetings last roughly ninety minutes. There is no set format. People disagree, sometimes strongly, and that is considered a feature rather than a problem.
The club is currently at capacity. A waiting list is available — email hello@thefoldedpage.co.uk with “book club” in the subject line. We will be in touch when a place opens.