What are the opening hours?

Monday 9:30am - 5:30pm Tuesday 9:30am - 5:30pm Wednesday 9:30am - 5:30pm Thursday 9:30am - 5:30pm Friday 9:30am - 5:30pm Saturday 9:30am - 5:30pm Sunday 10am - 4pm

Harbour Books

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Harbour Books

Harbour Books is an independent bookshop in Whitstable, Kent. We sell books, cards and stationery. We are happy to order books, please get in touch for details.

21/05/2026

We are so excited to be able to finally announce that we have been awarded a grant! This grant, from Penguin 🐧 is to help fund a project designed to really engage young people in reading in a way we hope will be both positive and lasting.

The Penguin Children’s bookshop grant is an initiative to support the government’s 2026 Year of Reading and about 40 independent bookshops have received grants up to £5k each.

There is a lot of other noise and PR about the Year of Reading but on a personal level, I want to thank Penguin UK sincerely since these grants will make a real difference to us as an indie bookshop and the young customers (and their families) we aim to serve.

Our project is designed specifically for a YA/teen audience since we know there can be a massive drop off in reading for pleasure at that age and I feel passionate about trying to stop that happening so I cannot wait to tell you all about it. MORE VERY SOON I PROMISE.

For now thank you to and my small but perfectly lovely team Lizi and David for helping me get this over the line. We can’t wait to get started!

09/05/2026

As all true Julie Wassmer fans will know, she has a new title in her wildly popular and successful Whitstable Pearl series COMING OUT VERY VERY SOON! (Next month)

To celebrate, we’ll be hosting Julie in store on Thursday 18th June from 4pm where she will be signing books, chatting away and raising a glass of fizz with us.

It’s always a great time when Julie pays us a visit and she’s always happy to dedicate books, so do come along - no need to book, just turn up!

If you PRE-ORDER Murder at St Alfred’s via our website, it’s good for us and it’s good for Julie, so we are offering the book at 10% off for all those who get their orders in ahead of publication.

See you at Harbour Books! 🥳
18.06.26 at 4pm

30/04/2026

Last night, we gathered to celebrate the recent launch of Roderick Beaton’s latest book “Europe: A New History.” RB is an outstanding, world renowned historian (and delightful human) who happens to live in Whitstable. Lucky us.

It was a fabulous evening, and I managed to ask at least a handful of the very many questions I had after reading up on 2500 years of history in less than 350 pages.

If you haven’t “done” any history since school, but you’d like a better understanding of how we all (in the UK, in Europe) ended up where we are now, then this is the book for you! It is exciting, he romps through decades and sometimes even hundreds of years in mere sentences. So it is big, bold, eventful history which makes sense of those disparate events and figures you may have learned about in school by weaving them into a narrative that makes sense. But as you can imagine from a lifelong academic historian, it is also meticulously researched and written.

Fundamentally, Beaton asks us to consider what we mean when we talk about Europe? The answers he offers us, are fascinating. And the perspective we can gain from looking at this much history in one go offers is refreshing.

Roderick Beaton gave a great talk and we had some fabulous questions from our clever community (including some brilliant teens!) All in all, such an inspiring evening. Thanks to all who made it.

We have some signed copies of the book available in store of course!

27/03/2026

Jodie and I first met when she was promoting her debut novel Another Life in 2021, just after I’d taken over Harbour Books and life was crazy with Covid. I’ve got such a soft spot for authors whose debut novels were published at that dreadful moment - so it’s so lovely to see Jodie back, visiting bookshops promoting her THIRD novel California Gold! Jodie kindly popped in today to sign some books since she’s a local Kentish author and we had a good chat about this book - a cinematic, mid-century, literary saga that has reviewers comparing her to Ann Patchett and Taylor Jenkins Reid but fwiw I reckon that if you loved Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash or Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors then this novel would be a great fit for you!

04/03/2026

Performance & Workshop: 17th March 2026

We’re delighted to be hosting our very first play reading at Harbour Books this March.

Join us on Tuesday 17th March at 7pm for a special script-in-hand performance of Pieces of Me by Whitstable writer Isabelle Defaut.

Developed with the Marlowe Theatre’s Writers Room and first performed as part of their New Writing Festival last summer, Pieces of Me explores memory, identity, and the quiet ways loss lives alongside love.

‘A woman. A lifetime. The moments that shape us.’

Performed by brilliant local actors Claire Cox and Laura Woodward, with the writer joining the reading, this promises to be an intimate and moving evening in the bookshop, followed by a writing workshop and conversation about the play and the writing process.

Spaces are limited, so we recommend booking in advance.

Tickets are available via the link in our bio.

09/02/2026

We're getting closer to publication date - June 10th - but you can pre-order right now from the usual online retailers and also via Whitstable's indie bookshop, Harbour Books where I'm always happy to sign books for readers - so, if you do pre-order from Harbour Books,, just let them know you'd like a signed copy, and also if you'd like a customised message added. Happy to oblige. Jx

17/01/2026

As well as being extremely clever and discerning 😉our customers are also just the loveliest people. Today, reminded us of this when he came in to collect a book from us and kindly brought us this gorgeous bowl as a gift! For no reason other than being really nice! January is such a tough time for independent businesses so this generous gesture made our week and we love his work. Please do give him a follow, his work is gorgeous!

Stephen has been ordering specialist ceramics books from us for years now and we can do the same thing for you whatever your special interest or passion. Simply ask us in store, go on our website or drop us an email with the details of the book you want and we can order any book you are after and assuming it is in print, we can usually get it within a day or two and of course then we can look after it ‘til you want to collect it. It’s a great way of making sure you get exactly what you need and still supporting the independent bookshop in your community instead of an evil billionaire tax avoider. WIN WIN. You don’t even have to buy us a gift (although we are never mad about presents.)

Anyway, go give a follow. His work is ace and we’d love to see him get a bit more support. Community is a lovely thing and it’s so nice to be part of this one.

16/01/2026

Just an opening hours update from us (and Esme the dog) -

Monday to Friday: 9am till 5pm
Saturday: 10am till 5pm
Sunday: 10am till 4pm

As ever, drop us a message or an email if there is anything we can help with. Or come and see us in the shop!

13/11/2025

For our many Julie Wassmer fans who have been asking - the countdown is on!!

31/10/2025

On Thursday 13th November, we will be joining in with National Michael Rosen Day! The aim of the day is to make reading, listening to, and writing poetry fun, enjoyable and accessible for all, helping children and young people of all ages to discover its magic. We have taken that one step further and, as well as a kids poetry workshop, will be hosting a special edition Poetry Harbour.
Details of both events are noted below - if you fancy either, drop us a message to let us know you’re coming and just turn up on the day.

CHOCOLATE CAKE NOICE - Kids Poetry Workshop.
There is every likelihood you have seen the viral video of Michael reading his poem ‘Hot Food Nice’ and we shall embody a similar enthusiasm as we write our own poems. Perfect for kids between the ages of 4-11, it will be a spirited hour of rhyming, noise and writing poems about dinner, all in the spirit of the Michael Rosen theme this year ‘Funny Food.
Upstairs at Harbour Books from 3:45pm, for a 4pm start and shortly before 5pm finish (in time for tea).

POETRY HARBOUR - ‘Dustman’ & other poems on memory
Poetry Harbour is a straightforward evening where a small group of us come together and read aloud poems we have brought to share (you may prefer to sit back and listen: that’s also an option). This month we ask you to bring any poems on the topic of memory: from John Milton to Alice Oswald, anything that sparks your memory is welcome. We’ve selected ‘Dustman’ by Michael Rosen, and will have a few other team selections on theme ready for Thursday.
Poetry Harbour runs from 6:00pm to 7:00ish, with the door open anytime from 5:45pm.

For anymore information, please feel free to drop us a message, or come into the shop at any point before Thursday.

Address

21 Harbour Street
Whitstable
CT51AQ

Opening Hours

Monday	9:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	9:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	9:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday	9:30am - 5:30pm
Friday	9:30am - 5:30pm
Saturday	9:30am - 5:30pm
Sunday	10am - 4pm

Website

https://www.harbourbooks.org/

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