MP calls on government to protect struggling independent booksellers
Alison Flood writing in guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 January 2009

An MP has called on the government to provide more support to small businesses after learning that an award-winning and much-loved local bookshop has been forced to close.

Kaydee Bookshop in Clitheroe, Lancashire, which was named independent bookseller of the year in 1992, has announced that it will be closing down at the end of this month after 60 years in business, with the loss of nine jobs. Its demise follows the news earlier this month that the UK's only specialist crime bookshop,

Murder One in London, will also close at the end of January, and adds to official figures that show the number of independent bookshops in the UK has plummeted by 22% in the last 10 years, with just 1,390 still open according to the most recent count last summer, compared to 1,774 in 1999.

Reasd the complete story at The Guardian online.