INDEPENDENT Bookshop week begins today and one Whitchurch-based bookshop is offering a special deal to readers of the Herald.

The week, which runs from June 15 to 22, is a celebration of the role high street bookshops play in the community.

National Book Tokens are supporting an initiative to encourage people to spend in their local bookshop by offering a £5 book voucher to the first 100 Herald readers who come into Bookshrop in Green End and ask for a special code to be emailed their £5 National Book Token – completely free of charge and no strings attached.

Bookshrop owner Dinah Anderson said: "Our high streets are undergoing much upheaval at the moment, but Whitchurch is well placed geographically to hold its own in these challenging times.

"High streets are not just places to shop and browse but provide much needed space to socialise and bump into friends and neighbours who we might not otherwise see due to our busy lives.

"This is a fantastic offer to get people and out and about to buy books locally."