Sevenoaks Bookshop has been crowned the best independent of its kind at one of the publishing industry's most prestigious awards.

The shop in Sevenoaks High Street has weathered the storm of the pandemic year, launching an online outlet for the first time and delivering 9,000 books by post to readers as a result.

"Without it we wouldn't be in the position we're in now," owner Fleur Sinclair said of the ability to trade and connect with customers online.

"We've been very fortunate with the support that we have had. We have tried to do events online, all through the first lockdown we were doing free events with authors, just trying to provide things of interest to the reading community.

"We have been delivering to customers, especially older, isolating customers, who did really welcome a voice on the phone and books obviously keep them going.

"Books certainly, I think, have provided some comfort to people."

Such has been the ability of the bookshop to adapt during the Covid-19 crisis that Ms Sinclair was even able to take the decision to expand her premises - which employees 10 full and part-time staff - into a vacant unit next door in September.

She said: "Obviously it's an enormous gamble because we still don't know what things are going to look like when they start reopening, because the confirmation has not 100% come yet for April 12."

Ms Sinclair previously worked as a photographer's agent, but later began working at the bookshop and was offered the chance to take over in 2015 when the previous owners retired.

"We really try to make sure we carry the biggest range that we can for a shop of our size," she said.

"We are always looking for really great new titles, different titles, different things to find. Fiction, non-fiction, all the stories basically."

Tom Tivnan, The Bookseller’s managing editor and chair of the Independent Bookshop of the Year judging panel, said: "This was certainly the most difficult year of judging this award in Nibbies history and not because the pandemic was a body blow to indies.

"Far from it: though booksellers obviously would not have chosen the conditions of 2020, we were inundated with some of the strongest submissions we have ever seen.

"The most interesting thing was that while many of the shops moved to being online booksellers during lockdown periods, they did so while maintaining their identity, their support for their core customers and their links to local communities, perhaps proving that bookseller know-how and expertise will beat an algorithm any day."

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