Martello Bookshop

26 High Street, Rye, East Sussex TN31 7JJ

Tel: 01797 222242 
Fax: 01797 227335

e-mail: martbook@aol.com

This High Street site has been a booksellers since at least 1894, having a series of owners that include A. Whiteman, publisher of Whiteman's Almanac and Gouldens of Rye, founded by Fran Goulden in 1929. That family business continued as stationers and booksellers until taken over by the Reavells in 1975. They renovated the shop and renamed it Martello Bookshop after the Martello Towers that are such an important feature of the East Sussex coastal landscape. Terry and Wendy Harvey, the present owners, took over from the Reavells in 1996 and have continued to expand the business. Theirs is a magnificent general bookshop, with a wide range of paperbacks and sections on mind, body and spirit, art, photography, crafts, cookery, gardening, sports, reference and dictionaries and children's books.

This is the best place to find books on local history, maps and wildlife, and it also stocks an outstanding selection of cards and calendars. The bookshop holds regular signings by prominent authors, and exhibitions of photography and local crafts. Terry and Wendy formed the Martello Reading Club in 1999, and twice a month, on a Monday and a Wednesday, members read a chosen book and discuss it in detail at the next meeting.