Literary sleuths and swotty English students literally spend every single second of their spare time looking for London’s best bookshops. Well, look no further Shakespeare addicts and second hand bookshop lovers, here are the best bookshops in London.

1) Foyles

The big cheese of the Charring Cross Road bookshops, Foyles stocks an unrivalled number of interesting and well chosen books as well as medical and business texts. Once known as the world’s largest bookshop Foyles gained notoriety in the 90s for a refusal to modernise. We highly recommend their regular literature and poetry nights, many of which are free to attend!

2) Tales on Moon Lane

One of  London’s best children’s bookshops, Tales on Moon Lane has branches in Herne Hill and Primrose Hill. Along with a huge selection of books for kids and teens, both venues host a steady stream of storytellers, children’s entertainers, book signings and puppet shows.

3) Bookmarks bookshops

A socialist bookshop in Bloomsbury, steeped in history and political radicalism. With an election on the horizon and a rising interest in climate change issues, this is the place to find your protest buddy or get tips from the very knowledgeable staff on any of those Trade Union queries that have been on your mind.

4) Quinto bookshop

Now that Google have started putting all the world’s books online, it won’t be long till the publishing world launch an ill-advised Lily Allen/Rupert Murdoch backlash against the web community. If you want to ease your conscience without breaking the bank then the bargain basement at Soho’s Quinto is the place to be. This shop is also generally pretty cool – Mumford & Sons played a gig here recently and they’re even on Twitter – trendy!

5) Daunt Books

Daunt Books is the oldest purpose built bookshop in Britain and is a brilliant place for bookworms to mix and mingle or share their latest finds. Rather uniquely, the books are arranged by geography rather than alphabetically or by genre, which can be very helpful. Daunt host plenty of talks, accommodating an audience of 150, and tickets are generally£5 and include a glass of wine! They also have a reputation for being very picky about their staff – so trust their judgement and you can’t go far wrong.

Disagree with our choices? Please suggest your own and leave a comment below