The majority of books on our shelves are in the English-language, but the Spanish stock is growing owing to popular demand. A small selection of Catalan, German, Dutch, French and Russian books also help to give the shop an international flavour.

A wealth of additional titles are available overnight. We can order new books on demand from England for delivery within a week. For the elusive book we can search for out of print titles..

Proprietor, Kevin Allcoat was recently featured in the Costa Brava Resident magazine. If you missed it, please click here.

      

The Book Cupboard
OPENING HOURS

Mon-Sat 10.00-13.30 & 16.30-19.30
(open straight through some days during summer)
SUNDAYS:
2nd Sunday each month (weather-permitting): bargain clearance books at the Secondhand/Collectors market, Plaça Pere Torrent, Lloret, 9.00-14.00.
Other Sundays, open either mornings (11.00-14.00) or afternoons (17.00-19.30), catch as catch can!

IMPORTANT: HOLIDAYS / CLOSURES
18 July: CLOSED all day
19 July: Open from 12.00-17.00 only
Sunday 20 July: Open 16.00-19.30
24 July (local fiesta): Open as normal
11 September: CLOSED all day

c/ Rector Coch 1, Lloret de Mar
(directly behind the church, centre of town)
Postal address: Apt. 1099, 17310 Lloret de Mar, Girona, Spain
Tel. +34 972 36 54 59
Email inquiries

Car parking is free on the streets during fiestas (Sundays included). Out of season (September-Easter), most car parks in and around the town are also free.

The shop is located in central Lloret de Mar, in the pedestrianised area of the town. Only 150m from the seafront promenade, we are directly behind the church, ideally placed for visiting tourists and, because the shop is open all year round, it is ideally suited to meet the needs of the residents during the quieter months out of season. Click here for a map.

Lloret de Mar is just an hour's drive from Barcelona (two hours by train) and even nearer to Girona. It is the only bookshop on the Costa Brava specialising in English books and the only secondhand bookshop in Catalonia north of Barcelona selling a range of old English books.

St Jordi (St George's Day), is the 23rd April. It was introduced to the world as World Book Day in the 1990's thanks to the people of Catalunya, who traditionally celebrate their patron saint with the sale of books and roses. It is also the day on which both Spain's and England's greatest writers died: Cervantes and Shakespeare. The Book Cupboard has been involved since 2003 (see photo, right). The event is proving so popular that it was celebrated in a larger "square" in 2006, outside the Town Hall by the seafront.

Mad about Madeleine?

Madeleine Carroll, (born 1906), was one of Hollywood's first "cool British blondes". During her life, Ms Carroll spent some time on the Costa Brava (see magazine feature) and after her death her remains were interred at Calonge, Catalunya.

Now, 20 years on, The Book Cupboard, Lloret de Mar, has acquired her personal book collection and you can now get a little of it from this website. Follow the link via our Miscellaneous items section

Many of the books in this collection were signed either by the actress herself or were presented to her by the author. Inscriptions from Michael Bentine and Robert Ruark are among the gems for sale.

13 YEARS OF THE BOOK CUPBOARD

At the time, proprietor Kevin Allcoat and his wife, Carol, operated a small publishing and printing business and the book shop was a natural extension to that.

The shop was closed in September 1996 shortly after Kevin took over Tarka Books in Barnstaple, a much bigger 100 sq.m. in size. As the new owner there, he survived the coming and going of several other bookshops and finally sold it as a going concern in the summer 2002 and moved to Catalonia.

The new Book Cupboard, Lloret de Mar, opened on 1st March 2003 with 30 sq.m. of space in calle St Albert. It was decided to reuse the name owing to its relatively small size. After two years the move was made to the new premises in Calle Rector Coch, dirctly behind the town's central church.

The new shop is a little smaller than the previous store (25 sq.m) and reflects the bijou nature of the orignal better than that in calle St Albert. But with over 6000 books on the shelves, there is still plenty to choose from. A further 4000

continues ...

Outside the Book Cupboard, 2003

The Book Cupboard 2006

books are kept in storage and can be obtained at very short notice.

In keeping with Kevin's tried and tested methods at Tarka Books, the Book Cupboard stocks secondhand & new books, primarily English, for the collector, for the gift buyer and for the casual reader, on holiday or at home. New books in print can be ordered from England in under a week and specialist orders for books out of print can be obtained upon request.

Holidaymakers planning to visit the area who don't want to be weighed down on a limited baggage allowance may pre-order and/or reserve books for when they arrive. Please email ahead. What we don't already have in stock can be ordered in, given enough advance notice.

The shop stock also includes a good range of secondhand Spanish language books, not to mention Catalan, German and other language titles. Some of these are listed for sale within our catalogue.