Ashowcase for local authors is celebrating the arrival of their hundredth book!

The Bay Tree Café on St John’s Street is the home of the Local Author Shelf – a place to discover new books and authors, and to find your next favourite read. It’s the brainchild of local author Rachel Churcher, who visited the café in September to deliver the latest addition, ‘A Rumpus at the Bottoms’, by KW Williamson.

“I’m so excited to be welcoming the one hundredth book to the shelf,” Rachel explains. “We started the Local Author Shelf in the Market Cross Café in 2022, with fourteen books. The venue closed in 2023, and the Bay Tree Café generously offered us a new home. When we set up the new shelf, it housed forty-seven books. I can’t believe we’re here today, welcoming book number one hundred!”

While the books on the shelf are not for sale, readers are invited to sample the novels, poems, and short stories with their coffee, cake, and lunches. Inside each book is a link to an online shop, and a list of bookshops where the books can be bought or ordered. Many are available from Waterstones and local independent bookshops, as well as from Amazon. If you like what you read, you can scan a QR code to order a copy from your table!

“There’s something for everyone,” says Rachel. “A crime series set in Suffolk, romantic thrillers, contemporary fiction, poetry, short stories, fantasy, dystopia, science fiction, or books for children – you’ll find them all on the Local Author Shelf.”

The newest book, ‘A Rumpus at the Bottoms’, is a satirical comedy – funny, topical and relevant. The wonderful cast of characters will be recognisable to anyone who has been involved with a neighbourhood organisation or Parish Council in the UK (and probably beyond!).

“Meet the villagers of the Bottoms (Rosebottom Major and Rosebottom Minor) as they discover the plans for their sleepy English village – and as they decide to fight back against the developers and their bulldozers,” Rachel says. “You’ll laugh, you’ll be on the edge of your seat, you’ll cheer, and I guarantee you’ll want to visit the village pub and have a drink with the characters.”

The award-winning Bay Tree Café is open daily, 10am until 4pm (3pm on Sundays). You’ll find the Local Author Shelf, and ‘A Rumpus at the Bottoms’, in the upstairs dining room.

Happy reading!