AUTHOR Adrian Tchaikovsky is due to open the new Oxfam bookshop in Skipton High Street on Saturday (January 20).

The Yorkshire-based science-fiction and fantasy author, who won the Arthur C Clarke Award for best science fiction novel for his 2016 Children of Time, and the international Hugo Award for Best Series in 2023, is due to carry out the official, long anticipated opening at 10.30am.

Oxfam started using the former Yorkshire Bank building at 46 High Street as a donation hub during the coronavirus pandemic with the charity soon realising it would be the ideal location for a much bigger books and music shop.

Julian Fattorini, bookshop manager, said, "My volunteers and I have worked very hard to get our new shop ready to open this Saturday, and we can't wait to welcome customers and donors old and new through our doors. Browsing the shelves of a well-stocked secondhand bookshop is one of life's great simple pleasures, and I'm very grateful to everyone who supports Oxfam by buying, donating and volunteering here."

Work to transform the building into a haven for book lovers took place last year. The premises, which are much larger than the old site at the top of the High Street, means more secondhand books, records, films and maps, with which Oxfam hopes to continue its more than 50-year success story in Skipton, with all proceeds from sales of its donated and fairtrade stock going towards Oxfam’s work fighting poverty around the world.

The first Oxfam Shop in Skipton opened at 1 Alma Terrace in June 1970 before moving to 71 High Street in 1976. The Oxfam Shop then moved to its current premises on Swadford Street in October 2003, before the Oxfam Bookshop separated off to the top of the High Street in January 2011.