Forest Bookshop Logo 

Forest Bookshop watercolour by Andrea McLean

 

The Forest Bookshop was started in 1977 as the Forest of Dean's first bookshop by the present owner, Douglas McLean.  Doug had worked in the bookselling/publishing trade all his life, since leaving school at fifteen and it was when he settled in Coleford in 1970, whilst working for a national publisher that the idea of 'dropping out' and starting a bookshop in the town first entered his imagination. Six years on and the first shop was opened in Coleford's old vine vaults - just opposite their present premises.

From the beginning, the bookshop became a popular Coleford shop serving a wide area