If you’ve ever wandered down Lee-on-the-Solent’s high street and stepped into the cosy, colourful world of The Book Shop, you’ve already felt the warmth of Sarah Burrows’ dream. For Sarah, books aren’t just products on shelves, they’re lifelines, community builders, and the heart of a town she’s loved her entire life.

Sarah grew up in Elson, raised her family in Gosport, and now lives above the 100-year-old bookshop that she runs.  “The Gosport community is part of who I am,” says Sarah proudly, before reflecting on her path to bookselling, which was anything but predictable.

After leaving school, Sarah began her career at Lloyds Bank in Gosport, before taking time out to raise her three children. When she returned to work, she joined Fleetlands, which was one of Gosport’s biggest employers. Sarah’s role was to support the teams who maintain and monitor aircraft. She worked first in the Seaking Prevention team, then moved into engines, eventually becoming a representative who travelled the world. “Luxury hangars, private planes, jet-setting the globe. My role was highpressure, highresponsibility, but very well paid,” she laughs.

One day, whilst chatting with her husband about jobs they would have loved to embark on. Sarah confessed that she had always loved the idea of owning her own book shop.  Her husband’s reply changed everything, “Look online and see if any are for sale,” he casually suggested.

One was. And it was just down the road in Lee-on-the-Solent. They viewed it and she fell in love. In the middle of negotiating the purchase, Sarah’s father became seriously ill. “I was so focused on my Dad that I didn’t have time to overthink it,” she says. “If I’d been fully present, I might have been too scared to take the plunge and buy it!” She confessed. But the previous owner made Sarah an offer she couldn’t refuse and within 6 months  Sarah’s family had packed up their home and moved into the flat above the shop. Sarah walked away from a secure, glamorous career to take on an independent bookshop in a world dominated by online retailers.

Sadly, Sarah’s father passed away just before she took the shop over. “I think if I hadn’t been grieving, I might not have been brave enough,” she reflects. “But I did it. And my boss even said he’d take me back if the book shop didn’t work out. But I promised myself that I’d give it two years.”

Sarah took over the shop on Halloween 2018, but two years later, the world shut down.

“When lockdown hit from the Covid pandemic, I was in pieces,” she reflects. “I thought, ‘this shop has been here for 91 years, and I’ll be the one who loses it within just two years. I went to bed devastated and worried about the future.” But the next morning, Sarah woke up determined. Her daughter suggested creating positivity boxes that contained a book, a chocolate bar, hot chocolate sachet, a bookmark, and a card that could be sent to loved ones who needed a lift. They advertised them on Facebook and orders exploded.

“We delivered thousands,” Sarah laughs. “All over the world too – would you believe.”  People ordered for friends, then for themselves. “My husband helped me handdeliver boxes around the local area, often late into the night. At Easter, we dressed up as Alice and the Mad Hatter and delivered 128 boxes in a single day. People were taking photos of us in the street and uploading them to community social media pages showing what we were doing,” she laughs. “It was brilliant.”

Sarah says the community kept the shop alive and that some of the sales figures from that period still haven’t been beaten six years later.

When the world reopened, the positivity boxes stayed, but now for birthdays, getwell wishes, new homes and Christmas. A book subscription soon followed, now with 83 subscribers and a monthly book club that has become a social lifeline for many. “We get to see customers in their homes when we deliver,” she says. “They’ve become friends. It’s a real community thing.”

The children’s section of the shop, which was once a bookcase at the back, is now half the shop, and has been shaped entirely by customer demand. “Before I took over, you rarely saw families in here,” Sarah says. “Now children are a huge part of what we do. The community have shaped the direction of the shop. That’s what they wanted, and the community needed so we listened and evolved.”

Sarah and the shop’s Manager, daughter Jazmine, continue to think creatively to keep the shop open. They host regular author events and candlelit evenings with wine and cheese where groups get together to discuss the classic books. ” We are always thinking about what more we could do. We would love to host reading retreats or plan a community trip to HayonWye, the booklover’s paradise on the Welsh border. We’re always trying to think of things that online shopping platforms can’t do, like for example in March we are hosting a crime literacy festival,” she says. “Experiences. Connection. Joy – that’s what we are about.”

Despite the fun of hosting these community get-togethers and dressing up as Alice in Wonderland, Sarah says running an independent bookshop is a struggle. “The future for indie bookshops is dire,” she says honestly. “They’re closing all the time.”

To keep the business afloat, Sarah works a second job handling accounts and HR for her husband’s company, and that income often keeps the shop running. “The shop makes no profit. Some weeks I have to transfer my wages from my job at my husband’s business just so the shop can break even. I don’t run the shop for a profit – I do it because I love it, and it means so much to my community.”

And that love extends far beyond the till. The Bookshop has become a quiet force for good in its community, with its own Literacy and Mental Health Project, supporting local schools, mental health projects, and families who are struggling. Sarah sees the shop not just as a business, but as a place where stories can change lives.

That belief is what drove her to start giving away free children’s books after learning that one in four children don’t know how to use a book. The statistic on Sky News shocked her, and she refused to accept it as inevitable. “We gave away 78 books in one Saturday, after I heard that shocking statistic” she says, outraged. “That’s potentially 78 kids who read a story that night. That then made me sleep better.”

For Sarah, these small acts aren’t addons; they’re the heart of what the shop stands for. Every book handed over is a moment of possibility, a spark for a child, a lifeline for a parent, a reminder that stories belong to everyone, not just those who can afford them.

For Sarah, being part of the Gosport and Lee-on-the-Solent community is deeply personal. “Gosport gets a rough deal,” she says. “But I’ve grown up here. There are thriving businesses in the main high street, Stoke Road and Lee-on-the-Solent High Street and they are wonderful. This shop is part of that history. It’s the oldest business on the high street -nearly 100 years in the same building – that’s something worth protecting.”

Looking back, Sarah knows that she made the right choice. “If I’d stayed in my old career, it would have knocked years off my life,” she says. “Now I’m running around in fairy wings, working with my daughter, laughing with customers and reading more than ever. My stresses are different. I’ll live longer because of this place,” she smiles.

It’s very clear that The Book Shop isn’t just a shop. It’s a family home, a community hub, a literacy champion, and a living piece of local history. And at the heart of it all is Sarah. A warm, determined, endlessly creative, and fiercely committed lady who is keeping the joy of reading alive.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she says. And I believe her.