London’s leading literary bookshop is looking for a lively and imaginative bookseller to complete a team of six. This is a rare opportunity for an enterprising individual, eager to develop a career in books, to join a unique and forward looking bookselling business.

The role encompasses most of the day-to-day activities of a general bookseller: goods in, returns, shelving books, maintaining table and window displays, helping customers on the shop floor, operating the till, researching new titles, helping with events.

As the bookselling arm of the London Review of Books, the London Review Bookshop reflects the interests of the typical London Review of Books reader. The shop has particularly strong sections in Fiction, History, Biography and Memoir, Politics, Poetry, Essays and Philosophy. An interest in these kinds of books is an essential requirement of the job.

Digital Engagement

It will be important for the successful candidate to show a fluent and intelligent engagement with digital devices: smartphone, tablet and e-reader; and an enthusiasm for communicating via website, blog, social media and e-mail marketing. Digital communication must come as second nature to the bookseller in this role, as also the imaginative use of digital media to drive footfall on the shop floor.

Skills, Character and Experience

We would expect the successful candidate to have a university degree and to be able to demonstrate a discerning love of the kind of books we sell. S/he will enjoy encounters with the public and get pleasure from providing enthusiastic customer service. The successful candidate will also be someone who is entirely happy doing routine tasks and who enjoys working hard to meet deadlines and targets. S/he should be sociable and good at working in a small but dedicated team.

This role would ideally suit someone who has two or three years experience of general bookselling. However, this is not essential.

A Unique Place to Work

The London Review Bookshop is a beautifully designed retail space, complete with a busy and much-acclaimed café, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, just around the corner from the British Museum. The London Review Bookshop benefits from its close association with the London Review of Books, Europe’s leading literary and political magazine, which has offices nearby in Little Russell Street.

The London Review Bookshop enjoys a fine international reputation as an independent literary and intellectual bookshop. In October 2013 it will celebrate its 10th anniversary, an event marked among other things by the launch of a newly designed website.

Salary and conditions will be competitive and generous and appropriate to experience.

To apply please send your CV with a covering letter to Nicholas Spice at job@lrb.co.uk, or call (020) 7400 1360.

The closing date for applications is 30 June.