News from Nowhere

News from Nowhere is an iconic Liverpool institution: a radical, community bookshop established in 1974, and since the 1980s, run collectively by a women workers’ co-operative. A non-hierarchical workplace, they’re practicing what their preach through the shop and community work – in short, it’s a business for good.

You won’t find airport paperbacks here, but a wide selection of tomes on feminism, anti-racism, LGBT+ issues, disability rights, workers’ rights, environment, sustainability and climate crisis, animal rights & veganism, anti-capitalism, socialism and anarchism. There is fiction and poetry too, books for younger readers and texts about the local area. At the front, there are alternative magazines and lots and lots of flyers about local happenings.

News from Nowhere has had multiple different homes around the city, before arriving at its current Bold Street site, right in the middle surrounded by hairdressers, cafés and alterative shops. You won’t miss it though, with a recognisable shop front painted red, a big sign and rainbow flags in the windows. Its history is long and at points fraught with aggression from groups opposing the shop’s morals and politics. Despite that, News from Nowhere is not going anywhere and any difficulties in the past only worked to further strengthen its position as one of the pillars of independent, alterative business in Liverpool.

It’s a very locally involved business too, as fundraisers, demos and other local initiatives often go through them, with numerous social justice campaigns and community groups. It’s not just the shop either: the whole building houses organisations that support the local community, including Next to Nowhere, a volunteer-run social centre which includes a kitchen and café, regularly serving tasty food and showing niche films.

It’s worth mentioning that you can order books online through News from Nowhere too so if you’re trying to steer clear of large online-only retailers and want to support a real-life bookshop.