Patrick Gale, who last year won the Independent Booksellers Book Prize, is also championing the Week, and comments: “Like so many novelists I’ve come to cherish Indie booksellers for their freedom to champion the oddball book, or the one with no marketing budget and, heaven knows, for their way of stocking the backlists of authors they like. I’ve also been struck in recent years at the key educative role those booksellers have come to play, complimenting their local libraries by fostering lively reading groups and what are in effect reading communities. Shoppers respond to bargains, of course, but readers will always respond to personal recommendations from a bookseller they regard as a trusted friend.”