The story of Castle Books began in 1969 when Belle Collard bought 4 Castle Street and opened Collards, Totnes’s first vegetarian and wholefood café. In 1972 Belle put a shelf of books in the upstairs dining area for her customers to enjoy. An advert described it as “The only restaurant in Devon where you can buy a first edition with your first course, and a print with your pudding.”

Gradually the books took over from the food and Belle began to put all her energies into buying and selling stock – so much so, that in 1975 the restaurant gave way to ‘Collards Books’, covering all three floors of the building. Collards quickly became well known for its comprehensive collection of crime fiction and early illustrated books. Belle’s daughter Jennie also remembers a painted coffin on display on the highest shelf above the books. This was the shop window for another trail-blazing family enterprise, ‘Good Grief’, the first supplier of cardboard coffins in the area.

As Belle became older, she found climbing the stairs to keep three floors filled with stock increasingly demanding. In 1991, aged 72, she took the decision to limit the shop to the ground floor where she continued working two or three days a week for another 20 years, with the help of some trusted volunteers.