In 1903, teenage brothers William and Gilbert Foyle failed their civil service exams and took out an ad in a periodical to re-sell their textbooks. Receiving many enquiries, they quickly saw an opportunity, procured more textbooks, sold them on at a profit and Foyles bookshop was born. In his love of showmanship, ‘the Barnum of Bookselling’, William Foyle, monikered his emporium ‘The world’s greatest bookshop’. Over the past century the world has become a very different place and far be it from us now to make such bold claims, but what we can say for sure in this day and age is that few bookshops can claim such a rich and varied history and still retain the passion we have for books and the people who write, publish and, above all, read them.

Foyles are generously offering the National Final runners-up team, and the winners of the Best Individual and Highly Commended prizes, a £30 gift voucher each, allowing the winners to choose the books of their choice from Foyles’ online bookstore.