It's impossible to wander around Parkinsons without remembering the old Yellow Pages advert where…read moreJ.R. Hartley tries to track down a copy of his Fly Fishing book. A characterful, old building that occupies three floors, it's packed floor to ceiling with all kinds of secondhand books from new and old to Victorian and antiquarian. What makes browsing here more fun is the fact Parkinsons also stocks antique coins, shells, badges and memorabilia - which are housed in wooden cabinets or stacked haphazardly between shelves and piles of books. As for the books themselves, there's a real mish-mash of material from old issues of National Geographic to weighty tomes on archaeology, astronomy, physics, nature, travel, religion, theology and philosophy. I'm sure there's also at least one copy of Fly Fishing too...

This is a great used book shop in Southport--one of those places where you never know what you're…read moregoing to find, and where you almost always find a bargain. There are several floors, and a great selection of genres, paperbacks and hardcovers, old and new. Prices range from high to bargain. You could easily spend a couple of hours in here and still not browse through everything. Definitely an afternoon well spent for book lovers of all kinds.

As you can probably tell from its very imaginative name, Card Outlet is a card shop that offers its…read morecustomers a cheap, if somewhat basic, selection of cards and gifts for birthdays and other special celebrations. Their range of cards is quite impressive in that they manage to stock cards to cover practically any special occasion, but the quality of the cards does suffer as a result. However, if you don't put much thought into what type of card to buy that special someone, then Card Outlet is a pretty good place to go. If you're looking for something a bit more personal though, Moonpig it ain't. They also sell foil helium balloons, which at 99p represent very good value for money for what is essentially a foil bag with air in it.

Silly Billy's is a small but surprisingly full fancy dress shop that manages to fit a lot into such…read morea small space. Fancy dress shops are in quite short supply in Southport's city centre, so places like Silly Billy's are quite useful if you're heading to a fancy dress party or just fancy dressing up at home. They stock a decent range of different outfits and accessories, all of which are available at pretty reasonable prices and will have you looking (and feeling) like whichever character you're trying to be. They also sell a small range of party supplies, meaning it's a useful place to go if you want to pick up your outfit and some supplies in the same place.

Cottage Crafts is a really cute little gift shop…read more They sell a really great variety of cute and unusual stock including greeting cards, jewellery, stationary (including a really quirky line with cartoon animals and funny quotes--I can't remember the name of the company, but they are really cute), and all manner of other gifty items. I love almost everything in this shop. It's colourful, cute, girly and all around fun. The only thing negative I have to say about this shop is that nothing for sale here is actually truly of a "craft" nature, and therefore Cottage Crafts is kind of an inappropriate name for the shop.

The Works is a pleasant enough discount book store on Southport's busy Lord Street…read more As you may have guessed from its description as a 'discount' book store, the stock it sells there are rarely of the expensive variety but then again they're rarely of a particularly high standard quality-wise either. That's not to say they're cheap looking, you're just getting what you pay for with them. The shop itself is rather large in size, enabling them to fill the space with shelves full of various titles and genres. As well as books, they also sell other bits and bobs at the front of the store such as skipping ropes, flip flops and pet beds, all for less than a pound. Their choice to sell such stock as this in a discount book store is somewhat odd but, even though you don't need them, you will feel yourself drawn to them on their price alone. If you're looking for a rare book or the latest graphic novel then I wouldn't recommend looking here, but if you're after an inexpensive present for a young one then it's worth checking The Works out.

thought the store was disgusting to be honest…read more if your in a wheelchair or a mobility scooter or have a pram - forget trying to get around the store - it is absolutely jam packed with tables which means there is very little room to get around they have there shelves on such a strange angle that if you require something off the top shelf you have to be really tall the whole shop could do with a total refurb and the staff were misable and not very helpful at all i wont be shopping in here again - southport has a great choice of book shops and this one - even though they brand themselves as britains leading bookstore - definetely comes bottom of all the book stores in southport