Hidden in a quaint village by the name of Hawarden in North Wales, six miles from the beautiful city of Chester, Gladstone’s Library is a lot of wonderful things: the only residential library in the UK, the UK’s only prime-ministerial library, and the best place, in our humble opinion, to spend a weekend on the …
Explore Wales
As someone who grew up in Swansea and has subsequently lived in some of the most beautiful parts of Wales — from the Brecon Beacons to Conwy in North Wales — I know first-hand that there is almost no end to the amount of gorgeous, often hidden, and always jaw-dropping sights and places to visit …
Hiraeth is a uniquely Welsh word that encompasses familiar feelings of nostalgia and homesickness: a longing to return to the comforts of home. And, while there are arguments to be made that no word is ‘untranslatable’, hiraeth nevertheless speaks to the love and community so intrinsically stitched into Welsh culture. Books and Bao is run …
A country as old as the UK, with so many ghosts, castles, medieval villages, and dramatic landscapes, is going to have a lot of unusual places to stay. Some of the most quirky hotels in the UK hide secrets behind their bookcases or are so haunted that they’ve appeared on national TV. Here are some …
Are you ready for Hay on Wye’s bookshops? It’s noon on a Saturday; the sun above is floating in an ocean of blue. You’re driving a little car down twisting, winding English country lanes lined with hedgerows. Birds outside sing you on your way to the happiest little town in Britain. You’re on your way …
Ah, Wales. Land of rugged mountains, quiet village communities, Rugby fanatics, and the most charming accent in Britain. Wales is where both of us at Books and Bao have spent a lot of our time: one having been born and raised in Swansea, and the other having studied at Aberystwyth University. Wales is a nation …