Luton High Town bookshop founder 'absolutely delighted' to be awarded £10,000 grant

A Luton bookshop founder has been awarded a £10,000 grant – which will allow the bookshop to continue into 2025.

Mariana Brown, founder and director of Luton Literature, opened Brown Books secondhand community bookshop in April last year. Mariana was one of seven women who submitted an application and was interviewed for the EVOLVE Social Entrepreneur grant.

The bookshop provides a space where children and adults can ‘experience the joy of reading’ and access pre-loved books easily and affordably. The shop stocks books published by authors in the area and hosts activities like storytelling, readings, poetry nights, and book clubs.

Mariana said: “I had a phone call to let me know before Christmas and I was absolutely delighted. Brown Books bookshop is a pilot project to prove the value of a community bookshop in High Town, and so to have secured another years funding – when infrastructure funding for CICs and community projects is so hard to find – is huge.

"This will allow the bookshop project to continue into 2025, enabling more time to develop the project further and secure the bookshop's long-term future.”

She added: “The last ten months have been really successful in demonstrating the value it adds to High Town and Luton, and I’d encourage anyone and everyone to pop in and have a look around and see for themselves why it’s such an important initiative.

“This is so exciting and I am very grateful to EVOLVE for this opportunity."