Bookshop benefits: seafarers can support a maritime charity and get a good read

Readers seeking to buy the books reviewed in the Telegraph will now have the chance to support a maritime charity as they shop. Sarah Robinson reports…

A unique maritime bookshop is being launched in May 2018 as a partnership between Nautilus International and the Marine Society charity.

Aimed at general readers in the maritime community, the online Nautilus Bookshop will sell the books reviewed in the Telegraph's books pages – and any profits from the sales will be ploughed into the Marine Society's educational work with seafarers.

'Our book review pages are some of the most popular in the Telegraph,' noted editor Andrew Linington. 'We feature recent releases we think our readers will enjoy at sea and ashore, and we'll consider anything with a maritime connection, whether that's ship histories, seafarer memoirs, studies of the Merchant Navy in wartime, or even the occasional nautical novel.

'Because of the "niche" nature of some of these books, they can be tricky to get hold of,' he added, 'so we're very pleased that we'll now have them all on sale together in the Nautilus Bookshop each month. Readers will also have the satisfaction of supporting a great maritime charity through their purchase – something that many people prefer to buying their books from a "big business" retailer.'

Marine Society book services manager Caroline Buckland said the charity was pleased to revive a partnership that had proved popular in years past. 'We used to sell some of the books reviewed in the Telegraph in our online shop,' she explained, 'but needed to take a break while we were developing new business model. This year, our shop has been relaunched on a new web platform, and with the Telegraph having been revamped too, it's the perfect time to get the partnership going again.'

The Marine Society projects that the bookshop will be supporting include the ships' library service, the provision of textbooks to international maritime academies, and the Hanway Scholarship – a professional development fund for seafarers.

'And there's another bonus for us in hosting the Nautilus Bookshop,' added Ms Buckland, 'because Telegraph readers visiting our site to buy a book will also learn about the courses we offer. In the main, though, we want to be part of this because it's a core principle of the Marine Society to encourage seafarers to read for pleasure, and the Telegraph provides a fantastic service in identifying books of interest to the maritime community.'

The Nautilus Bookshop has been stocked with books recently featured in the Telegraph, and as each new edition of the magazine comes out, fresh titles reviewed here will be added to the shop.

Later this year, we are also planning to introduce a discounted 'Book of the month' – identified in the Telegraph review pages – available at a special price offered only in the Nautilus Bookshop.

The Nautilus Bookshop is intended mainly for online sales, but readers with limited or no internet access can place debit/ credit card orders over the phone by calling the Marine Society Shop team on +44 (0)20 7654 7012.

The Nautilus Bookshop has been stocked with books recently featured in the Telegraph.

Telegraph

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