Set in 1959, Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), a free-spirited widow, puts grief behind her and risks everything to open up a bookshop, the first such shop in the sleepy seaside town of Hardborough, England.
By exposing the narrow-minded local townsfolk to the best literature of the day, including Nabokov's scandalising Lolita and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, she opens their eyes thereby causing a cultural awakening in a town which has not changed for centuries.
Her activities bring her a kindred spirit and ally in the figure of Mr Brundish (Bill Nighy) who is himself sick of the town;s stake atmosphere. But this mini social revolution soon brings her fierce enemies: she invites the hostility of the town's less prosperous shopkeepers and also crosses Mrs Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), Hardborough's vengeful, embittered alpha female who is herself a wannabe doyenne of local arts scene.
When Florence refuses to bend to Gamart's will, they begin a struggle not just for the bookshop but for the very heart and soul of the town.
Actors: Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, Honor Kneafsey
Minutes: 109
Format: DVD Region 4