Owner
Nora Sutherland
Nora spent fifteen years in publishing before opening The Folded Page in 2019. Her sections are literary fiction and translated fiction. She is rarely wrong about a book and is working on being more gracious about it.
The Folded Page
About Us
How We Got Here
The Folded Page opened in 2019 in a narrow Georgian shopfront on Raeburn Place, Stockbridge — the kind of premises that estate agents describe as 'characterful' and booksellers describe as 'not quite enough shelf space, but we'll manage.' We have low ceilings, crammed shelves, approximately 4,000 titles, and a tabby cat named Bewick who sits on whatever you're trying to read.
Nora Sutherland opened the shop after fifteen years working in publishing — first in London, then in Edinburgh — with a growing conviction that most bookshops were trying to be too many things to too many people. The Folded Page is not a gift shop that also sells books. It is not a café that happens to have a shelf. It is a bookshop, run by people who read, for people who read.
We stock what we believe in. That means a strong translated fiction section (we think the best novels of the last twenty years were written in languages other than English), a poetry section that takes up more space than is commercially sensible, and a children's section curated by Alasdair, who has opinions about picture books that he will share with you whether you ask or not.
We don't stock everything. We never will. If you want the fastest-moving titles, the supermarket has them cheaper. If you want someone to tell you what's actually worth your time — and to argue about it with you over the counter — you're in the right place.
The Team
Bookseller (part-time)
Alasdair Finlay
Alasdair looks after children's books and poetry. He works Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and has strong views on the Gruffalo that he will share unprompted.
Bookseller
Marta Kowalczyk
Marta runs the translated fiction section and organises the monthly book club. She reads in four languages and recommends books in all of them.
Shop Cat
Bewick
Bewick is a tabby of uncertain age and certain opinions. He sits on whatever you're trying to read. He is not for sale.
What We Believe
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Curation over comprehensiveness
We stock around 4,000 titles. We've chosen every one of them. If it's on our shelves, someone here has read it and thinks you should too.
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Booksellers as readers
Everyone who works here reads. Not as a job requirement — as a fact of life. We can't recommend what we haven't read, and we won't.
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Translation matters
Some of the best fiction being written right now is being written in Polish, Norwegian, Japanese, and Portuguese. We make sure you can find it.
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The shop is for reading
Not for Instagramming, not for gifting, not for decorating. Those things happen, and we're glad when they do. But the shop exists because books are worth reading, and we'd like to help you find the ones that are.