South American Adventure

Bookshops, illustrators and one stunning library

That's me standing in front of a little bookshop in El Calafate, Argentina. Packed with something for everyone, it is the most southerly bookshop I've ever been in.

I was lucky enough to spend almost all of last November in South America, on holiday with my partner. And when I wasn't beaming at alpacas and dogs, and being completely amazed by waterfalls and mountains, I popped into some great bookshops.

I always do this when I arrive in a new place, mostly because I can't resist any bookshop, wherever it is, but also because I'm interested in discovering new authors, I like seeing which English-language books have been chosen to be translated and I love watching people browse bookshelves. What's caught their eye? Are they heading for romance or crime?

What I also do, whenever I'm on holiday somewhere new, is buy a children's book written by an author from that country. On this trip, we were travelling light and so I was extremely self-controlled and limited myself to just one book, chosen in the El Calafate shop.

It was the illustrations that first drew me to this picture book, Bombay. They are the work of Isol, who in addition to being an award-winning illustrator is an Argentinian pop-singer. You can find out more about her wonderful artwork here.

Our next bookshop visit was in Buenos Aires. This huge bookshop, El Ateneo Grand Splendid, was once a theatre - the Teatro Gran Splendid. Today, bookshelves line the old stalls, circles and balconies, and instead of theatregoers, book lovers browse and influencers pose under the frescoed ceiling. The theatre boxes remain, and there are still thick velvet curtains in front of the stage which is now a busy bookshop cafe.

Lauded as one of the world's most beautiful bookshops, I felt it was missing a trick somehow. The bookshelves and signage seemed to fit a different shop, not one that was housed in a beautiful old theatre. I preferred the little yellow shop in El Calafate, myself, and the small shops we discovered in Santiago. Maybe I just prefer little bookshops.

In Rio De Janeiro, we visited The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading. A library filled to the brim (or stained glass ceiling) with Portuguese books, it was established in 1837 by Portuguese immigrants to Brazil. This was an entirely unexpected treasure. I hadn't heard of it and didn't know it was part of our city tour.

When I stepped inside I couldn't quite believe the scale of it and my pictures don't do it justice at all. I kept spinning around, trying to take in the incredible scale of it, the vertiginous shelves, the thousands and thousands of books, the tiny doorway cut into one of the huge walls, that stunning ceiling. I think this may be the most beautiful library I've ever visited.