“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” 
                                                  - Voltaire

Our delightful book cave is located between Highbury & Islington and Finsbury Park. We were founded in 2009 by Dr Doreen Rolph, a popular local and well-read cat lover who wanted to raise funds for animal welfare.  

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People who knew Doreen and the shop back then often tell us stories of how the shop was "organised chaos",
only for die-hard bargain hunters.  

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The bookshop has become a local institution, and today Doreen’s work is continued by dedicated volunteers.

Still somewhat cave-like, but cosy and with a lot more labels, we think of ourselves as a book heaven/sanctuary where you’ll find an, ahem, hodge-podge of everything, from popular titles to more obscure interesting and rare texts. 

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All books are in good condition; some are brand new.

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And our name? The shop is named in honour of a cat most beloved to Samuel Johnson - poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and lexicographer, famed for taking 9 years to write A Dictionary of the English Language (1755). It was the pre-eminent British dictionary until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later.   The cat, Hodge, was immortalised in a characteristically whimsical passage in James Boswell’s Life of Johnson. Boswell wrote, "I never shall forget the indulgence with

which he treated Hodge, his cat.”