THE WHIRLIGIG BOOK SHOP
Bill & Betty Camp
135 Water  Street, Shelburne, NS B0T 1W0
902.875.1117
the.whirligig@ns.sympatico.ca

We are also the official ticket agent for the Osprey Arts Centre.

Click HERE for info about some of our favourite books

Click HERE for info about "SPONSOR-A-BOOK"

Click HERE  to see a selection of popular local interest books

About The Whirligig...                                                                          

In 1995 Betty and Bill bantered about the idea of a opening a small business when Bill planned early retirement in 1999.  Betty asked, “Bill, what would you like to do?”  He wanted to “operate a used book store,”  and the idea for The Whirligig was born!  
     The location they have come to love – as have their many loyal customers - for their book shop opened the 1^st of June in 1996.  For the next 10 months, Betty operated the business, with Bill joining after work each day. 
     This routine continued until the spring of 1997, when Bill suffered a severe heart attack and was hospitalized for several weeks, then retired two years earlier than he had planned. 
     With the support of hardworking staff and friends, Betty was able to hold their idea together. Bill’s health improved with an implanted defibrillator/pacemaker and after slow recovery, he was able to carry on to enjoy his business fully.  On reflection, indeed, his medical teams attribute much of his healthy state to the social interaction that comes with the ownership of this marvelous little business in this lovely little town. 
     The used book’s inventory has now been overtaken by new books, while Betty and Bill have seen many other interesting products come and go.
     The shop is also a main social centre in Shelburne, operating as ticket box office for The Osprey Arts Theatre and many other artistic events around this community - bringing buzz and excitement to their daily activities.
     The Whirligig, as it is commonly known, is in the center of the Historic District of Shelburne. A good gathering place, much conversation, discussion and debate take place.  Many acquaintances have been made and renewed, particularly with summer residents and from visitors, either by automobile or by boat.
     The hundreds of entries in the “Guest Book” over the years are proof that this little shop is a place that matters in people’s lives. Come and visit!

"This extraordinary and yet little-told episode from our nation's past is brought to  exciting life by award-winning journalist Stephen Kimber. Combining painstaking research and a novelistic flair for narrative, he charts Shelburne's "rapid rise and faster fall" through the intertwined experiences of an eclectic collection of it's earlier settlers, from aristocrats to freed slaves, colonial officials to local entrepreneurs." (from book jacket) 

$34.95 -HARDCOVER 

"This remarkable novel transports the reader from an African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from a soured refuge in Nova Scotia to the coast of Sierra Leone, in a back-to-Africa odyssey of 1,200 former slaves.  The Book of Negroes introduces one of the strongest female characters in recent fiction, a woman who cuts a swath through a world hostile to her colour and her sex."  (from book jacket)

Lawrence Hill is the author of several novels and works of non-fiction, including Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada; Any Known Blood; and Some Great Thing.  Lawrence Hill lives in Burlington, Ontario.

ISBN-10:000-225507-3
$34.95 - HARDCOVER