About Blast-off Books

Welcome to Blast-Off Books, supporting books and reading for children and young adults in Scotland.

We – Harriet and Janet Smyth – set up Blast-Off Books in 2001 with the aim of providing a range of books for babies through to young adults at the top of their secondary education.

The shop, which is located on the High Street in Linlithgow, is stocked with the latest and best in fiction and non-fiction as well as educational materials for pre-school through to those studying for Standard and Higher Grades.

Because there is just the two of us jointly owning and running the shop we are able to read the majority of what is on our shelves. This, in turn, means that we can usually find a book to suit each and every one of our many and varied customers. Today, there are so many books being published for youngsters - on average 800 new titles a month – that it is often baffling to know where to begin.

If, however, we don’t have the book on our shelves that a customer would like then our fast ordering system means we can get it within 24 hours. We are an independent shop and have supply links with all UK publishers as well as fast delivery from two major wholesalers. This service extends to all books not just those published for younger readers.

We hope that Blast-Off Books is more than just a shop but a resource for our local community. As such we are part of Celebrate Linlithgow – an annual all arts festival and act as a box office for many local events organised by groups such as The Arts Guild, the Civic Trust and the Linlithgow Players.

Harriet Smyth: I had over thirty years teaching experience before joining my daughter Janet in setting up Blast-Off Books. Twenty-five of these years involved teaching children and young adults with additional educational needs in Primary, Secondary and Further Education. was one of the first writers of Life Skills teaching materials to be published by LDA and as a result I’ve kept a strong interest in the growth of both publishers of such resources and in the great variety of publications which they produce.
Janet Smyth: I studied Book and Periodical Publishing at Napier University before going on to manage a project for Scottish Book Trust which involved taking a bright yellow bus loaded with books and a children’s writer round the far flung points of Scotland. During my six years running the book bus I made some great friends with children’s writers as well as good contacts with the London publishers. This stood us in great stead when we opened Blast-Off Books.; It has been a combination of working with children, with writers and our shared love of reading that made us decide to open Blast-Off Books.