A WELL known Rhos-on-Sea bookshop is to close after being open for 33 years.

Rhos Point Books started in 1985 close to the former pier entrance and then moved to the Promenade next to Nino’s Restaurant. It was taken over by the present owners Gwyn and Beryl Morris in 1995. The shop is stocked with some 20000 titles with emphasis on local history, Wales, transport and military history, and a good selection of paperbacks.

Mr Morris said: "We have specialised in these subjects because those are the ones which sell best here. Curiously the local history books are not just for this area, but can be for anywhere because people on holiday see them for their area and snap them up.

"About 15 per cent of our sales are on the internet, and they can be to anywhere in the world, only the other day I sent one to Moscow, and it is surprising how many go the china, and they are all English language books. This is something I hope to expand once we move out of the shop."

"I guess that in the 23 years we've had the business we must have sold something like 100000 books."

He added: "We will be going to book fairs as well, mostly in the North West, but also in Shropshire, and I have one in Aberystwyth pencilled in the diary. There are others in Menai Bridge and and Betws-y-Coed.

"We acquired the business at the time I was retiring from the Police Force, it was owned by a colleague who wanted to sell it and it was a good move for us."

He said that currently the stock is for sale at a substantial discount, and this will continue until the shop closes.

Their books are available on line at www.rhospointbooks.wordpress.