ALAN BENNETT urged readers to boycott mainstream high street retailers and to return to independent bookshops. He appealed to book-buyers to protect towns and cities from “Identikit” shopping centres.

Speaking yesterday at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, the writer urged his audience to avoid the high street store Waterstone’s and the internet bookseller Amazon.

The author, whose diaries, Untold Stories, have just been published, said after reading an extract about a Waterstone’s diary: “Mention of Waterstone’s allows me to say that I hope if you buy a copy of this book you buy it if you can from an independent bookseller.

“I’m not trying to do Waterstone’s down but all the big chains heavily discount the book, the worst being Amazon. This will drive independent booksellers out of business.

“In my local bookshop in Camden Town that happened about three weeks ago. It makes the whole street much duller, so if you can afford it, go to an independent bookseller.”

As the 1,000-strong audience applauded him vigorously, he added: “I know I will be told off for having said that.”

Bennett had been a weekly customer at the Regent Bookshop, owned by Peter Bergman, which has closed down 40 years after his father opened it in the 1960s. Mr Bergman blamed chain retailers and supermarkets for forcing him out of business and described them as “faceless bean counters” destroying the character of Britain’s streets.

“You find the same books in the same windows at Waterstone’s wherever you go,” he said yesterday. “The three-for-one is the same in Aberdeen as it is in Plymouth. We were the social make-up of the village bit of Camden Town.

“My biggest gripe is probably not with Waterstone’s but with supermarkets. They will have 60 titles, cream off the best and sell them for nothing. That’s really damaging. The chains are being forced to discount heavily because supermarkets are discounting heavily.”

Mr Bergman said the trend had enormous implications for the industry. “I’m convinced the majority of the great authors of the 20th century wouldn’t get published now because they weren’t writing mainstream books,” he added.

Bennett, whose popular works include Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van and The Madness of George III, made his comments despite being the star of a festival event sponsored by Ottakar’s, the high street bookseller that on Tuesday saw take-over proposals by Waterstone’s intensify.

Waterstone’s has already seen off a buy-out plan by Ottakar’s management and is attempting to buy the rival bookstore chain for £96.4 million. The proposal is being fought by the Society of Authors. Waterstone’s is owned by HMV which also controls the book retailer Dillons.

If Waterstone’s, Dillons and Ottakar’s were merged, the group would control almost a quarter of the book trade and half the high street bookshops. Supermarkets have almost a 10 per cent share of the market. The book industry is worth £2.2 billion a year, with 160,000 new titles published last year, but retailers have been alarmed at the general downturn in high street sales.

Lucy Avery, a spokeswoman for Waterstone’s, said: “Alan Bennett’s new book is a treasure trove of exquisite writing and is already selling extremely well. As to where customers buy it, that is their own choice.”

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