When it’s teeming with rain and I’m faced with children in dire need of entertainment, I’m thankful to have discovered the wonderful Little Ripon Bookshop. It’s the only independent bookshop in this small Yorkshire city and has a fantastic range of children’s books, many personally reviewed by the staff and all beautifully displayed.

Here we can easily while away a miserable afternoon, browsing the shelves. My children love it. There’s a little corner for crayoning and reading and I’ve noticed how their interesting titles are alluring enough to entice older ones away from more run of the mill reading matter.

Books in hand, we’ll then head to the lovely Oliver’s Pantry, just off the cobbled market square, for a warming hot chocolate and chunk of rocky road or my very favourite white chocolate and peanut blondie. The coffee here is delicious – it’s roasted at nearby Holmfirth – but it’s the beautifully pale, rippled meringues in the window that get our vote every time. Suddenly a wet afternoon doesn’t seem so bad after all…

Image courtesy of Little Ripon Bookshop