A bookshop owner from Cumbria has been presented with two ‘huge’ awards for her independent business.

Freya Blyth, from Kendal, has won the Rising Star Award from The Bookseller as well as the TikTok Book Award for Indie Bookshop of the Year.

She founded her lovely little Bookshop by the Sea in Aberystwyth three years ago, in the middle of the Covid-19 Lockdown.

Freya moved to Wales from her hometown in South Lakeland over ten years ago, to start her undergraduate degree at Aberystwyth University.

Freya was ‘inspired’ by her love of libraries and travelled to Jerusalem where she ran an International Children’s Library until the Covid-19 pandemic hit and she was forced to move back to the UK.

She moved back to her university town and felt ‘really passionate’ about wanting to do something to help rebuild the community again.

Freya decided to start a pop-up bookshop on the seafront, which was the beginning of the Bookshop by the Sea.

The Bookshop by the Sea is community-focused space which serves to bring people together by offering creative writing classes, poetry evenings, live music, children's story times, author talks, art workshops with local artists and more.

Freya was officially presented with the Rising Star Award from The Bookseller on Thursday July 18 and won the TikTok Book Award for Indie Bookshop of the Year on Monday July 29.

She said it is ‘honestly impossible’ to choose which of the two awards she is most pleased with.

Freya said: “They both mean so much to me and are both going to be massive for my bookshop. I’m just beyond grateful for both of them.

“I just feel so humbled and blessed. It’s such a great boost for independent businesses which is so important because they keep towns thriving and keep high streets alive.

“It is so surreal to achieve these kinds of things, especially back-to-back and especially after the success of the Aberystwyth Poetry Festival which I started in 2023.

“There really are no words to explain how amazing this has all been and how much I appreciate everything that has happened.”

After her recent successes, Freya was invited to talk by BBC News to discuss BookTok on Tuesday July 30.

She said it was very exciting to get the call that morning asking if her team wanted to be interviewed.

Freya said: “I think the real magic of a bookshop, it that it can bring together people from all walks of life, which is truly a beautiful thing to be able to do.

“Kendal library is where my first love for reading was founded amidst the beautiful Carnagie building with the large glass windows. I started volunteering with their Summer Reading Scheme and never looked back.”

Freya has tried to reach as many people as possible on TikTok and intends to grow the online community by becoming the ‘Internet's Independent Bookshop’.

She said: “It's a very wholesome side of social media that I want to use to encourage readers from the younger generations!”

Freya’s intention is to open an independent bookshop in Kendal in the summer of 2025.