Forest books is unique.  We have a worldwide reputation for an accessible, friendly, fast and helpful service. This year we celebrate 20 years as a Deafness and Deaf Issues Shop and 14 years of this Website.

As the trading subsidiary for the UK Council On Deafness our profits are reinvested back into the deaf community so we Thank you for supporting us with your orders.

Read Doug's article from the current issue of 'The Author' - journal of the Society of Authors, where he discusses the survival of independent bookshops.

Newsletter - Keep up to date with our eNewsletter.  Click   automatically to sign up and just send the email when it pops up.

THE STORY OF FOREST BOOKS

Doug McLean started the Forest Bookshop, Coleford, in Gloucestershire's beautiful Forest of Dean, 30 years ago.

The Forest Bookshop soon developed into a busy bookshop serving the Forest of Dean. But it was when he met his wife Lyn, who  worked within the Deaf community and with deaf family, that he  began  a course in British Sign Language and also joined the Open University 'Issues In Deafness' course. He then discovered that essential books and materials were hard to obtain. As a bookseller, he produced in 1989, a small catalogue of a couple of dozen titles, to share with fellow students.  News spread and requests came for more catalogues. In 1990, the Forest Deafness and Deaf Issues Website was created. Doug and Lyn watched with amazement as the service grew. It became clear that this was a much-needed service. It was also a powerful way to raise deaf awareness and provide deaf people, their families and all who work with them with easy access to the best resources.

From the beginning, Forest Books or just plain 'Forest' - as everyone now knows us - set high standards for customer service by ensuring that all orders were dealt with the day they were received from the customer, and by providing a service that was as close to a friendly neighbourhood bookshop as possible. Today, Forest employs over 20 staff (both deaf and hearing) and the deaf service is now run from our modern 12,000 sq. ft.  warehouse and offices in beautiful Forest surroundings just outside Coleford. All Forest staff are encouraged to go on sign language courses to at least CACDP stage 2 level and all telephones have access to minicoms. Over 130,000 copies of their free 64 page full-colour Deafness and Deaf Issues Catalogue are printed and distributed every year. Forest also displays and meets their customers at over 50 deaf related conferences and  meetings annually and a steady stream of visitors come to the warehouses from all over Britain and the world. 

The service provided by Forest is unique and much of their success and popularity comes from the continuing policy of re-investing all profits into providing the best service possible and of course, the dedicated and enthusiastic award winning Forest team.

Forest Books and future developments

UK Council on Deafness and Forest Books Ltd are pleased to announce that discussions are taking place that are intended to lead to Forest Books Ltd becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of UK Council on Deafness.

In recognition of the high regard in which Forest Books is held by its customers it will continue to trade as a separate company using the name Forest Books and to operate from its premises in the Forest of Dean with its existing staff. This will enable Forest Books to continue to thrive and develop in the long term, beyond the approaching retirement of the present owners, Doug McLean and Lyn Atkinson.

Susan Daniels, Chair of UK Council on Deafness said: 'We are delighted to have the opportunity to bring the two organisations together, which will enhance the profile of both and enable us to further develop services for our member organisations. Forest Books provides an invaluable service to many of our member organisations, who represent a large proportion of its customer base and this will enable them to share the benefit of developing that relationship.'

Doug McLean, Director of Forest Books Ltd said: 'I am delighted that this idea is approaching fruition and that "Forest" will remain firmly within the deaf world.

This is my 30th year as a bookseller and handing over to UKCoD will mean that Lyn and I can wind down gracefully, in the knowledge that our excellent team at Forest will receive first-class support from within the deaf world and that our renowned friendly, fast and efficient service will be in safe hands.'

Click on the Links Below for more information

The Forest of Dean Website Where to Stay in the Forest of Dean

Click here for a more detailed map from Streetmap.co.uk

 CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO TOP OF PAGE