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The manager of an independent Bristol bookshop has launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy the store in partnership with a local illustrator.

Darran McLaughlin and senior UWE lecturer Phil Wrigglesworth are hoping to raise £68,000 to acquire Bookhaus in Wapping Wharf after the owners decided to retire.

Mr McLaughlin, who has previously worked for Borders, Books Etc and the Royal Academy of Arts, has run the business since it opened its doors in 2021.

He wrote on his Crowdfunder page: "The current owners, Kevin and Jayne Ramage and I knew each other from being involved in political activism together. At the beginning of 2021 they told me that they wanted to open a bookshop in Bristol, and they wanted me to run it.

"I didn't know that they owned bookshops, and they didn't know that I had years of experience in the book industry, but they thought I could be a great bookshop manager. I accepted, and we worked together to conceive and develop a bookshop that would reflect the radical, independent spirit of Bristol."

It is understood the Ramages have offer Mr McLaughlin the opportunity to buy the shop and "continue the legacy".

"I am determined to do this, but I lack the money to buy it," he wrote. "I am a working class, black man who grew up in a single parent household on a council estate, so I am not able to ask my family for money, and banks aren't keen to fund independent bookshops.

"This is why I am creating this crowdfunder, in the hope that our customers and fans will contribute towards keeping bookhaus as Bristol's Radical Home."