Keele alumna Ruth Wallbank-Hughes on opening Drop City Books and building community one chapter at a time | 21
Ruth’ s passion and enthusiasm radiates through every colourful wall, curated bookshelf, and cosy corner of Drop City Books.“ Every element of the shop, from the layout to the way I host events, is totally informed by my practice as a therapist”, she explains.“ At Drop City Books I go to work every day and get to be completely and totally myself, and the best thing about that is it gives other people permission to do the same.”
True to her mission, Ruth handpicks every book in the shop, spotlighting small publishers and marginalised authors.“ If I wouldn’ t want to read it”, she quips,“ it doesn’ t go on the shelves!”. With Ruth’ s lead and collaboration with the wider community, DCB is now building a reputation for hosting and interviewing world-renowned authors, with Robin Ince, Michael Pederson, Shenna Kalayil, Ben Pester, and Tobi Coventry among this year’ s big names.
Ruth reflects on her Keele experience with real warmth, despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, illness, and opening a startup at the time.“ My time at Keele wasn’ t easy”, she acknowledges,“ but it taught me that an experience doesn’ t have to be perfect to change you. The lessons I learned about perseverance, changing direction and asking for help are things that will stick with me forever.”
Having access to flexible study options and a truly person-centred approach made returning to study alongside opening DCB the right option for Ruth, who graduated from Keele in 2022. Since then, Keele have been delighted to welcome her and other Counselling alumni back to campus, including selling books at the Keele Counselling and Psychotherapy conference in 2025 and 2026 and hosting a book signing event for the launch of fellow course mate Josh Fletcher’ s second book Same Time Next Week?
Contact details: Instagram: @ dropcitybooks dropcitybooks. com