Tenby's Cofion Bookshop owner Albie says farewell after 45 years

The owner of a unique secondhand and collectors’ bookshop in Tenby is saying farewell after 45 years of running one of Pembrokeshire’s quirkiest premises.

Cofion Books, on the corner of Bridge Street and Quay Hill, has been described by visitors as ‘magical’, ‘a Tenby landmark’ and ‘like it’s out of a Harry Potter film’, while proprietor Albie Smosarski is regarded as ‘a lovely gentleman’ and a ‘legend in his own lifetime’.

However, Albie has now announced he is hanging up the keys to the shop which sits nearby to the seaside town’s picturesque harbour, stating: “Thank you all for your kindness and support over 45 years. It’s time for me to retire.”

Cofion has long been a go to place for book collectors, whilst also stocking a large selection of old postcards, too.

In the days of the Tenby Observer’s monthly Tenby Times spin-off, Albie supplied a column, titled Cofion Corner, featuring themed collections of past postcards of Tenby, accompanied by interesting historical notes.

Local photographer Gareth Davies who has photographed Albie and his shop many times down the years once said: “He jolly well knows where all the individual titles are amongst his beautiful chaos.

“Albie told me that on one occasion a guy entered his shop and told him that he had looked all over Manhattan NYC for particular books on Dylan Thomas; he found one and bought it - when he left Albie’s he had bought three books on his list on Dylan Thomas.“

The photographer described Albie as ‘a true star of old Tenby town’.

Albie also told the Observer how Cofion got started: “Forty years ago, I was wandering around Tenby when I saw the present shop which was well known as Blue Peter and for a little while as the The Albatross Bookshop. It was totally empty!

“That was the weekend that changed my life. I was lucky enough to obtain a lease and the rest is history.

“I used to travel all over England stalling out as a postcard dealer at big Postcard Fairs but now I had a base for my collection. I also cleared my attic which contained books amassed over many years and that was the start of Cofion Books and Postcards!

“I always loved books, postcards and history and have tried to incorporate this liking into what I sell.”

Albie was brought up in the Afan Valley in a mining community above Port Talbot and always came to Tenby during the Miners’ Fortnight on coaches. It made a change from Aberavon beach which always had pieces of coal in the sand!

Following news of his retirement, county councillor for Tenby’s North Ward, Cllr Michael Williams said: “A star indeed, admired and loved in Tenby and well beyond.”

Tenby local, Nicky Lloyd (who wrote the following poem about Albie back in 2023, remarked: “What a truly wonderful man Albie is and Cofion has been an absolute treasure for all ages, young and old.

“The bookshop shall be greatly missed but hopefully we will see Albie out and about enjoying a very well earned retirement.

“Thank You Albie for everything you have brought to, and done for, our beautiful town

Here is the poem Nicky Lloyd wrote for Albie in February 2023:

Words taller than tales,

ramshackle reads, sunk

into the souls of sailors,

bygones buoy balusters,

defiant of design, time

hangs salty, sunny to the

razor lit harbour descent,

in moments, in idles, in

stowaway secrets. Bend

my ear to the yore and, let

me hear the yawns of the

sleeping, woken, from

capture, by the captivated,

whisper the broken bones,

the battle-scarred titles,

vying for the eyeing curios,

a breath upon my cheek,

musty in the lungs of

latent love letters, and

latterly lament. Wide-eyed

the boy, beside the sea, so

the sleeping mines can just

be, cherished a book loaned

from a tin, beginning to end,

and, back again, bawdy the

bathers, and, postcard prudes,

perhaps, once there was a

floor, perhaps once there was

a wall, where Cofion spills her

spoils and sentences and chases

her chapters through the cheating

of being, to a sometimes never,

always whenever, sands of time.