THE 'Winnie-the-Pooh' bookshop is opening a new chapter in its community success story with major new expansion plans.

The Dartmouth Community Bookshop has just been awarded a grant of £1,500 to create new children's space and counter in the town centre shop.

And that will be the first step in even bigger plans to roof over the yard at the rear of the building to create an even bigger bookshop.

And work is due to start in January next year said bookshop committee chairman Tony Fyson.

The grant has come from international author James Patterson and the shop is one of 73 independent bookshops nationwide to benefit from the author's £130,000 fund.

Fyson said: 'We are delighted to be one of the lucky bookshops to receive an award and are very grateful to James Patterson for his generosity.

'The project, which the funds will support, is the creation of an area for small children where our cramped sales counter is at present, with new shelves and seating for our very young customers.

'We also plan an expanded area for teens and young adults, all easily supervised from a new, two-person, sales counter, from which it will also be possible to see the full length of the shop into the new extension.

'He added: 'Our current carefully conserved improvement funds, raised from the community, are committed to expansion at the rear of the shop.'

The shop opened three years ago, following a major community effort to save the original nearby bookshop with its AA Milne connections.

The community effort was launched following the announcement that the Harbour Bookshop, launched by the author's son Christopher Robin 60 years before, was to close.

The current bookshop in Higher Street was opened in December 2011.

Shops eligible for the James Patterson grants were those with a dedicated children's section.

Mr Fyson said: 'We have a special interest in selling books for children, arising from the origins of the Harbour Bookshop in Dartmouth, founded in 1951 and run for many years by Christopher Robin Milne, son of AA Milne, author of the Pooh bear stories. Even after all these years we still stock a range of Pooh books in new and old editions.'

James Patterson has committed to giving £250,000 to UK and Irish independent booksellers, as a vote of confidence in the sector and to demonstrate his faith in independent bookshops as providers of reader engagement, inspiration, advice, literacy and fun to adults and children alike.

Mr Patterson told the bookshop: 'Let me start by thanking you for your grant application.

'I was completely overwhelmed by just how many people have applied for the grants and have been impressed and enthused by the calibre of the applications. I am delighted to let you know that your application has been successful. Congratulations!'

Tim Walker, president of The Booksellers Association, said: 'We are very much looking forward to seeing the grant funding being implemented by the successful bookshops.

'We are thrilled that so many UK and Irish indies have shown such creativity and passion in their applications.

'For the lucky 73 shops, the James Patterson money will make a real difference to how they reach children and encourage them to read.'