We are lucky to have The Torbay Bookshop in our area. The owners, Matthew and Sarah Clarke, opened for business in 1993. They had spent their working lives in publishing and had built a lot of useful connections. Their first shop was opened by Sir Patrick Moore and when they later moved to a bright new shop in 2002 that one was opened by Dick Francis.

Over the years they have kept up a steady flow of celebrity events, been heavily involved with the local Library Service and won a host of awards, including Best Independent Bookshop. It is hard to think of anything more that the Clarkes could have done to make selling books on the High Street successful.

It was, therefore, distressing to learn that the business (including the freehold of the property) was up for sale. It seemed that an excellent bookshop was in danger of closing.

But there is good news! It has to be said that good news for independent bookshops is in pretty short supply. Matthew and Sarah heard that the neighbouring Thorntons store was closing and stepped in. By re-arranging their premises they can maintain the bookshop, but also offer the range of Thorntons chocolate and, for good measure, they will also be selling jigsaws, stationery, CDs, DVDs, local photographic prints, diaries and calendars.

It’s a relief that we are not losing our local asset, but I can’t help feeling that it’s a pity that such knowledgeable and enthusiastic people can no longer make an adequate living from selling books.

When are the mainstream publishers going to wake up to the fact that unless they change their ways there will soon be very, very few independent bookshops; they will have lost an important sales route and we will have lost a socially significant presence from our High Streets. The solution is obvious. They have to do just two things: stop giving the online retailers and the large chains such generous discounts that it makes it easy for them to undercut the small independents, and stop unloading remaindered stock at obscenely low prices.

I was in a bookshop in Ashburton shortly before it closed down. The proprietor showed me a book that she had on sale at the cover price of £20. It was a very attractive, large format, hardback book featuring a stunning collection of local photographs. It had been published just twelve months previously, but she told me that it was already on sale in a nearby out-of-town shopping centre for just £5. The publisher had never offered the book to the bookshop on reduced terms, but had simply unloaded all the unsold stock in a way that undermined all the independent bookshops in the area.

If a business treats its connections with such contempt it will eventually pay the price.

You may be wondering why an item about the property market is appearing on this essentially book-related blog. To me the link is obvious – but I know what I am about to say will not be well received by many of you.

The whole book industry, particularly the High Street bookshop, is suffering during this economic downturn. Many consumers are feeling squeezed by soaring prices accompanied by little or no increase in earnings. What has that got to do with the property market? Well, everything really.

There are regional variations, of course, but the fact is the British pay far too much for their accommodation. Relative to the rest of Europe we pay so much for somewhere to live that the proportion of income left to spend on food, clothes and whatever we enjoy, is a lot lower than it should be. And that means that the companies are struggling who ought to be providing the goods (including books) and services we should be enjoying – and in so doing, providing lots of jobs.

The ludicrous bubble in property prices has not so much burst as developed a steady leak. Prices have fallen by about 10% (depending on which survey one reads), but they need to fall a lot further to restore some sanity to the market. In April the property website Rightmove conducted a survey and found that almost 50% of Brits thought that, despite two years of falls, property was still over-valued. The experts agree. The property team within Morgan Stanley has produced a report forecasting falls of 15-25%. That 25% figure was repeated in a report by the global ratings agency, Fitch Ratings.

I don’t doubt that the Government would welcome such falls. It would, of course, cause negative equity problems for those who bought close to the peak of the market, but allowing first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder would give the economy a boost and leave more spendable income in the pockets of the new generations of property owners. No Government is likely to announce a plan to slash property prices, so it is hoping to achieve that object in a way that allows a positive slant. It is determined to see the construction industry build many more new homes. Greatly increasing the supply will see prices fall - and who could complain about a government building more homes?

Do we have to wait to see many more people making the largest purchase of their lives, before we see a decent increase in the sale of books on the High Street?