Jonathan Wilson loved his favourite bookshop so much he bought it.

When the future of The Halcyon Bookshop in Haywards Heath was threatened six months ago, he stepped in.

Jonathan was a dedicated customer, having bought about 300 books from the store in the past 15 years.

He said: "I've always enjoyed reading all kinds of books but, because of my work, I've spent the last few years mainly reading academic books for work.

"One of the joys of running a bookshop is having to catch up on what's been happening in the world of fiction - all in the name of research of course."

Jonathan spends three or four days a week at the shop, dividing his time with his other job as a management consultant specialising in customer service.

He said: "I had some broad retail experience but no direct experience of running a bookshop.

He said running a bookshop was great fun on a number of levels, adding: "The shop is busy but not that busy so you've got time to chat to people and that's one of the best parts of the job.

"Other customers just want to look around quietly and they're interesting in their own way too."

He enjoys working out what is best for the business. The shop has just opened a tea and coffee shop upstairs, which will also be used as a gallery for local artists, and his daughter has put together a quarterly newsletter for the kids' club.

Jonathan said: "The other great thing is my experience running the shop is feeding back into my management consultancy work.

"Now I'm also on the front line I understand the importance of asking people to do only what is do-able.

"I have no regrets about buying it but revenue has taken slightly longer to come in than I had anticipated - I think it's just all part of the learning curve."