The owner of a fire-affected bookshop in Petersfield can’t wait to raise the roof following an emotional return.

Tim O’Kelly and everyone connected with One Tree Books got an early Christmas present last month as the doors to his Lavant Street shop reopened.

The shop temporarily relocated to the former Ann’s Prams unit in July following the fire that gutted several properties.

While scaffolding and boards remain in place outside, there’s no signs inside of the earlier devastation with a new ceiling in place and business being brisk.

But there’s been a huge effort behind the scenes and plenty of work still to be done, with a new roof being top of the Christmas list for Mr O’Kelly.

He said: “We have done a few changes like moving some shelving around and taking the café out of the front and expanding the back bit, but aside from that it’s pretty much back to how it was.

“We lost quite a bit of stock, probably around a quarter, and we still have no roof. Hopefully it’ll be finished by May as the day after the fire it was in a pretty terrible state.”

Mr O’Kelly and the team – “brilliantly led” by manager, Sally Jay – kept working throughout the upheaval while he can’t thank the Chapel Street landlord enough for “rushing things through” and facilitating their relocation.

Another journey involved getting electricity and other utilities restored, and cleaning up ahead of the big return, with Alex from the Petersfield Cleaning Company doing an “amazing job” and “going the extra mile”.

Tim added: “We had to get a whole new electricity supply.

“It took a lot of co-ordination but it was a fantastic team effort, and a whole load of customers also moved all the stock from Chapel Street back to here.”