What to do with that redundancy money? Opening a bookshop vies with that little tea shoppe in the West Country as a hopeless second-career dream for white-collar workers looking for an early exit from the rat race.

Each month the bookselling industry’s trade magazine The Bookseller brings news of another bookshop biting the dust. The cult crime bookshop Murder One, in London’s Charing Cross, is one of the latest to go, killed by Internet shopping and competition from supermarkets and chain bookstores, who have more clout to buy cheap and pile high.

More than 50 independent booksellers closed last year in the UK — more than one a week — but looking at the Jericho area of Oxford, it seems that the dream is far from dead.

In the past few months, not one but two bookshops have opened opposite each other in Walton Street. Neither owner is a novice, and both believe that independent bookshops have a future.

Nick Walsh and Jake Pumphrey chose an apposite name for their bargain bookshop, at which everything costs £2. Mr Pumphrey said: “Calling it The Last Bookshop is a kind of joke about the state of bookselling.

“The format works for us and we are actively looking for a second outlet in Oxford. We are not too bothered about the inherent contradiction of having more than one ‘last bookshop’.”

Their main business is wholesaling, and their warehouse at Grove Farm, Milton Hill, supplies bookshops and Internet shoppers with ‘remainders’ which publishers want to offload.

He said: “As a company we are slowly growing, despite the downturn. Our bread-and-butter is in the buying and selling of remainders and overstocks from publishers and distributors, which we then sell in bulk around the world. We are also active selling single copies to people via Amazon and other Internet outlets.”

“How do we make money? The same way anyone does, by selling for more than we pay, by controlling costs, by developing new markets.”

Meanwhile, over the road, Dennis Harrison opened his very different shop, the Albion Beatnik Bookstore, just before Christmas. He also runs the Wendover Bookshop, which he bought 19 years ago after working in chain and family-run bookshops.

“I bought it in the last recession,” he said. “So I’ve plenty of experience.”

He has kept the Wendover shop profitable by moving towards the children’s market, and specialising in local books and healthy lifestyle.

But his passion is jazz and pop music, and he sees Oxford as the perfect home for his dream bookshop, whose name was carefully chosen to reflect the eclectic stock.

“I think I’m offering something slightly different. It does appeal to people who like to browse in bookshops and like to feel that the books have been pre-selected.

“I don’t suppose I stock more than two or three of the current bestsellers. There’s no point, because you can get them half-price elsewhere. I like to stock things you won’t find elsewhere.

“I’ve got six books on Frank Zappa, for example. Go to a chain bookstore and you probably won’t find any. This is too esoteric to work in Wendover.”

At first, he did wonder if he had made a mistake, but since Christmas he says trade has been good.

“Someone from Derby came in this week and spent hundreds. He was visiting Oxford University Press next door and I suppose there aren’t many bookshops in Derby.”

Unlike the Walton Street duo, Andrew Kidgell, 42, who took over the Red Lion Bookshop in Burford earlier this year, is a bookselling novice, having worked in IT for 21 years.

He is earning a lot less, and commuting each day from his home in Haddenham, but has no doubts.

“I love it. We have a fiercely loyal clientele here, which makes life so much nicer. They don’t want it to go and they are very loyal,” he said.

“Money is not the be-all and end-all. I have wanted to have a bookshop for years and years.”

He added: “My only doubt was the economic climate, which is a bit iffy. But on the other hand, businesses were for sale at much lower prices than when I first started looking.”

It seems the recession offers bargains for those who want to fulfil their bookselling dream. Mr Harrison had been interested in the Walton Street shop a few years ago, but found the lease terms too onerous, until it became vacant again last year.

Mr Pumphrey feels strongly about this issue, having closed his previous shop, Pumpkin Books, in Gloucester Green, Oxford.

He said: “There was a long gap where we abandoned retailing. Everything was stacked in the landlords’ favour; silly money was required. So we developed wholesale and Internet instead.

“Now the climate has changed, retail is more affordable. I would still be very cautious about leases, and the one in Walton Street is a case in point. It's a short lease at a discount while the owner of the block sorts out his funding or planning.

“Our hope is to find more affordable leases, with a fairer balance between the needs of the retailer and the needs of the landlord than has been common in recent times.”

o Contacts: Albion Beatnik Bookstore, 01865 511345 The Last Bookshop, www.pumpkindirect.co.uk Red Lion Bookshop, 01993 822539, www.redlionbookshop.co.uk