Bookshops are only usually like this in dreams. Housed in a three-storey Tudor building, all exposed stone walls and inviting nooks, the Hours is a bijou shop stocking just 1,000 covetable titles (fiction, art, poetry, crime, children's titles, walking guides and local interest) in an environment to invite lingering. The current owners opened the shop in 2010 after years in the corporate sector. They wanted to create a place to stumble upon and cherish, and they've succeeded. Next to the books, there's a brilliant cafe with free wireless internet access and papers; upstairs there's a comfy reading room. The shop takes its name from the working title for Mrs Dalloway. Virginia Woolf, you feel, would have loved this tranquil, creative place.

The Hours is just beautiful. Although small, the book selection is splendid, and the commitment of the owners to literature is exemplary. It is a centre of reading in Brecon, and you can have a beautiful meal while you browse or buy. Brecon has long deserved a good bookshop and now it has one.  

Oh the joy of a good cup of coffee whilst you tap away at your laptop, read, or chat with friends in a warm, welcoming coffee shop. One that has fabulous food and drinks that aren’t ridiculously overpriced; that’s buzzing, but not too busy, with nice background music that you don’t have to shout over. It needs to have great service and you shouldn’t feel rushed. It’s an elusive Utopia, but I’ve finally discovered such a perfect haven.  

Brecon’s unsung hero: The lopsided door opens into a charming book lined cafe, tables nicely spaced and scattered around the low ceilinged room. The staff are charming and helpful and the poached eggs and bacon exemplary. If Brecon has nothing else to offer the weary traveller it has the Hours to make up for that.  

An intimate and relaxing setting, situated in a unique and traditional Brecon building... There are some scrumptious sandwiches on the menu and some delicious cakes that balance a coffee or tea perfectly.