Ealing Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'UP CLOSE in Ealing.'

Today we caught up with Joana Crenganis, the Ealing franchisee of Ealing Bookworms.

Joana Crenganis is originally from Romania but has lived in Ealing for the past decade.

In May last year, she decided to open Ealing Bookworms where parents can buy affordable children's books.

Bookworms is a nationwide company that offers people the opportunity to purchase books at a lower price than they would at a bookshop.

Crenganis was due to start an arts and crafts business in March last year, but the pandemic hit and everything came to a sudden halt.

She decided to instead become a franchisee and Ealing Bookworms was opened in May 2020.

She told Nub News: "I'm a parent with two young children and during lockdown I've had to find ways to keep them occupied and books is a great way of doing that.

"I thought what better way than setting up a business that sells affordable books.

"As a parent, I don't like paying £10 for a book my children might just read once, but with Bookworms, each book only costs £2.50."

The mum-of-two has always been interested in children's books and also runs a book review business on the side as well.

She was meant to go back to work this month at a French nursery as an early years teacher, but due to the new national lockdown announced yesterday, that has been delayed.

"So far I've had five different jobs that have been cancelled or delayed due to COVID, so Ealing Bookworms takes up most of my time outside of raising my kids," she added.

Customers can either buy directly through Ealing Bookworms, but if a book they want isn't currently in stock, they can order via the national Bookworms website using a special code given to them by Crenganis and still only pay £2.50.