SWINDON'S biggest ever bookshop opens on Saturday.

The Borders chain is putting the finishing touches to its latest branch - near the Asda Wal-Mart hyper-market in North Swindon.

At 20,000 feet, it is bigger than any other bookshop in Swindon, including the two Waterstones branches in the town centre.

Selling books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs and videos, the store will also include a branch of Starbucks on a mezzanine level above the main sales area and a branch of Paperchase, the specialist stationery and greeting cards chain.

Borders' existing branches include four floors on London's Oxford Street and another store in the Charing Cross Road, the capital's book street.

Company spokeswoman Angela Locton said: "There will be about 20 staff who are all full-timers, and most of them are local people. Swindon is a great place to open a book store. It is one of the faster-growing commun-ities in Britain, and we want to provide fun for all the family.

"We have got the stock on the shelves and there is only cosmetic work and things like final staff training to do before we open at 9am on Saturday. We are a large one-floor store the city centre ones tend to have more than one floor." Borders is celebrating its opening in Swindon by inviting pupils from St Andrew's Primary School, Blunsdon, to attend, as the firm says it wants to introduce people of all ages to the bookshop experience.

Ms Locton added: "We will also have a jazz band and people dressed as characters from children's books, such as Spot.

"In the future, we plan to link with the community in and around Swindon to hold special original events.

"And I would say people will be able to get pretty much anything they want at our store."

Nobody at Waterstones was available to comment.