BESTSELLERS

DECEMBER & 2010

Five very different local interest titles were amongst bestsellers at The Book Case over the Christmas period. Also popular were a book on mental and manual work, an updated Christmas story, a big history book, one about maps and some hilarious stickers for adults commenting on aspects of today’s society. Of our bestsellers over the whole year, local interest books accounted for half, with four novels and a humorous pre-election book making up the remainder. (Remember the election?)

1. At the Foot of the Lud - Sheena Ellwood (£9.99). This well-researched history of Luddenden Foot by a local resident was our most popular seller in December.

2. The Good Ship Calder High and other tales from the 1950s - Peter Thomas (£5.00). The author was a guinea pig at the experimental new school in Mytholmroyd and now tells all!

3. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99). Another title in the top ten for Peter Thomas - a history of the area from pre-Norman times to the present day.

4. Around Calderdale: Calderdale and its people on the Calderdale Way 1 & 2 - Ray Riches and Peter Thornton (£19.99). A walk tracing historic routes high on the valley sides on the circular route that takes in most of Calderdale, from the Pathways team. This double DVD covers the whole circuit.

5. The Case for Working with Your Hands - Matthew Crawford (£8.99). Subtitled "Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good", this book did well for us in hardback and is doing even better in paperback!

6. Another Night before Christmas - Carol Ann Duffy, ill. Rob Ryan (£4.99). Atmospheric modern reworking of the Victorian Christmas classic with a quick dig at celebrity culture along the way.

7. History of the World in 100 Objects - Neil MacGregor (£22 at The Book Case). The big book related to the brilliant Radio 4 series by the Director of the British Museum.

8. Recipes and Rascals: food and funny goings-on in Yorkshire - Sue Hiscoe (£16.95). A beautifully presented collection of recipes inspired by old customs from Calderdale and beyond (including Dock Pudding). Sue is a professional photographer based in Barkisland. Look out for her on Look North on 12th Night!

9. Map Addict - A Tale of Obsession, Fudge and the Ordnance Survey - Mike Parker (£7.99). On an average day, we will consult some form of map approximately a dozen times, often without even noticing. They are the unsung heroes of life.

10. You Can Stick It - P K Munroe (£12.99). Hundreds of subversive, surreal and daft stickers for today’s society, to cheer us all up! Provoked much merriment in the shop.

BESTSELLERS OF 2010
1. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas; 2. Yorkshire Dales Textile Mills - George Ingle; 3. At the Foot of the Lud - Sheena Ellwood; 4. Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver; 5. Falling through Clouds - Anna Chilvers; 6. The People’s Manifesto - Mark Thomas; 7. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest - Stieg Larsson; 8. The Good Ship Calder High - Peter Thomas; 9. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel; 10. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle.

NOVEMBER 2010

Christmas is coming - and it shows in The Book Case’s November bestseller. An attractive children’s item was popular, with six of our remaining top ten sellers being of local interest. Also selling well was an original approach to history, and the ever-popular We’moon Diary.

1. Another Night before Christmas - Carol Ann Duffy, ill. Rob Ryan (£4.99). A warm and witty modern reworking of the Victorian Christmas classic.
2. Animal Parade - Alison Jay (£9.99). A lovely set of six stackable or nestable boxes for small children, illustrated with bright cheerful animals in her signature crackle glaze style by Alison Jay.
3. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle (£6.95). A bit of a surprise considering the weather, but this book of local walks was a popular seller in November!
4. Around Calderdale: Calderdale and its people on the Calderdale Way 1 & 2 - Ray Riches and Peter Thornton (£19.99). A walk tracing historic routes high on the valley sides on the circular route that takes in most of Calderdale, from the Pathways team. This double DVD covers the whole circuit.
5. West Yorkshire Folk Tales - John Billingsley (£9.99). Local historian John Billingsley's latest collection of West Yorkshire folklore, entertainingly told, with atmospheric line drawings by Heptonstall illustrator, Stan McCarthy.
6. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99). Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area from ancient times to the present day continued popular.
7. History of the World in 100 Objects - Neil MacGregor (£22.00 at The Book Case). The big book related to the brilliant Radio 4 series by the Director of the British Museum.
8. We’Moon Diary 2011 (£15.99). "Groundswell" is the theme of this colourful moon calendar and datebook for women this year.
9. Yorkshire Dales Textile Mills - George Ingle (£9.99). George Ingle’s entertaining talk to the Local History Society boosted sales of this account of the vanished mills of the Dales.
10. One Week in September - Calder VI students and teachers (£5.00). A collection of poetry and prose by Calder VI students and teachers, written at Lumb Bank, September 2009. Published with the help of Sweet and Maxwell in Mytholmroyd.

OCTOBER 2010

The Ted Hughes Festival made its mark on The Book Case’s bestsellers in October, accounting for half of the top ten. Two local interest books, two colourful diaries and a much-hyped novel made up the remainder.

1. The Quarry - Daniel Huws (£7.99). It’s the first time we’ve had an out-of-print book as our bestseller! But we had got in a number of secondhand copies of this book of the poems for the author’s appearance at the Ted Hughes Festival.

2. Earth Pathways Diary 2011 (£12.99). Colourful diary with photos, artwork and poems celebrating our connection to the Earth.

3. Beowulf - Kevin Crossley-Holland (£5.99). Kevin Crossley-Holland joked about his rivalry with Seamus Heaney in their modern versions of Beowulf! This version is in strong rhythmical prose, with illustrations by Charles Keeping.

4. Worlds: Seven Modern Poets (£5.99). Another out-of-print bestseller, this well-read book contains Ted Hughes’s essay "The Rock" about growing up in Mytholmroyd, as well as a number of Fay Godwin’s Elmet photos; plus other well-known poets such as Seamus Heaney.

5. West Yorkshire Folk Tales - John Billingsley (£9.99). Local historian John Billingsley's latest collection of West Yorkshire folklore, entertainingly told, with atmospheric line drawings by Heptonstall illustrator, Stan McCarthy.

6. Seeing Stone - Kevin Crossley-Holland (£6.99). The first in the Arthur trilogy: a 13-year-old boy living in 1199 eventually becomes a squire - while being able to observe the life of King Arthur through a magic stone.

7. We’Moon Diary 2011 (£15.99). "Groundswell" is the theme of this colourful moon calendar and datebook for women this year.

8. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen (£15.00 at The Book Case). This is the novel which had the wrong version published! It’s about a well-meaning couple and their son struggling to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world.

9. Dreamfighter - Ted Hughes (£6.99). Mesmerising creation tales from a master storyteller about the creatures around us.

10. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99). Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area from ancient times to the present day continued popular.

SEPTEMBER 2010

What a mixture! Popular at The Book Case in September were three local interest books, four novels, an outstanding book of poetry, and the memoirs of an ex-Prime Minister and of a woman who wanted it all.

1. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99)
Again at the top (and that’s not counting the ones the TIC sells), Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area from ancient times to the present day.

2. A Journey - Tony Blair (£17.00 at The Book Case)
We had our doubts - but the ex-New Labour Prime Minister’s memoirs sold well, even in Hebden Bridge.

3. A Human Chain - Seamus Heaney (£12.99)
Our Non-Fiction Book of the Month. His books make up two-thirds of the sales of living poets in the UK, said the BBC in 2007, and this is twelfth collection of poems with "some of the best poems he has written" (Colm Toibin).

4. Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (£7.99)
This year’s Orange Prize winner continued popular, telling the story of an American man working for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in 1930s Mexico.

5. Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (£7.00)
"One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia". No doubt the new film had something to do with the renewed popularity of this readable travel book-cum-memoirs.

6. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest - Stieg Larsson (£7.99)
Slightly higher this month, the third in the popular Millennium trilogy: Lisbeth Salander is plotting her revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.

7. West Yorkshire Folk Tales - John Billingsley (£9.99)
Still in the top ten, local historian John Billingsley's latest collection of West Yorkshire folklore, entertainingly told, with atmospheric line drawings by Heptonstall illustrator, Stan McCarthy.

8. Gold Pieces - Phyllis Bentley (£5.95)
A gripping story about a hilltop handloom weaver's son, based on the real history of the Cragg Vale Coiners, giving a fascinating insight into life in the Calder Valley and the local weaving industry over 200 years ago. A Royd Press publication.

9. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (£8.99)
Back in the top ten, Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning story of Thomas Cromwell - political genius, briber, charmer and bully - as Henry VIII’s pursuit of Anne Boleyn shakes the kingdom.

10. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen (£15.00 at The Book Case)
This much-hyped new novel from the author of "The Corrections" has been attracting a lot of interest_ it's about a well-meaning American couple and their son struggling to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world.

AUGUST 2010

The Book Case’s customers in August mostly wanted to find out about the area, enjoy novels and keep their children amused. But there was also interest in Jackie Kay’s autobiography and "why more equal societies almost always do better".

1. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99). It was back to the top again for Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area from ancient times to the present day.
2. Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (£7.99). This year’s Orange Prize winner was still popular, telling the story of an American man working for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in 1930s Mexico.
3. I-Spy on a Car Journey (£2.50). This was the most popular of the newly re-released I-Spy books but they’re all good sellers and have been universally welcomed, especially by parents, grandparents and minders on car and train journeys.
4. West Yorkshire Folk Tales - John Billingsley (£9.99). Local historian John Billingsley's latest book was close behind with cautionary tales, amusing anecdotes, age-old legends and fantastical myths.
5. Hebden Bridge Town Trail (£2.00). Town visitors were keen to "Discover Hebden Bridge" with this guided illustration walk produced by the Local History Society and Hebden Bridge Walkers’ Action.
6. The Spirit Level - Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (£9.99). Following attacks by The Policy Exchange, interest in this book explaining why "Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better" has increased again.
7. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest - Stieg Larsson (£7.99). Third in the popular Millennium trilogy: Lisbeth Salander is plotting her revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life. The second in the trilogy also sold well.
8. Red Dust Road - Jackie Kay (£11.99). 'I was adopted by warm-spirited Scottish communists. When people ask me if I've ever found my "real" Mum and Dad, it is them I think of.’ Our June Non-Fiction Book of the Month.
9. Flat Stanley - Jeff Brown (£5.99). The boy who gets flattened by a falling bulletin board and finds he can get around much better. First published in 1964.
10. Tykes News (for folk in and around Yorkshire) (£1.50). The quarterly Yorkshire folk music journal is new to us, but has been selling well.

JULY 2010

Recent local literary events strongly flavour The Book Case’s July bestsellers, with Hebden Bridge Festival and Simon Armitage’s visit competing for the top places. Two local interest books get a look in, as does an exploration of the history of an acre of land in North Yorkshire. The Orange prizewinner made our top ten yet again.

1. Notwithstanding - Louis Bernieres (£7.99): "Stories from an English village" where a lady dresses in plus fours and shoots squirrels, a retired general gives up wearing clothes altogether and a spiritualist lives in a cottage with the ghost of her husband. Louis de Bernieres appeared in Mytholmroyd during the Festival.

2. Selected Poems - Simon Armitage (£9.99) & 3. Seeing Stars - Simon Armitage (£12.99): Simon Armitage opened his reading at the Ted Hughes Theatre with the memorable "Sperm Whale" piece from this new collection described as "by turns a voice and a chorus: a hyper-vivid array of dramatic monologues, allegories, parables and tall tales." "Selected Poems" has a choice of poems from nine of his books up to 2001.

4. All Points North - Simon Armitage (£8.99): And this humorous prose collection is about growing up and being Northern in West Yorkshire.

5. Amenable Women - Mavis Cheek (£7.99): Mavis Cheek spoke with Louis de Bernieres to an appreciative audience in Mytholmroyd. In this novel, Flora Chapman is in her fifties when her husband dies in a bizarre ballooning accident. Seizing upon her new found freedom, she decides to finish the history of their village that Edward had begun.

6. Truth to Tell - Mavis Cheek (£11.99): Mavis Cheek’s most recent novel. Nina Porter seems to have it all: husband, home, family and security. But her life turns upside down when a marital row over truthfulness sets her thinking.

7. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99): Local author Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area continues to sell briskly.

8. Falling through Clouds - Anna Chilvers (£7.99): A modern twist on a medieval classic from a local author. Anna will be talking about the book during the Halifax Festival.

9. The Plot - Madeline Bunting (£8.99): Subtitled "A biography of an English acre", this was our July Non-Fiction Book of the Month. Following the author’s deeply conservative father’s death, she began to explore his passionate, lifelong attachment to a small plot of land in North Yorkshire.

Tied at 10th place: West Yorkshire Folk Tales - John Billingsley (£9.99): The people of West Yorkshire have always been fond of a good story. Well-known local historian John Billingsley's latest book includes cautionary tales, amusing anecdotes, age-old legends and fantastical myths
& Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (£7.99): Orange Prize winner about a man torn between the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite America.

JUNE 2010

Local books including our own history and a new walking guide are again featured in The Book Case bestsellers for June as well as current national prizewinning fiction.

1. I Know My Own Heart - Anne Lister, ed. Helena Whitbread (£15.99)
There was widespread interest in Anne Lister following the broadcast of "The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister" at the end of May, resulting in a lot of orders for the diaries edited by Helena Whitbread.

2. Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (£7.99)
Again in second place, this chunky novel from the author of Poisonwood Bible about a man torn between the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite America. Making himself useful in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and Trotsky, he inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution.

3. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99)
Back near the top is Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area. Our own Royd Press publication.

3. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (£8.99)
The Booker-winning story of Thomas Cromwell - political genius, briber, charmer and bully - as Henry VIII’s pursuit of Anne Boleyn shakes the kingdom. The audio version is our current CD of the Month and Hilary Mantel is attending the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival.

5. The Pennine Way - Paddy Dillon (£12.95)
A new guide with a detailed description of the official route, photographs throughout the seasons and OS map extracts with full information about accommodation, public transport and other facilities available en route.

6. Halifax and Calder Valley Memories (£12.99)
From True North in Halifax, photographs and descriptions of scenes in Halifax, Elland, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden from Edwardian times on, covering events, street scenes, the war years, royal visits, the shops, leisure and transport.

7. Beautiful Cows - Valerie Porter (£12.99)
Photographic portraits of the best in bovine beauties. Beautiful Pigs and Beautiful Sheep are also available.

8. Memories of Ted Hughes 1952-1963 - Daniel Huws (£5.99)
This little book about Ted Hughes in his Cambridge years and his friendship with Sylvia Plath continues to sell well.

9. Yorkshire Dales Textile Mills - George Ingle (£9.99)
An illustrated Royd Press publication about the many - now mostly forgotten - textile mills there used to be in the Dales.

10. Change of Climate - Hilary Mantel (£8.99)
By this year’s Booker winner, a novel from 1994 described as both a first rate thriller and a literary family saga - from the violent townships of South Africa to the windswept countryside of Norfolk.

MAY 2010

Novels again made up half the total in The Book Case's May bestsellers - one of them by a local author. Three other books were of local interest, a children's sticker book was popular, and Mark Thomas's entertaining book of political ideas continued to sell briskly.

1. Things I Wish I'd Known - Linda Green (£6.99). Successful Todmorden-based author Linda Green signed her new novel for customers at The Book Case. Set partly in Todmorden, it's about a woman realising how far her present life is removed from her teenage dreams. Warm and funny with a dark edge.

2. Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (£7.99). Chunky new novel from the author of The Poisonwood Bible about a man torn between the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite America. Making himself useful in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and Trotsky, he inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution.

3. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99). Back near the top is Peter Thomas's account of the history of our area. A Royd Press publication.

4. Last Voyage of the Olivebank - Len Townend, ed. Elvin Carter (£9.99). Len Townend's diary of one of the last Great Grain Races on the tall ships of the 1930s, with wonderful black and white photos. Len Townend lived locally and still has family in the area.

5. The People's Manifesto by Mark Thomas (£4.99). Inspiring to downright hilarious ideas for sorting out the country's political chaos and taking back power for the people. It's kept selling post-Election so can it be that the new government doesn't have everyone's unquestioned support? For shame!

6. The Ted Hughes Trail in Crimsworth Dean - the Elmet Trust, Donald Crossley, Nick Wilding & Lesley Alston (£2.50)
This colour illustrated booklet with sketchmap takes you on a circular walk from Midgehole visiting places significant in some of Ted Hughes' poems, many of them from Elmet. (Which is still inexplicably unavailable.)

7. Ultimate Truck Sticker Book (£3.99). Lots of trucks to identify and place, with a bit of info about each.

8. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (£8.99). The Booker-winning and bestselling story of Thomas Cromwell - political genius, briber, charmer and bully - as Henry VIII's pursuit of Anne Boleyn shakes the kingdom. The audio version is our current CD of the Month and Hilary Mantel is attending the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival.

9. The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt (£7.99). This novel about a famous Edwardian writer and her children (based on E Nesbit) holds its place at No 9.

10. Brooklyn - Colm Toibin (£7.99). Costa-winning novel about a girl emigrating from Ireland to New York in the 1950s.

APRIL 2010

April saw novels popular at The Book Case, making up half the total. Mark Thomas’s entertaining book of political ideas continued to sell briskly, a new book about working on a tall ship in the 1930s immediately shot into the charts, and the remaining books sold to people interested in the local area.

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - Stieg Larsson (£7.99). Salander is plotting her revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life. But it is not going to be a straightforward campaign. Concludes the immensely successful trilogy. No. 2 was also in our Top Ten.

2. The People's Manifesto by Mark Thomas (£4.99). Mark Thomas toured the country getting audiences to come up with policies aimed at sorting out the country's political chaos and taking back the power for the people. From the inspiring to the downright hilarious, you'll wonder why these fantastic ideas aren't part of the constitution already.

3. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£8.50). Back in stock, this collection of strange local legends is always popular.

4. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman (£14.99) Part novel, part history, part fairytale, The Good Man Jesus offers a radical new take on the myths and the mysteries of the Gospels, and the genesis of church that has so shaped the course of the last two millennia.

5. The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson (£7.99). The second instalment in the popular Millennium Trilogy sees Lisbeth Salander wanted for murder while Blomkvist tries desperately to clear her name.

6. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (£8.99). The Booker-winning story of Thomas Cromwell - political genius, briber, charmer and bully - as Henry VIII’s pursuit of Anne Boleyn shakes the kingdom.

7. Last Voyage of the Olivebank - Len Townend, ed. Elvin Carter (£9.99). This true and poignant diary of one of the last Great Grain Races of the 1930s, by Len Townend, who at one point lived in Heptonstall and still has family in the area, has only been with us for two days and is already a bestseller!

8. Yorkshire Dales Textile Mills - George Ingle (£9.99). An illustrated account of all the mills that once stood in the Dales, with information about the firms, child labour, and hand-loom weavers' riots plus details of the buildings, the machinery in them and their power sources.

9. The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt (£7.99). A famous writer is interviewed with her children gathered at her knee. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world - but their lives, and those of their rich cousins and their friends are already inscribed with mystery.

10. Millstone Grit: a Pennine Journey - Glyn Hughes (£3.95). The classic description of the area first published in the 1970s, written as an account of a journey on foot.

MARCH

As always, World Book Day dominated March sales at The Book Case, with five adult novels also selling well. Peter Thomas’s ever-popular local history, weird Calderdale goings-on, an alternative election manifesto and a book analysing what’s wrong with our society made up the remainder.

1. World Book Day Special: Kitten Chaos by Anna Wilson with Magic Ballerina: The Magic Dance by Darcey Bussell (£1.00). All of the World Book Day Specials for children were popular, but ballerinas and kittens took first place!

2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (£8.99). Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009 and our March Fiction Book of the Month. 'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.'

3. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99). Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area keeps selling! A Royd Press publication.

4. The People's Manifesto by Mark Thomas (£4.99). Mark Thomas’s entertaining guide to what people really want from their government. If only!

5. Falling through Clouds - Anna Chilvers (£7.99). Hebden Bridge author Anna Turner’s novel, a contemporary retelling of the medieval English tale "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", is selling well.

6. We Are All Made of Glue - Marina Lewycka (£7.99). Georgie Sinclair's life is coming unstuck. Her husband's left her. Her son's obsessed with the End of the World. And now her elderly neighbour Mrs Shapiro has decided they are related. The latest entertaining novel from the author of "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian".

7. The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone - Richard Wilkinson (£9.99). Still selling well is this groundbreaking book demonstrating that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them - the well-off as well as the poor. Our February Non-Fiction Book of the Month.

8. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£8.50). Back in stock, this collection of strange local legends is always popular.

9. Little Stranger - Sarah Waters (£7.99). A chilling ghost story set in a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire. A doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, home to the Ayres family for over two centuries. Our Fiction Book of the Month for February.

10. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (£7.99). First in the popular Millennium series and now a film. The original Swedish title was "Men Who Hate Women"! Book 3 is now out and expected to be popular.

FEBRUARY

The Calder Valley factor made itself felt again at The Book Case, with two books of local interest and four more by local authors. In addition, two books looking at present-day society, one wry and humorous and the other scientific, were popular, and a ghostly novel and love poems made up the remainder.

1. The People's Manifesto by Mark Thomas, £4.99. Mark Thomas toured the country to find out what people really wanted. There are some really good ideas in this thoroughly entertaining little book!

2. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas, £5.99. Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area continues popular. A Royd Press publication.

3. Falling through Clouds - Anna Chilvers, £7.99. This first novel from a Hebden Bridge author is a contemporary retelling of the medieval English tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight via the story of a young man plagued with nightmares after being held hostage in Iraq and his relationship with 22-year-old student Kat as they summer in Cornwall.

4. Little Stranger - Sarah Waters, £7.99. A chilling ghost story set in a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire. A doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, home to the Ayres family for over two centuries. Our Fiction Book of the Month for February.

5. The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone - Richard Wilkinson, £9.99. This groundbreaking book, based on thirty years' research, demonstrates that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them - the well-off as well as the poor. Almost every modern social and environmental problem - ill-health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, big prison populations - is more likely to occur in a less equal society. Our February Non-Fiction Book of the Month.

6. Hammy the Wonder Hamster - Poppy Harris, £4.99. Hammy: the cleverest hamster the world has ever seen! But there's something different about Hammy, something very special. Not only is he super cute, he's got amazing brains and an incredible secret. By a local author.
7. Life Class by Glyn Hughes, £13.95. A magnificent poem by a major poet, notable for its keen attention to the natural world and accounts and circumstances of a life lived to the full. Glyn Hughes lives locally and is a prize-winning author and poet.

8. Memories of Dolphin - Tom Greenwood, £11.99 inc DVD. Still selling well, this book from a Hebden Bridge author commemorates the great Baildon climber Arthur Dolphin who died tragically young in the Alps in 1953 and includes a DVD of black and white footage showing Dolphin in action in the Lake District in 1950 and 1951.

9. Summat A'Nowt - Steve Murty, £9.95. Steve Murty's well-illustrated history of the Calder Valley and surrounding area, last year’s bestseller, makes another appearance.

10. 10 Poems About Love, £4.95. Well, it was Valentine’s Day! This is one of Candlestick’s little pamphlet-card anthologies.

JANUARY 2010

A new year and a change of pattern. Last month The Book Case unusually had a history book at second place, and five novels, one by a local author. Peter Thomas’s local history rose back to the top, and three other books, including a bestselling walking book, had local connections. The other one was an entertaining travel book cum spiritual autobiography.

1. Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99)
It’s back to the top for Peter Thomas’s account of the history of our area. A Royd Press publication.

2. The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer (£8.99)
What would you see and hear and smell if you went back to the Middle Ages? How would people behave? This book tells you.

3. The Children’s Book - A S Byatt (£7.99)
A famous writer is interviewed with her children gathered at her knee. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world - but their lives, and those of their rich cousins and their friends are already inscribed with mystery. Our Fiction Book of the Month.

4. Falling through Clouds - Anna Chilvers (£7.99)
This first novel from a Hebden Bridge author and published by local publishers Blue Moose has been getting lots of coverage. It tells the story of a young man plagued with nightmares after being held hostage in Iraq and his relationship with 22-year-old student Kat as they summer in Cornwall.

5. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer (£12.99 at The Book Case)
The exciting conclusion to the Twilight Saga. There’s still no sign of this book going into paperback but it doesn’t seem to hurt sales!

6. Memories of Dolphin - Tom Greenwood (£11.99 inc DVD)
This book from a Hebden Bridge author commemorates the great Baildon climber Arthur Dolphin who died tragically young in the Alps in 1953 and includes a DVD of black and white footage showing Dolphin in action in the Lake District in 1950 and 1951.

7. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (£7.99)
"One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia." The sequel, Committed, gave a boost to sales of the lively and thought-provoking original.

8. The True Deceiver - Tove Jansson, trans. Thomas Teal (£7.99).
Our December Fiction Book of the Month continued to sell well. A strange young woman fakes a break-in at the house of an elderly artist in the deep winter snows of a Swedish hamlet, in order to persuade her that she needs companionship.

9. Beauty - Raphael Selbourne (£7.99)
The story of a young Bangladeshi woman on the run from her family, inspired by the author’s experiences of teaching in a deprived area of Wolverhampton. Costa winner.

10. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle (£6.95)
Whatever the weather, this book of local walks from Hebden Bridge publishers Pennine Pens keeps selling!