Milltown Memories 2: the Upper Calder Valley captured on camera (£2.50)

The second issue of this quarterly local history journal covers Alice Longstaff's early years, Lloyd Greenwood and Hebden Bridge Station, cinemas of the Upper Valley, snow, hippies, Home Rule for Mytholmroyd, a death on the moors and more, and includes photos of the original Stoodley Pike, the demolition of Bridge Lanes, and Stansfield View.

The Calder and Hebble Navigation - Mike Taylor (£12.00)
The River Calder rises in the Pennines north of Todmorden, receives the Hebble Brook at Salterhebble and reaches the Aire & Calder Navigation at Wakefield. It was made navigable in the 1770s and became part of the Mersey-Humber trade routes. By the 1940s it was in decline, but commercial traffic continued till 1981 when shipments to Thornhill Power Station ceased. The book contains numerous black and white illustrations of canal boats, furniture and activity along the navigation.

A Walk on t'Cut: a Transpennine Journey on the Rochdale Canal
(video £12.99; DVD or US-compatible video £14.99)
A walk along the Rochdale Canal from the centre of Manchester to Sowerby Bridge, showing the changing landscapes, industrial features, boats and wildlife, with interviews and aerial views. From Ray Riches and P J Thornton.

Luddenden Saga: a brief history of a Yorkshire Village - Vikki Egerton (£7.99)
Based on the narrative used in the village's celebration of the Millennium, with b&w photographs.

The Anatomy of Canals: the Mania Years - Anthony Burton and Derek Pratt (£16.99)

Vol. 2 in the series, covering the 1790s to the 1820s when most of the UK's canal network was constructed. Chapter 7 is on "Manchester and the North", including the Ashton Canal, Rochdale Canal (with a special mention for Stubbing Wharf pub) and Huddersfield Canal, amongst others. B&w photos.

Pennine Dreams: the story of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal - Keith Gibson (£16.99)

How and why the canal - which has the longest, deepest, highest canal tunnel in the British Isles - was built, and how it was restored. B&w illustrations.

Ee Up Lad! A Salute to the Yorkshire Dialect - Len Markham, ill. Richard Scollins (£5.95)
A feast of linguistic fun including a Yorkshire take on nursery rhymes and well-known scenes from English history, superbly illustrated by Richard Schollins, plus dictionary. Ideal stocking-filler.

Annals of Todmorden 1552-1913 - Dorothy Dugdale (£19.95) A record of people, events and circumstances - a very thorough book of interest to anyone interested in the history of the area

Watergrove - Allen Holt (£10.99) A history of the valley and its drowned village

In December, we expect a new local interest book from Sue Hogg, by Cliviger historian Titus Thornber, entitled Seen on a Packhorse Track, illustrated, £15.00. More details to follow.

Local Authors:

Juliet Barker's follow-up to her mammoth Wordsworth biography is now in stock. Wordsworth: a life in letters costs £25.00 and is a selection of letters and autobiographical fragments introducing us to a very human poet. (See for example p.119 where he tells Dorothy he'd just visited a bookshop hoping to hear how The Excursion was selling, only to be told how everyone prefers Byron!)

Amanda Dalton is one of the authors featured in Comma: anthology of short stories, ed. Ra Page, £9.95

A new collection of Black Performance Poetry (book and CD), Moving Voices edited by Martin and Asher Hoyles, includes work by well-known local poet John Lyons (£16.99)

Something For The Ghosts by David Constantine (£7.95)
Ice Age: Poems by Paul Farley (£7.99)
Voodoo Shop by Ruth Padel (£8.99)
The Beautiful Lie by Sheenagh Pugh (£6.95)
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Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 2002 Shortlist

Winners to be announced on December 3rd at the British Library in London. Keep an eye on Philip Reeve who's also on the Whitbread shortlist. This is the only competition where children decide the winners, and over 25,000 schoolchildren are expected to participate. This longest-running children's book prize is now in its 18th year. Julia Eccleshare is chair of the adult judging panel, and you can read more about it at http://www.booktrusted.com/nestle/shlist2002.html

6 - 8 years

Lauren Child That Pesky Rat (hardback, £9.99)
Richard Platt Pirate Diary - The Journal of Jake Carpenter (illustrated by Chris Riddell) (£6.99)
Michael Morpurgo The Last Wolf (illustrated by Michael Foreman) (hardback, £9.99; £4.99 pb due Jan.)

9 - 11 years

Philip Reeve Mortal Engines (£5.99)
Sally Prue Cold Tom (£4.99)
Geraldine McCaughrean Stop the Train (£4.99)

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 The Blue Peter Book Awards 2002

We've been rather slow off the mark with this shortlist, announced in early October, winner to be revealed "later this year". Many of these books are already popular sellers. For more info go to http://www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/newsn/news_stories/prizes/blue_peter_2002.asp

The Book I Couldn't Put Down (£4.99 each)

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Feather Boy by Nicky Singer
Journey To The River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Mighty Fizz Chilla by Philip Ridley
Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz

Best Book to Read Aloud (£4.99 each except the Ahlberg)

Crispin, The Pig Who Had It All by Ted Dewan
Eat Your Peas by Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt
Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees
Grandma Chickenlegs by Geraldine McCaughrean and Moira Kemp
The Man Who Wore All His Clothes by Allan Ahlberg and Katharine McEwen  (£6.99)

The Best New Information Books

Ada Lovelace by Lucy Lethbridge (£3.99)
The Cartoon History Of The Earth by Jacqui Bailey and Matthew Lilly (series, £5.99 each)
True Stories of Heroes by Paul Dowswell (£3.99)
Twenty Stories From British History by Geraldine McCaughrean, illus Richard Brassey (series, £4.99 each)
The Usborne Internet-Linked Library Of Science Human Body by Kirsteen Rogers and Corinne Henderson (£6.99)

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UK 'tops literary spending league'

Market research by Mintel showed that  Britons spend more on DVDs, videos and books than any of their European counterparts, and has the fastest growing market for these items. 60% of British respondents bought a book in the last year compared with just 40% in Spain and Germany, and about 21% of UK and French respondents said they bought 10 books a year, while the rest of Europe lagged behind with just 13%. Australian winemakers Lindeman's cited our bad weather and slow, creaking rail system in explanation of these findings.

Wild Yorkshire - a celebration of Yorkshire's Wild Places and its Wildlife, £18.99
Photographic journey in association with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Holy Wells of West Yorkshire and the Dales - Valerie Shepherd, £4.95
Including a number in Calderdale and Kirklees

Todmorden Album III - Roger Birch
Now at amazing price of £6.00, Roger Birch's third collection of old photos of Todmorden.

King Charles' Mine - Titus Thornber
Historical novel based on the history of the Thieveley Lead Mine, Lancashire, 1627-1635. A commission of King Charles I took it over but the men from London were unable to cope with the complications. Now £3.99.

Local Authors:

Wordsworth: a life in letters - Juliet Barker, £25.00
Due in late November, newly transcribed from the manuscripts, with previously unpublished material for almost 600 letters and journals.

The Cat and the Cuckoo - Ted Hughes, ill. Flora McDonnell, £10.00
Illustrated collection of animal poems for younger readers, available now

Letters to Ted - Daniel Weissbort, £8.95
A collection of poems in memory of the late Poet Laureate. The two men met as students in the 1950s and co-founded Modern Poetry in Translation in 1965.

Two Weavers: Two Ways - Sue Lawty and Meira Stockl, £10.00
Colour illustrated catalogue of their exhibition at the University Gallery, Leeds. Sue Lawty's postcards also available.

For people who remember ex-local Kitty Fitzgerald, a political thriller, Small Acts of Treachery, £7.99

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Booker Prize Winner

You'll probably be aware that this year's winner was Life of Pi by Yann Martel about a 16-year-old boy adrift in a cargo ship with a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a tiger. Now back in stock at The Book Case at £11.99.

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Guardian Children's Book Prize Winner

This year's winner was Sonya Hartnett's Thursday's Child (Walker, £4.99), first published in Australia. During the long, hungry years of the Great Depression, Harper Flute's family struggles to cope with life on the hot, dusty land. Her younger brother Tin seeks refuge in the contrast of an ancient subterranean world.  10+ says the note.

On the shortlist were:

Keith Grey's Warehouse (£4.99) about social outcasts with their own codes of conduct.

Elizabeth Laird's Jake's Tower (£9.99) about a boy who needs a hideout to survive the daily reality of an unpredictable and violent stepfather.

Linda Newbery's The Shell House (£9.99) has an insecure modern teenage boy meeting a young First World War soldier in a ruined house.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett won the 2002 Carnegie Medal, was highly praised by Philip Pullman for its originality and is about a scruffy tomcat, a stupid-looking kid and educated rats. About to go into paperback at £5.99.

Marcus Sedgwick's The Dark Horse (£7.99) weaves stories of old magic and forgotten powers into a highly charged mystery.

The judges were: Kevin Crossley-Holland, Beverley Naidoo and Bali Rai, chaired by Julia Eccleshare.

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"We Are What We Read"

This is a poll organised for World Book Day 2003 "to find the one book that says most about modern England today" - you're invited to vote on a list of 25 titles on a card available at The Book Case. Titles include Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, George Monbiot's Captive State, Simon Armitage's All Points North, and other localised and more comprehensive views. Deadline for voting extended to 8th November.

The Cat and the Cuckoo - Ted Hughes, ill. Flora McDonnell, £10.00

Holy Wells of West Yorkshire and the Dales - Valerie Shepherd, £4.95

King Charles' Mine - Titus Thornber, £3.99

Letters to Ted - Daniel Weissbort, £8.95

1. One Hit Wonderland - Tony Hawks (£10.99) As memorably demonstrated at Hebden Bridge Picture House, the author’s attempt to get into a hit parade, anywhere, by fair means or foul.

2. 11+ Mathematics 1 & 2/Verbal Reasoning 1 & 2 (£4.99 each) Collections of practice test papers.

3. Milltown Memories, issue 1 (£2.50) New local history quarterly journal, with photographs from the Longstaff Collection.

4. Round Ireland with a Fridge - Tony Hawks (£7.99) "I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of One Hundred Pounds that he cannot hitch hike around the circumference of Ireland with a fridge within one calendar month." The story of Tony's adventures throughout that month, the people he meets, the difficulties and the triumphs.

5. Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Tony Hawks (£7.99) Following another daft bet, Tony Hawks gets involved in the Moldovan underworld, gypsies and chronic power shortages.

6. Your Life in Your Hands - Jane Plant (£9.99) This book puts forward the message that breast cancer can be prevented and effectively treated by simple diet and lifestyle modifications.

7. Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters (£6.99) Recently televised, the "sexy and picaresque romp through the lesbian demi-monde of the roaring Nineties" (IoS)

8. Power of Now: a guide to spiritual enlightenment - Eckhart Tolle (£7.99) Still buoyant, the guide to living in the present moment.

9. We’Moon Diary 2003: Gaia Rhythms for Women - Great Mother (£14.99) The ever-popular astrological moon calendar, date book and daily guide to natural rhythms. There’s also a wall calendar.

10. Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket (£5.99) First in the highly popular Series of Unfortunate Events for children.

Milltown Memories: the Upper Calder Valley captured on camera, £2.50
The new quarterly local history journal with photographs from the Longstaff Collection and articles of local interest. The first issue has articles on Alice Longstaff, the Cragg Vale Coiners' murder, Todmorden buses, Buttress Brink, and more, with some lovely old advertisements.

Local Authors:

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1. Milltown Memories, issue 1 (£2.50)

New local history quarterly journal, with photographs from the Longstaff Collection.

2. Power of Now: a guide to spiritual enlightenment - Eckhart Tolle (£7.99)

How to live a healthier and happier life by living in the present moment. This title has been selling well locally for months.

3. According to Queeney - Beryl Bainbridge (£6.99)

Now in paperback, the novel about the relationship between Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale, the wife of an old friend. Her daughter Queeney dictates.

4. The Waiting Game - Bernice Rubens (£7.99)

Macabre fun and games at "The Hollyhocks" old people's home.

5. The Last of the Sky Pirates - Paul Stewart (£9.99 at The Book Case)

Latest in the Edge Chronicles. Fifty years after the city of Sanctaphrax was swept away, the Edgeworld has changed for the worse and a young apprentice knight academic, Rook, sets out on a perilous journey through the Deepwoods.

6. We’Moon Diary 2003: Gaia Rhythms for Women - Great Mother (£14.99)

This astrological moon calendar, date book and daily guide to natural rhythms is an annual bestseller.

7. Nine Lives - Bernice Rubens (£16.99)

The killer's modus operandi is the same in each instance: strangulation with a guitar string. And up and down the country, there is one other similarity: every victim is a psychotherapist.

8. Todmorden Book of the Dead - John Morrison (£4.95)

Still selling well, the fifth in the Milltown Chronicles (not to be confused with Milltown Memories, which is serious!)

9. Basil Street Blues: a family story - Michael Holroyd (£7.99)

Biographer Michael Holroyd turns his attention upon himself. Born into a family rich in eccentricity, Holroyd was largely brought up by his grandparents in Maidenhead because his exotic Swedish mother and reserved English father couldn't stand living together.

10. Good Fiction Guide - ed. Jane Rogers (£9.99)

We’re so impressed by this up-to-date and comprehensive paperback guide that we’re keeping a reference copy in the shop for you to consult!

"If this is some sort of endurance test then we may as well endure stylishly. Would it be pretentious to read Anna Karenina?" "Not pretentious, but perhaps a touch antisocial." - Penelope Lively, Cleopatra’s Sister, Part 2, Ch. 3.

SEPTEMBER 2002

Dear Book Case customer or contact,

Milltown Memories: the Upper Calder Valley captured on camera, £2.50
This new quarterly local history journal will be launched at The White Lion on 20th September. It will feature photographs from the Longstaff Collection and articles of local interest: issue no. 1 includes Buttress Brink and Bridge Mill. In a "Then & Now" series, the original photos are set alongside recent photographs by John Morrison of the same place. The journal's editors are Issy Shannon and Frank Woolridge.

Local Authors:

If You're Proud to be a Leeds Fan by Tom Palmer (£9.99)
Game-by-game analysis of the 2001-2 season. Tom Palmer lives in Todmorden and is a freelance reading promoter and writer: and is currently organising the Library Readers' Days mentioned above. Busy man!

The Book Case bestseller list for August continues to feature several books with local connections suggesting that visitors to the area this summer have not only found local guides useful but have been impressed by the wealth of local literary talent.

1. Todmorden Book of the Dead - John Morrison (£4.95) The latest humour title by local writer gets to the top after three months in the list.

2. South Pennine Ring: A Seventy-Mile Circuit of Canals - John Lower (£7.95) After the opening of the Rochdale Canal to Manchester last month, this guide to the canals of the South Pennines has proved immensely popular.

3. Building with Straw Bales - Barbara Jones (£9.95) This practical guide for building homes using straw bales is written by a local author who is probably the most experienced straw bale builder in the UK

4: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus - John Gray (£6.99) This ever popular guide to emotional behaviour, now in a new edition, finds its way yet again into the bestsellers list

5. Atonement - Ian McEwan (£7.99) The 2001 Booker Prize runner-up, now in paperback, has proved to be the most popular novel for summer reading and another run-away success for Ian McEwan, the author of previous bestsellers, including Amsterdam, winner of the 1998 Booker Prize

6. Voices From A Silk-Cotton Tree - John Lyons (£6.95) John Lyons, local artist and writer, draws once again on his childhood recollections of Trinidad and Tobago for this new collection of poetry launched during the Arts Festival at the Hourglass Gallery.

7. Road to McCarthy - Pete McCarthy (£17.99) The latest title by well-known travel writer who visited Hebden Bridge during the Arts Festival is proving as popular here as it is throughout the country

8. That Which Doesn’t Kill You - Christian Thompson (£15.99 at The Book Case)This detective novel by Hebden Bridge author introduces the character Chris O’Brien - Bradford’s answer to Philip Marlowe! This is its second month in the bestsellers list.

9. Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator - Lemony Snicket (£5.99) The sixth book in this increasingly popular series of junior fiction comes with a warning - if you don’t like unhappy endings, you had better put the book down!

10. Aspects of Calderdale: Discovering Local History - John Billingsley (£9.99) The editor of this book of local history, John Billingsley, is a librarian in Halifax and lecturer in Pennine folk-lore at Bradford University with several other popular titles to his name including A Stony Gaze.

"Fantasy, and fiction in general, is failing to do what it might be doing. It has unlimited potential to explore all sorts of metaphysical and moral questions, but it is not doing that." Philip Pullman, speaking at the Edinburgh International Books Festival (Guardian, 12 August 2002)

Yorkshire Surnames 3: Halifax & District by George Redmonds, £3.60
Fascinating account of the origins of Greenwood, Sutcliffe, Akroyd, Gaukroger, Murgatroyd, and many others. Also Vol. 1: Bradford & District and Vol. 2: Huddersfield & District

Local Authors:

Ted Hughes - the Life of a Poet - Elaine Feinstein, £8.99
A biography of the former Poet Laureate and an exploration of his marriage to Sylvia Plath. The author argues that they were both flawed geniuses and that the truth about the failure of their marriage must incorporate her fragility and his recklessness.

Building with Straw Bales: a practical guide for the UK and Ireland by Barbara Jones, £9.95
Barbara Jones founded the women's roofing firm Amazon Nails, now specialising in environmental building, especially using straw bales. In this book she has adapted North American techniques to our wetter climate. See lots of nice pictures at http://www.strawbalefutures.org.uk/  Author lives in Todmorden.

Supreme Self-Confidence in 150 Days - Jim Byrne, £23.95
From a Hebden Bridge Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapist and Counsellor, a comprehensive self-training manual, "Becoming Your Own Counsellor, vol. 2".

Universal Home Doctor - Simon Armitage, £12.99
Poems that range from the rain forests of South America to the deserts of Western Australia set against the landscape of the human body. First new collection for five years.

RE-ISSUES:

Collected Poems - Sylvia Plath, £16.99: All her mature poetry from 1956 to 1963. Won 1981 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. New edition.
Selected Poems - Sylvia Plath, £8.99: New edition of selection made by Ted Hughes.

"I'm actually quite worried about those people you see on long train journeys with nothing to read, just staring blankly into the middle distance. What the hell is going on in their heads, then? Perhaps they've got excellent memories, and they're just remembering a particularly good book they once read, which saves them having to carry one round."
Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar, ch. 7, "The children of Lir"

Predictably, several of The Book Case’s bestsellers last month were of books presented by the authors at sell-out Festival performances, three have local connections and there are two novels and three children’s books. Nothing on the World Cup!

1. McCarthy’s Bar - Pete McCarthy (£6.99) Observant, hilarious and informative account of his journey around Ireland, visiting the bars of his namesakes. The follow-up is due any day now!

2. Song and Dance Man III: the Art of Bob Dylan - Michael Gray (£15.99) Now in affordable chunky paperback, the classic guide to Dylan, his songs and his sources.

3. The Todmorden Book of the Dead - John Morrison (£4.95) Weird weather, floods, farmers, buses, ageing hippies, agricultural shows and yellow plastic ducks (does Tod do them too?) are amongst the items tackled in this latest addition to the Milltown chronicles.

4. Atonement - Ian McEwan (£7.99) From a sunny pre-war country house garden through the Dunkirk evacuation to the present day; absorbing, intelligent and well-written.

5. Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwartz (£6.99) A frozen lake, a winter’s night and a tragedy that will haunt a child’s life. Begins in 1920s rural Wisconsin.

6. Wordsworth: a Life - Juliet Barker (£12.99) The abridged paperback of prize-winning local author’s acclaimed and sympathetic biography; shortlisted for the Portico Prize.

7. Shark in the Park - Nick Sharratt (£9.99 at The Book Case) Rhyming story in big bright hardback about Timothy who keeps seeing shark fins through his new telescope!

8. Body Owner’s Handbook - Nick Arnold (£3.99) New into the Horrible Science series, a guide to the fantastic range of accessories you didn’t know you had!

9. Mill, Murder and Railway - Peter Thomas (£3.00) Industrial, transport and social history of Hardcastle Crags. A perennial local favourite.

10.Tongue-tied! - Paul Jennings (£4.99) More funny stories from the prize-winning children’s author who presented them at the Picture House on publication day.

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

"I once started reading War and Peace, but I got half way through it and I couldn't stand it any more. I'm a very normal person."
- Doug McAvoy, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, quoted in Guardian 9.5.02

Events

Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, 21 June - 7 July 2002: summary of literary events: