PAST NEWSLETTERS

DECEMBER 2003

Dear Book Case customer or contact,

It's time to offer you our seasonal good wishes again, and won't we all be glad when we reach the turning point of the year!
And as far as I know, it's the first time a book on punctuation has ever been a Christmas bestseller. Pleased to see you all giving semi-colons the attention they deserve.
Ever keen to promote cultural awareness, The Book Case is now stocking the bi-monthly music mag Muso, a classical music magazine aimed at the 16-30 group, combining informative articles with a light-hearted approach. It's published from Manchester. Find out about them at http://www.muso-online.com/
A nice anecdote in the autumn issue of Carousel, the children's books magazine: Chris Stephenson's report of Francesca Simon's visit to Hebden Bridge Little Theatre concludes with the story of a small boy who visited The Book Case to order her new book. "'It's not published yet,' he said proudly, the custodian of classified information. 'What's the title?' the bookseller enquired. The boy stared at the bookseller, frowned, turned to his mother, and asked, 'Am I allowed to tell him?'"
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject box. If you would prefer to receivethe newsletter in Plain Text format, please click on Reply and type TEXT NL in the Subject box.)
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NEWS

Local Interest

Milltown Memories 6: the Upper Calder Valley captured on camera, £2.80
Cragg Vale features prominently with articles on the Hinchliffes and Cragg Hall; also covered are Wilson's Bobbin Mill in Cornholme, memories of Old Gate and Market Street in Hebden Bridge, Eastwood, two strange deaths, and icicles in Hardcastle Craggs.

Milltown: an Unreliable History - John Morrison, £5.95
Now in stock - the story of a small characterful community in the South Pennines. Can a small gritstone town have too many juice-bars? Latest in the infamous Milltown series, expected to do well over Christmas!

Halifax - John A Hargreaves, £20
The definitive history back in print, updated and expanded.

Martin Parr Postcards, £14.95
This nicely-boxed set of 45 postcards by the well-known photographer includes a number of black-and-white photos from his 1982 Calderdale Photographs collection, now out of print. There was a BBC programme about Martin Parr on 4th December. See his website at http://www.martinparr.com/

Nicholas Nickleby video, £12.99
Now in stock, the successful film with Jim Broadbent, Jamie Bell & practically everyone else, with views of Gibson Mill, Hardcastle Crags, and local lads suffering in Dotheboys Ball.
West Riding Steam 1955-1969 - a pictorial diary by Robert Anderson (£12.95)
208 previously unpublished photographs of 78 classes of steam locomotives around Halifax, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, and further afield in West Yorkshire.

Local Authors

Sing No Sad Songs - Christian Thompson (£15.99 at The Book Case)
Second in the PI Chris O'Brien series from ex-HB man. His first book That Which Does Not Kill You came out last year.

Sons and Lodgers - Jill Robinson (£6.95)
More comic relief from the author of Berringden Brow. All Jess wants is a quiet life. All her friends want is somewhere to stay ...

Local Publishers

Now in stock: The Fan - Hunter Davies (£9.99)
Collection of hilarious and well-observed pieces on football originally published in The New Statesman. Hebden Bridge publishers Pomona's Christmas lead title.

Northern Voices No. 2, £1.20
Locally published Northern anarchist magazine. This one includes an article on local windfarms by Harry Sculthorpe as well as contributions on Chomsky, Monbiot, Burnley, Bradford and Manchester.

Yorkshire Interest

No Coward Soul: the remarkable story of Bob Appleyard - Stephen Chalke & Derek Hodgson, £16.00
The story of the former England and Yorkshire cricketer from Bradford who took 200 wickets in his first full season, was diagnosed with advanced TB, but made a successful comeback.
Nearish Lancashire Interest
It's Burnley, not Barcelona - Dave Thomas (£12.95)
"The search for champagne with beer money" - for all the local Burnley supporters, an account of the rocky 2002-3 season. "The despair, the drenchings, the hypothermia ..." But they beat Tottenham Hotspur!

National Book Events

Big Read
There's an interesting article on the project by comedy writer Armando Ianucci, who also appeared on the launch programme, at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/11/23/boarmando.xml&sSheet=/arts/2003/11/23/bomain.html (sorry about that) entitled "You shouldn't judge people by the covers of the books they read". He deplores the "hooting and jumping" presentation and "fragmentary soundbites" but thinks the project has done a lot to bring classics to new readers and concludes that "the flaw in the Big Read is that it is scared of content ... Those who can teach and enthuse and explain ideas have got to re-connect with television, and ... re-explain why ideas matter ... otherwise the product of this debate will be empty and meaningless arts programmes and bitter but muted thinkers."
You can still vote for your favourite at http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/vote/. The result will be announced on 13th December.
Whitbread Category Shortlists

The five Whitbread Award winners will be announced on Wednesday 7 January 2004 and the Whitbread Book of theYear on Tuesday 27 January 2004.

WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD

 

Buddha Da by Anne Donovan

An Evening of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

An Empty Room by Talitha Stevenson

 

WHITBREAD NOVEL AWARD

 

The Lucky Ones by Rachel Cusk

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Heligoland by Shena Mackay

Frankie & Stankie by Barbara Trapido

WHITBREAD BIOGRAPHY AWARD

 

Margaret Thatcher - Volume Two: The Iron Lady by John Campbell

Martha Gellhorn by Caroline Moorehead

Orwell: The Life by D J Taylor

Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Wilson

 

WHITBREAD POETRY AWARD

 

Minsk by Lavinia Greenlaw

Ink Stone by Jamie McKendrick

Landing Light by Don Paterson

Hard Water by Jean Sprackland

 

WHITBREAD CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD

 

The Fire-Eaters by David Almond

The Oracle by Catherine Fisher

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Naked Without a Hat by Jeanne Willis

 

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Smarties Award Winners 2003:

 

Hardback only unless priced


Age 5 and Under

The Witch's Children and the Queen by Ursula Jones - Gold
Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis - Silver 
Two Frogs by Chris Wormell - Bronze

Age 6-8

Varjak by S F Said - Gold
The Last Castaways by Harry Horse (£3.99) - Silver
The Countess's Calamity by Sally Gardner (£4.99) - Bronze & Kids' Clubs Network Special Award

Age 9-11

The Fire-Eaters by David Almond - Gold (We have this in stock at £9.99) 
Montmorency by Elenor Updale - Silver

The Various by Steve Augarde - Bronze

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Guardian First Book Award

 

The winner, announced on 4th December, was Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane, a Cambridge Eng Lit don; it documents our fascination with mountains and describes his own climbing experiences (including whittling off bits of his fingers when he got frostbite.) (£20)

 

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Blue Peter Award Shortlist 2003: winners to be announced December.    

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Benjamin Zephaniah, the acclaimed poet who has performed to packed audiences in Hebden Bridge, has refused his appointment as an OBE from the Queen, describing it as a legacy of colonialism. His first novel Face was reissued in adult format last month, and his latest children's book We Are Britain, celebrating the diversity of British society, went into paperback earlier this year. Photographs by Prodeepta Das.


NEW TITLES
Not a huge number of new titles for December but we should mention in Fiction, a new novel in hardback by John Le Carre, and new paperbacks from McCall-Smith, Grisham, Francome (no Dick Francis this year), French and Goddard.
In Non-fiction, we're adding to our Fabrics section with a book on Headwraps, Carol Vorderman detoxes us in Food, Elland Road features in Sport, and American Nomads in Travel.
Highlighted:

LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Colds in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/thebookcase.htm  - and then click on This Month's Quiz.

For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Tunnels in literature, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/PastQuizzes.htm#Quizzes

If you'd like the printed version of the quiz (and short version of last month's answers) posted to you, please e-mail or fax us your address.
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What you've been buying: NOVEMBER BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

Two local books are riding high at The Book Case, plus a book on Yorkshire weather. The irrepressible We’Moon Diary is still selling well, punctuation proves surprisingly popular, two Top 21 novels were popular, Tove Janssen’s lovely story returned, and children wanted to read about a little cartoon fish. We won’t mention the other one.

1. Milltown Memories 6 (£2.80) The latest issue’s been selling briskly with articles on Cragg Vale, Market Street and Old Gate in Hebden Bridge, and Wilson’s Bobbin Mill in Cornholme.

2. We’Moon Diary 2004 (£14.99) Gaia Rhythms for Womyn (Power) maintain their position.

3. Old Stones of Elmet - Paul Bennett (£13.95) Higher this month for this guide to the ritual stone sites in an old Yorkshire kingdom - including those around Todmorden, Mytholmroyd, Luddenden, Hebden Bridge, Blackshawhead and the Halifax area.

4. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman (£6.99) One of the top 21 Big Reads, popular with children and adults alike, this powerful fantasy retelling Paradise Lost for the 21st century is about to be filmed.

5. The Summer Book - Tove Jansson (£6.99) Back to the charts for this unusual novel about an old woman and her granddaughter on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. Based on Tove Jansson's own mother and niece and a real island.

6. Royal Duty - Paul Burrell (£17.99) Yes, well.

7. To Kill a Mocking-Bird - Harper Lee (£6.99) Another Top 21-er; a lawyer finds himself defending an innocent black man accused of raping a white girl in America’s Deep South.

8. Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss (£9.99) "The zero-tolerance approach to punctuation" has promptly gone into reprint. Back soon.

9. Weather or Not! - Paul Hudson & Bob Rust (£9.99) Highs & lows of Yorkshire weather with dramatic pictures of storm, flood, drought and snow. Another blink-and-you’ve-missed-it title! Back soon.

10. Finding Nemo - the book of the film (£2.50) Ladybird version of the Disney story of the popular little fish.
 

Best wishes from your local bookshop,
The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk

*
The
happiness of
mankind, the real
salvation of the world
must come about by
every person in existence
being taught to
READ and induced to
THINK.

Cole's Second Funny Picture Book, cover medallion. E W Cole was a gold rush immigrant to Australia; he opened an enormous Book Arcade in Melbourne in 1883 and published improving works for children. The shape of the above just happens to have come out seasonal!

November 2003

Dear Book Case customer or contact,

The leaves are falling from the trees and the calendars are vanishing from our centre table so be quick if you want a good choice! Meanwhile we have the Nation's 21 favourite novels on display (see below), the Shortlist season is upon us (see below again) and we're happy to see a resurgence of local history books.  
The Book Case is sponsoring Mark Tillotson in this year's Italian Job Rally which raises money for children’s charity NCH. Driving a 1987 mini named ‘Gina,’ he and friend Rich will be joining a fleet of 100 other Minis in Italy on Saturday for the 10-day rally which takes them over mountain passes, ancient bridges and even a lap of the famous Longotti circuit - the ex-Fiat roof-top testing track. To find out more visit www.italianjob2003.co.uk.
 
We've received a request for the newsletter to be sent out in Plain Text format; we can easily do this for those who would prefer it. This would remove all colour, bold and italics and live links (the blue underlined ones). We very rarely use images but it would remove those too. Just send us an e-mail with the Subject "Text NL".
 
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NEWS  
Local Interest
 
Correction:  the "Walks around Calderdale" videos are £11.99, not £12.99. Sorry!

The Old Stones of Elmet - Paul Bennett (£13.95)

"A total guide to the archaeology, folklore and geomancy of the ritual stone sites in an old Yorkshire kingdom", foreword by Aubrey Burl. Catalogues with photos and sketches of many of the old stone sites of Elmet, including Todmorden, Mytholmroyd, Luddenden, Hebden Bridge, Blackshawhead and Halifax area.

Making of the West Yorkshire Landscape - Anthony Silson (£9.99)

How West Yorkshire's landscape has changed since the area emerged from under a sea some seventy million years ago.

Back in stock: Peter Brook in the Pennines (£12) and In and Out of the Pennines Even (£20): he "paints the Pennines in all their brutal beauty."

For Spring 2004, The Pace Egg Play in the Calder Valley - by Dr. Eddie Cass. We hope there'll be a local talk to launch it. Watch this space.

Local Authors

Wordsworth: a life in letters - Juliet Barker (£9.99)

Now in paperback, Wordsworth's progress from rebellious schoolboy to radical poet to revered patriarch - in his own words, from letters and autobiographical fragments selected by prize-winning local author.

The Women's Century: from Second-Class Citizens to "Having It All", 1900-2000 - Mary Turner (£19.99)

Praised as "a brilliant record of the century", with a foreword by Jenni Murray and featuring interviews with women all over the country, this is a decade-by-decade survey with mini-biographies of pioneering women such as Vera Brittain and Anita Roddick. Illustrated. The author's family lives in Hebden Bridge.

It Shouldn't Happen to a ... Christian - Gary Stevenson (£4.99)

From a Rochdale author, an account of 23 years of full-time Christian ministry at home and abroad.

Local Publishers

The Fan - Hunter Davies (£9.99)

From Hebden Bridge publishers Pomona, whose Footnote by Boff Whalley has done so well, a collection of hilarious and well-observed pieces on football originally published in The New Statesman.

Yorkshire Interest

Weather or Not! - Paul Hudson & Bob Rust (£9.99)

Highs & lows of Yorkshire weather with dramatic pictures of storm, flood, drought and snow.

Historical Atlas of North Yorkshire - ed. Robin A Butlin (£20 paperback)

Skipton is about as near as it gets to us, but very nicely produced with loads of maps covering everything from population change through geology, ancient woodland and managed rabbit warrens to lead mining and jet. Lots of photos too.

National Book Events

Big Read
As announced on Channel 4 on 18th October, the Top 21 titles are as follows, in alphabetical order. You're invited to vote for your favourite at http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/vote/ and the result will be announced on 13th December. 
1- 1984 by George Orwell 
2 - Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks 
3 - Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres 
4 - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller 
5 - Catcher In The Rye by J D Salinger 
6 - Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell 
7 - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 
8 - Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire  by J K Rowling 
9 - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman 
10 - Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams 
11 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
12 - The Lion,Witch & The Wardrobe by C S Lewis 
13 - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 
14 - Lord Of The Rings by J R R Tolkien
15 - Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen 
16 - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 
17 - To Kill A Mockingbird  by Harper Lee 
18 - War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy 
19 - Wind In The Willows  by Kenneth Grahame 
20 - Winnie The Pooh by A A Milne 
21 - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 
 
The project has been controversial - Catherine Bennett has an enjoyably virulent tirade against Jane Root at http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1068673,00.html - ["The whole, quite fabulously patronising presumption of Root's 'campaign to get the country reading' is that reading is such a painfully lonely and arduous business that we need generous dollops of celebrity, hype and audience participation to force the medicine down."]
 
David Sexton in the Evening Standard called the programme the "biggest insult to readers for years ... More deeply disheartening is the adolescent tone of the list as a whole." http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/entertainment/books/articles/7262143
 
Nevertheless the scheme's been good at reminding people about old favourites: J D Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mocking Bird" and George Orwell's "1984" have all sold 50% more copies in the period since being named on the Big Read 100 than in the whole of 2002. Bookies are variously tipping "Lord of the Rings", "Pride and Prejudice" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" as front-runners for the final prize. Current national sales, as reported by the Bookseller, show Philip Pullman, Joseph Heller and Sebastian Faulks in the lead - but buying isn't necessarily the same as voting behaviour.
 
In the meantime The Book Case has the Top 21 arranged along its bottom shelf to refresh your memory - the remaining 79 titles are now back on the main shelves (with purple stickers).  
Booker Prize
 
The Booker winner was of course Vernon God Little by D C B Pierre (£11.99) - a satirical novel about an American teenager whose life is changed when the town comes under media siege following a high-school massacre. The author, real name Peter Finlay, is now infamous for having swindled an elderly friend out of his house and money, but we probably shouldn't let that bias us.
 
Puzzlingly, although the Booker webpage has a site for voting for the People's Booker, I've seen no announcement of the result. At the Book Case, Brick Lane has been the best selling Shortlist title, closely followed by Oryx and Crake and Astonishing Splashes of Colour.
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2003 Winner . . .
was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - a quirky piece of fiction, appealing to both children and adults, narrated by an autistic boy. Christopher offers an insight into his world in which he can be shocked into violence by certain colours and noises, where people's faces and reactions make no sense to him and where every day he must try to unravel and understand the confusing messages his brain is giving him. (£9.99 at The Book Case where it has been selling strongly since publication in May.)

Smarties Award Shortlist 2003: winners to be announced December.

Age 5 and Under  
 
Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis (£9.99)
Two Frogs by Chris Wormell (£10.99)
The Witch's Children and the Queen by Ursula Jones (£10.99)

Age 6-8   

The Countess's Calamity by Sally Gardner (£4.99)
The Last Castaways by Harry Horse (£3.99)
Varjak by S F Said (£10.99)

Age 9-11   

Montmorency by Elenor Updale ( £12.99)
The Various by Steve Augarde (12.99)
The Fire-Eaters by David Almond (£10.99)
 
Blue Peter Award Shortlist 2003: winners to be announced December.    
   
"The Book I couldn't Put Down"  

Cool! by Michael Morpurgo (£4.99)
The Dark Horse by Marcus Sedgwick (£4.99)
Firesong by William Nicholson (£6.99)
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (£5.99)
Secrets by Jacqueline Wilson (£10.99)

"The Best Book With Facts In It"   

Microlife by David Burnie (£4.99)
One Small Suitcase by Barry Turner (£4.99)
Pirate Diary by Richard Platt  (£3.99)
True Polar Adventure Stories by Paul Downswell (£3.99)
Who Was David Livingstone? by Amanda Mitchison (£4.50)

"Best Illustrated Book To Read Aloud"  

Kipper's A to Z by Mick Inkpen (£6.99)
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson (£5.99)
That Pesky Rat by Lauren Child (£4.99)
Slow Loris by Alexis Deacon (£5.99)
Words to Whisper, Words to Shout by Michaela Morgan (£4.99)
 
Guardian First Book Award Shortlist: winner to be announced 4th December
 
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Into the Silent Land by Paul Broks
Stasilandby Anna Funder
Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane
Vernon God Little by D B C Pierre
 
For more info, go to: http://books.guardian.co.uk/firstbook2003/0,13840,1021848,00.html
 
And that is quite enough shortlists for one month.
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Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" online

The British Library has  published on its website the entire first two editions of the 14th-century classic, "The Canterbury Tales", to coincide with the anniversary of Chaucer's death on October 25, 1400. 

"With these digital copies users can explore (Caxton's) early editions in their entirety and study not only the text but the development of printing techniques and illustration," British Library spokeswoman Kristian Jensen said.

Find them at www.bl.uk

NEW TITLES  
A more literary month on the fiction front - in hardback we can expect works from Doris Lessing and Toni Morrison, plus a new Helen Fielding. New paperback fiction includes books from Dave Eggers, Keith Waterhouse, Jack Kerouac, Ralph Steadman, Anne Rice, Janet Evanovitch and Val McDermid, and some good reissues including Flann O'Brien, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jean Giono, Patrick Suskind, Joseph Roth, Cesare Pavese and Shusako Endo.
 
November's non-fiction includes
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming  
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles. A colour leaflet is available at the shop.
Highlighted:
 
A Box of Thoughts - shiny aluminium tins of 100 aphorisms on circular cards - e.g. "In Chinese the word 'crisis' can also mean the arrival of an opportunity." (£7.95
 
BBC Big Read Book of Books - highly illustrated summaries of the Top 100 with author biographies. (£12.99)
 

LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Tunnels in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/thebookcase.htm - and then click on This Month's Quiz.
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Cats in literature, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/PastQuizzes.htm#Quizzes
If you'd like the printed version of the quiz (and short version of last month's answers) posted to you, please e-mail or fax us your address.
 
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What you've been buying: OCTOBER BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

The eleven-plussers were still busy in October and the ever-popular We’Moon Diary leapt into the Book Case’s charts. Three local interest books sold strongly, local firms responsibly observed their legal requirements, Bush-bashing was popular, and two novels and a violin book made up the remainder.

1. Alpha Series for 11+ and Secondary Selection Portfolio Series (£3.99-£4.99): 11+ practice papers are still hogging the bestsellers list! This time SSP Maths and Alpha Verbal Reasoning 1 were joint top sellers, but the others were close behind.

2. We’Moon Diary 2004 (£14.99): As ever at this time of year, the Gaia Rhythms for Womyn astrological moon calendar is buoyant in Hebden Bridge. This year’s theme is Power. Choice of binding.

3. Cat’s Eye - Margaret Atwood (£7.99): The 2000 Booker-winning novel about a painter who is overwhelmed by memories of past bullying when she returns home.

4. Accident Book - HSE (£5.58): New design to allow for accidents to be recorded, while keeping personal details of individuals private, to comply with the Data Protection Act. Businesses must comply by 31 December. The strange price is because of the VAT.

5. Milltown Memories 5 (£2.50):Well, we’ve sold out! New one coming.

6. Dude, Where’s My Country - Michael Moore (£17.99): Hot in pursuit of more Stupid White Men. Especially Bush.

7. Luddenden Saga - Vikki Egerton (£7.99): Back to the charts for this Brief History of a Yorkshire Village, with photos.

8. Fiddle Time Joggers inc. CD (£6.50): The popular book for young violinists. Nice to see music in the top ten.

9. Old Stones of Elmet - Paul Bennett (£13.95): A guide with photos and sketches of the ritual stone sites in an old Yorkshire kingdom - including those around Todmorden, Mytholmroyd, Luddenden, Hebden Bridge, Blackshawhead and the Halifax area.

10. A Little Piece of Ground - Elizabeth Laird (£8.99): For older children, the story of a Palestinian boy longing to play football but trapped in Ramallah by the curfew.

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk
 

"Google searches 3 billion pages, but that’s now only half of the entire web. And most of human knowledge is still recorded in books."

- "The website that conquered the world," The Week 27 Sept. 2003.

 

October 2003

Dear Book Case customer or contact, It's been a hectic month here supplying scholars of all ages! And you've also been taking some weight off our centre table, groaning under all our lovely new calendars. We're not reordering most of them, so hurry while stocks last!

Book Case leads the field again! We're now using Broadband to connect with our suppliers on the Internet. This greatly improves the information we can give you about the availability of the titles you are ordering as we now have instant confirmation of the availability of stock at our suppliers. We are very proud of our order service and now by using Broadband - which only became available to Hebden Bridge at the end of last week - we can give an even better service!  
Magazines new to us that we're trying: Prospect (£3.99) - "the most intelligent magazine of current affairs and cultural debate in Britain" (and a good read) for all our intelligent and cultured customers; and Salut France (£3.99) - a new bilingual English-French magazine with CD and including "Oulala", a bilingual magazine for children learning French with songs, puzzles and French tongue-twisters. Issue 1 includes articles on Paris, viticulture, Gerard Depardieu, the baccalaureat and lots more, with an article by local French teacher Angela Greenwood.
NEWS
Local Interest
Forgotten Landscape - Alastair Lee (£12.99)
From Burnley-born photographer and climber Alastair Lee, a books of colour photographs focussing on the stunning natural beauty found in the Burnley, Pendle and Ribble Valley areas. Gets as near to us as Widdop, "possibly the most beautiful place in the UK, if not Europe". For sample pics go to http://www.posingproductions.com/ where you can also watch a 360-degree panoramic view of bouldering at Widdop if your computer's up to it!
Now in stock again:
"Walks around Calderdale": from Pennine Country Productions, a series of four videos of historically-based local walks, 50 mins ea., £11.99 each -
1. Historic Villages and Hilltop Views (Mytholmroyd, Cragg Vale, Boulderclough, Luddenden, Midgley)
2. Woodland Crags and Secluded Valleys (Hebden Bridge, Hardcastle Crags, Crimsworth Dean, Pecket Well, Old Town)
3. Ancient Townships and Waterside Mills (Heptonstall, Slack, Colden Valley, Blackshaw Head, Jumble Hole Clough)
4. Pennine Town and Packhorse Trails (Todmorden, Langfield, Lumbutts, Mankinholes, Lobb Mill, Cross Stone, Whirlaw Rocks)

Gervase Phinn's Yorkshire: a Pictorial Journey (£14.99)
Lots of lovely colour photographs from all over the county (counties?), due end October.
 
Local Authors  
Ted Hughes:

Back in stock from former Halifax draughtsman Geoff Lee, One Spring: Romance, Rock 'n' Roll and Rugby League in the 1970s (£8.95) - "a vivid and humorous account of working class life at home, work and play" - set in an engineering drawing office with a main character from Mytholmroyd! The book was enjoyed by the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, Yorkshire Evening Post and Stan Barstow and follows One Winter; in the pipeline is One Summer taking us into the 1980s. Also available at The Book Case are the same author's Bamford: Memoirs of a Blood and Thunder Coach, fondly remembered by Halifax Rugby League supporters (£9.95) and Wars of the Roses: a history of Lancashire v Yorkshire Cricket Matches (£16.95).

Local award-winning novelist and poet Glyn Hughes reports that an overgrown graveyard in the centre of Mill Bank has been restored as a garden through the hard work of a number of people. He has written a poem for this which has been etched and mounted in Welsh slate.  The new garden is to be opened by the Mayor and the poem unveiled by Sir Ernest Hall at 11 am on 25th October - everyone welcome!

Wintering - Kate Moses: fictional account of the last months of Sylvia Plath's life, based on the "Ariel" poems. Now in paperback. (£7.99)

Localish Singer
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Blackburn-born contralto's tragically early death, The Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier are being published this month at £25 (increasing to £30 so buy now!) Editor Christopher Fifield. Kathleen Ferrier "was a mix of extreme modesty and self-determined ambition, and a mischievously blunt sense of earthy Lancastrian humour".

National Book Events
Booker Shortlist
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 14th October and broadcast live on BBC 2. We have most of them in stock; "Astonishing Splashes of Colour" is reprinting.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali (£11.99) - the story of two Muslim sisters, one married off in her teens to an older man and living in a tower block in London's East End, the other finding heartbreak with a love-marriage back home in Bangladesh.
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood (£14.99) - a post-apocalyptic survivor endures loneliness and isolation in the company of Oryx and Crake from his childhood.
Good Doctor by Damon Galgut (£10.99) - an naive and optimistic young graduate arrives at a dilapidated rural South African hospital and encounters disillusioned old hand Frank.
Notes On A Scandal by Zoe Heller (£12.99) - new teacher has an affair with a 15-year-old pupil and makes an older teacher her confidante. "Brilliantly gloomy study in obsession."
Astonishing Splashes Of Colour by Clare Morrall (£7.99) - novel about loss and lost children; bereaved Kitty, isolated in a large family, suffers from synaesthesia, a condition in which feelings are experienced as colours.
Vernon God Little by D C B Pierre (£11.99) - quirky and satirical novel about an American teenager whose life is changed when the town comes under media siege following a high-school massacre.

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2003 Shortlist
The winner will be announced on October 4. We have the Almond and Haddon in stock.

The Fire-Eaters by David Almond - the story of 11-year-old Bobby Burns who has just started grammar school at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. (10+)  From the respected Tyneside author - see his website at http://www.davidalmond.com/

Lucas by Kevin Brooks  - Caitlin instantly falls for gentle newcomer Lucas - but why do her friends hate him so much? (12+) (£11.99)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - autistic Christopher can understand science but has major problems with emotions. He's a Sherlock Holmes fan and when he finds his neighbour's dog dead with a fork sticking out of its side he decides to investigates. This title has been selling very well to adults too at The Book Case. (12+) (£9.99) Read an interview with Mark Haddon at http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,944097,00.html

The Speed of the Dark by Alex Shearer - sinister novel about a vanishing scientist and some curiously real miniature sculptures. (11+) (£9.99)

Big Read
Voting for the BBC Big Read Top 21 is due to begin this month after a launch programme on BBC2. Voting from schools and libraries is to be controlled by a special "walled garden" method that prevents cheating!
Asne's Seierstad's "Bookseller of Kabul", an account by a Norwegian journalist of her life with the family of a forceful Afghan bookseller, is being challenged in the Norwegian courts by the bookseller himself, Mohammed Shah Rais. The book has sold well in Scandinavia and the UK, and portrays Mr Shah not only in his resistance to the communists, mojahedin and Taliban, but also as a cruel and tyrannical patriarch towards the women and children in his family. The issue is a complex one and involves the question not only of the lack of women's rights in Afghanistan, but also the ethics of first world authors writing about people from poor countries.

Philip Pullman writing in the Guardian worries that "the brutal, unceasing emphasis on testing and marking" is putting children off reading: "I am concerned that in a constant search for things to test, we're forgetting the true purpose, the true nature, of reading and writing; and ... forcing these things to happen in a way that divorces them from pleasure." For the full article go to http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1052646,00.html

Professor Edward Said has died of leukaemia at the age of 67. He was a professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, and his books include Orientalism, "in which he claimed that false and romanticised images of the Middle East and Asia were used to justify Western colonialism and imperialism in the region.
J K Rowling is giving a boost to the German equivalents of Big Issue street paper sold by the homeless by allowing them to publish the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a few days before its first publication in book form in Germany.
 
Remember we mentioned Leeds poet Andrew Wilson's text-message poetry book a few months back? The texting of the poems to your mobile is about to start: send the message YES to 0778 148 6499. The Book Case has the book Text Messages in stock, price £4.99.
NEW TITLES
Fiction hardbacks for October include new novels from Terry Pratchett, Ruth Rendell, Quentin Tarantino and John Grisham. Meanwhile into paperback go Donna Tartt, Umberto Eco, John Mortimer, Terry Pratchett (last year's hardback), three Russell Hobans and lots more of interest.

September's non-fiction includes

For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming

E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles. A colour leaflet is available at the shop.
Highlighted:
More Calendars: now we have in stock We'Moon Diaries & Calendars, a very striking black & yellow Moonwise Calendar from William Morris, and photographic calendars from Tushita, Tide-Mark and Willow Creek. See our centre table!

NEW CDs in October
There’s a fantastic selection of new classical music CDs from Naxos, Hyperion and Sanctuary Classics coming in this month with an additional bonus of 10% off all music CDs at The Book Case throughout October. On the Naxos label this includes chamber music by Toru Takemitsu with the flautist Robert Aitken who was a personal friend of the composer and in the Naxos World series a CD of seasonal carols from Slovenia (both £4.99). Hyperion are celebrating 20 years of Gramophone Awards with 15 re-issues of some of their greatest award winners (all £9.99). The Halle has brought out a CD of Christmas Classics on their new label (£9.99) and Sanctuary Classics has a fascinating new range of classics which includes Wind Music by Holst and Vaughan Williams, Ceremony of Carols by Britten and Piano Music of Argentina by Ginastera and Piazzolla (all £6.99). Don’t miss them during October when they will be available with 10% off!

Nostalgia time: remember Uncle Mac? The Runaway Train? Laughing Policeman? Four-Legged Friend? Even Arthur Askey being a Bee? (Don't admit to that one!) New in stock from Naxos we have Children's Favourites 1926-1952 (original recordings, remastered, £4.99, 1 CD, 65 mins) and Junior Classics: Sparky's Magic Piano, Tubby the Tuba & more (£11.99, 2 CDs, 2h 26m)
Essential Militaria - Nicholas Hobbes
Along the lines of "Schott's Miscellany" this fascinating collection contains items such as the top 10 writers on the Gestapo's 1940 hit-list if they managed to occupy Britain (Vera Brittain, Noel Coward ...), the eight wounds of Alexander the Great, and Tim Collins's famous pre-Iraq speech.(£9.99)
Children's Highlights from Hilary:
Reluctant teenager super-spy Alex Rider gets his own collector's edition slipcase this month with the four best-selling titles (Eagle Strike, Skeleton Key, Point Blanc and Stormbreaker) - and a metal grille - to keep out the sharks, bombs or assassins? A great Christmas present - especially for boys! (£19.99)
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NEW ON OUR WEBPAGES 
We now have all the local videos we stock listed on our webpages.

LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Cats in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/thebookcase.htm - and then click on This Month's Quiz.
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Skylights in literature, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/PastQuizzes.htm#Quizzes
If you'd like the printed version of the quiz (and short version of last month's answers) posted to you, please e-mail or fax us your address.
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What you've been buying: SEPTEMBER BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

Book Case staff have been overwhelmed this month with requests for 11+ practice papers! Meanwhile we've also been selling a very mixed bunch of local books, fiction, a pink calendar and more on living in the moment.

1. Alpha Series for 11+ and Secondary Selection Portfolio Series (£3.99-£4.99): The demand for 11+ practice papers has been so large that we're making them all share a slot! Maths Set 2 was the overall winner ...

2. Pennine Saunter Round Hebden Bridge - Glyn Lee (£3.00): Local history in the form of a circular 7-mile walk with photos, illustrations and anecdotes.

3. Intermediate Mathematics for GCSE (£14.99): The 11-plussers aren't the only ones working hard! GCSE Social and Economic History has been popular too.

4. Milltown Memories 5 (£2.50): First birthday issue, with a "Where is it?" quiz and lots more.

5. Calendar Girls Calendar 2004 (£9.99): Very pink! Has a mixture of the original ladies and their film counterparts.

6. The Summer Book - Tove Jansson (£6.99): "A work of fiction, adventure, humour and philosophy" about an old woman and her granddaughter on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. Based on Tove Jansson's own mother and niece and a real island. Lovely book.

7. On Becoming a Fairy Godmother - Sarah Maitland (£7.99): Fifteen new 'fairy stories' breathe new life into old legends - what became of Helen of Troy, Guinevere and Maid Marion? And what happens to today's mature woman when her children have fled the nest?

8. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (£3.99): Marlow travels to the heart of Africa in search of the enigmatic Kurtz. It's the Penguin version with notes and Conrad's fascinating "Congo Diary" that's been selling.

9. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (£1.00): Local novel, local author, world famous!

10. Stillness Speaks - Eckhart Tolle (£7.99): 200 concise and illuminating entries arranged around twelve reflective themes from the man who practises what he preaches!

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk
"She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of books had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing was right."
- J K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, ch. 18 "Dumbledore’s Army"

September 2003

Dear Book Case customer or contact,
We've been mixing our seasons during August by selling holiday reads and walking books and 2004 calendars. Our first major consignment of calendars and diaries (Pomegranate) has just been joined by those of Editions du Desastre and Lem of Italy with lots more gorgeous and unusual pictures. See our centre table and treat your friends, relations or yourself to a year's worth of delight!
 
We're now stocking two quarterly books magazines for young readers:
 
myBooksmag for younger children (£1) - this issue includes Rita the Rescuer, Ms Whiz, Jez Alborough and how to make a pizza, and
tBk mag for older children (£1.50) - this issue includes Jacqueline Wilson, the Harry Potter illustrator, Fighting Fantasy, Molly Moon and lots more! - nearly sold out
 
We're also now stocking the magazine Mslexia ("for women who write"), £4.75. This issue includes an interview with Ali Smith and a selection of new poetry and prose on Romance chosen by Sophie Hannah.
 
Last sad remnant of the great flood of June 2000: a water-warped copy of Hairy McLary Scattercat found down the back of the children's bookshelves!
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject box.)
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NEWS
 
Local Interest
 
Milltown Memories 5: the Upper Calder Valley captured on camera, £2.50
First Birthday Issue!
Featuring a "Where Is It?" quiz. Articles include 100 years of Mytholmroyd parades, Temperance in the Calder Valley, a Heptonstall murder, Lady Royd's and Midgley Schools, George VI, Mons Mill and smallpox, a tribute to Colin Spencer, the 1912 Charlestown rail crash and more, including many photographs from the Alice Longstaff Collection.
 
NOW IN STOCK: A Pennine Saunter around Hebden Bridge by Glyn Lee, £3.00
Local history in the form of a circular 7-mile walk with photos, illustrations and anecdotes.
 
Canals of the Aire and Calder Navigation, £9.99
This pictorial history demonstrates how the Calder became one of the UK's most successful inland waterways.
 
Defend Todmorden! October will bring a book from "The Idler" magazine entitled (ahem) "Crap Towns - the 50 Worst Places to Live in the UK", currently being voted for. Todmorden and Halifax, I fear, are on the long list. Halifax has found a defender, unlike Todmorden. If you'd like to join in, go to http://www.idler.co.uk/html/frontsection/craptown/30_5/england.htm Don't even think about nominating Hebden Bridge. Or Mytholmroyd ...

Local Authors

Seen too late for last month's e-mailed newsletter, two major BBC TV programmes based on the work of renowned local author Juliet Barker, In Search of the Brontes, were shown in early August. Her two definitive books on the Brontes are available at The Book Case.
 
Clare Boylan completes a novel begun by Charlotte Bronte in 1855 with Emma Brown (£14.99) - expect mystery, atmosphere and page-turning suspense!
 
National Book Events
 
Booker LONG List
 
Shortlist to be announced 16th September and winner 14th October. We have a selection in stock and can order most of the others in for the next day. Judge D J Taylor commented "this year's roster leans heavily on the dense historical epic, with honourable mentions for survivors of wartorn 90s Europe, disillusioned young men and women living in metropolitan flats, and people over the question of whose parentage some mystery hangs." (Guardian, "Novel solutions", 14th Aug.)
 
Brick Lane by Monica Ali (£11.99)
Yellow Dog by Martin Amis (£14.99) - due 30/09
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood (£14.99)
Turn Again Home by Carol Birch (£15.99)
Crossing The Lines by Melvyn Bragg (£15.99)
Elizabeth Costello by J M Coetzee (£12.99) - due 04/09/03
Taxi Driver's Daughter by Julia Darling (£11.99)
Schopenhauer's Telescope by Gerard Donovan (£13.99)
Good Doctor by Damon Galgut (£10.99) - due 11/09/03
Romantic by Barbara Gowdy (£13.99)
Curious Incident Of The Dog In Night Time by Mark Haddon (£9.99)
Notes On A Scandal by Zoe Heller (£12.99)
Nick Of Time by Francis King (£10.99) - NYP
Heligoland by Shena Mackay (£10.00)
Astonishing Splashes Of Colour by Clare Morrall (£7.99)
Jazz Etc by John Murray (£8.99)
Something Might Happen by Julie Myerson (£11.99)
Judge Savage by Tim Parks (£14.99)
Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips (£13.99)
Vernon God Little by D C B Pierre (£11.99)
Waxwings by Jonathan Raban (£13.99)
Light Of Day by Graham Swift (£14.99)
Frankie & Stankie by Barbara Trapido (£14.99)
 
Bookcrossing comes to Manchester
In mid-August, Urbis Museum, Manchester (near Victoria Station) joined the Bookcrossing urban phenomenon by placing "thousands of books - each bearing a sticker with a unique number registered on its official website - at shops, bars and bus stops, and in taxis and train stations. Anyone lucky enough to find one ... can then read it, log on to the website to look at its previous journey, update it or leave reviews before releasing it for others to enjoy" said Terri Judd in the Independent on 14th August.
 
"If people want to take the books on holiday and leave them in Geneva or the Costa del Sol that is fine," said a spokeswoman.
 
Read more about it at http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,898667,00.html
 
NEW TITLES
 
September over-compensates for a quiet August with a torrent of big new titles: in Fiction we have new hardbacks from Tracey Chevalier, Alan Garner, Martin Amis and Robert Harris amongst others and works by A S Byatt, Annie Proulx, Michael Faber, Barry Unsworth, Sue Townsend, Jostein Gaarder, Tibor Fischer and Mario Puzo, amongst many others, go into paperback.
 
There's also a new bargain hardback series of classic fiction, The Collectors' Library, nicely presented at £5.99 each. First series includes works from Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Flaubert, Woolf, Hardy and Poe.
 
September's non-fiction includes
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
 
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles. A colour leaflet is available at the shop.
Highlighted:
 
The Classic FM Pocket Book of Music by Darren Henley & Tim Lihoreau - £2.99
 
A selection of the legendary Moleskine notebooks, sketchbooks and address books (as used by Van Gogh, Matisse, Hemingway and Chatwin!)
"Regime Change Begins at Home" - from Bookmarks a set of hard-hitting playing cards of the 54 "most unwanted" politicians and businessmen, imitating the US's pack of "most wanted" Hussain supporters cards. These are from Bookmarks and include not only US, UK and European politicians but also particularly lethal business leaders. £5.00.
 
Did I mention the calendars? The Lowry has produced a nice one of Lowry's Travels (£9.95) with the artist's views of places he visited in Britain and Ireland, so there are some you may not have seen before!
 
Children's Highlights from Hilary:
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NEW ON OUR WEBPAGES 
 
Milltown Memories 5: the Upper Calder Valley captured on camera, £2.50


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Skylights in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/thebookcase.htm - and then click on This Month's Quiz.
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Dogs in literature, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/PastQuizzes.htm#Quizzes
If you'd like the printed version of the quiz (and short version of last month's answers) posted to you, please e-mail or fax us your address.
 
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What you've been buying: AUGUST BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

Tove Jansson's "The Summer Book" is proving to be a very popular title this summer at The Book Case and is at the top of the bestseller list for the second month running. Local authors and publishers are also well represented. Younger readers have also been buying during the holiday.

1. The Summer Book - Tove Jansson (£6.99): "Impossible to categorise," says Esther Freud, "a work of fiction, adventure, humour and philosophy" about an old woman and her grandchild on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. The creator of the Moomins wrote the book in 1972 after her mother died and it's regarded as a modern classic in Scandinavia.

2. Nature's Domain - Jill Liddington (£7.50): This latest book by local author Jill Liddington draws on Anne Lister's correspondence and diaries to track her intense courtship of Ann Walker and documents how she began redesigning the Shibden landscape as a result.

3 Shadowmancer - G. P. Taylor (£5.99): Bestselling children's title in which Obadiah Demurral, a sorcerer, is seeking to control the highest power in the universe but Raphael, Kate, Thomas and the mysterious Jacob Crane get in his way. Written by a vicar, the dramatic climax is set in the gothic church of St Mary's.

4. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (£7.99: Susie Salmon, murdered at the age of 14, watches from heaven as her friends and siblings grow up and do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But then she finds that life is not quite finished with her yet.

5. Footnote - Boff Whalley (£8.99): One of two titles published this summer by new local publisher Pomona in Hebden Bridge, this novel by a member of the pop group Chumbawamba is set in the world of rock music.

6. Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith (£6.99): This summer's most popular crime novel (everyone has to buy one to take away on holiday) is another story about Precious Ramotswe - sassy owner of Botswana's only detective agency.

7. Horrid Henry's Underpants - Francesca Simon (£4.99): The latest pranks by Horrid Henry were first related by the author herself at Hebden Bridge Little Theatre during the festival - now the book with the full story of how Henry gets caught with the wrong underpants is proving popular.

8. Olive Season - Carol Drinkwater (£7.99): In this sequel to "The Olive Farm" Carol Drinkwater continues her story about the abandoned olive farm she and her partner fell in love with in Provence.

9. Among Muslims: Meetings at the Frontiers of Pakistan - Kathleen Jamie (£6.99): An account of Kathleen Jamie's time spent living among the Shia and Ismaeli Muslims in Pakistan's Northern Areas.

10. Taxi Driver's Daughter - Julia Darling (£11.99 at The Book Case): In her latest novel Julia Darling tells the story of a family from the North East on the verge of collapse caught between the escape they crave and the imperfect reality that seems to be their lot.

Best wishes from your local bookshop,

The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 6EU
Telephone 01422-845353
Fax 01422-844295
email: bookcase@btinternet.com
url: www.bookcase.co.uk
 

"You want to read something that is not chick-lit but sun-lit: something that is both literary and pleasurable, something that lifts the spirits while engaging the mind. Dr Johnson observed that 'the true end of literature is to enable the reader better to enjoy life or better to endure it.' While practically every Booker shortlist ... is strong on endurance, it remains extraordinarily hard to find novels that celebrate life."

- Amanda Craig, "Against Grim-Lit", Mslexia Spring 2003 reprinted in newBOOKSmag 16. 

August 2003

Dear Book Case customer or contact,

July saw the last of the Festival events - we have a few signed copies of books by Julia Darling and Jacky Kay - and then people were concentrating on choosing their holiday reading and audiobooks, especially long children's ones for nice quiet journeys! We're keeping our centre table full of summer fiction and a changing selection from the Big Read Top 100 best-loved books so you can catch up on that novel you always meant to get round to.

We're delighted that Fr John Gott, mentioned last month for his role in getting Ted Hughes to British Rail passengers, is going to stay with us after all, and long may he continue to have very good ideas!

(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing, please click on Reply and type CANCEL in the Subject box.)
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NEWS
 
Local Authors
 
Nature's Domain: Anne Lister and the Landscape of Desire

This new book on eccentric Halifax lesbian landowner Anne Lister by local historian Jill Liddington follows Anne Lister's return to Shibden Hall in 1832 with her dreams of high society shattered after she is betrayed by another woman. (£7.50)

And while we're on the subject of Anne Lister, news that writer Sally Wainwright is working on a major big-screen film about her. Look out too for the same writer's TV drama, The Bronte Myth.

Seen too late for the e-mailed newsletter: In Search of the Brontes on BBC1, Sunday 3rd August at 7pm, is based on the research of renowned local author Juliet Barker. Her two major books on the Brontes are available at The Book Case.

Sylvia Plath: a literary life - Linda Wagner-Martin

Examines the way in which she made herself into a writer, including the aftermath of her death. (£14.99; due 29 August)

A Man of Stone: his life and loves - Jack Wood

Novel set in Victorian Yorkshire, from former Haworth joiner, undertaker and builder, now aged 80. Foreword by Peter Harland, ex-Telegraph & Argus and Sunday Times. (£14.99)

Collected Poems - Ted Hughes
Advance notice of a big new compilation of the Ted Hughes's poetry in October, including all pamphlet and privately printed editions, as well as those children's poems that Hughes himself marked out for an adult readership. (£35 hardback)

Local Publishers
 
Pomona Books of Hebden Bridge have been enjoying a flurry of publicity for their first two books, Footnote by Boff Whalley of Chumbawumba and Rule of Night by Trevor Hoyle. Footnote tells entertainingly of the band member's Mormon upbringing in Burnley and escape to Leeds; Rule of Night is about a violent life in 1970s Rochdale. The books have been praised by Time Out, Big Issue, Metro, and The Yorkshire Evening Post as well as the local Halifax Courier, Hebden Bridge Times and Rochdale Observer and a number of Leeds and Manchester papers - and Footnote was the Sunday Express's Non-Fiction Read of the Week. Really! The Book Case also had an e-mail from Mike Harding at Radio 2 asking about Pomona ...
 
Future plans by Pomona's founder Mark Hodkinson include poems and lyrics from anarcho-punk band Crass and football stories from Hunter Davies. Watch this space!

Northern Voices: Our Urban Environment, No. 1 (Summer/Autumn 2003)

New Northern libertarian bi-annual journal, published in Hebden Bridge. First issue ranges from the on-site death of Simon Jones in Shoreham and urban decay in Burnley to art in Stalybridge. (£1.20)

Text Messages by Leeds poet Andrew Wilson from Huddersfield publishers Smith/Doorstop has come out early and is already in stock at £5.
 
National Book Events

Two Book Prize lists have been released - both aimed at older children and teenagers; they share a number of titles and also a Chairperson. At The Book Case, we've been selling The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time to an adult market.

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2003 (longlist)

The Fire-Eaters by David Almond  (due mid-August in hardback at £9.99)
The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick
Lucas by Kevin Brooks 
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Speed of the Dark by Alex Shearer
Bad Alice by Jean Ure
Where in the World by Simon French
Malarkey by Keith Gray

Judges are: Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo and popular children's authors Philip Ardagh and Malorie Blackman with Guardian children's books editor Julia Eccleshare as Chair. The shortlist will be published in September and the winner announced on October 4.

For the new Booktrust Teenage Prize the shortlist runs: 

The Dungeon by Lynne Reid Banks
Lucas by Kevin Brooks
Doing It by Melvin Burgess
Caught in the Crossfire by Alan Gibbons
The Edge by Alan Gibbons
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Malarkey by Keith Gray (Red Fox)
Doll by Nicky Singer

Winner to be announced early November. Judging the prize are: Julia Eccleshare (Chair) - Children's Book Editor of The Guardian; Catherine Johnson - Author; Jo Klaces - English teacher; Tim Cross - co-founder of cool-reads.co.uk; and Julie Fernandez - TV actress and presenter.
For more info see http://www.bookheads.org.uk/   

www.cool-reads.co.uk is also well worth a visit! Books for 10-15 year old readers are reviewed by 10-15 year olds.

 
NEW TITLES
 
August is a fairly quiet month on the publishing front before we all get deluged in September! New fiction includes hardbacks from Pat Barker and Julia Darling (who visited us last month) and paperbacks from Alexander McCall-Smith and Minette Walters, plus from Vintage "12 classic works of 20th century literature" at £3.99 each. Worth bearing in mind for your beach read!
 
August's non-fiction includes