Picture of Britain DVD - David Dimbleby,
£24.99
A celebration of the British landscape and the art that it has
inspired, from Constable to Lowry, from Turner to Nash. [Book also in stock at
£19.99)
Essential Truffaut Collection DVD,
£49.99
"400 Coups", "Jules et Jim", "La Peau Douce", "Last Metro"
Essential Bergmann Collection DVD,
£49.99
"Seventh Seal", "Wild Strawberries", "Persona",
"Autumn Sonata"
Sadly we won't be able to get you the DVD of "Tales from the Green Valley" (life on a 17th-century farm) in time for Christmas but should have it soon thereafter. Save your book tokens!
CDs - the Spoken Word
The Essential
Shakespeare Live: The Royal Shakespeare Company in Performance (2
CDs)
Selected from a collection of recordings from the British Library Sound
Archive, scenes and speeches from some of the most celebrated RSC productions -
including Paul Schofield, Peggy Ashcroft, David Warner, Ian McKellen, Robert
Stephens, Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Alan Rickman, Judi Dench ...
(£15.95)
Woman in Black by Susan Hill (2
CDs)
Unabridged version terrifyingly read by Paul Ansdell. Many
will have chilled to the stage adaptation by the late Stephen Mallatratt
who used to live in Hebden Bridge. (£12.99)
Stationery
Moleskine Music Pocket
Notebook (£8.99)
The Moleskine Pocket Music Notebook is ideal
for musicians, sound designers and song writers, for jotting down harmonies,
melodies and musical ideas.
See below under "Local Authors" for two new card games based
on Lowry's paintings.
Plus all our other Moleskine stationery.
For the concerned, the binding is oilskinned hardback and has nothing to
do with small dead animals.
Seeing It Through (Halifax and
Calderdale during World War II) - Peter Thomas, £10.00 -
NOW IN!
See above.
Milltown Memories 14: Winter 2005,
£2.80
Sad news - this is to be the
penultimate issue - although the publishers have exciting new plans in the
pipeline. This issue has a centre-spread of a pre-clearance Bridge Lanes and a
panoramic view of Old Town, plus Christmas Past, John Travis of Todmorden, the
Heptonstall Players, the snowy winter of 1947, ghosts at Broadbottom and
more.
Bronte Ways
Video/DVD, Part 2 - Ray Riches & Peter Thornton, £12.99
ea.
A walk on the Bronte Way from Haworth via Top Withins ("Wuthering
Heights") and Wycoller Village ("Jane Eyre") to Gawthorpe Hall (home of
Charlotte Bronte’s friends the Kay-Shuttleworths). Sequel to the popular
Part 1, and this one visits even better-known places.
Halifax Corporation Tramways - Eric Thornton & Stanley King, £17.99
Illustrated history of this traditional double-deck tramway system, from the late 19th-century launch through their spread to the surrounding area (including Hebden Bridge) to their demise in 1939, with a melancholy poem in the Courier. "Halifax is in the shadow of the Pennines so many routes were steep, greatly adding to the interest," say the publishers. With maps, photos and route details and a splendid colour cover picture.
Country of the Broad Acres: a
History of Yorkshire - David Hey, £20
The history of
Yorkshire is more varied than that of any other English county. Lavishly
illustrated account from the Stone Age through the Bronze Age, Angles, Vikings,
Normans, Reformation, Civil War and onwards, explaining the effects of the
developments on each of of the Ridings - and the influence of upper Calder
Valley farmsteads on family names (Ackroyd, Murgatroyd, Midgley ...) The author
has ancestors from all three Ridings!
The
Outlaw Robin Hood: His Yorkshire Legend - Barbara Green, £4.99
A reissue of this booklet from the founder member of the Yorkshire
Robin Hood Society, claiming Robin Hood back from Nottingham. History of the
legend, maps and local references. See
www.robinhoodyorkshire.co.uk
First Ever Vegetarian/Vegan Guide to Yorkshire - Mary & David Brown, £2.00
Lists shops, cafes, restaurants, clubs and B&Bs all over Yorkshire, including the Calder Valley.
Local authorsShort stories set in Greece in 1974-5 - to be launched at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Bretton Hall, Wakefield, on 17th December.
Rembrandt: An A-Z - (ed.) Shelley
Rohde, £16.99
Celebrating the 400th anniversary of
Rembrandt's birth: 140 colour illustrations.
L. S. Lowry Card Games: Child's
Play, £5.99; Quartet, £7.99
From local
author Shelley Rohde, who wrote "L. S. Lowry: a Biography",
two card games based on details from Lowry's paintings. The "Child's Play"
cards are regular card size and the game is a version of Happy Families - you
collect animals or mills or whatever. "Quartet" has larger cards and the
players collect all four of a series - when put together you see the whole
picture.
Cards from local artist Lynn Breeze, Star Baby and Snow Baby, based on pictures from her new books, "My New Baby" and "My Day Out", £1.50 each
News from Mary Turner, who has family in Hebden
Bridge, and introduced her book The Women's Century at
Artsmill during the 2004 Festival: there is a new women's history website at
www.her-stories.co.uk. Stories of
ordinary yet inspirational women are invited.
National Book Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
Novel Award:
A Long Way Down by Nick
Hornby [Can a slice of pizza can really see you through a long, dark
night of the soul?] (£15.99 at The Book
Case)
Shalimar the Clown by Salman
Rushdie [What appears to be a political assassination turns out to be
passionately personal.] (£15.99)
The Accidental by Ali
Smith [Amber turns up at a family's Norfolk holiday home and proceeds
to change them all. But does she
exist?](£12.99)
The Ballad of Lee Cotton by
Christopher Wilson (Funny novel about survival and identity.)
(£12.99)
First Novel Award:
The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash
Aw [A love story set against the turmoil of mid-20th century
Malaysia.](£7.99)
26a by Diana Evans
[Fairytale nightmare for anyone who has had a childhood, and anyone who
knows what it is like to lose one.]
(£10.99)
The Short Day Dying by Peter
Hobbs [Set in nineteenth century Cornwall - a blacksmith and
Methodist lay-preacher devotes his weekdays to work and the Sabbath to walking
great distances to preach to dwindling congregations]
(£10.99)
Gem Squash Tokoloshe -
Rachel Zadok [Recreates the voice of a young girl growing up during the height
of apartheid unrest in South Africa.] (£6.99)
Biography Award:
Haw-Haw by Nigel
Farndale
Nature Cure by Richard
Mabey [How the nature writer slowly overcame his depression when he
moved from hills and chalk to watery fens and flat open spaces.] (£15.99)
Stuart: A Life Backwards by
Alexander Masters [A biography of a homeless man and a complete
portrait of the hidden underclass](£12.99)
Matisse the Master by Hilary
Spurling
Poetry Award:
Legion by David
Harsent
Cold Calls by Christopher Logue
Lucky Day by Richard Price
Marabou by Jane
Yeh
Children’s Award:
Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce
[From the author of "Millions", the story of how, during WWII, the
treasured contents of London's National Gallery were stored in Welsh slate
mines and how this touches the life of one little boy and his big family.]
(£9.99)
The White Darkness by Geraldine
McCaughrean [A young girl makes a soulmate of Captain Oates]
(£10.99)
Permanent Rose by Hilary
McKay [It's a long hot summer - to Permanent Rose it seems never
ending.] (£10.99)
The New Policeman by Kate
Thompson [JJ's mother
asks him to give her time for her birthday, so he heads for Tir na n'Og. Won
the Guardian Children's Fiction
Prize.](£10.99)
Smarties aka Nestle Book Prize
5 & Under
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
Wolves by Emily
Gravett
The Dancing Tiger by Malachy Doyle, illustrated by Steve Johnson and
Lou Fancher
6-8 years
The Whisperer by Nick Butterworth
Michael
Rosen's Sad Book by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Corby Flood
by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
9-11 years
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
The Scarecrow
and the Servant by Philip Pullman
The Whispering Road by Livi Michael
Blue Peter Book Awards
On Friday 18th November the Blue Peter Book
Awards ceremony was held at the London Eye. The winning judges -
Ardell, Kishke, Tommy, Peter, Sarah, Joanna, Mouna, Benjamin and Heather - read
the shortlisted books and decided the category winners and overall Blue Peter
book of 2005:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/active/books/awards/indexshortlist2005.shtml
The
Book I Couldn't Put Down:
Have you ever read a book that was
so fantastic that you simply could not put it down? The books in this category
have been selected because the judges believe that they have the power to grip
their readers in this way.
'Millions' by Frank Cottrell
Boyce
'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo *Category Winner*
'SilverFin' by Charlie
Higson
'Thora' written and illustrated by Gillian
Johnson
The Best Book With Facts:
These are all
fascinating information books – you can't help becoming absorbed by the
subjects because of the imaginative ways their authors and illustrators have
presented them.
'Art Fraud Detective: Shakespeare' written by Anna
Nilsen, illustrated by Andy Parker
'Explorers Wanted! At
the North Pole' by Simon Chapman*Category
Winner*
'Rome in spectacular
cross-section' written by Andrew Solway, illustrated by Stephen Biesty
'What's My Family Tree?' written by Mick Manning, illustrated by Brita
Granström
The Best Illustrated Book to Read
Aloud:
These are books in which the words and pictures work
brilliantly together, each helping the other to tell the
story.
'Aristotle' written by Dick King-Smith, illustrated by Bob
Graham
'Biscuit Bear' written and illustrated by Mini Grey
'Rapunzel: A
Groovy Fairy Tale' retold by Lynn Roberts, illustrated by David
Roberts
'The Snail and the Whale' written by Julia Donaldson,
illustrated by Axel Scheffler *Category
Winner*
The Blue Peter Book of the Year:
'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo *Overall Winner*
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
We missed the Guardian winner in early October - it was New Policeman by Kate Thomson, £10.99: JJ's mother asks him to give her time for her birthday, so he heads for Tir na n'Og. It's for readers of 11+ and is in stock at the Book Case. For more information go to http://books.guardian.co.uk/childrensfictionprize2005/Publishers don't usually bring out many new titles in December, but we do expect a new novel from Marge Piercy and a tongue-in-cheek horror one from Colin Baker, Bob Geldof's "You're History", the best blogs of 2005, tiny tearaways, a book on the Holy Grail, another one on Bob Dylan in the '60s, Disinformation on Ancient Civilisations and Art Theory for Beginners.
1. Untold Stories - Alan Bennett (£20.00) Highly-praised collection of some of his finest, most moving and funniest writing from the last nine years. The author did express the hope you would buy it from an independent bookseller! Also in double CD form, Parts 1 & 2, at £12.99 each, cassette version £10.99 each.
2. Talk to the Hand - Lynne Truss (£9.99) "Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door". The author of 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' takes on the sorry state of modern manners.
3. Margrave of the Marshes - John Peel (£18.99) The first half of the book is by the legendary music-man about his early life. The second section by his wife is an intimate portrait of the man and his music, and everyday life at Peel Acres. (£18.99)
4. The Penultimate Peril - Lemony Snicket (£6.99) The next-to-last chronicle of the lives of the Baudelaire orphans - but next-to-first in its supply of misery, despair and unpleasantness, you’ll be pleased to hear.
5. Milltown Memories 14: Winter 2005 (£2.80) This - sadly also penultimate - issue has a centre-spread of a pre-clearance Bridge Lanes and a panoramic view of Old Town, plus Christmas Past, John Travis of Todmorden, the Heptonstall Players, the snowy winter of 1947, ghosts at Broadbottom and more.
6. Blue Day Book for Kids: a lesson in cheering yourself up - Bradley Trevor Greive (£4.99) Striking animal photos paired with suggestions of how the child might be feeling and what to do about it!
7. We’Moon Diary 2006 (£14.99) 25th anniversary edition of the popular astrological moon calendar, date book and daily guide to natural rhythms, with a theme of the spirit of love.
8. Why Don’t You Stop Talking - Jackie Kay (£6.99) Stories about fear, fantasy, loneliness and desire The author was present at the successful Readers’ Day at Halifax Library.
9. Instructions for British Servicemen in France 1944 (£4.99) This handbook was issued to British soldiers in 1944 telling them what to expect and how to behave in a newly-liberated France. (£4.99)
10. Agincourt - Juliet Barker (£20.00) Splendidly readable
account of the memorable battle, packed with details of logistics and
personalities. "If you buy just one book of history this year, choose this
one," says Bernard Cornwell.
Best wishes and season's greetings 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
"When you read a novel or a play, it enlarges your psychological repertoire. You see more choices that can be made. So it seems to me that by reading when you're young, you sophisticate yourself."
- Hilary Mantel, Guardian Saturday Review, 19 November 2005, "Escape from the Margins" (arguing that her love of reading in difficult home circumstances in her teens was not merely an "escape").
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Seeing It Through (Halifax and
Calderdale during World War II) - Peter Thomas, £10.00
A
major local event, this book brings together local memories and photographs
from the War years, beginning with "That Fateful Broadcast". Look out for the
picture of Savile Park under the plough to Dig for Victory! Expected to be a
Christmas bestseller, and due in soon.
A Portrait of Bradford - John Morrison, £12.99
From the well-known local photographer, a collection of stunning colour images of Bradford to make Bill Bryson eat his words.
The Letters of the Reverend
Patrick Bronte, ed. Dudley Green, £16.00
First ever complete
collection of his surviving letters, some never before published. This book
helps rehabilitate the Reverent Bronte's reputation and reveals a very human
side to this misunderstood man.
Together
Again - Willy Irvine with Dave Thomas, £17.99
Willy Irvine
was a star goal-scorer with Burnley in their glory days, but after he broke a
leg against Everton he was never the same, drifting into lower leagues with
Preston, Brighton and finally Halifax. He touched bottom with a suicide attempt
and now works part-time for Burnley FC. This is the story of his life.
The Summer the Dictators Fell - Glyn Hughes
Short stories set in Greece in 1974-5 - to be launched at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Bretton Hall, Wakefield, on 17th December.
Wonderwall - ed. Anthony Cropper
& Ian Daley, £8.99
Including a story, "Rich Tea and
Custard Creams" by Todmorden author Penny Aldred, who won first prize in the
Northern Echo/Orange short story competition in 2004.
My First Tooth - My New Potty - My
Day Out - My New Baby - Lynn Breeze, £3.99 each
From
well-known local illustrator, colourful board books about these big
experiences!
Pandemonium in the Pennines -
Kathryn Summersgill, £5.99
From a Keighley author, a
"humorous chronicle of extraordinary events with an unpredictable climax" -
including two guinea pigs eating the church's commemoration hassocks.
From Halifax great-grandmother Kathleen McBurney, an ATS veteran of the Second World War, three books at £6.95 each: Bend the Bough Gently, a collection of reminiscences from the pit disaster that took her father, through her ATS experiences, to the death of her husband and then her mother; and Little Gems and Poems with Little Gems, which recall special moments and special people.
Local Book Events
Readers Day - Saturday 5 November
2005, 10am -
4.15pm
Top authors Stella Duffy, Erica James and
Jackie Kay read from their latest works and chat to the
audience; Guy Pringle,
editor of newBOOKSmag talks about the changing trends in reading over
recent years; Jane Rogers, best
selling author, talks about her role as editor of The Good Fiction Guide
and Antony Cropper reads and
talks from his latest work. A selection of books
will be there for signing, supplied by The Book Case.
There will be chances
to meet the authors in small groups, question and answer sessions, and an
opportunity to win a prize in the quiz 'Never Judge a Book by its Cover'.
£10 a ticket for the whole day, including
lunch - for more information or to book tickets, please telephone the Central
Library on (01422) 392629
National Book Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
Booker Prize
The surprise winner was John Banville's "The Sea", which I noticed I left off last month's shortlist. Apologies! When Max Morden returns to the coastal town where he spent a holiday in his youth he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma. £14.99 at The Book Case.
Books are the New Snobbery
Books are the new snobbery, according to a recent survey.
"Social competitiveness about which titles we read has become one of the new
mass forces of the era and only middle-aged people are relatively free of it.
... The latest literary pressure is keeping up with the rest of your fellow
travellers and commuters. Bookshelf contents are fast becoming as studied and
planned as outfits as a way to impress others." The survey was carried out in
London and the South-East ...
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1599060,00.html?gusrc=rss
Another good collection of hardback fiction this month, with books from Nadine Gordimer, Cormac McCarthy, Anne Rice, Ben Elton, Rose Tremain and Philippa Gregory amongst others. No literary giants in the paperback fiction but we are trying a novel by Jimmy Carter and a Norwegian collection, Japanese and Brazilian detectives, John Grisham, a new Jennifer Johnston and some feel-good novels.
There were several books of local interest amongst The Book Case’s October bestsellers, including a return for local author Glyn Hughes and John Morrison in his photographer’s hat. Three major biographies - from Alan Bennett, Bob Dylan and John Peel - were also popular, and also selling well were a debut novel, an attractively presented book of poetry and instructions to British servicemen on how to behave in wartime France.
1. Untold Stories - Alan Bennett (£20.00) Alan Bennett's first major collection since 'Writing Home', a collection of some of his finest and funniest writing from the last nine years. Also in double CD form, Parts 1 & 2, at £12.99 each, cassette version £10.99 each.
2. Yorkshire in a Crombie - Craig Bradley (£6.95) When the author inherited his Uncle Jim’s coat, it smelt of the past, full of flat caps, muck and brass. This book asks what Yorkshire is today. Craig is Reader in Residence for Calderdale Libraries.
3. Chronicles - Bob Dylan (£7.99) Now in paperback the first volume of the three-volume memoir of one of the greatest musical legends of all time. In volume 1, Bob Dylan takes us back to the early 1960s when he arrived in New York to launch his phenomenal career. (£7.99)
4. Instructions for British Servicemen in France 1944 (£4.99) Along similar lines to "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942", this handbook was issued by the British War Office in 1944 to British soldiers telling them what to expect and how to behave in a newly-liberated France. 'There is a fairly widespread belief among people in Britain that the French are a particularly gay, frivolous people with no morals and few convictions.' (£4.99)
5. Margrave of the Marshes - John Peel (£18.99) Not many people achieve the status of legend in their own lifetime. The first half of the book, by John, is about his early life. The second section by his wife is an intimate portrait of the man and his music, and everyday life at Peel Acres. (£18.99)
6. South Pennine Walks - Jack Keighley (£5.99) Spiral-bound handwritten and illustrated with the authors’s distinctive hand-drawn maps, 30 circular walks, from 4 to 8.5 miles.
7. The Rape of the Rose - Glyn Hughes (£4.99) The second of this important local author’s novels set in the Pennines. It evokes the tempestuous world of the Luddites, the brutality of industrial life and the landscape of the Pennine hills.
8. Moods of the Bronte Moors - John Morrison (£12.95) This book of atmospheric local photographs is now joined by a collection of stunning pictures of Bradford.
9. About Grace - Anthony Doerr (£7.99) Striking debut novel about a man cursed with premonitory dreams. Escaping Alaska for Ohio, he finds himself dreaming of his little daughter’s death and flees.
10. Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy (£12.99) Carol Ann Duffy's
new collection is about the loss and rediscovery of love in all its aspects. A
Poetry Book Society Choice, with a striking red and silver cover and marker
ribbon.
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
From Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk's speech given recently in Frankfurt on accepting the 2005 Friedenspreis, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Guardian Review 29 October 2005 and http://www.nrc.nl/redactie/Doc/pamuk.doc He faces trial next month for referring to his country's massacre of Armenians.
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Yorkshire Greats: the county's fifty
finest - Bernard Ingham, £19.99
Sumptuous colour-illustrated
hardback on Yorkshire characters ranging from Guy Fawkes to Alan Bennett.
In this landmark study, prize-winning local author Juliet Barker draws upon a huge range of sources to give a compelling account of the battle, when on a rainy October day in 1415 against all the odds, 9,000 exhausted English men claimed victory from an army of 20,000. She also looks behind the action on the field to paint a portrait of the age, moving from the ambition of kings to the dynamics of daily life in peace and war.
The Prize by John Siddique,
£7.95
First full collection of poetry from Hebden based poet,
currently the Poet in Residence for Commonword and BBC Manchester. His subjects
range widely and he has worked with young offenders and psychiatric patients.
His webpage can be found at
http://www.johnsiddique.co.uk/ and
for a recent interview published in the Guardian, go to
http://society.guardian.co.uk/publicinquiry/0,14099,1099079,00.html
Untold Stories - Alan Bennett, £20
Alan Bennett's
first major collection since 'Writing Home', a compendium of some of his finest
and funniest writing from the last nine years, including significant
unpublished work. Also in double CD form, Parts 1 & 2, at £12.99
each.
Yorkshire in a Crombie - Craig Bradley,
£6.95
Craig is Reader in Residence for Calderdale Libraries,
and his new book is "a Yorkshire road movie." Go to
http://www.craigbradley.com/crombie.html for
more info.
Back in stock:
We are pleased to have available a few copies of Glyn
Hughes's novels The Rape of the
Rose and Bronte. Both are out of
print so hurry if you want one!
National
Book Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
Booker Prize Shortlist
Announced on 8th September as follows. Bold titles are in stock, others can be ordered in overnight:
Arthur & George by Julian
Barnes
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo
Ishiguro
The Accidental by Ali Smith
On Beauty by Zadie
Smith
Richard & Judy "How to Get Published" competition
The winner of the competition was Christine Aziz's "The Olive Readers". Set in a dystopian future, where corporations own the past and memories. A clandestine group is trying to preserve the past by smuggling books. (£12.99 at The Book Case) Runners up, published in paperback, were
Housewife Down by Alison Penton Harper (£6.99) Meet Bridget Jones ten years on - a hilarious novel about a married woman finding herself unexpectedly single again.
Tuesday's War by David Fiddimore (£6.99) Enthralling tale of air combat in WWII.
Gem Squash Tokoloshe - Rachel Zadok (£6.99). Set in South Africa, the story of the dissolution of a marriage seen through the eyes of a child.
Journeys in the Dead Season - Spencer Jordan (£6.99) A man in prison for an appalling crime picks up the journal of a shell-shocked soldier and begins his own confession.
We regret we are not always able to obtain recordings on other labels but we will will always check with our suppliers if you have any particular requests.
Apart from We’moon Diary and those American servicemen, it was all change at The Book Case in September. Children only managed one entry apart from the exam papers, there was one book of local interest, another diary and four novels, ranging from moving statues at York Minster and poor Lucy Snowe to Ukrainian tractors and a teenage mass-killer.
1. Secondary Selection Portfolio Practice Papers (£4.99 each) The looming 11+ exam seasonally put these practice papers in Maths, English and Reasoning to the top of our monthly sellers.
2. Milltown Memories 13 (£2.80) Celebrates 100 years of the Literary and Scientific Society, pays tribute to Lloyd Greenwood and visits Slack and Catholes Stones, Mytholmroyd Station, William Holt Greengrocers, the Little Theatre, Wadsworth Moor, Todmorden Town Hall and the steps at the bottom of Birchcliffe in 1962.
3. We’Moon Diary 2006 (£14.99) 25th anniversary edition of the popular astrological moon calendar, date book and daily guide to natural rhythms, with a theme of the spirit of love.
4. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka (£10.99 at The Book Case) Entertaining Orange and Booker Prize-listed novel set in Peterborough where two Ukrainian sisters are trying to defend their lecherous old dad from a bosomy young gold-digger. Meanwhile he carries on writing his history of tractors in Ukrainian. Winner of the Saga Prize and presented at Halifax Library by the author.
5. Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942 (£4.99) This advice to GIs on how not to annoy the wartime Brits is now joined by a companion volume containing advice to the Brits on how not to annoy the wartime French in 1944.
6. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver (£9.99) This year’s Orange Prize winner: a novel about a teenage mass-killer and ambivalence about motherhood.
7. Villette - Charlotte Bronte (£1.50) Lucy Snowe finds herself jobless and friendless and travels to Brussels/Villette to work as a teacher in a girls' school, where she tries to rebuild a life for herself.
8. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susannah Clarke (£7.99) In early nineteenth-century England, magic is thought dead until the reclusive Mr Norrell causes the statues of York Minster to speak and move. Meanwhile Napoleon is advancing. Guardian and Whitbread shortlisted
9. Spirit Walker - Michelle Paver (£8.99) The sequel to "Wolf Brother" - Torak must battle to vanquish the terrifying Soul-Eaters. A book for young people: to be filmed by Riddley Scott.
10. Moleskine Pocket Weekly Diary 2006 (£9.99) One
of the series of posh little black notebooks and diaries used by Van Gogh,
Hemingway and Matisse.
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
"... a historical canvas is necessarily crowded, and readers who are afraid of crowds should keep to the better-ordered lanes of fiction."
- Steven Runciman in his introduction to The Sicilian Vespers, 1958 (currently out of print but his other historical books are all excellent - and crowded - too).
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
The Daily Mail Book Club
NEW
TITLES
It's September and the
big kids come out to play: this month we have new hardback fiction from
Sebastian Faulks, Salman Rushdie and Arnold
Wesker (the novel he presented at the Little Theatre during the
Festival) as well as Zadie Smith, Alexander McCall-Smith,
Tony Parsons, Neil Gaiman and Magnus Mills, plus a
forgotten A A Milne. In paperback fiction we have
Isabel Allende, V S Naipaul, Sue Townsend, McCall-Smith again,
Alice Walker & many others including the much-praised
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
Non-fiction includes
Children were to the fore amongst Book Case customers in August with three entries, followed by two adult novels , two books of poetry (one local), Kathleen Jamie’s nature writing, a reappearance of the wartime GIs and the first appearance of no doubt many for We’Moon.
1. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - Roald
Dahl (£5.99) Charlie Bucket wins a
magical tour round Mr Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory. It changes his
life - as well as those of his co-winners. Sales lifted by the enjoyable Johnny
Depp film.
2. Harry Potter & the
Half-Blood Prince - J K Rowling (£12.99) The darkest yet as
Harry moves into his late-teens and Voldemort seems ready to take control.
3. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson (£6.99) Funny, suspenseful and intricately plotted novel about a private investigator thrown into the middle of three unsolved cases in Cambridge.
4. Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942 (£4.99) Advice on how to cope with the Brits from the War Department, Washington DC, to the GIs on their way to grimy but stoical wartime Britain.
5. Elmet - poems by Ted Hughes, photographs by Fay Godwin (£14.99) Poems about the local area by Ted Hughes in response to Fay Godwin's evocative black-and-white photographs.
6. Findings - Kathleen Jamie (£6.99) Third month in the top ten for this observant and beautifully-written nature writing from around Scotland from an award-winning poet.
7. Checkmate - Malorie Blackman (£12.99) For older children, the third book in the "Noughts and Crosses" series about a mixed-race girl in a society where the pale-skinned noughts are treated as inferiors.
8. Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (£7.99) "A fable about following your dream" - the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world in search of treasure.
9. Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times - ed. Neil Astley (£10.95) "An international anthology of 500 life-affirming poems fired by belief in the human and the spiritual at a time when much in the world feels unreal, inhuman and hollow."
10. We’Moon Diary 2006 (£14.99) The theme
of this year's popular astrological moon calendar, date book and daily guide to
natural rhythms is the spirit of love. It’s the 25th anniversary
edition.
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
"Historians have noted that the shift from oral to written scripture often results in strident, misplaced certainty. Reading gives people the impression that they have an immediate grasp of their scripture ... they can approach a text in a purely cerebral fashion, missing the emotive and therapeutic aspects of its stories and instructions. Solitary reading also enables people to read their scriptures too selectively, focusing on isolated texts that they read out of context, and ignoring others that do not chime with their own predilections."
- Karen Armstrong, "Unholy strictures", Guardian Weekly, 19-25 August 2005 (also at http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,1546780,00.html)
Recollections of the Brontes - George
Sowden (£3)
Personal recollections of the Brontes by the Vicar of
Hebden Bridge, first published 1894, republished by Ian and Catherine
Emberson.
Sinner Saved by Grace - Michael Haslam
(£8.95)
The title of Michael Haslam's new poetry collection comes
from the inscription on a lonely and isolated gravestone the the poet came
across while walking on the moors above his home in the Calder
Valley.
Owl's Supper by Jacki Reed
(£5.65)
Lovely colour-illustrated story for young children by
local teacher and headteacher about a short-sighted mouse out alone in the
dangerous woods when Owl is out hunting. First of a series: this one deals with
safety, loyalty and friendship.
We're pleased to see Glyn Hughes representing Yorkshire along with Ted Hughes (who also gets to represent Lancashire and Devon) and authors from other parts of the county in Robert MacFarlane's "Common Ground" list of the great classics of British nature writing (Guardian 30.7.2005 "Where the Wild Things Were"). The article and list of readers' nominations of great nature writing can be found at http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1538765,00.html?gusrc=rss and follows MacFarlane's proposal last month to establish a library of the classics of nature writing from Britain and Ireland: "a series of local writings, which concentrated on particular places, and which worked always to individuate, never to generalise" (http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/scienceandnature/story/0,6000,1498612,00.html).
And a late mention of a repeat on BBC7
of Glyn Hughes's radio play "Glorious
John" on Thursday 28th July at 1.00 p.m., also obtainable via the
BBC website "listen again" function at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/thursday/.
National Book
Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
The Pact by Jody
Picoult. (£6.99)
A girl is found dead after an apparent suicide
attempt. Explores how well parents actually know their
children.
The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book
Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended
title.
And the shortlist:
Looking
for JJ - Anne Cassidy, £5.99 - Brave and sensitive study of a
child murderer. 13+
Al Capone Does My Shirts -
Gennifer Choldenko, £5.99 - Moose Capone lives next door to Alcatraz - and also has to get used to
a new school and cope with his sister's autism. 11+
Heartbeat - Sharon Creech, £5.99 - A young girl finding her identity and learning how it
fits with the many rhythms of life. In blank verse!
The Star of Kazan - Eva Ibbotson,
£5.99 - Set in late 19th-century Vienna, the story of foundling
Annika who grows up in the servants' quarters of some eccentric Viennese
professors and finally discovers who she really is.
The Scarecrow and His Servant - Philip Pullman, £9.99
(hardback, pb due Nov.) - Epic adventures of courteous but pea-brained
Scarecrow and his faithful servant Jack.
NEW TITLES
There are hardback novels this month from John
Irving, Ruth Rendell and Michael Dibdin amongst
others and paperback fiction from Margaret Drabble, David Nobbs, John
Mortimer, Peter Ackroyd and Ian Rankin
and many others.
Non-fiction includes
Hebden Bridge Arts Festival again had a major effect on bestsellers at The Book Case, but these were put in the shade by staggering sales of Harry Potter! The two other books were an account of a journey around Scotland and a novel set in Afghanistan.
1. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince - J K Rowling (£12.99) Latest mighty tome sees Harry in the world of late-teens and a Muggle Prime Minister who bears a strong resemblance to our current one.
2. Reasons to be Cheerful - Mark Steel (£6.99) Comedian Mark Steel rounded off the Festival with an appearance at a packed Hebden Bridge Picture House and The Book Case was present with a bookstall. "Vive la Revolution" also sold well.
3. Millions - Frank Cottrell Boyce (£5.99) The author appeared at Riverside School, won the Carnegie Medal and the film’s been showing at the Picture House. Second month in the top ten for this children’s book about two boys with a big cash dilemma.
4. Findings - Kathleen Jamie (£6.99) Second month in the top ten for last month’s recommended non-fiction title. Observant and beautifully-written nature writing from around Scotland from an award-winning poet.
5. How to Disappear - Amanda Dalton (£6.95) Hebden Bridge author presented this book of "dark, funny, wise, terrifying" poems during the Book Event at the Little Theatre during the Festival.
6. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff (£6.99) This engrossing novel about young love in the English countryside during terrorist attack has featured as both an adult and children’s recommended read and was July’s Daily Mail book of the month.
7. Blackpool Highflyer - Andrew Martin (£10.99) Andrew Martin discussed his fascination with railways and social history at the Little Theatre. This locally-based thriller was our last month’s recommended fiction title.
8. Defying Hitler - Sebastian Haffner (£7.99) Written in 1939 but only recently published, this explanation of how the Nazis managed to exploit Germany’s psychological weaknesses was turned into a one-man play performed during the Festival at the Little Theatre.
9. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (£7.99) Back to the charts for this debut novel set in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion, about a young Afghani's journey to maturity.
10. Secrets She Keeps - Helen Cross
(£9.99) The sequel to "My Summer of Love", a
modern-day morality tale also set in Yorkshire. Helen Cross appeared at the
Little Theatre during the Festival’s book
weekend.
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
"In a world that at the moment seems both constricting and horribly threatening, the book offers a secure, private route to the peculiar territory of the unfettered mind, a place that cannot be policed, invaded, tortured or blown up."
- Robert McCrum, "The World of Books", Observer, 26th July 2005.
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Merrybegot by
Julie Hearn (£5.99) A stunning new novel from the author of
Follow Me Down. A tale of 17th-century West Country witchcraft, it
centres on three young girls: vicar's daughters Grace and dumpy Patience, and
Nell, granddaughter of 'the cunning woman'. When an unwanted pregnancy
coincides with the arrival of witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins, suspicious
eyes are trained on Nell. Readership level: 12+.
CDs:
For our CD selection
this month we have chosen Arvo Part: A Portrait from Naxos.
Released to coincide with Part’s 70th birthday, it is a unique survey of
his career on a two disc set with an 80 page booklet
(£9.99)
Congratulations to local author Geoff Tansey for his selection from over 1,600 applicants by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust as one of seven "Visionaries for a Just and Peaceful World" on a five-year mission to "change the world" by enabling everyone to feed themselves sustainably.
Collected Poems of Ted Hughes
(£16.99)
This massive work due in paperback later in the
month - 1376 pages.
Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted
Hughes - Janet Malcolm (£8.99)
New edition. Examines the
biographies of Sylvia Plath, with particular focus on Anne Stevenson's
controversial 'Bitter Fruit', to discover how Plath became the enigma of
literary history, and how the legend continues to exert such a hold on our
imaginations.
Local
Events
Hebden Bridge Arts
Festival 2005, 25th June - 10 July as follows (literary
content only). All tickets from the Festival Shop on Albert
Street.
Exhibitions of the work of two eminent
children's illustrators:
Quentin Blake, the
first Children's Laureate, 22 June - 24 July (closed Mon.
& Tues.) at Artsmill, Linden Road, 11am-5pm. 60-80
original illustrations, all for sale. Plus a talk by Quentin
Blake on Thursday 21 July at 5.30pm. Tickets
available from the Festival Shop for £5 each. The exhibition will
be open after the talk. A terrific chance to hear one of the best book
illustrators talk. The Book Case has all his books and a range of those
illustrated by him in stock.
Charlotte Voake, 11 June - 10 July,
Festival Shop, New Oxford House, Albert Street, 10am-5pm. Works from
the Magic Pencil Exhibition and original illustrations from A Child's Guide
to Wild Flowers. The Book Case has a range of her books in stock,
including the Smarties winner Ginger.
Events:
Book Weekend at The Little Theatre; The Book Case will have an on-going bookstall in the bar with a range of books relevant to the events:
Friday 1st July, 8pm
Donkey
& Potto: a humorous presentation of the letters between
Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West by Jenny
Tarren & Amanda Waldy
Saturday 2nd July,
1.30-2.30pm
Poets Amanda Dalton & Tobias Hill
will read and discuss their work. Amanda Dalton lives in Hebden Bridge
and is Education Director at the Royal Exchange; Tobias Hill is the author of
three books of poetry and three novels and is written up by the British Council
at www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth242
3.30-4.30pm
Ann &
Anthony Thwaite, biographer and poet respectively, will read from and
discuss their
work
5.30-6.30pm
Andrew Martin,
novelist and New Statesman columnist, will read from and discuss his
work. Blackpool Highflyer, an exciting railway-based historical novel,
is set locally
[Picture House, 8.15pm: "My Summer of Love"
film (see Sunday)]
Sunday 3rd July, 1.30-2.30pm
Helen Cross will read
from and discuss her novels The Secrets She Keeps and My Summer of
Love, which was filmed
locally.
3.30-4.30pm
American poet
Saskia Hamilton will read from her collections and launch her
new book Canal published by Arc of Todmorden
8pm-9.45pm
approx.
Beckett's Outbursts: a presentation created by
publisher John Calder for the Godot Company from Samuel Beckett's works,
focussing on his fascination with human oddity and outbursts of protest. Tragic
and humorous.
Tuesday 5th July, Little
Theatre, 9pm
David Benson's Haunted Stage. The Book Case has in
stock M R James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and other unnerving
books.
Thursday 7th July, Little
Theatre, 8pm
Hugh Lupton & Daniel Morden present Ovid's
Metamorphoses. The Book Case has a selection of editions including Ted
Hughes's version.
Saturday 9th July, Blue Pig,
Midgehole, Hardcastle Crags, 6pm
Poets Helen Clare and Chris Woods
will read from their debut collections. The Book Case is stocking their books
and will supply them for the event.
8pm-9.30pm,
Little Theatre
Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner, adapted for the
stage by Rupert Wickham. The Book Case has in stock the book
of Defying Hitler (£7.99)
Sunday 10th July, 10.15am,
Mytholmroyd
"Ted Hughes in his native landscape" - walks led by
author and historian John Billingsley with reference to Ted
Hughes' locally inspired poems. Book in advance. The Book Case of course keeps
in stock Elmet and Ted Hughes' other poems. Pet crows and jackdaws
welcome, says John, but no dogs.
Sunday 10th July, Picture
House, 8pm
An evening with subversive comedian Mark
Steel. The Book Case is stocking his books and will have a
bookstall in the foyer.
Saturday 23rd July, Picture
House, 8pm
An audience with Michael Mansfield QC,
currently working at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. The
Book Case is stocking his book Home Lawyer
(£14.99).
National Book
Events
Orange Prize Winner
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (£9.99) - about a teenage mass-killer and ambivalence about motherhood
Orange Award for New Writers
26A by Diana
Evans (£10.99 at The Book Case) - part
fairytale and part nightmare; identical twins build their own universe in an
attic while their eccentric parents follow their own
pursuits.
Richard & Judy’s Summer
Read
June 29th The Laments by George Hagen, £7.99 - tragi-comic story of modern American family life
July 6th Eve Green by Susan Fletcher, £7.99 - Whitbread-winning debut novel of childhood, love and loss
July 13th The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn, £6.99 - New York-set romantic comedy about an uptown lady down on her luck
Winner to be announced July 20th.
The Daily Mail Book Club
Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now, £6.99: excellent, suspenseful cross-over novel about teenagers in a Britain under terrorist attack. The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
Next month's selected title
is The Pact by Jody Picoult
Samuel Johnson Non-Fiction Prize
The
winner was Like a Fiery Elephant: the Story of BS Johnson - Jonathan
Coe. B S Johnson was a high-profile but depressive novelist of the
1960s and 1970s. The paperback is now out at £9.99.
Guardian Children's Fiction Longlist
Founded in 1967, the prize has a tradition of finding new voices in children's fiction before the rest of the world is aware of them. Past winners include Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson and Mark Haddon. This year's judges are 2004 winner Meg Rosoff, author Jan Mark, and illustrator Chris Riddell. The panel is chaired by Julia Eccleshare. The shortlist will be published in September, and the winner announced on October 1.
Candy - Kevin
Brooks, £12.99. A chance meeting at King's Cross changes Joe's
life for ever. 13+
Merrybegot - Julie Hearn, £5.99.
Atmospheric historical novel. 10+
Boy in the Burning House
- Tim Wynne-Jones, £4.99. Pacy thriller. When Jim's father dies, he
doesn't need advice from Ruth. 10+
Wolf Brother - Michelle
Paver, £4.99. Torak's task is to kill a bear with the help of
the World Spirit. 9+
Little Gentlemen - Philippa Pearce,
£9.99. Bet meets a talking mole of strong views and very long life.
9+
Brind & the dogs of War - Christopher Russell,
£4.99. Brind and the pack of mastiffs he lives among are taken to France
to fight in the Battle of Crecy
Hunted - Alex Shearer,
£4.99. Tarrin is a child in a society of old people who have traded
fertility for longevity. 11+
New Policeman - Kate Thomson,
£10.99. JJ's mother asks him to give her time for her birthday, so he
heads for Tir na n'Og. 11+
http://books.guardian.co.uk/childrensfictionprize2005/0,16065,1498567,00.html
HIGHLIGHTED
Splendid large-format hardback of Milton's Paradise Lost with Gustav Dore illustrations, £14.99
Wainwright Diaries 2006 and Address Book, with nicely-reproduced full-page illustrations (£9.99, £5.99)
CDs and DVDs
Look out for our new spinner with
NEW
TITLES
There are hardback novels
this month from Julian Barnes, Arturo
Perez-Reverte and Mick Jackson amongst
others and paperback fiction from David Lodge, Louis de Bernieres,
Maeve Binchy, Alexander McCall-Smith, and many others
including lots of international fiction and a welcome
reissue of Alfred Duggan
Non-fiction includes
1. Millions - Frank Cottrell Boyce (£5.99) Two brothers find themselves unexpectedly in possession of huge amounts of soon-to-be-worthless cash. Pizzas or World Peace - which would you choose? Meanwhile the bungling bank robbers are closing in. The author discussed the book and film with enthralled youngsters at Riverside School as part of the Festival.
2. "Times" Su Doku - Wayne Gould (£5.99) The crossword-style brainteaser which uses numbers instead of letters.
3. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson (£6.99) Funny, suspenseful, moving and intricately plotted novel about a private investigator thrown into the middle of three unsolved cases in Cambridge. Daily Mail Book Choice.
4. Elmet - poems by Ted Hughes, photographs by Fay Godwin (£14.99) Poems about the local area by Ted Hughes in response to Fay Godwin's evocative black-and-white photographs. The book is featuring in John Billingsley’s "Ted Hughes in his Native Landscape" walks.
5. Milltown Memories 12: Summer 2005 (£2.80) The summer issue seasonally includes holiday excursions in times past, royal celebrations, the orphans of Luddendean Dean, old Todmorden, Martin Parr, events of 1932, Henpecked Husbands, the fire at St Peter's, Walsden, pigeon fanciers, and the history and conversion of Pecket Well Mill.
6. Love - Toni Morrison (£6.99) Five (six?) women are obsessed with the wealthy owner of the famous Cosey Hotel and Resort; he shapes their yearnings for a father, husband, lover, guardian, and friend, yearnings that dominate the lives of these women long after his death.
7. Findings - Kathleen Jamie (£6.99) The award-winning poet Kathleen Jamie has an eye and an ease with the nature and landscapes of Scotland as well as an incisive sense of our domestic realities.
8. Feet in the Clouds - Richard Askwith (£7.99) A tale of fell-running and obsession, about one of the last sports to remain utterly true to its roots.
9. Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942 (£4.99) Advice on how to cope with the Brits from the War Department, Washington DC, to the GIs on their way to wartime Britain.
10. Gone Walkabout: 24 Walks in the
Upper Calder Valley - Anna Carlisle (£6.00) From local publishers Pennine Pens, a collection of 24
walks which have appeared in the Hebden Bridge Times and Todmorden
News. The walks are designed for the moderately and supremely fit, and are
graded for distance and difficulty.
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
"I do not find that I enjoy waiting for things to happen in a book. You sit there, and all the words you have to take in - it just isn't all that interesting."
- Interviewee quoted in Expanding the Book Market, published by The Bookseller in association with the Arts Council & Book Marketing Ltd, March 2005. (Clearly, they were reading the wrong book - it can happen to the best of us.)
Dear Book Case customer or
contact,
The forecast hot dry summer was a bit shorter than expected,
but never mind, you have the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival to look forward to!
What care we for Hay-on-Wye? Details of the all the bookish events below, but
look out for the little mustard-coloured booklet with the penguin on the cover
or go to http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/festival/2005/index.html for
full information.
(If you do not wish to receive this monthly mailing,
please click on Reply and type CANCEL in the
Subject box.)
THIS MONTH'S
FEATURED BOOKS
We highlight every month books we think
are of particular interest: one from adult fiction, one from adult non-fiction
and a children's title, plus new CDs.
Drowned Wednesday - Garth Nix
(£5.99). Third title in the amazing, thrilling and often scary
series, following Grim Tuesday. Arthur Pehaligon finds himself pitted
against pirates, storms, explosions and a vast beast that eats everything it
encounters.
CDs: Symphony in G
major by
George Dyson (Naxos £4.99) with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by David
Lloyd-Jones. George Dyson was born in Halifax in 1883 but left to study at the
Royal College of Music in 1900 where he later became director.His music is
comparable to Parry and Stanford and in Concerto da Chiesa, also included on
this recording, hints at Vaughan Williams.
NEWS
Local
Interest
Milltown Memories 12: Summer 2005,
£2.80
The summer issue seasonally includes holiday
excursions in times past with photos, royal celebrations, the orphans of
Luddendean Dean, old Todmorden, memories of Martin Parr and two more of his
splendid local photos, events of 1932, Henpecked Husbands, the fire at St
Peter's, Walsden, pigeon fanciers, and the history and conversion of Pecket
Well Mill.
Electric Edwardians: the Films of Mitchell &
Kenyon, DVD, £19.99
A second and more comprehensive selection
of highlights from the 'Mitchell And Kenyon Collection' of films of everyday in
Edwardian Britain under five distinct themes. This collection is close to that
shown at Hebden Picture House and includes "Tram Ride into Halifax 1902".
Pennine Way - Tony Hopkins,
£16.99
This year sees the 40th Anniversary of the
Pennine Way. This is a large format, illustrated celebration of Britain's most
famous long distance footpath. The background text provides the reader with
information on landscape, flora, fauna, agriculture, rural life along the path
and the history of the Pennine Way.
Haworth: a History - Steven
Wood, £7.99
Haworth is mainly known for its association with
the Brontes, but this book looks at other aspects of its history, its former
farming, textile and quarrying industries, its houses, shops, inns, churches,
reservoirs and gasworks, 19th-century popular beliefs, and some less well-known
aspects of the Brontes connection.
Addict - Stephen Smith,
£6.99
Autobiography of a London East Ender who started
thieving as a teenager, was sent to an asylum by his parents and got into drugs
and crime. He ended up sleeping on the streets of Mixenden and St John's,
Halifax, where he remembers the local people as being kind and practical,
eventually helping him back to London and a stable life. The book sold well on
its first release in the 1990s and it's now going to be filmed, partly in
Halifax, by Andy Serkis of Gollum fame.
White Stuff - Simon
Armitage, £7.99
Felix and Hannah are happily married, living
somewhere in the Pennines, but there is a sadness in their lives - they've been
trying to have a baby for five years with no luck.
The Other Ariel, ed. Lynda K
Bundtzen, £9.99
Sylvia Plath's second
collection 'Ariel', published posthumously in 1965, received superb reviews and
became one of the best-selling books of poetry published in the 20th century.
What is less well known is that the poems it contains are not the ones Plath
herself selected when she assembled her manuscript. This book compares Sylvia
Plath's original typescript to the published version.
Body Shots to the Heart - Phil
McGrath, £5.99
Autobiographical novel from Halifax ("Trufax")
ex-boxer about local boy Tyrone Fallon about to confront the British
Featherweight champion but also fighting his own past and the ghost of his
father.
Local
Artist
suelawty - rock - raphia - linen -
lead, £12.50
From local textile artist Sue Lawty a book of
fantastic colour photographs of her work with textures, published by Bankfield
Museum.
Local
Publisher
Hebden Bridge publisher
Pomona (www.pomonauk.co.uk) have two
titles by Barry Hines (Kestrel for a Knave) coming
out in June: The Price of Coal (£9.99), first
published in 1979 when Britain still had a coal industry, and adapted for TV by
Ken Loach, and Looks and Smiles (£9.99), a gritty
social commentary about teenagers growing up in the late 1970's and early
1980's in a working-class suburb of Sheffield.
Local Events
And now, all the fun
& stimulation of the Hebden Bridge Arts
Festival 2005, 25th June - 10 July as follows (literary
content only). All tickets from the Festival Shop on Albert Street; postal
booking only till 11th June.
Exhibitions of the work of
two eminent children's illustrators:
Quentin Blake, the first
Children's Laureate, 22 June - 24 July (closed Mon. &
Tues.) at Artsmill, Linden Road, 11am-5pm. 60-80
original illustrations, all for sale. Plus a talk by Quentin
Blake on Thursday 21 July at 5.30pm. Tickets
available from the Festival Shop for £5 each. The exhibition will
be open after the talk. A terrific chance to hear one of the best book
illustrators talk. The Book Case has all his books and a range of those
illustrated by him in stock.
Charlotte Voake, 11 June - 10 July,
Festival Shop, New Oxford House, Albert Street, 10am-5pm. Works from
the Magic Pencil Exhibition and original illustrations from A Child's Guide
to Wild Flowers. The Book Case has a range of her books in stock,
including the Smarties winner Ginger.
Events:
Saturday 25th June and Sunday 10th
July, 10.15am, Mytholmroyd
"Ted Hughes in his native landscape" -
walks led by author and historian John Billingsley with
reference to Ted Hughes' locally inspired poems. Book in advance. The Book Case
of course keeps in stock Elmet and Ted Hughes' other poems. Pet crows
and jackdaws welcome, says John, but no dogs.
Wednesday 29th June, 3pm, Riverside
School (not 30th June as in leaflet)
Frank Cottrill Boyce
is working with Years 5 & 6, and the event will be opened to
the public at 3pm. His book Millions is on sale at The Book
Case, and the film, directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) has
recently been released in the UK.
Wednesday 29th June, 8pm, Little
Theatre
Renowned playwright Arnold Wesker will
read from published and unpublished plays. The Book Case will be running a
bookstall.
Thursday 30th June, 8pm, Hebden
Bridge Picture House
Kerouac's Dream - a Life on the Road,
presented by Allan Taylor. The Book Case has Jack
Kerouac's On the Road (£7.99) in stock.
Book Weekend at The Little Theatre; The Book Case will have an on-going bookstall in the bar with a range of books relevant to the events:
Friday 1st July, 8pm
Donkey
& Potto: a humorous presentation of the letters between
Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West by Jenny
Tarren & Amanda Waldy
Saturday 2nd
July, 1.30-2.30pm
Poets Amanda Dalton & Tobias Hill
will read and discuss their work. Amanda Dalton lives in Hebden Bridge
and is Education Director at the Royal Exchange; Tobias Hill is the author of
three books of poetry and three novels and is written up by the British Council
at www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth242
3.30-4.30pm
Ann & Anthony Thwaite, biographer and poet
respectively, will read from and discuss their
work
5.30-6.30pm
Andrew
Martin, novelist and New Statesman columnist, will read from and
discuss his work. Blackpool Highflyer, an exciting railway-based
historical novel, is set locally
[Picture House, 8.15pm: "My
Summer of Love" film (see Sunday)]
Sunday 3rd July, 1.30-2.30pm
Helen Cross
will read from and discuss her novels The Secrets She Keeps
and My Summer of Love, which was filmed
locally.
3.30-4.30pm
American poet Saskia Hamilton will
read from her collections and launch her new book Canal published by
Arc of Todmorden
8pm-9.45pm approx.
Beckett's
Outbursts: a presentation created by publisher John Calder for
the Godot Company from Samuel Beckett's works, focussing on his fascination
with human oddity and outbursts of protest. Tragic and humorous.
Tuesday 5th July, Little Theatre,
8pm
David Benson's Haunted Stage. The Book Case has in stock M R
James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and other unnerving
books.
Thursday 7th July, Little Theatre,
8pm
Hugh Lupton & Daniel Morden present Ovid's
Metamorphoses. The Book Case has a selection of editions including Ted
Hughes's version.
Saturday 9th July, Blue Pig,
Midgehole, Hardcastle Crags, 6pm
Poets Helen Clare and Chris Woods
will read from their debut collections. The Book Case is stocking their books
and will supply them for the event.
8pm-9.30pm, Little Theatre
Defying Hitler by
Sebastian Haffner, adapted for the stage by Rupert Wickham.
The Book Case has in stock the book of Defying Hitler
(£7.99)
Sunday 10th July, Picture House,
8pm
An evening with subversive comedian Mark
Steel. The Book Case is stocking his books and will have a
bookstall in the foyer.
Saturday 23rd July, Picture House,
8pm
An audience with Michael Mansfield QC,
currently working at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. The
Book Case is stocking his book Home Lawyer
(£14.99).
National Book
Events
The new Children's Laureate is popular author Jacqueline Wilson, who takes over from Michael Morpurgo. The Book Case remembers with awe the enthusiasm of her reception at Hebden Bridge Cinema! She believes in the importance of parents reading to their children. Go to http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1492070,00.html?gusrc=rss for more information.
Richard & Judy’s Summer Read
June 8th The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud by Ben Sherwood, £6.99 - coming-of-age novel set in contemporary America
June 15th The Food of Love by Anthony Capella, £6.99 - culinary re-working of Cyrano de Bergerac complete with Italian recipes
June 22nd Good News, Bad News by David Wolstencraft, £6.99 - espionage thriller from the creator of the stylish TV-spy series, "Spooks"
June 29th The Laments by George Hagen, £7.99 - tragi-comic story of modern American family life
July 6th Eve Green by Susan Fletcher, £7.99 - Whitbread-winning debut novel of childhood, love and loss
July 13th The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn, £6.99 - New York-set romantic comedy about an uptown lady down on her luck
Winner to be announced July 20th.
The Daily Mail Book Club
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, £6.99: Funny, suspenseful and intricately plotted novel about a private investigator thrown into the middle of three unsolved cases in Cambridge. The Book Case accepts Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
The selected titles for
the next two months are Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now and The
Pact by Jody Picoult
Samuel Johnson Non-Fiction Shortlist
Like a Fiery Elephant: the Story of BS Johnson -
Jonathan Coe, pb due July
Stuart: a Life Lived
Backwards - Alexander Masters. In stock, £12.99. The
turbulent life of a brilliant and difficult homeless man and alcoholic, told in
reverse.
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found - Suketu
Mehta, £20. The story of Mumbai, told by a writer who
returns to the city after 21 years' absence.
Istanbul: Memories
of a city - Orhan Pamuk. In stock, £16.99. Novelist Orhan Pamuk
explores the city that has been his home for 50 years.
Matisse,
the Master - Hilary Spurling, £25. A definitive two-volume
biography, 15 years in the making, drawing on previously unavailable
material.
The Italian Boy - Sarah Wise, £7.99, in
stock. A series of shocking crimes in London's East End that led to
controversial legislation.
Winner to be announced on Tuesday 14
June.
____________________________________
NEW
TITLES
There are hardback novels this month from
Doris Lessing, Umberto Eco, Jonathan S Foer, Susan Hill
and Paolo Coelho amongst others and paperback fiction from
Kate Atkinson, Annie Proulx, Simon Armitage, Alexander McCall-Smith,
Douglas Coupland, Hari Kunzru and many others.
Non-fiction includes
2. "Times" Su Doku - Wayne Gould (£5.99) The crossword-style brainteaser which uses numbers instead of letters has taken Hebden Bridge by storm along with the rest of the country. The author is a retired judge from New Zealand who lives in Hong Kong, and he took the idea from a puzzle book he bought in Tokyo. Su means "number" in Japanese and Doku is "singular" or maybe "bachelor".
3. The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon (DVD) (£19.99) The CD of the BBC programmes presented by Dan Cruickshank with lots of footage of the everyday lives of people at work and play in the early 1900s. Soon to be joined by "The Electric Edwardians" which includes "Tram ride into Halifax, 1902". Vanessa Toulmin, the editor of the associated book, presented the films to a packed cinema on 19th May.
4.The State of Poetry - Roger McGough (£1.50) The most popular of the 70 titles including in Penguin Books’ 70th Birthday Promotion. This one is a collection of humorous and quirky short verse and aphorisms by the popular Merseyside poet.
5. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (£7.99) A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850, and a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization. Booker-shortlisted and a Richard & Judy choice.
6. South Pennines OL21 Explorer map (£7.49) At a new and strange price, the local large-format map for walkers including footpaths and the Pennine Way.
7. Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (£7.99) Engrossing, informative and memorable novel told by the wife and four daughters of an American evangelical Baptist who sets off to preach the word to the Belgian Congo in 1959.
8. Small Island - Andrea Levy (£7.99) Orange and Whitbread winner set in 1948 London at the onset of West Indian immigration to Britain after the Second World War.
9. Alice’s Album: the Story of a Hebden Bridge Photographer's Studio - I. Shannon and F. Woolrych (£10.95) The illustrated story of Alice Longstaff and her studio, and of Crossley Westerman who founded the studio in the early 1890s.
10. Instructions
for American Servicemen in Britain 1942 (£4.99) Apparently covered in
brown paper, this little book contains advice from the War Department,
Washington DC, to the GIs about to find themselves in a strange, reserved,
grimy, dowdy and hungry - but stoical - country. Plus advice on how to
pronounce 3d.
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
"[Japanese] publishers are responding quickly to a growing interest in entire works of fiction and non-fiction that can be read on mobile phones."
Guardian Weekly, April 29-May 5 2005 "Mobiles turn a page in Japan"
Local prize-winning
novelist, poet and writer of radio plays and programmes Glyn
Hughes celebrates his 70th birthday this month and we wish him many
happy returns. See http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Localauthors.htm
or go to http://www.bookcase.co.uk/thebookcase.htm and click on Local Authors for a brief
biography. His own page can be found at http://www.glynhughes.co.uk/. We're
delighted to hear that his first book of poetry for 25 years is due this
autumn, from Shoestring Press, and we'll keep you informed.
Julia
Darling
We were sorry to learn that Julia Darling died on 13th
April. Two of her books of poetry were published by Arc Publications of
Todmorden, and she appeared with her
friend the writer Jackie Kay at Hebden Bridge Little Theatre in July 2003, as
part of the Arts Festival, presenting her book of poetry Sudden Collapses in
Public Places, which deals movingly and humorously with breast cancer.
Julia lived in Newcastle and her website is at
http://www.juliadarling.co.uk/ Her best-known novels are The Taxi Driver's Daughter
and Crocodiile Soup.
AD
500: a Journey through the Dark Isles of Britain and Ireland - Simon
Young (£13.99)
From a former Hebden Bridge man, a novel
written as a practical survival guide for the use of civilised visitors to the
barbaric islands of Britain and Ireland. The Romans have left, and the islands
are now fought over by Irish, British Celts, Picts and Saxons. It is a
dangerous world, full of tribal war and social
pitfalls.
Local Publisher
Hebden Bridge publisher Pomona have a new title out this month KICKED INTO
TOUCH (PLUS EXTRA-TIME) by Fred Eyre (£9.99) Founding father of football
literature Fred Eyre’s classic - fully revised and updated
Local Interest
Railway Moods: the
Keighley & Worth Valley Railway - Mike Heath
(£12.99)
Photographic journey highlighting the diversity of the
landscape, the effect of the changing seasons and weather, and the various
events associated with the railway. The railway is of course also famous
for its association with the original film of The Railway Children by
E. Nesbit. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the book, Jenny Agutter is
visiting Haworth Park on 1st May to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust
Local Events
National Book Events
BBC Page Turners
We haven't noticed this programme making much difference to sales, although some of the titles listed are excellent and good sellers anyway. We'd be glad to hear of your reactions. We didn't get the dates in time to include them in the last newsletter so made do with a poster in the shop window.
__________________________________________
The Richard and Judy Best Read of the
Year Award 2005 was Cloud
Atlas by David Mitchell,
£7.99 and in stock. I thought it was going to be Time
Traveller's Wife ...
The other British Book
Awards 2005 announced on 22nd April were as
follows:
Book of the Year - The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown, in
stock
Author of the Year - Sheila Hancock (The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw, paperback due July)
Biography of the Year - My Life by Bill Clinton
Literary Fiction Award - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Lifetime Achievement Award - Sir John Mortimer (needs no explanation)
Children's Book Of The Year - The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson, in stock
Crime Thriller Of The Year - Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin, in stock
Writer Of The Year - Hari Kunzru (author of The Impressionist, in stock, with Transmission following soon in paperback)
Newcomer Of The Year - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (pb due Sept.)
Sports Book Of The Year - Gazza: My Story by Paul Gascoigne
TV & Film Book Of The Year - Himalaya by Michael Palin (a big seller at Christmas, pb due June)
Orange Prize Short List
The Orange Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing. The Shortlist was announced on 18th April as follows:
Billie Morgan by Joolz
Denby (in stock)
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
(hardback)
The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman (in
stock)
A Short
History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (in
stock)
Liars and
Saints by Maile Meloy (out of stock)
We Need to Talk
About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (in stock)
http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/2005prize/shortlist/index.html
The New Writers Shortlist was announced on 25th April 2005, as follows:
Diana Evans' 26A -
part fairytale and part nightmare; identical twins build their own
universe in an attic while their eccentric parents follow their own pursuits
(in stock)
Lucky Girls - Nell Freudenberger - five stories
set in Asia; rootless characters find themselves repelled by or attracted to
unfamiliar landscapes
How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff -
gripping, fast-moving, funny and frightening story of teenagers
surviving in the countryside of an England under terrorist attack.
Both winners will be announced 7th June 2005.
Samuel Johnson Non-Fiction Longlist
Rather more inspiring than last year's, the long list can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson/longlist.shtml; the shortlist will be announced on 12 May and the winner on Tuesday 14 June. The chair of judges is Sue McGregor and the list features five historical biographies, two science books and two works by first-time authors. It includes Perdita, Will in the World, Istanbul, A Little History of British Gardening and Bury the Chains (on the early British anti-slavery movement).
New fiction has been popular in April - no doubt as a result of the wet weather - and a children’s fiction title is currently top in the The Book Case’s bestseller list.
1. Ark Angel - Anthony Horowitz (£6.99)
Sixth in the explosive Alex Rider series - this children’s title has taken Hebden Bridge by storm and is well in front in April’s bestseller list. Alex is in hospital and determined to put his spying days behind him - but the reluctant teenage superspy is forced into action once again when a group of deadly eco-terrorists breaks in.".
2. Small Island - Andrea Levy (£7.99)
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction last year and the Whitbread Book of the Year in January this year, set in London in 1948, the story is a comedy of errors, misunderstandings and prejudice at the onset of West Indian immigration to Britain after the Second World War.
3. South Pennines and the Bronte Moors - Andrew Bibby (£7.99)
Published in time for the start of the walking season, this is the most local in a series of three new Freedom to Roam guides, written and edited by a Hebden Bridge author, with twelve walks through moorland countryside, maps, comments and photos. Other titles in the series are "The Forest of Bowland" and "The Pennine Divide".
4.You Are What You Eat Cookbook- Dr Gillian McKeith (£14.99)
Following the success of the first book made popular by Channel Four TV, the cookbook puts Dr Gillian McKeith’s healthy food philosophy into action and provides over 200 recipes and menu plans for healthy eating
5. Heptonstall Trail - Pennine Heritage & Hebden Bridge Local History Society (£1.95)
Now available again in a new edition, a walk around Heptonstall with information on historical points of interest, with map and photos old and new.
6. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (£7.99)
Originally published in paperback last year - this story of a teenager’s resolve to win the local kite-fighting tournament in his Afghan village at the time of the Russian invasion is a timely reminder of the tragic effects of class conflict and war.
7. Milltown Memories 11
(£2.80)
The spring edition
features Knur and Spell, Alice Longstaff, Todmorden 109 years ago, the Moderna
Drama Society, Nazebottom Baptist Church, Martin Parr's wonderful local photos
in the 1970s, holidays in Hardcastle Crags in the 1940s, and lots
more.
8. The Whaleboat House - Mark Mills (£6.99)
This crime novel is set on Long Island at the end of the Second World War and is a complex and compelling excursion into the collision of two unfamiliar worlds - the community of local fishermen who have fished the Atlantic waters for centuries and New York socialites.
9. Weird Calderdale - Paul
Weatherhead (£7.99)
Strange and
incredible events from the Calderdale area ranging from UFOs in Todmorden to a
vampire infesting Robin Hood's grave near Brighouse.
10. Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry - Rob Sitch et al (£8.99)
The funniest book about travel you will ever read: a travel guide to the fictional European republic Molvania, birthplace of the polka and whooping cough!
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
"and I said to him when you learn to read you learn everything you didnt know before. But when you write you write only what you know allready" - Umberto Eco, Baudolino, Ch. 1
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
British Railways Past & Present: Yorkshire, the West Riding, Part 1 (No. 48) - John Hillmer & Paul Shannon (£15.99) One of a series of books featuring photographs of railway locations taken several decades ago and comparing them with the same scene today. This one covers Halifax, Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds, plus Skipton, Airedale, Wharfedale, Dewsbury, Harrogate and York.
Yorkshire's Great Houses - Sir Thomas Ingilby (£19.99) Goes behind the scenes to discover what daily life is like for staff and owners, from the incumbent of Ripley Castle. Colour illustrations.
Pennine Way North, Central and South maps (£9.95 each) Each map covers a section suitable for a comfortable week of walking. Includes day walks. Waterproof, with accommodation and service info.
Heptonstall Trail - Pennine Heritage & HB Local History Society (£1.95) Now available again in a new edition, a walk around Heptonstall with information on historical points of interest, with map and photos old and new.
Remnants of a Youth Club -
Alice Cachjeka (£7.99)
Not strictly local, as
Burnley-based, but two of the authors worked at Mons Mill! Features on the
Guardian's Readers' Books of the Year page at http://books.guardian.co.uk/booksoftheyear2004/story/0,15602,1381091,00.html, which calls it "a true story of how five friendships formed and
developed. It starts in the early 1950's, graphically depicting life in a poor
East Lancashire town and how they coped in leaner times. It follows the girls'
friendship through their teenage years and beyond" to the early death of one of
their number. The book's got its own website at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/guardiansofavalon/remnants.htm The "author"'s surname is an amalgam of the first letters of the
women's Christian names.
Local Authors
One
Summer: Romance, Redundancy and Rugby League in the 1980s - Geoff Lee
(£8.95)
Third in
a series of four novels on the general theme of Northern working-class life in
the Rugby League heartlands in the second half of the twentieth century, from a
former Halifax draughtsman. This one's set in the fictional town of Ashurst on
the old South Lancashire coalfield, just before the 1984 miners' strike. The
main character is from Mytholmroyd.
National Book Events
BBC Page
Turners
Hot on the heels of Richard and Judy, the BBC is launching its own daytime TV books programme to showcase 24 new books, all to be championed by famous authors and entertainers, and hosted by Newsnight presenter Jeremy Vine. The programme will go out on BBC1, 09.15-10.00 every Monday and Friday in April, each programme will explore three titles, and the books - a mixture of fiction and non-fiction - to be advocated are as follows:
About Grace by Anthony Doerr,
£7.99
Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean,
£6.99
Chronicles Volume One by Bob Dylan, £16.99
Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin, £7.99
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, £7.99
Fools Rush In by Bill Carter, £7.99
How To Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer, £7.99
Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean, £4.99 (children's)
How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes, £7.99
Feast: Food That Celebrates Life by Nigella Lawson, £25.00
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, £15.99
Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest, £7.99
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, £6.99
The Understudy by David Nicholls, £12.99
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi, £16.99
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, £12.99
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve, £6.99
Let Me Go by Helga Schneider, £6.99
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, £7.99
The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe, £7.99
Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl, £9.99 (7 April)
Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami, £12.99
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, £9.99
The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen,
£16.99 (pb due June)
Find out more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/pageturners
__________________________________________
Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year Award 2005
The famous pair have finished their discussions of their selected
books, and the winner of the Best Read will be announced at the
British Book Awards on Friday 22nd April 2005. You can still
vote at http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/R/richardandjudy/book_club/book_club_05_vote.html
_____________________________________________
The new biennial Man Booker International Prize will complement the annual prize by recognising one writer's achievement in literature and their significant influence on writers and readers worldwide. John Carey, who chairs the judges, commented: "This new prize will reward high international achievement, but unlike other global prizes, it will target fiction in English, or translated into English, and so will celebrate English-language fiction as a major cultural force in the modern world."
John
Carey commented: "For us, these are eighteen authors who combine uniqueness and
universality and remind us irresistibly of the joy of reading."
The other two judges were
Alberto Manguel and Azar Nafis and the winner will be announced in June. For more info
go to www.manbookerinternational.com We
have most of these authors in stock.
________________________________________________
Orange Prize Long List
The Orange Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing. The Longlist (including Kate Atkinson and Anita Desai, and the wonderfully titled We Need to Talk about Kevin) was announced on 14th March - see http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/2005prize/longlist/index.html - and the Shortlist is due 18th April with a New Writers Shortlist on 25th April 2005. Both winners will be announced 7th June 2005.
Andrew Bibby’s new walking books, successfully launched in early March, and the World Book Day £1 Specials left not much room for other titles, so we’ve just featured the most popular of each of the blockbusters! Novels were still popular in March, and Eddie Cass’s talk in Heptonstall Church gave a boost to the Pace Egg book, with the spring edition of Milltown Memories and a children’s book making up the remainder.
1. South Pennines and the Bronte Moors - Andrew Bibby (£7.99) This one even saw off the lead World Book Day title! The most local of the new Freedom to Roam guides, written and edited by a Hebden Bridge author, with twelve new walks through moorland countryside, maps, comments and photos. Other popular titles in the series were "The Forest of Bowland" and "The Pennine Divide".
2. Horrid Henry’s Bedtime - Francesca Simon (£1.00) The most popular of the World Book Day £1 Specials: four new stories about the fiendish brat. The next most popular were Garth Nix’s "Creatures in the Case" and Benedict Blathwayt’s "Night Flight for the Little Red Train".
3. Fountain at the Centre of the World - Rob Newman (£7.99) Fast-moving political novel about the struggle to stop a global corporation monopolising a Mexican community’s water supply, presented by the author to a packed and appreciative audience at the Trades Club.
4. Small Island - Andrea Levy (£7.99) Whitbread and Orange Prize winner. Explores a point in England’s past when the country began to change through the story of the interaction of shabby post-war Londoners and Jamaican immigrants.
5. Milltown Memories 11 (£2.80) The spring edition features Knur and Spell, Alice Longstaff, Todmorden 109 years ago, the Moderna Drama Society, Nazebottom Baptist Church, Martin Parr's wonderful local photos in the 1970s, holidays in Hardcastle Crags in the 1940s, and lots more.
6. Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (£6.99) Unusual and magical story of a man with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: he travels through time, but his wife can’t, with harrowing and funny results. Will this one be the Richard & Judy winner?
7. Pace Egg Plays of the Calder Valley - Dr. Eddie Cass (£6.99) History of the popular local versions of the Pace-Egg play, paying tribute to the people who kept them going. The author gave a talk on the subject in Heptonstall Church on Good Friday, supported with slides by Frank Woolrych.
8. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (£7.99) A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850, and a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization. Booker-shortlisted and a Richard & Judy choice.
9. Anti-Colouring Book - Susan Striker (£4.99) This original colouring book is still selling well.
10. Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (£6.99) The bestselling thriller about esoteric societies, suppressed truths and lots of excitement along the way.
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’re not really an adult as the narrator. The narrator is the most rich, subtle and surprising character in the whole of English literature - in the whole of literature. The narrator - because he, she or it - is ageless, amoral, curious, wise, cynical - androgynous, certainly - spritelike - not like a human being at all, actually."
- Philip Pullman, interviewed by Melvyn Bragg, South Bank Show, 20/12/2004
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
Milltown Memories
11: Spring 2005, £2.80
The spring edition features Knur and Spell, which looks a bit violent,
Alice Longstaff, Todmorden 109 years ago, the Moderna Drama Society, Nazebottom
Baptist Church, Martin Parr's wonderful local photos in the 1970s, holidays in
Hardcastle Crags in the 1940s, and lots more.
A reminder that
Andrew Bibby's new Freedom to Roam
Guides,
South Pennines and Bronte Moors
Forest
of Bowland with Pendle Hill and West Pennine Moors, and
The
Pennine Divide: Walking the Moors Between Greater Manchester and Yorkshire
(£7.99 each)
will be launched Friday 4th March, 6.30-8.00pm at the Hebden Bridge Festival Shop, Albert Street. Wine will be served and the books will be available at the special price of £6.50. Produced in association with the Ramblers' Association, they offer an introduction to the area: its landscape, history and natural history; 12 free-range rambles, graded for difficulty; a full-page 4-colour OS map for each walk; plus points of interest, practical info and a guide to public rights of access.
Licensed to Sell -
Andrew Davison, Geoff Brandwood and Michael Slaughter,
£14.99
From English Heritage, a book celebrating traditional
pubs throughout Yorkshire, including The Three Pigeons and the Big 6 in
Halifax. One of the authors is from Sowerby Bridge, and the foreword is by Bill
Bryson.
Leeds & Liverpool
Canal Part 1 video, £12.99
"A heavy duty canal, not for the
faint-hearted." This video covers the Eastern section from Leeds to the summit
tunnel at Foulridge.
Easy Read West Yorkshire
Street Atlas, £12.99
Extra-large scale, covering streets,
courts, alleys, houses and estates as well as the main roads, and with enlarged
maps of Bradford, Halifax, Leeds and Wakefield city centres.
Yorkshire Villages -
Bernard Ingham (£8.99)
Now in paperback, a photographic
portrait.
Local Authors
National Book Events
Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year Award 2005
The following titles are being discussed till 23rd March, with the winner of the Best Read announced at the British Book Awards on Friday 22nd April 2005.
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (£7.99). A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850, and a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization. Booker-shortlisted. Review Date: 2nd March
Sixth Lamentation - William Brodrick (£6.99). A man accused of war atrocities claims sanctuary at a monastery. Review Date: 9th March
My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult (£6.99 due mid-Jan). Anna was conceived as a bone-marrow donor for her elder sister who has leukaemia. As a teenager, she finally makes a momentous decision. Review Date: 16th March
Perdita: the Life of Mary Robinson - Paula Byrne (£8.99) Biography of flamboyant, scandalous eighteenth-century actress, blackmailer and friend of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Review Date: 23rd March
It’s been a big month for fiction at The Book Case, whose customers took one look at the weather and sensibly curled up with a good book, helped by Richard & Judy. Two of the local-interest favourites retained a foothold, two children’s books made an appearance, and a local performance to help stop violence against women promoted sales of "The Vagina Monologues".
1. Small Island - Andrea
Levy (£7.99) Whitbread and Orange Prize winner. Explores a point in England’s
past when the country began to change through the story of the interaction of
shabby post-war Londoners and Jamaican immigrants.
2. Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (£6.99) Customers were buying this enthusiastically even before Richard & Judy presented it. Strange story of a man with Chrono-Displacement Disorder, which makes things a bit difficult for his wife.
3. Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (£6.99) The bestselling thriller, about to be filmed, about esoteric societies, suppressed truths and lots of excitement along the way. Tony Robinson investigated its premises on Channel 4: some of it is true!
4. A Race through Time (video/DVD) - Nick Wilding (DVD £12.99, video £9.99) Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd's first road movie - a filmed car journey from Cragg Vale to Heptonstall Road with the 1947 and modern version shown side-by-side plus archive photographs, commentary and memories.
5. Alice’s Album: the Story of a Hebden Bridge Photographer's Studio - Issy Shannon and Frank Woolrych (£10.95) The illustrated story of Alice Longstaff and her studio, and of Crossley Westerman who founded the studio in the early 1890s.
6. The American Boy - A Taylor (£7.99) Multi-layered literary murder mystery and love story. The American boy is Edgar Allan Poe. Another Richard & Judy choice.
7. Saturday - Ian McEwan (£15.99 at The Book Case) One single day in February 2003 changes the life of a successful neurosurgeon, happily married, troubled by the state of the world and involved in a minor car accident with a small-time thug. Well done to Ian McEwan for getting to the Book Case Top 10 with a hardback! Can Ishiguro pull off the same achievement?
8. Anti-Colouring Book - Susan Striker (£4.99) Nothing like an ordinary colouring book - it’s completely original! Nice new edition.
9. Wide Window - Lemony Snicket (£6.99) No. 3 in this sad series about the unfortunate Baudelaire orphans; this one includes a hurricane, a signalling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain and a doll named Pretty Penny.
10. Vagina Monologues -
Eve Ensler (£7.99) Tied in with the V-day performances in
support of stopping violence against women, this is a funny and moving
celebration of women’s sexuality and condemnation of its violation. Also
available in audio version.
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
"I haven’t found a drug yet that can get you anywhere near as high as sitting at a desk writing, trying to imagine a story no matter how bizarre it is."
Hunter S Thompson, quoted by Paul Theroux, Guardian Weekly, May 29-June 4
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
MARCH:
LIGHT ON SNOW by Anita
Shreve £6.99
The moving story of a father-daughter relationship,
fractured by family tragedy.
APRIL:
THESE
FOOLISH THINGS - Deborah Moggach,
£6.99
A comedy of manners and
modern mores from the author of Tulip
Fever.
MAY:
THE LAST FAMILY IN ENGLAND -
Matt Haig, £6.99
The book
that Daily Mail readers have been waiting for, a tale of family life and canine
responsibility narrated by a Black Labrador
Produced in association with the Ramblers' Association, they offer an introduction to the area: its landscape, history and natural history; 12 free-range rambles, graded for difficulty; a full-page 4-colour OS map for each walk; plus points of interest, practical info and a guide to public rights of access.
These books and other books in the series will be launched on
Friday 4th March, 6.30-8.00pm
at the Hebden Bridge Festival Shop, Albert Street.
Wine will be served and the books will be available at the special price of £6.50.
Expected soon: Pace Egg Play video, Leeds & Liverpool Canal video
Local Authors
National Book Events
Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year Award 2005
The following titles are being discussed till 23rd March, with the winner of the Best Read announced at the British Book Awards on Friday 22nd April 2005. See Bestsellers for the first two titles and an early run on the sixth!
Promise of Happiness - Justin Cartwright (£7.99) A family is angry, confused and threatened when a daughter is convicted of art theft in New York. Review Date: 2nd February
Feel - Robbie Williams and Chris Heath (£7.99) The singer’s life story. Review Date: 9th February
Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler (£6.99) Six people meet in California’s Central Valley to discuss Jane Austen; meanwhile their own lives unfold. Review Date: 16th February
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (£16.99; pb due late Feb.) A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850, and a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization. Booker-shortlisted. Review Date: 2nd March
Sixth Lamentation - William Brodrick (£6.99). A man accused of war atrocities claims sanctuary at a monastery. Review Date: 9th March
My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult (£6.99 due mid-Jan). Anna was conceived as a bone-marrow donor for her elder sister who has leukaemia. As a teenager, she finally makes a momentous decision. Review Date: 16th March
Perdita: the Life of Mary Robinson - Paula Byrne (£8.99) Biography of flamboyant, scandalous eighteenth-century actress, blackmailer and friend of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Review Date: 23rd March
Whitbread Book Awards
Local books and videos continued to
dominate the bestsellers list at The Book Case throughoutJanuary but when
Richard and Judy launched their second Book Club on Channel 4 on the
12th
January three titles on their list quickly made their mark.
1. Alice’s Album: the Story of a Hebden Bridge Photographer's Studio - Issy Shannon and Frank Woolrych (£10.95) Back at the top, the illustrated story of Alice Longstaff and her studio, and of Crossley Westerman who founded the studio in the early 1890s.
2. A Race through Time (video/DVD) - Nick Wilding (DVD £12.99, video £9.99) Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd's first road movie - a filmed car journey from Cragg Vale to Heptonstall Road with the 1947 and modern version shown side-by-side plus archive photographs, commentary and memories.
3. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£7.99) Strange events from the Calderdale area, ranging from UFOs in Todmorden to a vampire infesting Robin Hood's grave near Brighouse.
4. Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (£6.99) The second of the titles featured by Richard and Judy is a strange novel in which an unusual illness finds a married couple struggling to lead a normal life in the face of a force they can neither prevent nor control
5. Thrum Hall Greats - Robert Gate (£12.99) “Halifax Heroes 1945-1998”. Halifax have enjoyed and suffered wider extremes of success and failure than most clubs, and this commemoration of 100 notable Thrum Hallers comes from a Thrum Hall faithful.
6. The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler (£6.99) Another Richard and Judy choice: Six people meet in California’s Central Valley to discuss Jane Austen; meanwhile their own lives unfold.
7. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff (£10.99) One of the Book Case’s recommendations for last month, this crossover novel focuses on the lives of adolescents in a British countryside under terrorist attack.
8. Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (£9.99) A Richard & Judy choice and Spanish bestseller - a 10-year-old boy chooses a book by Julian Carax from the “cemetery of lost books” in old Barcelona in 1945; but other people - and the devil - are also interested.
9. Songs of Garden Birds (£9.95) From the British Library’s Sound Archive, a collection of the typical songs and calls of the 52 bird species most commonly found in British gardens.
10. Moleskine Diary
2005 (£14.99) One of the posh Moleskine series as used by
Matisse, Hemingway, Chatwin et al.
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 absence of imagination is cruelly noticeable at every level of the American society, and though a reading of E. Nesbit is hardly going to change the pattern of a nation, there is some evidence that the child who reads her will never be quite the same again, and that is probably a good thing."
- Gore Vidal - "The Writing of E. Nesbit", New York Review of Books, Dec. 3, 1964 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13132
Dear Book Case customer or contact,
We say goodbye to 2004, but sadly not to its terrible legacy. Anyway, we wish you all a safe, peaceful and happy 2005.
National Book
Events
Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year Award 2005
The following titles will be discussed from 12th January to 23rd March, with the winner of the Best Read announced at the British Book Awards on Friday 22nd April 2005.
Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (£9.99). Spanish bestseller - a 10-year-old boy chooses a book by Julian Carax from the “cemetery of lost books” in old Barcelona in 1945; but other people - and the devil - are also interested. Review Date: 12th January
Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (£6.99) The story of Clare and Henry, who are married - but Henry has chrono-displacement disorder, so he can travel in time. Review Date: 19th January
American Boy - Andrew Taylor (£7.99) Literary historical crime novel set in 1819 England. Review Date: 26th January
Promise of Happiness - Justin Cartwright (£7.99) A family is angry, confused and threatened when a daughter is convicted of art theft in New York. Review Date: 2nd February
Feel - Robbie Williams and Chris Heath (£18.99; pb due end Jan.) The singer’s life story. Review Date: 9th February
Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler (£12.99, pb due early Feb.) Six people meet in California’s Central Valley to discuss Jane Austen; meanwhile their own lives unfold. Review Date: 16th February
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (£16.99; pb due late Feb.) A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850, and a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization. Booker-shortlisted. Review Date: 2nd March
Sixth Lamentation - William Brodrick (£6.99). A man accused of war atrocities claims sanctuary at a monastery. Review Date: 9th March
My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult (£18.99, pb £6.99 due mid-Jan). Anna was conceived as a bone-marrow donor for her elder sister who has leukaemia. As a teenager, she finally makes a momentous decision. Review Date: 16th March
Perdita: the Life of Mary Robinson - Paula Byrne (£20.00; pb £7.99 due mid-Jan.) Biography of flamboyant, scandalous eighteenth-century actress, blackmailer and friend of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Review Date: 23rd March
Whitbread Book Awards
Books and videos with a local theme again took pride of place for The Book Case’s Christmas shoppers and ranged from a road movie to vampires. Two popular novels returned to the charts, and We’moon made up the remainder. Bob Dylan, Meg Rosoff’s nail-biter “How I Live Now” and John Morrison’s “Moods of the Bronte Moors” tied for next place.
1. A Race through Time - Nick Wilding (DVD £12.99, video £9.99) Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd's first road movie - a filmed car journey from Cragg Vale to Heptonstall Road with the 1947 and modern version shown side-by-side plus archive photographs, commentary and memories.
2. Alice’s Album: the Story of a Hebden Bridge Photographer's Studio - Issy Shannon and Frank Woolrych (£10.95) The illustrated story of Alice Longstaff and her studio, and of Crossley Westerman who founded the studio in the early 1890s.
3. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£7.99) Strange and incredible events from the Calderdale area, ranging from UFOs in Todmorden to a vampire infesting Robin Hood's grave near Brighouse.
4. My Summer of Love - Helen Cross (£6.99) A hot Yorkshire summer in 1984 and two very different teenage girls meet. The film was shot locally and Helen Cross discussed the book and film at Hebden Bridge Picture House.
5. We’Moon Diary 2005 (£14.99) Gaia Rhythms for Womyn diary on the theme of Sacred Paths.
6. Milltown Memories No. 10 (£2.80) Winter issue including 200 years of the Rochdale Canal, Ted Hughes plus much more still selling strongly.
7. Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (£6.99) Highly-readable thriller involving the Grail, da Vinci, the Louvre, Opus Dei and goodness knows what.
8. Discovering Calderdale, Part 1 - video/DVD - Glyn Lee & P J Thornton (£12.99 each) A journey through some of the most interesting towns and villages of Calderdale, including Norland, Midgley, Luddenden, Cragg Vale and Walsden.
9. Gone Walkabout: 24 Walks in the Upper Calder Valley - Anna Carlisle (£6.00) Brave walkers kept this this locally-published collection of 24 walks in the charts.
10. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon (£4.99) Christmas boost for this story of a detective investigation told by a teenage sufferer from Asperger’s syndrome.
BESTSELLERS OF 2004: 1.
Pace-Egg Plays of the Calder Valley - Dr Eddie Cass; 2. Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon; 3. Moods of the Bronte Moors - John
Morrison; 4. Gone Walkabout - Anna
Carlisle; 5. Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown;
6. Race through Time video - Nick Wilding; 7. Eats, Shoots & Leaves
-
Lynne Truss; 8. Old Stones of Elmet - Paul Bennett; 9. Weird Calderdale -
Paul Weatherhead; 10. You Are What You Eat - Gillian McKeith
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
"Real novels have long after-lives and many offspring."
- Robert McCrum, "Could Henry James scoop up the big prizes this year?", Observer, 25.4.2004
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