NEWSLETTERS OF 2007

DECEMBER 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

Our last year's bestseller, Rebel Girls, about Northern suffragettes, by local historian Jill Liddington, gets an airing on Christmas Eve, 8pm on Radio 4, as part of Michael Portillo's "Things We Forgot to Remember" series - with a particular focus on suffragettes appearing in the dock before judge and jury in the Leeds courtroom. We have the book in stock of course!
 
Hot off the press is a new book of nonsense verse from historian Chris Aspin. The poems deal with, among other things, a ban on comic socks, a boy arrested for throwing a sausage, post-smoking-ban ashtrays, palindromes, anagrams and much more, including a short story about the Devil's visit to Rochdale. There's also a specially written poem about Liszt's breakfast at Hebden Bridge's White Lion pub on December 15th, 1840.

The story of how Franz Liszt, the greatest pianist of all time, had breakfast (ham and eggs) in Hebden Bridge, was told in the Summer 2003 issue of Milltown Memories: Liszt was on a concert tour of Britain and arrived by train one December morning in 1840. The line to Littleborough was not then open, so the pianist, while waiting for a coach, broke his fast at the White Lion, the White Horse having refused him. There is a move to commemorate the event with a plaque on the White Lion ...
 
The title of the collection is The Jingle Book and the price is £4.99. It's published by Royd Press at The Book Case.
 
We're busy here at The Book Case, and current favourites include Gold Pieces, Linda Smith, Pies and Prejudice, Ted Hughes, Northern Lights, the Eagle Annual, Rebel Girls, We'Moon and local Folk Tales. Our remaining calendars are selling fast too!
 
Best wishes and a Happy Christmas from your local bookshop.
 

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

You only have till closing time on Monday 3rd December to take advantage of our 20% reduction offer! Any books ordered from any of our Christmas catalogues catalogues will be charged at 20% off retail price and will be available for collection from 5th December. Leaflets are available in the shop for listing your orders. The discount is not available on purchases of the selected titles from stock.
 
Until Christmas, we are opening on Tuesdays, from 10am to 5pm.
 
New in are intellectual stocking-fillers from the Unemployed Philosophers’ Guild. On display are cuddly dolls and finger puppets-cum-fridge magnets of  great literary, historical and other figures including Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Buddha, Darwin, Einstein, Elizabeth I, Che Guevara, Frida Kahlo, Nietzsche, Munch’s Scream (it does), Napoleon Buonaparte, Charles Dickens, Freud, Ganesha, James Joyce, Lao Tzu, Karl Marx, Mozart, Sir Isaac Newton, George Orwell, Pavlov’s Dog, Pablo Picasso, Plato, Schrodinger’s Cat, Shiva, Tolstoy and Leon Trotsky, while stocks last. We've sold out of Virginia Woolf ... The dolls are £10.95 and the finger puppets £3.50.
 
And of course lots of books, diaries, calendars and Christmas cards. Have you seen Kate's selection of Wynstone Press's colourful and unusual Advent Calendars?
 
The winter issue of The Oldie Review of Books has just come in, with comments on and reviews of a wide range of books - collect your free copy from The Book Case.
 
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book, plus a CD.

Adult fiction: Man in the Picture by Susan Hill (£9.99). Atmospheric ghost story about a picture of masked Venetian revellers, in the style of M R James.
Adult non-fiction: A Pig with Six Legs and other clouds - ed. Gavin Pretor Pinney (£10). From the Cloud Appreciation Society, a delightful little book of colour photos of cloud formations that look like something (with captions).
 
Children's book: Moby Dick - pop-up version (£14.99). Melville's epic saga of Captain Ahab's obsessive quest for the white whale comes vividly to life in this three-dimensional graphic novel, the first of its kind. This phenomenal work is the creation of multi-talented artist Sam Ita, apprentice to Robert Sabuda--one of the worlds master paper engineers. Full colour.
 
CD: Family Christmas: Read by Philip Madoc, Jenny Agutter, Benjamin Zephaniah and others. (2 CDs, £10.99). The tree, the fireside, the candles, the presents and the festive food may be the main features of the traditional Christmas, but so were the stories, the poems, and the traditional tales. Includes A Child’s Christmas in Wales, The Nutcracker (with Tchaikovsky's music), The Little Match Girl, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, ’Twas The Night Before Christmas, The Three Kings, King Frost, A Kidnapped Santa Claus, The Thieves Who Couldn’t Stop Sneezing and Talking Turkeys.

Price Promotions

We do have quite a lot of good books at silly prices around the shop, but we've no room to display them separately. You'll find them on the general shelves.


NEWS

Local Interest

Todmorden Hippodrome : 100 Years of Theatre, 1908-2008 - Freda and Malcolm Heywood, £19.95 hb, £14.95 pb
Celebrating the first hundred years of this popular Edwardian theatre! The book is packed with narrative, information, pictures, production photos and reproduced advertisements and programme covers telling the theatre’s story from the glory days of music hall to the present day. More than 200 pictures, many of them in colour.

The Best of John Hartley: an account of his life and "The Clock Almanack" - John Waddington-Feather, £6.99

Born in Halifax in 1839, John Hartley was well-known for his Yorkshire dialect poetry and prose, published in his "Clock Almanack". This book includes some of the best as well as a biography and a glossary of Yorkshire words.

The Yorkshire Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne, ed. L.A.S. Butler, £30
Architectural descriptions of 400 Yorkshire churches and abbeys compiled during the many visits of Sir Stephen Glynne (1807-1874). Interesting in their own right, they also provide an extremely accurate and valuable record of the fabric and fittings before their removal in restoration or the total demolition of churches. From the Yorkshire Archaeological Society.

Calder Valley OffcutsNo. 10: Agitation against the New Poor Law Act 1834 and the Todmorden Riots, 1838 (£2.50)
The last in the present series based on Leslie Goldthorp's historical lectures in the 1970s and transcribed by Mrs Irene Mallinson.
 
And a play by Phyllis Bentley, "Yellow Pieces" about the Cragg Coiners, is being performed at St John's Centre, Cragg Vale, on Friday 7th December at 7.30pm and Saturday 8th December at 2pm, 4pm and 7.30pm. Tickets are £3 adult, £1.50 children, with pie and peas available at evening performances. Phone Doris Hurst on 882509 or Ann Kilbey on 882858.

Local Authors

Well-known local author Glyn Hughes's new book of poems, Two Marriages, will be launched on Saturday 8th December, 2.00 - 4.00 pm at Artsmill.

John Siddique has several poems in a forthcoming book, Pendulum, the Poetry of Dreams (£10.99).

Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon (£12.99)
This popular and well-illustrated book from the well-known local journalist has a three-page illustrated review in the current issue of Yorkshire Life!

National (and international) Book Events

The Daily Mail Book Club
 
I'm sorry, we were misinformed. November's Book of the Month was Clever Girl by Brian Thompson (£7.99) 
 
December's choice is: No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club by Virginia Ironside (£7.99).  Too young to get whisked away by a Stannah Stairlift, or to enjoy the luxury of a walk-in bath (but not so much that she doesn't enjoy comfortable shoes), Marie is all the same getting on in years - and she's thrilled about it. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
An Abu Dhabi-based project, Kalima ("word" in Arabic) is undertaking the translation into Arabic of a range of international literature, with 100 books in its first year and 500 per year by 2010. Books to be translated include those by Stephen Hawking, Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, Nadine Gordimer, Khaled Hosseini, Albert Camus, George Eliot, Albert Einstein, Jacques Lacan and Spinoza. A report four years ago noted that that the number of books translated into Arabic over the last 1000 years was the same as Spain translates in one year, so this is a welcome move. (Source: Guardian)


NEW TITLES 

There are never very many new books coming out in December, but we should mention Susan Hill (see above), the late Norman Mailer (winner of this year's Bad Sex in Fiction award) and a reissue of Barbara Pym in Fiction - as well as a new translation of stories written during WWII by the Head of the BBC's Turkish Section.

Non-fiction:

For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.



LITERARY QUIZ: I'm taking a break from quiz-setting and going out with a roar - this month  it's on Lions in literature. To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Spiders  in literature, click here.
 
If anyone would like to send in a quiz with quotations from reasonably well-known books on specific topics, I'll be delighted to host it. The books should be in print, and please send the answers; if you could explain the context of the quotation as well, that would be much appreciated.
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What you've been buying: NOVEMBER 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

Another good month at The Book Case for items with local connections - seven again if we include a book of poems by a local author! With two hardback novels, unusually, and the ever-popular We’moon Diary.

1. Gold Pieces - Phyllis Bentley,
£5.95. Selling fast, our reprint of the exciting 1968 children’s classic about the Cragg Vale Coiners from the well-loved Halifax novelist.

2. Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents - Angus Bethune Reach, ed. Chris Aspin, £6.95. An eyewitness description, with interviews, of the conditions of textile workers around West Yorkshire in 1849. Our first publication

3. We’Moon Diary 2008: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn, £15.99. The theme of next year’s edition of this popular and colourful astrological moon calendar and datebook is "Mending the Web".

4. Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon, £12.99. Well-known local journalist’s colourful collection of remarkable women with Yorkshire connections - ranging from Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes to Mary Newall of the Cragg Vale Coiners. Got three pages in Yorkshire Life!

5. A Village Childhood - Gertrude M. Attwood, nee Ogden, £12. A personal recollection of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge in the 1920s and '30s. Gertrude looks back at those early years and describes how they influenced her life. Lots of fascinating detail about everyday life and contemporary illustrations.

6. Hebden Bridge Calendar - Geoff Boswell, £4.50. The colourful collection of well-chosen local scenes is as always selling well.

7. The Gathering - Anne Enright, £10.99 at The Book Case. The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house. Booker Prize winner and still selling well.

8. On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan, £10.99 at The Book Case. A honeymoon couple at a seaside hotel in 1962. A story about how the entire course of a life can be changed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

9. Over the Land - John Killick, illustrations by Alison McGill, £10. Hebden Bridge-based John Killick is best known for his work on communication with people with dementia. This collection contains 23 poems inspired by the Scottish landscape with images from pastel drawings and oil paintings by a young Edinburgh artist, Alison McGill.

10. Letters of Ted Hughes, ed. Christopher Reid, £30 (now £25 at The Book Case). This selection begins when Ted Hughes was seventeen, and documents the course of his resolutely private life. Recently read on Radio 4.

Festive seasonal greetings and Happy Christmas in advance from your local independent 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

Oxfam is now Europe’s biggest high-street second-hand book retailer. - www.oxfam.org.uk


NOVEMBER 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

The Christmas season is rumbling into gear and our centre table is now directed hopefully at the purchaser of Christmas gifts. Seasonal cards are now in from the Bodleian Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Sierra Club (ecological), and back in stock are Amber Lotus's and Brush Dance's benevolent and inspirational calendars. Other calendars and diaries include We'Moon, John Muir Trust, Redstone, New Internationalist and Greenpeace, as well as our usual wide selection of artistic, photographic and humorous calendars from Pomegranate, Editions du Desastre, Catch and many others.

We have a range of Christmas catalogues for you to take away and browse through, and we are offering an astonishing 20% off retail price for any books ordered and prepaid from any of the catalogues before 3rd December, to be available for collection from 5th December. Leaflets are available in the shop for listing your orders. The discount is not available on purchases of the selected titles from stock.
 
The latest edition of The Book Magazine is now in, featuring interviews with Ian Rankin, Alan Titchmarsh, Mike Rosen - the new Children's Laureate - and Kathy Reichs, and with articles on Alan Bennett's Uncommon Reader (about the Queen getting involved with a travelling library), Jeanette Winterson, Alasdair Gray, Jonathan Coe, natural history books including Collins New Natural series, WWI - WWII books, John Mortimer, John Stuart Mill, Graham Greene, Shakespeare and his wife, historical bestsellers, rock, British weather, apples, cookery, writing your own Jane Austen (?), this Christmas's humour books, potted plants, children's picture books, sporting biographies and "best of the year" from reading groups. Free to Book Case customers!
 
Being enjoyed in October, according to our comments board, have been Tove Jansson's Moomin series, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, C J Sansom's Tudor novels Dark Fire, Dissolution and Sovereign, Harry Potter, John Irvine, Diana Gabaldon, Celia Lyttelton's Scent Trail, Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison,  Machinery's Screw Thread Book (1957 and sadly out of print, but we could get you A Guide to World Screw Threads if that is your enthusiasm), Halldor Laxness's Independent People, Malcolm Bradbury's Soldier's Return and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. NOT being enjoyed were Martin Amis and Terry Goodkind, who is chided for his obsession with leather-clad women.
 
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book, plus a CD.

Adult fiction: The Railway - Hamid Ismailov (£7.99). 'In the steppe near Tashkent they came upon a never-ending ladder with wooden rungs and iron rails and that stretched across the earth from horizon to horizon. Whistling and thundering, a snake-like wonder hurtled past them, packed both on the inside and on top with infidels shouting and waving their hands. "The End of the World!" thought both Mahmud-Hodja the Sunni and Djebral the Shiite.' Set mainly in Uzbekistan between 1900 and 1980, "The Railway" introduces to us the inhabitants of the small town of Gilas on the ancient Silk Route.
 
Adult non-fiction: Letters of Ted Hughes, ed. Christopher Reid (£30, but £20 at The Book Case while stocks last)
At the outset of his career Ted Hughes described letter writing as 'excellent training for conversation with the world', and he was to become a prolific master of this art which combines writing and talking. This selection begins when Hughes was seventeen, and documents the course of a life at once resolutely private but intensely attuned to other lives (including both adults and children): a life pared down to essentials and yet eventful, peripatetic, at times publicly controversial.
 
Children's book: Snakehead - Anthony Horowitz (£12.99) The teenage spy Alex Rider enters the violent criminal underworld of the Snakeheads. A new breathtaking adventure from this most popular children’s writer Age: 10+
 
CD: Handel's Messiah (1751 Version) (£10.99 for two CDs). From Naxos. Handel’s most popular and joyous oratorio, a work of unfailing melodic invention and dramatic expressiveness, has become almost a British national institution.

 
Price Promotions

See above for our Christmas catalogue promotion, and our £10-off Ted Hughes offer!

We still have a few of the following Bloomsbury 21 Great Reads for the 21st Century at £2 off.

Cat's Eye - Atwood; Easy Riders, Raging Bulls - Biskind; English Patient - Ondaatje; Frankie & Stankie - Trapido, Fugitive Pieces - Michaels; Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone - Rowlings; Holes - Sachar; If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things - McGregor; Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Clarke; Kite Runner - Hosseini; Little Friend - Tartt; Map Of Love - Soueif; Marrying The Mistress - Trollope; Middlesex - Eugenides; Prayer For Owen Meany - Irving; Snow Falling On Cedars - Guterson


NEWS

Local Interest

Looping the Loop DVD and video - Peter Thornton and Ray Riches, £12.99
A journey on the Mary Towneley Loop in the South Pennines, a 48-mile circular spur off the Pennine Bridleway. Using ancient packhorse trails and bridleways, it visits hidden villages and hamlets, taking you through spectacular scenery, across wild moorland and into green wooded valleys. 78 mins.

Lost Railways of South and West Yorkshire - Gordon Suggitt (£10.99)
The story of the railway age in South and West Yorkshire, beginning in 1755. Includes Bradford and Oxenhope.

 
Calder Valley Offcuts
These pamphlets are based on Leslie Goldthorp's historical lectures in the 1970s, transcribed by Mrs Irene Mallinson, and are £2.50 each unless otherwise stated. The following titles are now available, £2.50 unless otherwise stated, with one to come.

1. The Normans and Medieval Times in the Calder Valley
2. Law & Order: Constables, Punishments and Prison

3. Overseers of the Poor - Paupers, Doctoring, Apprentices, Bastards and Workhouses; & Churchwardens

4. Overseers of Highways - Roads and Turnpikes
5. John Wesley's visits to the area (£1.50)
6. The Cragg Vale Coiners
7. The Rochdale Canal and the Coming of the Railway
8. Conditions in the Textile Factories in 1833, Part 1
9. "Tyrants and Hypocrites" - the local fight against child labour (Conditions in the Textile Factories Part 2); Interview with a Handloom Weaver; the Typhus Epidemic in Heptonstall Slack 1843-4.

Local Authors

Letters of Ted Hughes, ed. Christopher Reid (£20 at The Book Case while stocks last)
Ted Hughes's letters from the age of 17, being read on Radio 4 throughout this week.

Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath's Art of the Visual - ed. Kathleen Connors; Sally Bayley (£25)

A side of Sylvia Plath that is scarcely known: her serious involvement in the visual arts from a very early age. She moved between art-making and writing constantly, integrating their elements with ease and pleasure. It was only at the age of 20 that she decided to leave fine art behind her as her chosen career, and opt for the written word. Eye Rhymes presents a magnificent range of Plath's art, most of it seen in print for the first time: childhood sketches, illustrated diaries, portraits, rich modernist and expressionist paintings, fashion images, photographs, and more.


National Book Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
November's Book of the Month is No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club by Virginia Ironside (£7.99).  Too young to get whisked away by a Stannah Stairlift, or to enjoy the luxury of a walk-in bath (but not so much that she doesn't enjoy comfortable shoes), Marie is all the same getting on in years - and she's thrilled about it. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
December: Clever Girl by Brian Thompson (£7.99)

Booker Prize Winner

The Gathering by Anne Enright (£10.99 at The Book Case). The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968.



NEW TITLES 

Hardback fiction in October includes Jane Gardam, Nadine Gordimer, Ali Smith, Elina Hirvonen and Maria Tatar's new annotated version of Hans Christian Anderson. Things are quiet in paperback fiction this month but we have Setterfield, Carvalho, Baldacci,  McCaffrey, Steel and Francome, with reissues including Dickens and Dumas.

Non-fiction:

For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month (for Hallowe'en) it's on Spiders in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Eyes in Mirrors  in literature, click here.
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What you've been buying: OCTOBER 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

We aren’t complaining, but half of October’s bestsellers at The Book Case are the same as September’s, just in a different order. Seven have local connections, and the remaining three are novels, including one from the ever-popular Mark Haddon.

1. Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents - Angus Bethune Reach, ed. Chris Aspin, £6.95. Our own first publication, an eyewitness description, with interviews, of the conditions of textile workers around West Yorkshire in 1849.

2. Gold Pieces - Phyllis Bentley, £5.95. A reprint of the exciting 1968 children’s classic about the Cragg Vale Coiners from the well-loved Halifax novelist. Our second publication!

3. Power in the Landscape: water-powered mills in the Upper Calder Valley, £5. Still selling well, this colour-illustrated pamphlet from Hebden Bridge Alternative Technology Centre with the history of watermills in the area.

4. Island of Lost Souls - Martyn Bedford, £7.99. From a West Yorkshire author, a novel about a draft dodger on the run and the effect war can have on individuals and communities. Martyn Bedford recently talked about his book at Halifax Library.

5. Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon, £12.99. Still selling well, this collection of remarkable women with Yorkshire connections - ranging from Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes to Mary Newall of the Cragg Vale Coiners. The author is a well-known local journalist.

6. A Village Childhood - Gertrude M. Attwood, nee Ogden, £12. A personal recollection of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge in the 1920s and '30s. Gertrude looks back at those early years and describes how they influenced her life. Lots of fascinating detail about everyday life and contemporary illustrations.

7. Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon, £7.99. The "dignified man trying to go insane politely" remains popular. From the author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time'.

8. The Gathering - Anne Enright, £10.99 at The Book Case. Booker Prize winner. The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house.

9. Calder Valley Offcuts Series, £2.50. This series of pamphlets based on local history lectures by Leslie Goldthorp and transcribed by Irene Mallinson has been selling well and has now reached No. 9 and the nineteenth century. One to come!

10. Scent Trail - Celia Lyttelton, £15.00. From a Hebden Bridge-based author, one woman's journey across the world as she explores the magic and history behind the ingredients of her own bespoke perfume. Celia Lyttelton recently spoke at an event organised by Halifax Library. Tied with We’Moon Diary 2008.

Best wishes from your local independent 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

"Can the library ... mirror the culture at large ... ? Can the library define itself as a particular personality through the sum of its holdings? Can the library make visible the community's overall personality based on the books currently circulating?"

- George Legrady, on his huge LCD display boards in the posh new Seattle Library, which continually show which books are being taken out. There are approximately 22,000 items circulating per day.
"Making Visible the Invisible" - Seattle Library Data Flow Visualisation, www.archimuse.com/publishing/ichim05/Legrady.pdf


OCTOBER 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

The community has been sorry to hear of the death of Hebden Bridge writer and teacher Elaine Connell on 1st October after a long illness which she met with her characteristic humour and obstinacy. Elaine was a co-founder of the Hebden Bridge web and probably the UK's leading authority on Sylvia Plath. Testimonies and details of her funeral can be found on the Hebweb at http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/
 
This month our local publishing highlight is Gertrude Attwood's fascinating memoir of of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge in the 1920s and '30s: A Village Childhood, published by Milltown Memories. See below for details.
 
As its contribution to the town anti-plastic-bags campaign, The Book Case is offering its splendid, capacious, long-handled cotton eco-bag free with purchases over £20 as an alternative to the usual £1 book voucher throughout October. Thereafter we will charge £1.50, which is a bit less than cost. Like other shops, we also have corn-starch biobags available at 5p.
 
On our comments board, customers have recorded ENJOYING Diana Wynne Jones's Year of the Griffin, Elizabeth Gaskell's Sylvia's Lovers, Arthur Ransome's Great Northern?, Christopher Priest's Prestige, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, James Robertson's Gideon Mack, Ruth Padel's Tigers in Red Weather, all Lee Child's books, Tove Jansson's Fair Play, Mavis Cheek's Sex Life of My Aunt and Jane Tomalin's Time-torn Man (about Hardy). NOT being enjoyed were Drowned World (Ballard) and Tobias Hill's Cryptographer - but someone else had really liked it!
 
As well as lots of wonderful calendars, and some very high-class Christmas cards (unobtrusively as yet) on display, we now have the colourful We'Moon Diary 2008 on the theme of Mending the Web - and a posh Bodleian Library Advent Calendar featuring old-fashioned gold-encrusted book covers at £6.00. We don't know what is behind the "doors" ...

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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: The Good Companions - J B Priestley (£14.99 at The Book Case). A new hardback edition of this 1929 classic, including biographical details, images and information on the music hall scene of the 1920s. Three unhappy characters flee from their old lives to seek adventure on the open road and find themselves in a broken-down theatrical touring company.
Adult non-fiction: I Think the Nurses are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith - ed. Warren Lakin (£8.99)  A collection of her material from her early stand-up to her radio days.
 
Children's book: Stuff of Nightmares - Malorie Blackman (£12.99) A fantastic spine-tingling read for older readers from the outstanding Malorie Blackman. Kyle has always been afraid of things, especially dying. But when he gets on the train that is taking him and his class on a school trip, he has no idea how close to death he is going to come. Age: 12+ yrs
 
CD: The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett (£12.99) It was the corgis' fault. When they strayed through the grounds of Buckingham Palace, the Queen discovered the City of Westminster travelling library. Double CD, 2h30m.
 
Price Promotion

The 3-for-2 Summer Reads are being phased out - you'll still find a few on the shelves - and have been replaced with a while-stocks-last £2-off on the following Bloomsbury Great Reads:

Cats Eye - Atwood
Easy Riders Raging Bulls - Biskind
English Patient - Ondaatje
Frankie & Stankie - Trapido
Fugitive Pieces - Michaels
Harry Potter & The Philosophers Stone - Rowlings
Holes - Sachar
If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things - McGregor

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Clarke
Kite Runner - Hosseini
Little Friend - Tartt
Map Of Love - Soueif

Marrying The Mistress - Trollope
Middlesex - Eugenides

Prayer For Owen Meany - Irving
Snow Falling On Cedars - Guterson

We ALSO have another great selection of books - including the likes of Kate Adie and Philippa Gregory - and a wide range of Mind-Body-Spirit books - at silly prices, while stocks last!

In the children's section, we have a Ladybird promotion with 3 for 2, including fairytales, phonics and non-fiction titles.


NEWS

Local Interest

A Village Childhood - Gertrude M. Attwood, nee Ogden (£12)
A personal recollection of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge in the 1920s and '30s. Gertrude looks back at those early years and describes how they influenced her life. Well illustrated, with lots of fascinating detail about everyday life.

Local Authors

Hebden Bridge author Mark Hodkinson has been shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year with his book Believe in the Sign, about his devotion to Rochdale FC. In stock, £9.99.
 
The Deafening Sound of Silent Tears: the Story of Caring for Life - Juliet Barker, £8.99
From the renowned local historian and biographer, a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Leeds-based charity Caring for Life, who help vulnerable young adults make a new start.

Over the Land - John Killick (£10)
Hebden Bridge-based John Killick is best known for his work on communication with people with dementia and has broadcast on BBC Radio. This collection contains 23 poems inspired by the Scottish landscape with images from pastel drawings and oil paintings by a young Edinburgh artist, Alison McGill. Exclusively available in Hebden Bridge from The Book Case, and post free.

I Did a Bad Thing - Linda Green
From a local author and featured at Hebden Bridge Arts Festival. Sarah Roberts used to be good. Then she did something very bad. Now, years later, she's living a good life, until Nick reappears. And suddenly, what's good and bad aren't so clear to Sarah any more. (£6.99)

Local Publishers

Gardening with Tortoises - P D Aspy (£9.99)

From Hebden Bridge publishers Bluemoose, nature, naturism and naturalism in Europe - a selection of letters from Pippa to her sister, as she moves from Devon to France to Spain with an entourage of husband, tortoises, parrots and plants!

National Book Events
The Daily Mail Book Club
October's Book of the Month is Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (£7.99).  An idyll of the English countryside: a beautiful summer's evening in a Kent field, and around their two caravans a little group of strawberry pickers is getting ready to celebrate a birthday. But who picks our strawberries these days? The Ukrainians. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.

Booker Prize Shortlist

Darkmans by Nicola Barker (£17.99)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (£12.99),
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (£14.99),
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (£10.99 at The Book Case) 
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (£10.99 at The Book Case) and
Animal's People by Indra Sinha (£11.99).

We're keeping Chesil Beach and Mr Pip (the two favourites) in stock and can order the others overnight usually. Winner to be announced 16 October.



NEW TITLES 

Hardback fiction in October includes Alexander McCall Smith, Nick Hornby (teenage actually), John Mortimer and The Tain in a new version; and amongst paperback fiction we have Sebastian Faulks, Martin Amis, Irene Nemirovsky, Marina Lewycka, Charles Frazier, Douglas Coupland and Sarah Maitland amongst others, with reissues including J B Priestley, Bulgakov, Barbara Trapido and Susan Hill.

Non-fiction:

For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Eyes in Mirrors in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Monkeys  in literature, click here.
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What you've been buying: SEPTEMBER 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

Yorkshire and the Calder Valley are flavour of the month again! Sales of local history titles and guides to walks have been high with six titles in the top ten at The Book Case. Two novels and two 2008 diaries made up the remainder.

1. Gold Pieces - Phyllis Bentley, £5.95. A reprint of the exciting 1968 children’s classic about the Cragg Vale Coiners from the well-loved Halifax novelist. Published by Royd Press at The Book Case.

2. Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon, £12.99. From the well-known local journalist, a collection of remarkable women with Yorkshire connections - ranging from Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes to Mary Newall of the Cragg Vale Coiners. Nicely presented and well illustrated.

3. A Village Childhood - Gertrude M. Attwood, nee Ogden, £12. A personal recollection of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge in the 1920s and '30s. Gertrude looks back at those early years and describes how they influenced her life. Sumptuously illustrated, with lots of fascinating detail about everyday life.

4. Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents - Angus Bethune Reach, ed. Chris Aspin, £6.95. A pungent account of the conditions of textile workers around West Yorkshire in 1849, published by Royd Press at The Book Case - still selling briskly.

5. Atonement - Ian McEwan, £7.99. Multi-layered novel stretching from a 1935 country house to Dunkirk and beyond; an exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and the difficulty of absolution. Now a film.

6. Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon, £7.99. Again! A disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely. From the author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time'.

7. Walking Country: Calderdale - Paul Hannon, £5.99. 25 local walks, compact format, full details, maps and line drawings.

8. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle, £6.00. Popular locally-published collection of 24 walks in the Upper Calder Valley.

9. Moleskine Pocket Diary, 2008, £10.99. All this high-quality range of diaries, notebooks and sketchbooks sell well - this is the current leader.

10. We’Moon Diary 2008: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn, £15.99. The new edition of this popular and colourful astrological moon calendar and datebook is on the theme of "Mending the Web".

Best wishes from your local independent 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

Perhaps fiction can help us make sense of science in ways purely factual reports cannot. ... the freedom of fiction allows authors and readers to grapple with complex abstract concepts and to look at the universe in a richer, more human way than "straight" science can."

Editorial, New Scientist, 25 August 2007


Dear Book Case customer or friend,
 
Just into stock is a new book of poetry from John Killick - Over the Land, with illustrations by Alison McGill.

John Killick is perhaps best known for his work on communication with people with dementia – work which has resulted in presentations in a number of countries, broadcasts on the BBC’s Radio Three and Four and the World Service, and numerous articles and books. Amongst the latter are the two high-selling poetry collections You are Words and Openings.

His latest publication, however, returns to his first love, poetry, which comes from his own imagination and word-store. Over the Land contains 23 poems inspired by the Scottish landscape with images from pastel drawings and oil paintings by a young Edinburgh artist, Alison McGill. Alison is only 31 but she has already had three one-woman exhibitions at Edinburgh’s prestigious Scottish Gallery. John first saw her work there and was deeply impressed, so much so that he proposed writing a sequence of poems in parallel with some of her landscapes. This has proved a genuine partnership, and this volume is a first collaboration.

John comments on Alison’s work "She paints the skin of the land, and in her best pictures gets beneath the skin and shows us the bones too. Many of her paintings look as if she has been up in a plane to sketch and photograph what she sees. The first thing that strikes you when you look at one of Alison’s works is the colour: they are vibrant, and draw you in to confront the geology and the vegetation that clothes the contours. I’ve tried to match these qualities in my verses, as in the lines:

The spirit is launched on thermals,
surrenders to the swirl
of pigment, the birl of space."

‘Over the Land’ is published by Fisherrow, a new imprint launched with this publication. The book is exclusively available in Hebden Bridge from The Book Case, price £10. The book is available post free. Telephone 01422-845353 for details.

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NEW MAGAZINES

Also new into stock is the independent peace journal, Peace News, now relaunched as a newspaper with colour illustrations, monthly, price £1.00. Launched in 1936 but right up to date with coverage of Iraq, Palestine, global warming, Jordan, Islamic environmentalism and non-violent action, it's full of interesting news items, interviews and articles.

AND on a customer's recommendation, we are trying the magazine The Mother, bi-monthly, £3.50. Birth and bonding -"uncompromisingly holistic"! This issue covers breastfeeding, waterbirth, TV-free living, living in community, and much more.

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The Book Case is rather chuffed to be the subject of a full-page article in the Bookseller of 7th September. It covers our publishing initiative and the Harry Potter midnight party, and concludes, "The community is at the heart of the Book Case, and the shop is at the heart of its community." We're always grateful for your support! The article is on display in the shop.
 
Best wishes from your local independent bookshop

SEPTEMBER 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

It's been a busy month because of the amazing reaction from Huddersfield to our first published book - Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents - a reprint of pungent 1849 newspaper reports on local textile workers' conditions. The Huddersfield Examiner gave it a very nice full-page review and the phone hasn't stopped ringing since. Our first reprint is now in. The Batley News  also reported with enthusiasm on the ghastly appearance of female Batley shoddy workers under the heading "A Filthy Story". We are waiting hopefully for reviews from Halifax, Bradford and Leeds - Reach is just as graphic about their textile workers!
 
We're also very excited about our first Phyllis Bentley title, now in stock - an exciting and well-written story about a boy who unwittingly gets involved  with the Cragg Vale Coiners. The book's called Gold Pieces and costs £5.95. We only have the rights for five years so grab it while you can; it's well worth a read and although written for children, goes down equally well with adults - Phyllis Bentley of course knows her local history (she makes the development of the textile industry real and fascinating) and her local geography - spot all the local places as you read! It was first published in 1968 and was later reprinted by Puffin. There are two more "Tales from the Tops" in the pipeline - one about the Luddites and one about an 18-century weaver's apprentice who solves a crime.
 
On our comments board, people report enjoying Peter Rex's English Resistance (to the Normans), Diana Wynne Jones's Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin, Nicholas Evans' Horse Whisperers, Markus Zusak's Book Thief, Fanny Trollope's Jessie Phillips (good on the effects of the Poor Law Amendment Act), Philippa Gregory's Boleyn Inheritance, anything by Jasper Fforde ("great fun!"), Que es la globalizacion (no author given) and Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More than You. The only complaint is about Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans.
 
A reminder that we have many of our great selection of 2008 calendars now in stock and they're selling. A lot of them will not be restockable when gone. You have been warned!
 
8th September marks International Literacy Day and a good way to help is to join the Reverse Book Club where you pay £5 a month for four books to be sent to readers of all ages in Africa and beyond.

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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: The Ruby in Her Navel - Barry Unsworth (7.99). The Court of King Roger in 12th-century Sicily simmers with the volatile passions of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Latins and Greeks. Among them, a young Norman finds employment under Yusuf, a Muslim who holds the Christian king's purse strings. Barry Unsworth is known for the depth and realism of his historical fiction.
 
Adult non-fiction: Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon (£12.99). From the well-known local journalist, a collection of remarkable women with Yorkshire connections - ranging from Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes to Mary Newall of the Cragg Vale Coiners. Nicely presented and well illustrated.
<
Children's book: Outcast - Michelle Paver. Eagerly awaited fourth book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series. Torak now faces his fourth adventure in his quest to vanquish the terrifying Soul-Eaters and finds himself cut off from his clan and even from Wolf and Renn. The combination of Paver's meticulous research into prehistory and her storytelling skill have made this series an undoubted hit with readers Ages: 10+yrs. (£9.99)
 
And also of course, Phyllis Bentley's "Gold Pieces" about the Cragg Vale Coiners! A must for every local child. Hilltop handloom weaver's son Dick Wade is pleased to find a boy of his own age to play with, but is he a true friend? Whose is the injured dog found on the moors? And who is flooding the area with clipped and forged coins, bringing the London authorities in with their questions and house searches? (£5.99)
 
CD: An Introduction to Ralph Vaughan Williams (£6.99). From Chandos - Overture to "The Wasps", Fantasia on "Greensleeves", "The Lark Ascending" and "A London Symphony". Total time 78 mins.
 
See below also for a new venture, antiquarian Yorkshire Books on CD-rom.
 
Price Promotion

You all seem to like our 3-for-2 Summer Reads selection so much, we're keeping it running for the moment. It's a choice of our previous bestsellers, fiction and non-fiction, and can be found on our centre table.

In the children's section, we have six Malory Towers titles by Enid Blyton with strange Manga covers (why?) for £2.99 each, and a range of Tony Ross's Little Princess not wanting to do things at £1.99 each. Hurry if you want to take advantage of the 2-for-1 Lemony Snicket promotion - there aren't many left!



NEWS

Local Interest

Power in the Landscape: water-powered mills in the Upper Calder Valley (£5)

Colour-illustrated pamphlet from Hebden Bridge Alternative Technology Centre with the history of watermills in the area. 48pp, colour and b-&-w illustrations, nicely produced.

plus CD-Rom (£3) and DVD (£4) to accompany the above - 17 mins of a well-presented visual journey through the Colden Valley tracing the existence of water-powered mills as seen through past and present-day photographs, which merge into each other. Produced by Jim Strom and narrated by Ursula Holden-Gill. 50p off the price when combined with a book.

Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents: the Yorkshire textile districts in 1849 - Angus Bethune Reach, ed. Chris Aspin (£6.95)
An eyewitness account of textile workers' conditions in Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley, Halifax, Bradford and Leeds in 1849 by a Scottish investigative journalist.

Antiquarian Yorkshire Books on CD-rom

A new venture - a selection of Colin Hinson's CD-roms which contain rare and expensive antiquarian books of local interest. He says you must be sure to press the button in the middle to get them out of the case! We have the following in stock and can order others:

"The History and Antiquities of Halifax", "Ancient Halls in and Around Halifax" and  "Halifax Courier's Almanack 1937" - 3 books on one CDrom - Rev. John Watson, Arthur Comfort and Halifax Courier - £15
"Todmorden" 4 books on one CDrom - John Travis - £12
"The Yorkshire Coiners & Old and Pre Historic Halifax" - H. Ling Roth - £12
"The Northowram Nonconformist register", "Oliver Heywood's Diaries" (4 Volumes) and "Northowram, its History and Antiquities" - 6 books on one CDrom - J Horsfall Turner and Mark Pearson - £20
"The History of Brighouse, Rastrick and Hipperholme"  and "Independency at  Brighouse" - 2 books on one CDrom - J Horsfall Turner - £15
"Halifax, Families and Worthies", "History of Halifax" and "Halifax Guardian Almanack, 1908" - 3 books on one CDrom - J Horsfall Turner, John Crabtree and Halifax Guardian - £15

Local Authors

Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon (£12.99) - now in stock!
Our Non-fiction Book of the Month - see above.


National Book Events

Richard and Judy Summer Reads
Now finished, and they're not the draw they used to be. Is this to do with the phone-in scandals? The bestseller amongst them was the first one, Kim Edwards' Memory Keeper's Daughter. 

The Daily Mail Book Club
September's Book of the Month is Over by Margaret Forster  (£7.99).  The summer of 1911 was one of the high sunlit meadows of English history, but on the horizon lurked a gathering storm. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
Future titles:

October – Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (Penguin)

Booker Prize Longlist

This was announced in early August and can be found here. Ian McEwan's Chesil Beach is selling well and we can order the others on request but are remaining cautious as sales in hardback of little-known authors are not encouraging. The shortlist is due on 6th September and we'll keep an eye open for signs of interest.


NEW TITLES 

Autumn is nearly upon us and the seasonal lists are walloping in. In hardback fiction in September we have Alan Bennett, Jeanette Winterson and a Jack Kerouac, and paperback fiction includes Margaret Atwood, Barry Unsworth, Alice Munro, Thomas Pynchon, Conn Iggulden, Howard Jacobson, Jodi Picoult, Paul Auster, Susanna Clarke and Terry Pratchett amongst others, with reissues of Biggles and Janet and John. 

Non-fiction:

For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Monkeys in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Fire  in literature, click here.
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What you've been buying: AUGUST 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

The five "local interest" books in The Book Case’s bestsellers in August included two from our own stable, with folktales, watermills and walks making up the rest. Three of our promoted novels were especially popular, one classic children’s book sold well, and customers were still intrigued by the little 1913 marital harmony books.

1. Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents - Angus Bethune Reach, ed. Chris Aspin, £6.95. A pungent account of the conditions of textile workers around West Yorkshire in 1849. Our first publication as Royd Press has been racing off the shelves!

2. Folktales from Calderdale Vol. 1 - John Billingsley, £7.50. Another month near the top for local folktales. The Witches of Eagle Crag, the Cliviger Boggart, the Bride Stones, the Eve Stone, Stoodley Pike, Great Rock, Tom Bell's Cave, the Miller's Grave and Churn Milk Joan are included.


3. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, £7.99. Holding third position. In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together. This year’s Orange Prize winner and a 3/2 choice.

4. Power in the Landscape: water-powered mills in the Upper Calder Valley, £5. Colour-illustrated pamphlet from Hebden Bridge Alternative Technology Centre with the history of watermills in the area. 48pp, colour and b-&-w illustrations, nicely produced. Now accompanied by a DVD and CD-rom.

5
. Don’ts for Wives, £2.99. An entertaining little book from 1913 full of good advice for a harmonious relationship. There’s another one for husbands!

6. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle, £6.00. Popular collection of 24 walks in the Upper Calder Valley, holding sixth position.

7. Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon, £7.99. Another 3/2 choice holding the same position as last month. A disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely. From the author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time'.

8. Silver Sword - Ian Serrailier,
£4.99. Alone and fending for themselves in a Poland devastated by World War Two, Jan and his three homeless friends cling to the silver sword as a symbol of hope. As they travel through Europe towards Switzerland, where they believe they will be reunited with their parents, they encounter many hardships and dangers.

9. Calder Valley Offcuts Series, £2.50. This series of pamphlets produced by Royd Press on various aspects of local history since Norman times has been selling well.

10. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell, £7.99. Charts thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, set against the sunset of an agrarian England still overshadowed by the Cold War. A 3/2 choice.

Best wishes from your local independent 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

"Please do not read whilst waiting for a train. Thank you for your cooperation."

- sign in Halifax station waiting room. (An explanation is close by, but you'll have to go to Halifax to find it.)


AUGUST 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

We're delighted to announce that our first book, Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents: the Yorkshire textile districts in 1849 is now available and on sale at The Book Case, at a price of £6.95.
 
The book is an eyewitness account of textile workers' conditions in Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley, Halifax, Bradford and Leeds in 1849 by Scottish investigative journalist Angus Bethune Reach who toured the textile areas of the West Riding to report for the Morning Chronicle (which also published Mayhew’s famous London reports). He praised some employers (Holdsworth’s in Halifax - still in operation and making fabrics for road, rail and sea transport; Marshall’s in Leeds whose glass cupolas are the "fairy tents" of the title) but also found filth, squalor, extreme poverty, lethal working conditions and official apathy. His reports and the words of the people he spoke to bring to life how the glory days of the textile industry felt from the underside. A sample of his style: “The streets of Halifax are disgracefully neglected …reeking with stench and the worst sort of abomination."
The editor, historian Chris Aspin, is the author of the popular Shire Albums on The Wool Industry and The Cotton Industry, as well as a large illustrated work on the early cotton trade (The Water Spinners), histories of Helmshore and several collections of light-hearted poetry and prose which are now on sale in the shop. He also edited a companion piece by Reach on conditions in the textile districts around Manchester, which we'll be publishing soon.
The book's striking cover was designed by our Children's Buyer Kate Claughan.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

Well, the final Harry Potter was given a rousing welcome at the shop at one minute past midnight of 20th July when around 140 people packed the shop, some in fancy dress, with more out on the street! A fiendish quiz on the minutiae of the books kept people busy until the countdown. Thanks to Kate for her hard work in organising it and Peter (in a topper) for supplying the nibbles and drink. You can see photos in our window. We're now selling the book at £12.99, and you also get the usual 50p voucher. Congratulations to Hannah Hope-Collins for winning the Countdown to Harry Quiz! She gets a £10.00 Book Case voucher.
 
If you've already finished Deathly Hallows and are having withdrawal symptoms, may we recommend the excellent and highly original Diana Wynne-Jones?

Our comments board has been rather squeezed out recently, but it's now back and people say they are enjoying Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger, Robert Westall's Machine Gunners, Made in Bradford edited by M Y Alam, Married by Anne Roiphe, Iris Murdoch's Good Apprentice, J G Ballard's short stories, A Twist in the Coyote's Tale by Celia M Gunn, Michael Morpurgo's Escape from Shangri-La - and of course, J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsNot being enjoyed are Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Bash the Rich by Ian Bone and the Harry Potter books (didn't know we'd had Will Self in).

Sorry about the scaffolding all over the building - has to be done, and should be over in a couple of weeks.

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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: The Road - Cormac McCarthy (7.99). A father and his son walk alone through burned America, heading through the ravaged landscape to the coast. "An exquisitely bleak incantation - pure poetic brimstone ... illuminated by extraordinary tenderness" - New York Times.
 
Adult non-fiction: Forgotten Household Crafts - John Seymour (£12.99). Rediscover the lost world of traditional household crafts with 'the grand master of self-sufficiency'. Master tried and trusted methods that have been honed over the centuries and learn to make butter and cheese, embroider, keep bees, decorate your home, and more.
 
Children's book: Woodenface - Gus Grenfell (£5.99). The author is aka ex-Hebden Bridge resident Gus Smith. Meg is a Maker, pouring life into the wooden dolls she carves. Accused of witchcraft, she flees to Halifax, only to find her father in jail, facing death by the gibbet. Desperate to save him, she must first learn what being a Maker really means. Local history and folklore combine in a compelling debut novel full of magic and suspense. Ages: 9-12 yrs
 
CD: The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham (£12.99) A 90-minute full-cast radio dramatisation of the classic sci-fi novel. Widespread flooding and social and political collapse follow an alien invasion. Also available is The Day of the Triffids in a 1968 recording (£15.99)
 
Price Promotion

Our Summer 3-for-2 promotion will continue through the season and has proved very successful. This is your chance to catch up those books you've been meaning to read all year!

In the children's section, we are offering 2-for-1 on the first six of the gloomy Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events - read them at your peril!

Special bargains continue to be offered on selected MBS titles and assorted fiction and biography - have a look at our shelf above History and Biography!



NEWS

Local Interest

Curiosities of West Yorkshire - Robert Woodhouse (£12.99)
A guide to the remarkable and curious sites to be seen in West Yorkshire, including a few around our way.

Chelp and Chunter: how to talk Tyke - Ian McMillan (£5.99)

From the Brontes and James Herriot to the Arctic Monkeys, Yorkshire has a rich culture reflected in its dialect. Discover the origins of many well-known phrases and learn a few more!

Local Authors

Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon (£12.99)
From the well-known local journalist, a collection of remarkable women with Yorkshire connections - ranging from Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes to Mary Newall of the Cragg Vale Coiners. Nicely presented and well illustrated - due in August.

The Scent Trail - Celia Lyttelton (£15)

“A Journey of the Senses.” A travel memoir and vividly-drawn portrait of today's exotic world of perfume. Entering the heady, exotic world of oils and essences at a bespoke perfumer’s, the author (who lives in Hebden Bridge) was transported from a leafy London square to a place of long-forgotten memories and sensory experiences and felt compelled to trace the origins, history and culture of the many ingredients that made up her unique perfume.

Woodenface - Gus Grenfell (£5.99)
See our Children's Book of the Month, above.

National Book Events

Richard and Judy Summer Reads
 
We're continuing to display and sell these popular titles, and the promotion continues through most of August.

Wednesday 25th July 2007 - Salmon Fishing In The Yemen by Paul Torday
Follows fishery scientist Dr Alfred Jones's journey as he attempts to realise the dreams of a Yemeni Sheikh to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen.
Wednesday 1st August 2007 - Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon
After four years Helen’s boyfriend, Matthew leaves his wife, only to find she no longer wants him and is going to ridiculous lengths to get him back with his wife.
Wednesday 8th August 2007 - The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
Set in 1958, it follows a brilliant but lazy Cambridge student, Adam Strickland as he uncovers the mysteries of an Italian garden and the murderous secrets it hides.
Wednesday 15th August 2007 - How to talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper
30-something Doug Parker reclaims his life after the death of his wife. Moving and laugh-out-loud funny.
Wednesday 22nd August 2007 - The Other Side of The Bridge by Mary Lawson
A story set in rural Canada, dealing with war, families, love and dark secrets.

The Daily Mail Book Club
August's Book of the Month is The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicholson  (£7.99).  The summer of 1911 was one of the high sunlit meadows of English history, but on the horizon lurked a gathering storm. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
Future titles:

September – Over by Margaret Forster

October – Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (Penguin)



NEW TITLES 

There's a dearth of hardback fiction in August, but paperback fiction includes Margaret Drabble, John le Carre, Ben Okri, Peter Ackroyd, Alexander McCall Smith, Julie Walters, Ismail Kadare, Charles Frazier, Ruth Rendell and Frederick Forsyth amongst others, with Cormac McCarthy's Road already in stock. Reissued are a Marquez and a Margaret Irwin.
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.

LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Fire in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Breakfasts  in literature, click here.
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What you've been buying: JULY 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

Harry Potter went through the roof at The Book Case in July, but local titles and "3 for 2" novels and biographies were still strong. Other popular books included advice for husbands in 1913 and prayers for peace.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J K Rowling, £12.99. No prizes for guessing what was top of the charts in July! Will there be anyone left to buy the paperback?

2. Folktales from Calderdale Vol. 1 - John Billingsley, £7.50. Nudged off top spot by the mighty Harry, but local folktales are still high. The Witches of Eagle Crag, the Cliviger Boggart, the Bride Stones, the Eve Stone, Stoodley Pike, Great Rock, Tom Bell's Cave, the Miller's Grave and Churn Milk Joan are included.

3. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, £7.99. Again a front runner. In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together. This year’s Orange Prize winner and a 3/2 choice.

4. Pennine Perspectives - Midgley History Group, £18.00. Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated history of this ancient township.

5. Don’ts for Husbands, £2.99. An entertaining little book from 1913 full of good advice for a harmonious relationship. There’s another one for wives!

6. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle, £6.00. Popular collection of 24 walks in the Upper Calder Valley.

7. Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon, £7.99. A disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely. From the author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time'. A 3/2 choice.

8. Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai,
£7.99. In the north-eastern Himalayas, the life of an embittered old judge is complicated by the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and the son of his chatty cook. A 3/2 choice and Booker Prize winner.

9. Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson, £7.99. Bill Bryson travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America. A 3/2 choice.

10. Peace Prayers, £2.99. One of our bargain MBS titles - a collection of meditations, affirmations, invocations, poems and prayers for peace.

Best wishes from your local independent 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

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx


JULY 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

It's an eventful month coming up, with not only the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, but also the new and final Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - on 21st July.

So as not to keep you in suspense a moment more than necessary, there will be the opportunity of finding out at "What Happens to Harry" at midnight! - the Book Case will open at 11.30pm on Friday 20th July for the countdown to midnight when the first box of the new Harry Potter can be opened and the first copies will be handed out to customers. The book is embargoed until then. For the customers who have ordered the book in advance there will be celebratory drinks and refreshments, prizes for the best Harry Potter fancy dress costumes and entertainments until 12.30am.  

We'll open early again at 8.00am on Saturday 21st July specially for customers who have ordered the book in advance.

We're also running a Countdown to Harry Quiz. Guess the answers to 3 questions about the plot of the new book and the person with the answers judged to be the most correct will receive a £10.00 Book Case voucher. Answers must be received by The Book Case no later than 11.59pm on Friday 20th July. The answers will be judged no later than Saturday 28th July and the winner notified by phone or email. If there is more than one set of correct answers, the winner will be chosen in a draw.

Advance orders are available at £10.99 at The Book Case. RRP is £17.99. The normal Book Case price will be £12.99.

Hebden Bridge Arts Festival:
 
Malorie Blackman talked to a full audience at the Picture House on 30th June about her Noughts and Crosses series (about to be staged) and her anthology on slavery, "Unheard Voices". The first Ted Hughes Festival was a great success and the Calder High event with Yorkshire poet and novelist Simon Armitage was packed out - see our Bestsellers list!
 
Other literary events in the Festival so far include Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth", poems by Clare Shaw, Tony Curtis and Carola Luther, and Clive Stafford Smith's talk on his book "Guantanamo Bay and the Secret Prisons". Yet to come are Louis MacNeice, Beowulf, local author Linda Green, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Lucy Popescu's voices-of-conscience anthology "Another Sky",  and a Harry Potter parody. More info at the Festival website - http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/festival/2007/index.html 
Currently, according to the board on the centre table, our customers are enjoying Chandler's Big Sleep, le Guin's Gifts, Maggie Gee's The Blue, Golding's Close Quarters, Carey's Theft, Amis's Experience, Le Carre's Absolute Friends, James Wilson's Bastard Boy, Bacharach by Michael Brocken, Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones and Conversations with God by Walsch. This month the only complaint is about someone's mother-in-law ... Keep us posted (though not necessarily about the mother-in-law).
 
Congratulations to ex-Book Case worker Pauline Stephenson whose wry poem on a particularly uninspiring Muse won an award in the WEA's "Create '07" festival.
 
And farewell and a very happy retirement to Steve Hirst who has been keeping our windows sparkling for decades!
 
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra: 947-page epic from the masterly Indian-born novelist, set in Mumbai, where a fading Sikh police inspector confronts the most wanted gangster in India. Compared to the classics of nineteenth-century fiction. (£7.99)
Adult non-fiction: Pennine Perspectives: Aspects of the History of Midgley: see below for details of this major new local history hardback. (£18)
 
Children's book: Starring Tracy Beaker - Jacqueline Wilson. Tracy Beaker is desperate for a role in her school play. They're performing 'A Christmas Carol' and for one worrying moment, the irrepressible Tracy thinks she might not even get to play one of the unnamed street urchins. But then she is cast in the main role. Can she manage to act grumpy, difficult and sulky enough to play Ebenezer Scrooge? Ages: 8+ yrs.(£5.99)
 
CD: Best of British - a two-CD set of Stirring Music by the the Best of British Composers. Includes Elgar, Bridge, Rubbra, Arnold, Britten, Walton, Holst, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Stanford, Elgar, Bax, Ireland, Stainer, Finzi, Rutter, Tavener, Harty and Delius. (£10.99)
 
DVDs: Rivers and Tides - Andy Goldsworthy: Working with Time. Shot in four countries across four seasons, and show the sculptor's painstaking creative process and the elusive quality of his intricate and often ephemeral works. (£19.99)
 
Into Great Silence - A Meditation on Life; a Contemplation of Time; Silence, Repetition, Rhythm. A two-CD Collector's Edition of Philip Groning's documentary on monastic life in the Grande Chartreuse, almost silent except for the chants in the monastery. The viewer is invited to watch the films as part of a meditative experience. 162 mins. (£22.99)
 
A Prairie Home Companion - as seen at Hebden Bridge Picture House, Robert Altman's final, quirky and highly enjoyable film. (£15.99)
 
Price Promotion

Our Summer 3-for-2 promotion will continue through the season and has proved very successful. This is your chance to catch up those books you've been meaning to read all year!



NEWS

Local Interest

Pennine Perspectives: Aspects of the History of Midgley - Midgley History Group, ed. Ian Bailey, David Cant, Alan Petford and Nigel Smith
(£18)

Launched at Midgley Pageant on 30th June, and two-and-a-half years in preparation, this magnificent book covers many aspects of Midgley’s past, from pre-history, through to medieval times, the Victorian era and the early twentieth century. Topics include religion, railways, Murgatroyds’, quarrying, farming, self-help, housing, pubs, leisure, riots, geology and folklore. The whole of the ancient township of Midgley is covered, including Midgley Moor, Luddenden, Luddenden Foot and Mytholmroyd as well as the village. It has 352 pages, hardback with over 160 illustrations of photos (including colour), maps & archive documents.

A Laureate's Landscape: walks around Ted Hughes's Mytholmroyd - John Billingsley (£4.50)
Engrossing and informative illustrated booklet that takes us around the area in which the ex-Poet Laureate grew up and which inspired some of his most memorable work. The relevant poems are referred to (but not quoted! - the copyright is closely guarded) in the text. Local historian John Billingsley has led many Ted Hughes walks around Mytholmroyd, and here is a permanent memento - or a good substitute if you are unable to take part.

The Bronte Connection - Ann Dinsdale (£6.95)

From the Collections Manager at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, a collection of 43 photographs associated with the Brontes' lives and works, with dates and information.

A Guide to the Historic Haworth & the Brontes - Mark Ward, Ann Dinsdale and Robert Swindells (£5.99)

A new edition of an entertaining and informative guide to Haworth and the surrounding moor, written as a series of four walks with illustrations and lots of historical information.

Romantic Wycoller: a haunt of the Brontes - E W Folley, photographs Charles Green (£2.99)

At a special price, a facsimile reprint of a book first published in 1949. Covers the history of Wycoller Dene and Hall, the arrival of the Cunliffes, the Bronte connection and local legends, with a surmise that Ferndean Manor of "Jane Eyre" was based on Wycoller. Many b&w illustrations.

Local Authors

NW15: the anthology of new writing No. 15 - the British Council (£9.99)

Including Hebden Bridge-based poet John Siddique! See his website at http://www.johnsiddique.co.uk/

Mind Control: the ultimate revelation - David Shuttleworth (£7.99)
From a Keighley author and publisher, "the book Derren Brown wanted to ban!" Highly praised book with twelve mind control effects as used by stage hypnotists.

National Book Events
Richard and Judy Summer Reads
Wednesday 4th July 2007 - The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
How one man's decision to send away his daughter, born with Downs Syndrome, affects the rest of his and his family's life.
Wednesday 11th July 2007 - Relentless by Simon Kernick
Consultant Tom Meron's world is turned upside down following a phone call from an old friend, and it’s a non-stop chase from start to finish.
Wednesday 18th July 2007 - The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
An old-fashioned upstairs-downstairs saga set in the first half of the twentieth century, but with a mystery at its heart, that will keep you guessing to the end.
Wednesday 25th July 2007 - Salmon Fishing In The Yemen by Paul Torday
Follows fishery scientist Dr Alfred Jones's journey as he attempts to realise the dreams of a Yemeni Sheikh to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen.
Wednesday 1st August 2007 - Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon
After four years Helen’s boyfriend, Matthew leaves his wife, only to find she no longer wants him and is going to ridiculous lengths to get him back with his wife.
Wednesday 8th August 2007 - The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
Set in 1958, it follows a brilliant but lazy Cambridge student, Adam Strickland as he uncovers the mysteries of an Italian garden and the murderous secrets it hides.
Wednesday 15th August 2007 - How to talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper
30-something Doug Parker reclaims his life after the death of his wife. Moving and laugh-out-loud funny.
Wednesday 22nd August 2007 - The Other Side of The Bridge by Mary Lawson
A story set in rural Canada, dealing with war, families, love and dark secrets.

The Daily Mail Book Club
July's Book of the Month is The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell (£7.99).  The story of Esme, a woman edited out of her family's history, and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from care, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt she never knew she had. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
Future titles:

August – The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicholson

September – Over by Margaret Forster

October – Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (Penguin)

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction
 
The winner was Half Of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together.
 


NEW TITLES
July's hardback fiction includes Pat Barker, William Trevor, Alexander McCall Smith and Alan Massie, and paperback fiction from John Updike, Robert Harris, Kate Atkinson, Vikram Chandra, Richard Ford, J G Ballard, Stephen King, John Mortimer, Irvine Welsh,  Geoff Ryman, Rob Grant, Haruki Murakami, Michael Dibdin, Ian Rankin and Roddy Doyle amongst others, including a fantasy grunge Russian bestseller and a modern Russian classic, a story set in 1920s Anatolia and another ranging between 1920s Ukraine and Argentina.
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Breakfasts in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on False Teeth  in literature, click here.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
What you've been buying: JUNE 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

It was a photo finish between local folklore and the Orange Prize winner but the local book pulled ahead on the last day! The first Ted Hughes Festival which included an appearance by Simon Armitage made its mark, and so did our popular "3 for 2" offer which continues over the summer. Our customers went on "searching for the North" and others were interested in how their blood type affected their ideal diet. Our popular bargain nature guides still sold well but just slid off the Top Ten.

1. Folktales from Calderdale Vol. 1 - John Billingsley, £7.50. For the second month, local folktales top the list. The Witches of Eagle Crag, the Cliviger Boggart, the Bride Stones, the Eve Stone, Stoodley Pike, Great Rock, Tom Bell's Cave, the Miller's Grave and Churn Milk Joan are included.

2. Half of a Yellow Sun -
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, £7.99. In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together. This year’s Orange Prize winner and a 3/2 choice.

3. Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson, £7.99. Bill Bryson travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America. A 3/2 choice.

4. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Simon Armitage, £12.99. The strange tale of a green knight who rudely interrupts King Arthur's Christmas festivities - a retelling of the medieval poem. Simon Armitage appeared at Calder High for the Ted Hughes Festival.

5. Progressive Patriot - Billy Bragg, £7.99. What does it mean to be English? What does it mean to be British? An urgent, eloquent and passionate response to the events of 7 July 2005. A 3/2 choice.

6. Ted Hughes’s Poems selected by Simon Armitage, £3.99. With the well-known Fay Godwin photo of the path above Lumbutts on the front cover.

7. Pies and Prejudice - Stuart Machonie, £10.99. A northerner in exile, stateless and confused, goes in search of the new North. I keep seeing people reading this on trains ...

8. Book of Dave - Will Self
, £7.99.
Novel based around the rants of Dave Rudman, a disgruntled East End taxi driver, who writes his woes down and buries them only to have them discovered 500 years later and used as the sacred text for a religion. A 3/2 choice.

9. Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai, £7.99.
In the north-eastern Himalayas, the life of an embittered old judge is complicated by the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and the son of his chatty cook. A 3/2 choice and Booker Prize winner.

10. Eat Right 4 Your Type - Peter D’Adamo, £7.99. Your blood type (A, B, O, AB) plays a part in losing weight, avoiding disease and promoting fitness and longevity. This book provides a set of blood type-specific diets so you can choose the food that suits you.

Best wishes from your local independent 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

Demolish ... Every bookies,mobile phone shop,poundshop,nail parlour,fast food outlet and replace them with BOOKSHOPS! of which there is not one! its annoying no matter where you go in tooting there is absolutley NO bookshops and at least 6 mobile phone shops yes 6 not one two or three but SIX phone shops and NO bookshops. Worst things about Tooting:  NO BOOOKSHOPS WE REALLY NEED A BOOK SHOP
PLEASE SOMEONE OPEN ONE I LOVE READING!!!!! AND SO DO MANY PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN 2TIN!!!!!
- Tooting Knowhere


JUNE 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,

The renowned Hebden Bridge Arts Festival begins at the end of this month; and one of the earliest events is a talk by Malorie Blackman at the Picture House on 30th June. She will be presenting her anthology on slavery, "Unheard Voices". More info at the Festival website - http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/festival/2007/index.html - and in the meantime The Book Case has a display of books by this always popular author.
 
You can also find in stock other Festival-related literary items - Vera Brittain, Louis MacNeice, Beowulf and of course Ted Hughes - we have some of his books on special offer at the moment. The Ted Hughes Festival will be running from 22nd - 24th June: go to www.theelmettrust.co.uk for details.
 
Speaking of special offers, see below for our Mind-Body-Spirit promotion!
 
We're gingerly testing the water for local interest publishing at The Book Case - it's a steep learning curve for Felicity and Kate! - and hope later in June to offer you a new edition of energetic Victorian journalist Angus Bethune Reach's reports on the textile workers of West Yorkshire in 1849, edited by historian Chris Aspin - who amongst many other publications wrote the Shire albums on Wool and Cotton. It's a fascinating read. More details later.
 
Our customers' literary likes and dislikes list continues to grow: currently people are enjoying the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, Edward de Bono's Thinking Course, Robin Jarvis's Oaken Throne, Eric Brown's Helix, G K Chesterton's autobiography, Maeve Binchy's Nights of Rain and Stars, Paul Magrs' Exchange, Charlotte Mendelson and Hiroshima Joe by Martin Booth. They don't like the sixth Harry Potter, Graham Swift's Waterland, Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses - or anything by Ian McEwan! More please ...
 
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: Helix by Eric Brown (£7.99). :p>An epic space opera tale from one of the genre's greatest authors – and a local author! Colony vessel Aurora is forced to land on a polar section of the Helix, and the surviving crew members proceed up-spiral in search of a habitable section. Combines scientific mystery, high adventure and depth of characterization.
 
Adult non-fiction: Seed to Seed by Nicholas Harberd (£8.99). A narrative of the changing seasons, focussing on one tiny thale-cress plant in an East Englian churchyard - part field notebook, part sketchbook, part diary.
 
Children's book: Alone on a Wide Wide Sea by Michael Morpurgo (£5.99). When six-year-old orphan Arthur Hobhouse is shipped to Australia after WWII he loses his sister, his country and everything he knows. Can family love stretch across time and the vastness of oceans? Will the threads of Arthur’s life finally come together?
 
Price Promotion

Our May price promotion of Tolkien's Children of Hurin at £13.99 has gone down well, and our range of the excellent Collins Nature Guides in a pocket edition continue to sell fast at £2.99 each!

During June, while stocks last, we are selling A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of "The Kite Runner") at £11.99, a saving of £5.00 - and on our centre table and around the shop we have a splendid assortment of newly-arrived Mind-Body-Spirit books at knock-down prices - as well as gardening and nature books! They're selling fast so get them while you can.



NEWS

Local Interest
 
A Laureate's Landscape: walks around Ted Hughes's Mytholmroyd - John Billingsley
Due out 23rd June - price to be announced. 
 
A History and Guide to the Parish Church of Hebden Bridge, St James the Greater (£2)
Members of the Church and Local History Society produced this little nicely-illustrated booklet with a history of the church, built in the 1830s, and guide to some features still to be seen. The 1933 centenary booklet was used as a basis. Profits to the church.
 
Three Waymarked Walks from Hebden Bridge (50p)
A colourful folded leaflet with instructions and maps for visiting Hardcastle Crags avoiding the road, Heptonstall and Stoodley Pike.
Spirit of Yorkshire - John Morrison (£4.99)
From the well-known ex-local author and photographer, a neat little hardback book of colour photographs from all over Yorkshire. No pictorial book about Yorkshire is complete without a picture of Stubbings School and this one is no exception! To be published in June.

Pennine Way: Edale to Kirk Yetholm - Keith Carter (£11.99)
Second edition of this Trailblazer publication. Includes itineraries for all walkers, whether walking the route in its entirety over one or two weeks or sampling the highlights on day walks. To be published in June.

Local Authors

Local writer John Siddique's collection of poetry for young people, "Don't Wear It On Your Head, Don't Stick It Down Your Pants" has been shortlisted for the UK's only award for children's poetry, the CLPE Poetry Award from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. Previous winners include John Agard, Grace Nichols and Roger McGough, and this year's winner will be announced on 13th June.

Helix - Eric Brown (£7.99)
From the acclaimed SF author and Guardian columnist, a new SF adventure. See our Fiction Book of the Month above.

Rune - Michael Conneely (£8.99)
Another magical and visionary novel from the local spiritual teacher - Cathal decides to seize the magic of the Runes on his 14th birthday and together with Lucy sets out to save the Nine Worlds. A powerful re-telling of Norse spirituality and Ragnarok.

The March and the Muster - Frank McManus (£7.99)
From Todmorden Labour Councillor Frank McManus a daybook and commonplace book with thoughts, observations, quotations or poems for each day of the year.

National Book Events

The Daily Mail Book Club

June's Book of the Month is Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson (£7.99). Bill Bryson's first travel book opened with the immortal line, 'I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.' In his new memoir, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America.  The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
Future titles:

July – The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

August – The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicholson

September – Over by Margaret Forster

October – Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (Penguin)

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Shortlist 
 
Half Of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. .

Arlington Park - Rachel Cusk. 
Inheritance Of Loss - Kiran Desai.

Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers - Xiaolu Guo.

Observations - Jane Harris.

Digging To America - Anne Tyler.
 
We have all these on display and the winner is to to be announced on 6th June.
 
Guardian & Pilsner Urquell "50 books you must read"
This recently launched promotion aims to list the books that define the decades of the 20th century, running from Conrad, Doyle and Kipling through to Ted Hughes, Nick Hornby and Helen Fielding in the 1990s. You can see the whole list at http://www.bookmarketingsociety.co.uk/decade50books.htm (or pick up a listing from us) and Guardian readers have voted the following their top 10 - all of course in stock at The Book Case:
 
1900s – Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
1910s – The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
1920s – The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

{1930s – Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
{1930s – The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

{1940s – 1984, George Orwell
{1940s – The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

1950s – The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
1960s – Catch 22, Joseph Heller
1990s – Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding



NEW TITLES
May's hardback fiction includes Rose Tremain, Haruki Murakami and Don Delillo, plus a Wodehouse compendium, and there's paperback fiction from Kiran Desai, Alexander McCall Smith, Tove Jansson, Jan Morris, Meg Rosoff, Peter Carey, Douglas Coupland, Maeve Binchy, Ben Elton, Mark Haddon, Jackie Kay, Lian Hearn, Andrew Martin, Susan Hill and Dick Francis amongst others, and reissues from Doris Lessing and Robert A Heinlein, plus from Penguin six cracking end-of-empire adventure tales from the likes of Rider Haggard and Erskine Childers: which sorts your Father's Day problem nicely.
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on False Teeth in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Doctors  in literature, click here.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

What you've been buying: MAY 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

As expected, well-known local historian John Billingsley’s new book on local folklore sold briskly at The Book Case in May, and local poet John Siddique had two recent books in the Top Ten - one currently up for an award. A humorous book "in search of the North" also did well, the bargain nature guides went on selling, our Children’s Book of the Month was popular. Apart from that, it was all novels. Nothing like a good book to take your mind off the weather which was pretty dire in May!

1. Folktales from Calderdale Vol. 1 - John Billingsley, £7.50. Our May Non-fiction Book of the Month - a collection of tales from the moorlands of the Upper Calder Valley. The Witches of Eagle Crag, the Cliviger Boggart, the Bride Stones, the Eve Stone, Stoodley Pike, Great Rock, Tom Bell's Cave, the Miller's Grave and Churn Milk Joan are included. (£7.50)

2. Collins Nature Guides: Trees of Britain and Europe - G. Aas and A. Riedmiller, £2.99. One of the our extremely popular pocket illustrated nature guides - and most of the rest of the range also sold well. Still at this very low price while stocks last!

3. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier, £7.99. A reading group chose this 1938 classic. Daphne du Maurier was born 100 years ago last month.

4. Pies and Prejudice - Stuart Machonie, £10.99. "In search of the North" - a riotously funny journey in search of where the cliches end and the truth begins, from a northerner in exile.

5. Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony - Eoin Colfer
, £5.99.
Has the teenage criminal mastermind finally met his match? A second juvenile genius has discovered that fairies do exist and she is determined to trap a demon, the most human-hating species known to mankind.... This was our May Children’s Book of the Month.

6. Poems from a Northern Soul - John Siddique, £6.95. From the local poet, a powerful collection of "poignant homecomings, cinematic street scenes and candid portraits".

7. Book of Dave - Will Self, £7.99. Novel based around the rants of Dave Rudman, a disgruntled East End taxi driver, who writes his woes down and buries them only to have them discovered 500 years later and used as the sacred text for a religion.

8. When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro, £7.99. Another reading group choice: in 1930s England, a celebrated detective tries to solve the puzzle of his own parents’ disappearance in old Shanghai.

9. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini, £13.99 at The Book Case while stocks last. From the author of "The Kite Runner", a riveting, and haunting novel about the bond between two women in Afghanistan who are brought together by war, loss, and fate. On special offer at present.

10. Don’t Wear It On Your Head - John Siddique, £13.95. ... Don’t Stick It Down Your Pants! A book of poems for young people with a great cover - currently shortlisted for the CLPE Poetry Award.

Best wishes from your local independent 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

"Books don't plug in, beep or suddenly produce pop-ups. They are pleasingly silent and dignified, there when needed, discreet and patient."

Andrew Marr, "Curling up with a good e-book", Guardian Weekly, 25 May 2007 (he thinks he can find room in his life for both - with certain necessary refinements of the e-book)


MAY 2007

Dear Book Case customer or friend,
 
The big news of the month promises to be John Billingsley's new book Folk Tales from Calderdale Vol. 1, now in stock and already selling briskly. We've made it our non-fiction book of the month (see below).
 
We now have in stock the April-June 2007 issue of THE Book Magazine, with interviews with children's authors Philip Reeve, Jacqueline Wilson and Emily Gravett, articles on the new editions of Shakespeare's plays from the RSC and Macmillan, women travellers, a reading group's response to Marina Lewycka's "Two Caravans", Leni Riefenstahl, a "Muslim Adrian Mole", an interview with Dorothy Rowe on her new book on siblings, one with Dr Oliver Rackham on woodlands, Ramachandra Guha and Mark Tully on India, and much more. The magazine is priced at £2 but is available free to our customers.
 
Customers' literary likes and dislikes continued to be recorded on our clipboard. Currently being enjoyed are Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen, Peter Robinson's Piece of My Heart, Haru Kunzru's Transmission, Victoria Hisslop's The Island, Ian McEwan's Chesil Beach, Ian Baker's The Heart of the World, Megan McDonald's Judy Moody, Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry, Barry Unsworth's The Ruby in her Navel, Conn Iggulden's Wolf of the Plains, Rosamund Pilcher's  Shell Seekers, Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, War and Peace, Stef Penney's Tenderness of Wolves, Beowulf, Ken Wilbur's One Taste and Sarah Hartley's Mrs P's Journey.
 
Not being enjoyed were War and Peace (again), Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now, Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits and Crank's Cookery Book! We await your further comments.
 
We now have in stock the 2007 edition of the Royal Society of Literature Review, price £5.00. Contents include articles by Rory Stewart on writing about places, Romesh Gunesekera on London, a conversation about the Silk Road between Colin Thubron and Tash Aw, Michael Holroyd on anger, Selina Hastings on Sibyl Bedford, Peter Kemp on Muriel Spark, Hilary Spurling on students who can't express themselves clearly, Vernon Watkins' friendship with Philip Larkin, V S Naipaul and John Carey, Victoria Glendinning on Leonard Woolf, Sara Wheeler on writing biography - and much much more, including a mention of The Book Case as a favourite independent bookshop, recommended by Juliet Barker - for which we thank her!
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory (£6.99). Three women, one prize: the crown of England. It’s 1539 and Henry VIII must take another wife: Anne of Cleves senses a coming trap, Katherine Howard is flirting her way to the crown - but her kinswoman Jane Boleyn is haunted by the past.
 
Adult non-fiction: Folktales from Calderdale Vol. 1 - John Billingsley (£7.50). The eagerly-awaited collection of tales from the moorlands of the Upper Calder Valley - the first of a projected series on the folklore of Calderdale by the well-known local historian. The Witches of Eagle Crag, the Cliviger Boggart, the Bride Stones, the Eve Stone, Stoodley Pike, Great Rock, Tom Bell's Cave, the Miller's Grave and Churn Milk Joan are included. (£7.50)
 
Children's book: Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony - Eoin Colfer (£5.99) The stunning new Artemis Fowl adventure - the fifth in Eoin Colfer's number-one mega-selling series. Has the teenage criminal mastermind finally met his match? A second juvenile genius has discovered that fairies do exist and she is determined to trap a demon, the most human-hating species known to mankind.... Ages: 10+ yrs.
 
Price Promotion

Our April price promotion on the Freedom to Roam guides edited by Andrew Bibby and Dorling Kindersley’s Nature Activities series has been extremely popular. 

For May we are discounting Tolkien's Children of Hurin at £13.99, a saving of £5.00, and we have a wide range of the excellent Collins Nature Guides in a pocket edition, reduced from £8.99 to a staggering £2.99 each!

For our younger customes, we are promoting the popular Jeremy Strong titles and Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series at £1.00 off each.



NEWS

Local Interest

Folk Tales from Calderdale Vol. 1 - John Billingsley (see above).

Rambles of a Pennine Way-ster - Richard Pulk, £9.99

One man's account of the Pennine Way, which of course includes the local section - he's not very enthusiastic about our gradients.

Drive and Stroll in West Yorkshire - Ron Freethy, £7.99

20 short walks, incorporating eating places, that you can drive to, with b&w photos.

National Book Events

The Daily Mail Book Club

May's Book of the Month is The Story of You - Julie Myerson (£7.99). Rosy has just lost a child in a terrible, careless accident, and Tom, her partner, has taken her to Paris to forget about things, to start again. But there is her lover from 20 years ago, sitting in a cafe ...  We are waiting for stock of this title. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
Future titles:
 
June - Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

July – The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

August – The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicholson

September – Over by Margaret Forster

October – Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (Penguin)

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Shortlist 
 
Half Of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together.

Arlington Park - Rachel Cusk. Juliet is enraged at the victory of men over women in family life. Amanda is warding off thoughts of death with obsessive housework. Solly is confronting her own buried femininity in the person of her Italian lodger. Maisie despairs at the inevitability with which beauty is destroyed. And Christine's troubled, hilarious spirit presides over Arlington Park and the way of life it represents.

Inheritance Of Loss - Kiran Desai. In the north-eastern Himalayas, in an isolated and crumbling house, there lives an embittered old judge, who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and the son of his chatty cook trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy.

Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers - Xiaolu Guo. What happens when a Chinese woman falls in love with an English man and realises that learning the language doesn't necessarily lead to understanding? Funny, sexy, romantic and terribly sad - a love story for a global age.

Observations - Jane Harris. Original, funny, intriguing story, set in 1863 Scotland, of Irish Bessy Buckley who, in an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, takes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabella.

Digging To America - Anne Tyler. Two contrasting families are waiting at Baltimore Airport in 1997 for their adopted Korean babies - one family solid, organic and American, the other Iranian-American. Every year, on the anniversary of 'Arrival Day' their two extended families celebrate together, with more and more elaborately competitive parties.
 
All available at The Book Case. Winner to be announced 6th June.
 
Carnegie and Greenaway Medals
 
The Carnegie shortlist for this year has been announced and is as follows:
 
The Road Of The Dead - Kevin Brooks
A Swift Pure Cry - Siobhan Dowd
The Road Of Bones - Anne Fine
Beast - Ally Kennen
Just In Case - Meg Rosoff
My Swordhand Is Singing - Marcus Sedgwick
 
The Kate Greenaway shortlist is:
 
The Elephantom - Ross Collins
Orange Pear Apple Bear - Emily Gravett
The Adventures Of The Dish & The Spoon - Mini Grey
Scoop - John Kelly
Augustus & His Smile - Catherine Rayner
The Emperor Of Absurdia - Chris Riddell
 
Last year, the public were invited to vote for their favourite Carnegie and Greenaway winners from 70 years' worth, and the top ten of these were as follows:
 
CARNEGIE (public vote)
1. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
2. Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
3. The Owl Service by Alan Garner
4. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
5. A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (some say this is an adult book)
6. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
7. Skellig by David Almond
8. The Last Battle by C S Lewis
9. Tamar by Mal Peet (some say this is an adult book, too!)
10. Granny was a Buffer Girl by Berlie Doherty
- and the first winner of all, Arthur Ransome's "Pigeon Post" came in at No. 11
 
GREENAWAY (public vote)
1. Each Peach Pear Plum - Janet Ahlberg
2. Dogger - Shirley Hughes
3. Father Christmas - Raymond Briggs
4. I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato - Lauren Child
5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Helen Oxenbury
6. Mr Magnolia - Quentin Blake
7. The Jolly Christmas Postman - Janet Ahlberg
8. Mr Gumpy's Outing - John Burningham
9. Can't You Sleep Little Bear? - Barbara Firth
10.
Wolves - Emily Gravett.
 
The public vote was used to help the panel of children's book experts to decide on the Top Ten they would put forward for voting and their list is as follows - you are asked to choose one of these at http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/celebration/top_tens.php:
 
Carnegie favourites over 70 years (as selected by CILIP):
A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly, 2003
His Dark Materials: Book 1 Northern Lights - Philip Pullman, 1995
Junk - Melvin Burgess, 1996
Skellig - David Almond, 1998
Storm - Kevin Crossley-Holland, 1985
The Borrowers - Mary Norton, 1952
The Family from One End Street - Eve Garnett, 1937
The Machine Gunners - Robert Westall, 1975
The Owl Service - Alan Garner, 1967
Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce, 1958

Kate Greenaway favourites over 70 years (as selected by CILIP):

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury, 1999
Borka: the Adventure of a Goose with No Feathers - Illustrator: John Burningham, 1963
Dogger - Illustrator: Shirley Hughes, 1977
Each Peach Pear Plum - Illustrator: Janet Ahlberg, 1978
Father Christmas - Illustrator: Raymond Briggs. 1973
Gorilla - Illustrator: Anthony Browne, 1983
I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato - Illustrator: Lauren Child, 2000
Mr Magnolia - Illustrator: Quentin Blake, 1980
The Highwayman - Illustrator: Charles Keeping, 1981
Tim All Alone - Illustrator: Edward Ardizzone, 1956
Guardian & Pilsner Urquell "50 books you must read"
This recently launched promotion aims to list the books that define the decades of the 20th century, running from Conrad, Doyle and Kipling through to Ted Hughes, Nick Hornby and Helen Fielding in the 1990s. You can see the whole list at http://www.bookmarketingsociety.co.uk/decade50books.htm and we've got most of them, though not "Valley of the Dolls" ...


NEW TITLES
May's hardback fiction includes Sebastian Faulks, Joanne Harris, Khaled Hosseini and Lionel Shriver, and there is paperback fiction from Philippa Gregory, Lionel Shriver, Monica Ali, James Herbert, Jon McGregor, T C Boyle, Jilly Cooper, Alexander McCall Smith, Andrew Martin, Alan Warner and Ismail Kadare amongst others, and reissues from Fanny Trollope (hurrah!), Vikram Chandra, Spike Milligan and Alain-Fournier.
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Doctors in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Hairstyles  in literature, click here.
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What you've been buying: APRIL 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

It was back to a more characteristic mix of bestsellers at The Book Case in April - on the local interest front, the Rebel Girls were ahead of local walks, the Pace Egg Play and standing stones. Customers were also out identifying wild flowers, interested in a "boy with an incredible brain", worried about global warming - and relaxing with three novels.

1. Rebel Girls: How Votes for Women Changed Edwardian Lives by Jill Liddington, £14.99
Young Northern suffragettes still lead the field! This detailed account of the local fight for women's suffrage was our overall bestseller for 2006 - and includes Lavena Saltonstall of Hebden Bridge.

2. Collins Nature Guides: Wild Flowers of Britain and Europe - W. Lippert & D. Podlech, £2.99
One of the pocket illustrated nature guides we have on special promotion this month. Also popular in the same series was "The Night Sky". The promotion runs throughout May.

3. South Pennines and the Bronte Moors - Andrew Bibby, £7.99
The most local of the Freedom to Roam walking guides produced in association with the Ramblers' Association, by local author and journalist Andrew Bibby, with 12 free-range rambles. The Freedom to Roam guides were on special promotion in April. "Pennine Divide" and "Forest of Bowland" were also popular.

4. Born on a Blue Day - Daniel Tammet, £6.99
"The Gift of an Extraordinary Mind." Daniel Tammet has the extremely rare condition Savant Syndrome, but despite his amazing gifts and limitations, he is capable of living a fully functioning, independent life.

5. Six Degrees - Mark Lynas
, £12.99
"Our Future on a Hotter Planet." An eye-opening and vital account of the future of our earth and our civilisation if current rates of global warming persist

6. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka, £7.99
Entertaining novel about two Ukrainian sisters, their father and his new wife in Peterborough makes it to the Top Ten yet again.

7. Children of Hurin - J R R Tolkien, £13.99 at The Book Case while stocks last.
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous story, the epic tale of 'The Children of Hurin'. One of this month’s special offers.

8. Pace Egg Plays of the Calder Valley - Eddie Cass, £6.99
The history and revival of the play in the Calder Valley. Texts of both the Midgley and the Heptonstall versions are included.

9. Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney, £7.99
This year’s Costa winner, an atmospheric mystery thriller set in the Canadian tundra.

10. Old Stones of Elmet - Paul Bennett, £13.95
The old stone sites of Elmet, including Todmorden, Mytholmroyd, Luddenden, Hebden Bridge, Blackshawhead and Halifax area.

Best wishes from your local independent 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

"Literature takes a habit of mind that has disappeared. It requires silence, some form of isolation, and sustained concentration in the presence of an enigmatic thing." - Philip Roth, quoted in David Remnick's Reporting.

[Do we agree that it's disappeared?]


APRIL
Dear Book Case customer or friend,
 
For your instruction and delight, Peter has set up a couple of screens - one in the window - featuring bookish and CD highlights of the month, so you now have something to watch in the evening. On the screen inside the shop, we're also running some of the DVDs we stock, including local walks and the astonishing Full Moon/Beard contact juggling DVD.
 
As the annual Pace Egg Play on Good Friday approaches, a reminder that we have in stock Eddie Cass's Pace Egg Plays of the Calder Valley (£6.99) with the historical background of the play and full text of BOTH versions. Also available are his The Lancashire Pace-Egg Play: a social history (£13.95) and on special offer, our remaining copies of The Calder Valley Pace Egg Play on video (sorry, we don't have a DVD version). This very informative video was produced by Calder High School students, runs for nearly an hour, and comprises a documentary introduction and both the Midgley and Heptonstall versions of the play. Currently on offer at £6.00.
We're introducing a monthly price promotion at The Book Case - see "This Month's Featured Books" below.
Harry Potter: we'll be opening at 12.01am on Saturday July 21st so you can be the first to have the latest and final instalment - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We are offering a special price of £10.99 if ordered and paid for in advance - and you also receive a £1.00 special voucher to spend at The Book Case at any time!
Our clipboard on the central table has been filling up nicely with your comments on books you are enjoying or otherwise. Currently being enjoyed are Bennett's Untold Stories, Memoirs of a Geisha, Tenderness of Wolves (twice), Oliver Twist, Homeward Bound (Diana Wynne-Jones), Hardy's Woodlanders, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Billy Morgan, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, Wicked (Cooper), Queen's Fool (Philippa Gregory)(twice), The Long Way Round (Ewan McGregor), Scarlet Lion (Elizabeth Chadwick), Ghostwritten (Mitchell), Fall of Troy (Ackroyd), Time Traveler's Wife, Dead Souls, Johnny Come Home (Arnott), John Wyndham, The Steep Approach to Garbadale (Banks), On Cape Three Points (Wakling), Agincourt (Barker), Sea Room (Nicolson), Bluebeard's Castle (Steiner), David Harsent, Elizabeth Bishop, Marina Benjamin, Mary Oliver, Pattiann Rogers, Lemony Snicket (twice), We Need to Talk About Kevin, the Brontes, Louise Rennison, Harry Potter and  Paolini's Inheritance Trilogy
 
It was thumbs down however to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (again), Love for Lydia, White Teeth, Suitable Boy, Wicked (again), Tristram Shandy, Life of Pi, Suite Francaise (twice), Pratchett, Chatwin, House of Orphans (Dunmore) and Affinity (Waters). Keep 'em coming!
 
April will see the announcement of this year's Carnegie and Greenaway Medals for children's literature, and we have in stock free time-line leaflets celebrating 70 years of the Carnegie Medal, with illustrations of some of the front covers: beginning with Arthur Ransome's Pigeon Post in the 1930s.
 
New into stock are boxes of cards of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party  - a symbolic history of women in Western civilisation, which some of you may remember from the 1970s.
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and a CD.

Adult fiction: Two Caravans – Marina Lewycka (£14.99 at The Book Case)  It is a beautiful summer's evening in a Kent field and around their two caravans a group of strawberry-pickers celebrate a birthday. But what lies behind the buy-one-get-one-free offers at your supermarket, and who picks our strawberries? From the author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
 
Adult non-fiction: Born On A Blue Day – Daniel Tammet (£6.99) “The Gift of an Extraordinary Mind.” Daniel Tammet has the extremely rare condition Savant Syndrome. He can perform extraordinary maths in his head, and learn to speak a language fluently in three days; and has a compulsive need for order and routine. But virtually unique amongst those with severe autistic disorders, he is capable of living a fully functioning, independent life.
 
Children's book: Hugo Pepper - Chris Riddell (£4.99) Part of the "Far-Flung Adventure" series, this is the tale of a small boy, Hugo Pepper. Raised in the Frozen North by reindeer herders, his parents eaten by polar bears when he was just a baby, Hugo discovers that the sled they arrived in has a very special compass - one that can be set to 'Home'. The third in an excellent series from this award winning childrens author. 7-9yrs
 
CD: Bela Bartok: A Portrait (£10.99) His Works - His Life - two CDs with over 2 1/2 hours of music. Well over 50 years after his death, Bartok is recognised as one of the 20th century's great musical modernists - but he was never an iconoclast. Rather he sought ways forward by turning music back to its primal natural roots before the forces of urbanisation and mechanisation cut them off. Includes music from Out of Doors, MikroKosmos, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the string quartets, the Miraculous Mandarin, Concerto for Orchestra and more.
 
Price Promotion

In addition to our recommended list, from April we’re also promoting a selection of titles at discounted price, beginning on the first Monday of every month. This month we’re discounting the Freedom to Roam guides edited by Andrew Bibby to encourage you all to get out there! Hebden Bridge is the first official Walkers are Welcome town.

The children’s discounted titles this month are from Dorling Kindersley’s excellent Nature Activities series - Nature Ranger, Bug Hunter, Birdwatcher, Stargazer, Weather Watcher and Rock & Fossil Hunter.



NEWS

Local Interest

Ariel: the restored edition - Sylvia Plath, £9.99
The draft of "Ariel" left behind by Sylvia Plath when she died in 1963 is different from the volume of poetry eventually published to worldwide acclaim. This facsimile edition restores the selection and arrangement of the poems as Sylvia Plath left them at the point of her death. In addition to the facsimile pages of Sylvia Plath's manuscript, this edition also includes in facsimile the complete working drafts of the title poem "Ariel" in order to offer a sense of Plath's creative process, as well as notes the author made for the BBC about some of the manuscript's poems. Pre-amble by Frieda Hughes.

Local Authors

L. S. Lowry: A Life - Shelley Rohde, £25.00
To coincide with the 30th anniversary of Lowry's death, this fascinating biography includes extracts from private letters which have come to light since Lowry's death and facsimile reproductions of major exhibition catalogues. Shelley Rohde is an author, journalist and broadcaster, and lives in Cragg Vale. Also in stock are her delightful card games based on the works of Lowry.

Farewell Britannia: a family saga of Roman Britain - Simon Young, £14.99 at The Book Case
From a former Hebden Bridge man who "wears [his] considerable learning lightly", a historical novel telling the dramatic story of 400 years of Roman rule in Britain via a Roman-Celtic family saga.

I Did A Bad Thing - Linda Green, £19.99
"Sarah Roberts used to be good. Then she did something bad. Very bad. Now, years later, she's living a good life, working as a local newspaper reporter and living with her saintly boyfriend Jonathan. ... Until Nick walks back into her life. And suddenly, what's good and bad aren't so clear to Sarah any more." The author, a freelance journalist, lives in Walsden with her husband and young son.

And a plug for local author Kevin Duffy from Scott Peck, the buyer for Waterstone's and "the most powerful man in the book trade" - he comments on Anthills and Stars, set in a place very like Hebden Bridge in the 1960s, that it is "a beautiful and warm comedy ... a great debute and a very funny book which is as good as anything the big boys are publishing at the moment."

National Book Events

The Daily Mail Book Club
April's Book of the Month is Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (£7.99). It's a dank January in the Worcestershire village of Black Swan Green and thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor anticipates a stultifying year in the deadest village on Earth. But he hasn't reckoned with a junta of bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, an exotic Belgian emigre, a threatened gypsy invasion and the caprices of those mysterious entities known as girls.  The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
2007 Galaxy British Book Awards
Awarded on 28th March, the category winners were as follows: 

Author Of The Year - Richard Dawkins
Biography Of The Year: The Sound of Laughter – Peter Kay
Book Of The Year: The Dangerous Book for Boys – Conn and Hal Iggulden
Children's Book Of The Year: Flanimals of the Deep – Ricky Gervais
Crime Thriller Of The Year: The Naming of the Dead – Ian Rankin
Newcomer Of The Year: The Island – Victoria Hislop
TV & Film Book Of The Year - The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger
Writer of the Year: Jacky Kay (I Wish I Was Here)
Richard & Judy's Best Read Of The Year - Interpretation of Murder – Jed Rubenfeld
We've got most of the above displayed on our centre table.
Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Longlist 
Formerly the Orange Fiction Prize this celebrates "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing", and is open to any woman writing in English, whatever her nationality. The longlist for 2007 was announced on 19th March and can be seen at http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/opf/news.php4?newsid=25 with 20 novels from seven different countries, including eight first-time novelists, six longlist veterans, a Booker winner and the prolific Margaret Forster. The shortlist is due 17 April.

NEW TITLES
More high-profile hardback fiction in April from authors including J R R Tolkien, Ian McEwan, Primo Levi, Blake Morrison, Isabel Allende and Paulo Coelho, and paperback fiction from David Peace, Philip Roth, Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre, Andrew O'Hagan, Matt Haig, Jodi Picoult and Gautam Malkani amongst others
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Hairstyles in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Bicycles  in literature, click here.
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What you've been buying: MARCH 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

What with World Book Day and three Richard & Judy titles, local books didn’t get much of a look-in in March at the Book Case, but the doughty northern Rebel Girls got into the top ten and so did a book about the local packhorse tracks. Two other children’s books were popular, one gardening book topped the gardeners’ league and a novel about a bereaved middle-aged woman going to Venice made up the total.

1. WBD: My Sister’s Got a Spoon up her Nose - Jeremy Strong, £1.00. This was the most popular of the World Book Day titles, and no wonder, with a title like that! The other titles also all near the top.

2. Half Of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, £7.99. In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together. A Richard & Judy choice.

3. The Interpretation Of Murder - Jed Rubenfield, £7.99. Ingenious historical thriller - Sigmund Freud is drawn into the mind of a sadistic killer. A Richard & Judy choice.

4. Horrid Henry’s Big Bad Book - Francesca Simon, £7.99. Ten favourite Horrid Henry stories, all about school. He gives the class nits, encounters a demon dinner lady, does his best to sabotage the school sports day, finds ingenious ways to get round doing his homework and reading books, and is publicly mortified by a pair of pink underpants. Horrid Henry is always popular!

5. RHS: Grow Your Own Veg - Carol Klein
, £16.99. Our gardening section has been very popular, with allotment holders and organic growers especially, but this TV tie-in has topped the list.

6. Miss Garnet’s Angel - Sally Vickers, £7.99. A middle-aged woman goes to Venice when her great friend dies. A story of the explosive possibilities of change in all of us at any time.

7. Rebel Girls: How Votes for Women Changed Edwardian Lives by Jill Liddington, £14.99. This detailed account of the local fight for women's suffrage was our overall bestseller for 2006. Jill will be giving her popular talks around the area from mid-April, beginning in Mythomroyd on 13th April.

8. Semi-Detached - Griff Rhys-Jones, £7.99. Griff Rhys-Jones’s own account of his ordinary suburban childhood, and how he got from there to here. Richard & Judy choice.

9. Each Peach Pear Plum - Allan & Janet Ahlberg, £4.99. The board book edition of this classic book finding nursery rhyme characters hidden in the pictures. Don’t miss the Ahlberg exhibition at the Piece Hall.

10. Seen on the Pack Horse Tracks - Titus Thornber
, £15.00. Tells the history of the packhorse tracks and how they coped with different kinds of terrain, and examines the features still visible today - bridges, causeways, guidestoops and marker posts. Illustrated.

Best wishes from your local independent bookshop,

"A bookshop is a sanctuary for the mind" - seen in a secondhand bookshop window in Covent Garden.
 


MARCH 2007
Dear Book Case customer or friend,

The big news this month is the tenth anniversary of World Book Day on Thursday 1st March, and The Book Case is celebrating with the launch of a new book club for children. Members of the new club will be able to enter competitions, write book reviews, receive exclusive offers, and earn money-off vouchers with a reward points scheme. Any child under 12 years old can join and it is free.

Building on the success of the Book Case Reading Prize, which has proved immensely popular with local schools, we are giving children in local primary and junior schools all the exclusive World Book Day titles, specially written by popular children’s writers like Antony Horowitz and Julia Donaldson. Every child in full time education will also receive a special one pound voucher through their school to spend on a book of their choice. As well as the ten specially created £1 books, The Book Case has the latest titles for children of all ages offering an exciting choice.

And an early word about the seventh and last Harry Potter title to be published on July 21st. We will be open at midnight on July 21st to supply the book to local fans of Harry Potter. There will be a special offer price on this title and we're already taking orders!

Hebden Bridge Walkers' Day was a very successful event - the hall at Riverside was packed out, and The Book Case was present selling walking books and maps.
 
A reminder to you gardeners that we have lots of gardening books in stock - advice on allotments and organic gardening especially.
 
For those of you who enjoyed Victoria Wood's Housewife, 49 on television recently, we now have the DVD in stock; price £12.99. The play is based on the book Nella Last's War, also in stock; it's the Mass Observation diary of a WWII housewife, trapped in a difficult marriage and finding support in work with the WVS.
 
Seismic shifts are occurring in the book trade, with the purchase by Woolworths/EUK of two of the three major book wholesalers, THE and Bertram. Sadly it looks as though the Total Home Entertainment site in Newcastle-under-Lyne may close and we extend our thanks and sympathy to the staff. Apparently it is thought by the people who control things that CDs and DVDs are on their way out as a source of profit and books are the answer. Let us hope all this is not too damaging to the independent book sector!
 
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction, a children's book and a CD.

Adult fiction: The Death of Achilles by Boris Akunin (£7.99) Fourth in the series of novels about dashing 19th-century Russian detective Erast Fandorin, 'genius, gentleman, polyglot, kickboxer, and all-round inordinately lucky bloke'. In this one, he returns to Moscow to discover his old friend General Sobolev - the famous 'Russian Achilles' - has been found dead in a hotel room.
 
Adult non-fiction: Cloudspotters Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney (£7.99): A journey through our cloudscape, drawing on science, art, literature and personal obsession.
 
Children's book: Lady Friday by Garth Nix (£5.99) In the fifth instalment of the "The Keys to the Kingdom", the race is on to find the secret of the Middle House and Arthur Penhaligon's adventures in the House get ever more perilous.
 
CD: Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (£5.99). With its mixture of funny, bawdy and hedonistic texts taken from anonymous poets of the Middle Ages, twentieth-century composer Carl Orff created a choral work of powerful pagan sensuality and direct physical excitement. The pulsating rhythms, colourful orchestration and dynamic choruses, contrasted with moments of sensuous innocence, have taken Carmina Burana into the world of 'pop classics'.


NEWS

Local Interest

Hebden Bridge Treasure Hunt on Foot, £2.99
An attractive new version of this quirky walk around town. There's also a chance to win "buried treasure" by solving the baffling puzzle inside the front cover!

Local Authors

Wordsworth: a Life in Letters - ed. Juliet Barker, £12.99

Reissue as a Penguin Classic of this selection by award-winning local author from the poet's letters and autobiographical fragments, showing him as a rebel, a radical, a devoted family man and a revered patriarch.

 
National Book Events

The Daily Mail Book Club
March's Book of the Month is Mother Country by Jeremy Harding (£7.99). This literary memoir evokes a magical childhood spent in transit between Notting Hill Gate and a decrepit houseboat on the banks of the Thames. It is a detective quest, as Harding searches through the public record for a clue about his natural mother, and a rich social history of a lost London from the 1950s.  The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
April's title will be Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.
 
Richard and Judy Book Club
Each of the books below will be featured on Richard & Judy, at 5pm every Wednesday until  21st March. The winning best read will be announced at the 2007 Galaxy British Book Awards on 28th March
 
7th March: This Book Will Save Your Life - A M Holmes, £7.99
An L.A. stock-trader working from home is so out of touch with the world that his life has slowed to a standstill. A sudden excruciating pain begins a thaw, a relationship with doughnuts and more.
 
14th March: Half Of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi  Adichie, £7.99
In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together.
 
21st March: The Testament Of Gideon Mack - James Robertson, £7.99
If the Devil didn’t exist, would man have to invent him? A Church Minister has vanished to an almost certain death, and then re-appears, claiming to have been rescued by the Devil. Booker shortlisted.
 
Costa Book of the Year (ex-Whitbread)

Stef Penney - The Tenderness of Wolves,
£7.99
"The Tenderness of Wolves stood out from a very strong shortlist.  We felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless story-telling.  It is a story of love, suspense and beauty.  We couldn't put it down."


NEW TITLES

There's some high-profile hardback fiction in March from authors including Marina Lewycka, Thomas Keneally, Alexander McCall-Smith, Margaret Forster and Tracy Chevalier, and another good range of paperback fiction from Margaret Atwood, Sally Vickers, Hilary Mantel, Alessandro Baricco, Robert Harris, Will Self, Margaret Forster, Nicole Krauss, Romesh Gunesekera, Neil Bartlett and more - and new editions of Philip K Dick.
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Bicycles in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Handkerchiefs  in literature, click here.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

What you've been buying: FEBRUARY 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case

As expected, Richard & Judy have made several dents in The Book Case’s often locally-based bestseller list. February saw no fewer than four novels in the top ten - three of them promoted by the R&J Book Club, which is "credited as having a massive effect on the sales of the books it features". Of the remainder, two were local walking books - Hebden Bridge was launched as the first "Walkers are Welcome" town in February; two were autobiographies from writers with local connections; and Todmorden buses and Northern suffragettes continued popular.

1. The Interpretation Of Murder - Jed Rubenfield,
£7.99
Ingenious historical thriller - Sigmund Freud is drawn into the mind of a sadistic killer. Our most popular Richard & Judy choice so far.

2. Gone Walkabout: 24 Walks in the Upper Calder Valley by Anna Carlisle, £6.00
The most popular local walking book from Hebden Bridge publishers Pennine Pens.

3. Todmorden Buses: a Century of Service by Ralph Wilkinson, £8.95
The history of Todmorden's passenger transport over the last hundred years. Nice front cover!

4. The Girls by Lori Lansens, £7.99
In twenty-nine years, Rose Darlen has never parted from her twin sister, Ruby. Yet she has never once looked into Ruby's eyes – they are joined at the head. R&J choice.

5. Believe in the Sign by Mark Hodkinson
, £9.99
From a respected national sports writer based in Hebden Bridge, a collection of pieces taking an in-depth look at football, with interviews (including Paul Gascoigne), the darker side of the game and his love-hate relationship with Rochdale FC. Published by Pomona of Hebden Bridge.

6. If You Fall: It's a New Beginning by Karen Darke, £9.99
Karen Darke's inspiring account of how she made a new and active life for herself, following her loss of movement from the chest down after a fall while climbing. Karen is an ex-pupil of Calder High School.

7. The Testament to Gideon Mack by James Robertson, £7.99
If the Devil didn’t exist, would man have to invent him? A Church Minister has vanished to an almost certain death, and then re-appears, claiming to have been rescued by the Devil. Booker shortlisted and an R&J choice.

8. South Pennines and Bronte Moors (Freedom to Roam) by Andrew Bibby, £7.99
From the locally-based journalist and countryside campaigner, a set of twelve free-range rambles around our area, with maps and information, produced in association with the Ramblers' Association.

9. Rebel Girls: How Votes for Women Changed Edwardian Lives by Jill Liddington, £14.99
This enthralling account of the local fight for women's suffrage was our overall bestseller for 2006. Includes Lavina Saltonstall of Hebden Bridge.

10. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
, £7.99
Entertaining novel about two Ukrainian sisters, their father and his new wife in Peterborough, which is never far from the top ten. Look out for the author’s forthcoming novel, due in hardback at the end of March!

Best wishes from your local independent 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

"But for the average western child who must deal with the strange goings-on of the adult world, stories are a window into sanity."

Gaynor McGrath, letter about Beatrix Potter, to Guardian Weekly, 19-25 Jan. 2007  


FEBRUARY 2007

Dear Book Case customer or contact,

Apologies for the lateness of this newsletter; eye now on the mend and thank goodness for audiobooks!
 
Juliet Barker gave a fascinating talk on Agincourt at St John's in the Wilderness, Cragg Vale while the rain pelted down outside; she said the weather was similar to that endured by the dysentery-stricken English army before the famous battle. Her book, full of engrossing detail, is available at The Book Case.
 
The new edition of THE Book Magazine is now in stock, free to customers. This quarter's issue includes an interview with Simon Armitage about his new version of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", Joan Bakewell's choice of books, Robin Hanbury-Tenison on great journeys in history, Libby Purves on student life of 30 years ago and much more, including a discussion on "How Novels Work", a review of the new Beatrix Potter biography, the history of housing, sequels to classics, and more.
 
A reminder about the Hebden Bridge Walkers' Day on Sunday February 18th, 10am - 4pm in Riverside School. The intention is to celebrate and launch Hebden Bridge as the first "Walkers are Welcome" town and plan for the future, including the maintenance of footpaths and displays of short walks. There will be a range of activities on the day, including short walks (the Nutclough, Riverside to Redacre, updating the Town Trail) and talks (safety, John Billingsley on local legends, legal questions, local fauna and flora). Find out more at http://www.hbwalkersaction.org.uk/launch.htm - and there are some nice photos at the homepage http://www.hbwalkersaction.org.uk/index.html
The Book Case supports this initiative, and will be present selling walking books.
 
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (£7.99). Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, this Booker and Orange-shortlisted novel tells the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past.
Adult non-fiction: Rough Patch by Richard Bell (£10.95). "A sketchbook from the wilder side of the garden." Full of sketches and watercolours of the local flora and fauna, handwritten observations, comments, advice - an delightful, absorbing, practical book.
 
Children's book: Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve (£5.99) Now in paperback, this is the breathtaking conclusion to the Mortal Engines quartet. Natsworthy is enjoying life as an aviatrix, but the truce between the Green Storm and Traction Cities splinters and war breaks out again. 'An extraordinary imaginative achievement' The Guardian. Ages: 11+ yrs


NEWS

Local Interest

Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society 2006 (Vol. 14, new series) - (ed.) John A. Hargreaves, £15.00

This year's issue contains: The landscape history of Erringden Park from the 12th to 20th century - J A Heginbottom; A History of Cripplegate - John H Patchett; James Crossley (!800-1883) in Halifax: 'The learned boy', 1800-1817 - Stephen Collins; Chapel Culture: Methodists at King Cross, 1803-2007 - Lewis Burton; Joseph Horsfall (1818-1889): transformation from handloom weaver to cotton manufacturer, 1857-1873 - W L Horsfall; The People's park (1857-2005) - J G Washington; Halifax houses between the wars, 1919-1939 - Merial Evans; Halifax and the Second World War: the prelude to war and defensive precautions, 1937-1940 - Derek Bridges; The Twentieth Century Remembered: a 1920s and 1930s boyhood - Eric Webster; Reviews: "Images of England, Brighouse and District" by C. Helm & "Seeing It Through" by Peter Thomas (see below) - John Hargreaves; Enquiry & research; Reports for 2005; Obituary: Eric Webster.

Ideas Above Our Station - ed. Ian Daley, £8.99
Someone is waiting for a train - or a bus, or an aeroplane. They are alone. For company, they are carrying a book of stories: what would be the perfect read for them to find there? Fifteen writers have risen to the challenge, including two local authors, Penny Aldridge and Daithidh Maceochaidh.

Exploring Oxenhope: where to go and what to see - Reg Hindley, £9.99
Nine walks or rides around the former milltown in its surprisingly varied "highland" setting, with much detailed historical information along the way. Maps and b-and-w photos.

Local Authors

Poems from a Northern Soul - John Siddique, £6.95

Through poignant homecomings cinematic street scenes and candid portraits, this poetry collection aims to take the reader to the limits of human experience. 

Heart in My Head - John S Peart-Binns, £16.99

A Biography of Richard Harries. The first biography of the Bishop of Oxford, written with his full approval, using personal papers and interviews. 'Throughout his life, ministry and episcopate, Harries has explored the reasonableness of Christianity. He has not abandoned orthodox belief to fit the current climate, and presents a mature vision of Christian faith which can meet contemporary criticism.'

Heartsease - Judith Blaydes, £15.00
From an ex-Halifax librarian, a family saga set in the Calder Valley against the backdrop of the moors, Sowerby Bridge and the Great War.

National Book Events

The Daily Mail Book Club
February's Book of the Month is The Boy Who Fell Out Of The Sky by Ken Dornstein (£7.99). On December 21, 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded on board Pan Am Flight 103, causing the aircraft to crash onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie and killing all 259 people on board. One of the victims was Ken Dornstein’s 25-year-old brother, David.  The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 
March's title will be Mother Country by Jeremy Harding, and April's Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.
 
Richard and Judy Book Club
Each of the books below has been or will be featured on Richard & Judy, at 5pm every Wednesday from 31st January – 21st March. The winning best read will be announced at the 2007 Galaxy British Book Awards on 28th March

31st Jan: The Interpretation Of Murder - Jed Rubenfield, £7.99
Ingenious historical thriller - Sigmund Freud is drawn into the mind of a sadistic killer
 
7th Feb: The Girls - Lori Lansens, £7.99
In twenty-nine years, Rose Darlen has never parted from her twin sister, Ruby. Yet she has never once looked into Ruby's eyes – they are joined at the head.
 
14th Feb: Restless - William Boyd, £7.99
Eva Delectorskaya, a beautiful Russian emigree living in Paris in 1939, was recruited for the British Secret Service and became the perfect spy, Now she has carefully rebuilt her life as a typically English wife and mother. Costa Novel Award Winner.
 
21st Feb: Love In The Present Tense - Catherine Ryan Hyde, £6.99
Teenage mother Pearl drops off her 5-year-old son with a neighbour and never returns. Is it possible to love people who aren’t there?
 
28th Feb: Semi-Detached - Griff Rhys-Jones, £7.99
Griff Rhys-Jones’s own account of his ordinary suburban childhood, and how he got from there to here.
 
7th March: This Book Will Save Your Life - A M Holmes, £7.99
An L.A. stock-trader working from home is so out of touch with the world that his life has slowed to a standstill. A sudden excruciating pain begins a thaw, a relationship with doughnuts and more.
 
14th March: Half Of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi  Adichie, £7.99
In the context of the 1960s Nigerian civil war, a young houseboy, a university lecturer and her professor lover, a shy Englishman and the lecturer’s sister are pulled apart and thrown together.
 
21st March: The Testament Of Gideon Mack - James Robertson, £7.99
If the Devil didn’t exist, would man have to invent him? A Church Minister has vanished to an almost certain death, and then re-appears, claiming to have been rescued by the Devil. Booker shortlisted.
 
Costa Book Awards (ex-Whitbread)
 
These annual awards are now sponsored by Costa, and the category shortlists can be found at http://www.costabookawards.com/awards/shortlist.aspx. The category winners are below, with judges' comments.
 
2006 Costa First Novel Award winner
Stef Penney - The Tenderness of Wolves,
£12.99
"The Tenderness of Wolves stood out from a very strong shortlist.  We felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless story-telling.  It is a story of love, suspense and beauty.  We couldnt put it down."
 
2006 Costa Novel Award winner
William Boyd - Restless,
£7.99, in stock
"Restless remains in the mind long after you finish it. Its scenes of wartime tension, the smell of espionage and the consequences of deceitful lives. Double cross, double bluff - all written with effortless clarity resulting in an unputdownable read."
 
2006 Costa Children's Book Award winner
Linda Newbery - Set in Stone,
£12.99
"As beautifully crafted as one of the statues adorning the house in the story, this emotionally charged narrative will thrill all lovers of intelligent fiction."
 
2006 Costa Poetry Award winner
John Haynes - Letter to Patience,
£7.99, in stock
"John Haynes Letter to Patience was the judges unanimous choice and a clear winner; a unique long poem of outstanding quality, condensing a lifetime of reflection and experience into a work of transporting momentum, imaginative lucidity, and consummate formal accomplishment."

2006 Costa Biography Award winner
Brian Thompson - Keeping Mum,
£7.99, in stock
"This vivid, life-affirming and deftly-written book is a perfect antidote to the 'misery memoir'.  We defy anyone not to enjoy it." 
 
The Costa Book of the Year will be announced tonight.
 


NEW TITLES
New hardback fiction in February includes monologues from Lynne Truss, and two interesting novels from less well-known authors, and a good range of paperback fiction from Sarah Waters, Irene Nemirovsky, Helen Dunmore, Alexander McCall-Smith, Christopher Hope, Maeve Binchy, David Nobbs, Niall Griffiths, Jay McInerney, Manda Scott - and new editions of the Sherlock Holmes books.
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on Handkerchiefs in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on New Years  in literature, click here.
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What you've been buying: JANUARY 2007 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case
 
1. Rebel Girls: How Votes for Women Changed Edwardian Lives by Jill Liddington, £14.99
This detailed account of the local fight for women's suffrage was our overall bestseller for 2006.

2. Gone Walkabout: 24 Walks in the Upper Calder Valley by Anna Carlisle, £6.00
24 local walks from Hebden Bridge publishers Pennine Pens, and another consistent bestseller.

3. Reading "Lolita" in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi, £7.99
The inspirational tale of eight women who defied the confines of life in revolutionary Iran through the joy and power of literature.

4. The Testament to Gideon Mack by James Robertson, £7.99
If the devil didn't exist, would man have to invent him? Faithless minister Gideon Mack one day falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan himself.

5. Millstone Grit - Glyn Hughes, £4.95
We still have some copies of this classic account of the Calder Valley by prize-winning local author Glyn Hughes.

6. Elmet by Ted Hughes with photographs by Fay Godwin, £14.99
A partnership of the local ex-Poet Laureate and well-known photographer to give an atmospheric impression of the local area. The cover photograph showing Heptonstall Church and Stoodley Pike from Oxenhope Moor was recently shortlisted for Britain's most iconic photograph
 
7. Todmorden Album 4: People Places and Events by Roger Birch, £20.00
229 black and white photographs from private collections, family albums and picture archives, with detailed and informative captions, showing a century of life in Todmorden.

8. If You Fall: It's a New Beginning by Karen Darke, £9.99
Second bestseller for 2006, Karen Darke's inspiring account of how she made a new and active life for herself, following her loss of movement from the chest down after a fall while climbing.

9. Double or Die (Young Bond 3) by Charlie Higson, £6.99
A tale for young people of kidnap, violence, explosion and murder in the popular Young Bond series.

10. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage, £12.99
The strange tale of a green knight who rudely interrupts King Arthur's Christmas festivities, retold by Yorkshire poet Simon Armitage.

Best wishes from your local independent 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

 "Reading is the perfect way to wind down at the end of the day. Anxiety levels will drop as it provides a gentle distraction, pushing any worries out of your mind which will ultimately help you relax and fall asleep."

Travelodge's Director of Sleep, Wayne Munnelly, GMTV, 5 Feb.
 

JANUARY 2007

Dear Book Case customer or contact,

A Happy New Year to everyone, and thanks for your custom over Christmas - special thanks to those of you who nominated us for Independent Bookshop of the Year.
 
 Juliet Barker on "Agincourt", 8th January 2007 at Cragg Vale

A major event of this month will be respected historian Juliet Barker talking about her ground-breaking book on the battle of Agincourt to the Yorkshire Countrywomen's Association Cragg Vale Group at 7.30pm at St John's Church, Cragg Vale, on Monday 8th January. Open to all, £1 entry including refreshments. The Book Case will be selling the paperback and hardback editions of Juliet Barker's Agincourt.

Local historian John Hargreaves will be leading a WEA course in Hebden Bridge on Yorkshire History Makers for ten weeks starting 11 January - Thursdays 2-4pm at Hope Baptist Church, Cheetham Street entrance. The Book Case stocks John Hargreaves' books on Halifax and Benjamin Rushton.
 
Some of Michael Peace's pictures of local scenes are now displayed on our walls and are available for sale. We are also stocking his cards.
 
Local juggling star Jago Parfitt of Full Moon Performers has directed a new Contact Juggling DVD, In Isolation, a unique collection of inspirational modern contact juggling, shot in beautiful local landscapes and including 30 minutes of condensed instruction, plus interviews and rare footage. The DVD was produced by Beard Enterprises of Old Town Mill and is being stocked by The Book Case, 135 mins, price £20. See more at http://www.fullmoonperformers.com/isolation/index.html and for an enthusiastic review by European Juggling Magazine Kaskade, go to http://www.fullmoonperformers.com/isolation/kaskade.html. Jago has appeared at Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, and performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006.
 
We are now stocking the magazine Green Parent, £2.95.
 
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: from adult fiction and non-fiction and a children's book.

Adult fiction: The Cleft - Doris Lessing (£14.99 at The Book Case). A mythical society free from sexual intrigue, free from jealousy, free from petty rivalries: a society free from men. Confronts the themes of how men and women, two similar and yet thoroughly distinct creatures, manage to live side by side in the world, and how the specifics of gender affect every aspect of our existence.
Adult non-fiction: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast - Lewis Wolpert (£8.99). Why does every society around the world have a religious tradition of some sort? This book investigates the nature of belief and its causes, its psychological basis and its possible evolutionary origins in physical cause and effect, and the different types of belief - including that of animals, of children, of the religious, and of those suffering from psychiatric disorders. Is it possible to live without belief at all?  
 
Children's book: Slawter by Darren Shan (£5.99)  "Never trust fairy tales. There are no happy endings. There's always something new around the corner. You can overcome major obstacles, face great danger, look evil in the eye and live to tell the tale - but that's not the end. As long as you're breathing, your story's still going!" Latest in the popular author's Demonata series.


NEWS

Local Interest
 
A reminder of some late arrivals:

Todmorden Buses: a Century of Service by Ralph Wilkinson,
£8.95

To mark the centenary of the establishment of Todmorden's municipal bus service, this book covers the history of Todmorden's passenger transport over the last hundred years, with links over the Pennines to Bacup, Burnley, Keighley, Littleborough, Oxenhope and Rochdale, and with particular emphasis on the all-Leyland fleet with its dark green and cream livery. The author is a native of Todmorden. This book has been so popular that the first edition has sold out and we are waiting for a reprint.

Benjamin Rushton, Handloom Weaver and Chartist by John Hargreaves, £4.50
From well-known local historian Professor Hargreaves, the story of a Halifax local hero who struggled for justice for the handloom weavers from the time of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 until the final years of Chartism in the 1850s.

Heptonstall: A Village of Memories - Nick Wilding, DVD, £14.99
Following the success of "A Tale of Two Towns" and "A Race through Time", Nick Wilding and Excalibur have produced a DVD about the history of Heptonstall just in time for Christmas. Who is the strange and beautiful carving in the far corner of the old St Thomas-a-Becket Church, and what disturbing discovery was made in the loft above it? How did the old dialect affect communication with those from the south, and how did the original Church organ survive the anti-popish onslaught by soldiers of Elizabeth I? "Heptonstall, Village of Memories" embarks onto a fascinating journey into the past and brings to life many tales from long ago, with the usual mix of strange facts, quirky reminiscences and archive stills and video.

Valley Shadows: short stories by Bill Marsden, poems by Peter Coles, £5.00

The latest in the entertaining Shadows series with photos, poems and anecdotes.

Local Authors
 
The Backpacker's Guide to the New Spirituality by Michael Conneely, £9.99
A magical child has been conceived in the modern west. A new spiritual form has been born out of Hinduism, Buddhism, the Pagan religions of Northern Europe, Shamanism, utopian community and astrology. This reforging of ancient traditions gives us new spiritual tools: ritual, meditation, tantra, body-energy-work, trance and vision; we find new beauty and power in what it means to be a woman or a man. Local astrologer and counsellor Michael Conneely reports on this spiritual revolution, based on the findings of a five-year field study in Glastonbury, now a world-wide centre of pilgrimage. (£9.99)
 
Believe in the Sign - Mark Hodkinson, £9.99
From a respected national sports writer based in Hebden Bridge, a collection of pieces taking an in-depth look at football, with interviews (including Paul Gascoigne), the darker side of the game and his love-hate relationship with Rochdale FC.
 
National Book Events

The Daily Mail Book Club
January's Book of the Month is One Life by Rebecca Frayn (£7.99). Rose and Johnny are a modern couple, a career couple. But suddenly - unexpectedly - Johnny's desire for commitment and a child brings them to an abrupt and painful crossroads. Currently unavailable, stock expected soon. The Book Case will accept Daily Mail National Book Tokens against one-half of the cost of this month's recommended title.
 


NEW TITLES

New hardback fiction in January includes a new novel from Doris Lessing, with paperback fiction from Joanna Trollope, Richard Yates, Jodi Picoult, Sarah Dunant, T C Boyle and Fred Vargas amongst many others.
 
Non-fiction:
For a fuller listing, click here: http://www.btinternet.com/~bookcase/Forthcoming.htm#Forthcoming
E-mail, phone or fax us to reserve any of these new titles.


LITERARY QUIZ: this month it's on New Years in literature To find it online, click here: http://www.bookcase.co.uk/competition.htm 
 
For the full answers to last month's quiz, on Owls  in literature, click here.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

What you've been buying: DECEMBER & 2006 BESTSELLERS at The Book Case
Six books of local interest in The Book Case's bestsellers meant that our list was (as often) unique! Karen Darke’s extraordinary story headed photos of old Todmorden and local walks, weirdnesses, sculpture and suffragettes. Scientific enquiry, two diaries, a much-loved Daleswoman and two works of fiction made up the rest. See below for our bestsellers of the year.

1. If You Fall - Karen Darke (£9.99) Local woman Karen Darke stayed at the top with her inspiring account of how she came to terms with her loss of movement from the chest down following a fall while climbing, and made a new and active life for herself.

2. Todmorden Album 4 - Roger Birch (£20.00) This long-awaited fourth album provides a further fascinating insight into a century of life in Todmorden. The book contains 229 black and white photographs selected from private collections, family albums and picture archives, with detailed and informative captions.

3. Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? and 114 Other Questions - Mick O'Hare (£7.99)  A compilation of readers' answers to the questions in the 'Last Word' column of "New Scientist", one of the world's best-selling science weekly.

4. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle (£6.00)  Still buoyant, a collection of 24 local walks from Hebden Bridge publishers Pennine Pens.

5. We'Moon Diary 2007 (£15.99) It wouldn't be Christmas without We'Moon somewhere in the Top 10. Gaia Rhythms for Women on the theme “On Purpose”.

6. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead (£7.99) Another book that feels at home near the top. A lot of people like their Calderdale weird.

7. Sculpture Trail at Hardcastle Crags - 1995-2005 - Liza Blezard and Paula Chambers (£15)
Colour photos of the best of the (sadly now finished) annual sculpture trail at Hardcastle Crags, with artists' statements. Limited edition.

8. Hannah Hauxwell's Winter Tales DVD (£12.99).
Combines "Too Long a Winter" and "A Winter Too Many" when Daleswoman Hannah was living alone at Low Birk Hatt Farm in North Yorkshire. Our November DVD of the month.

Tying for 9th place:

- Rebel Girls - Jill Liddington (£14.99)
Our bestseller for 2006, the story of the young campaigners who took their fight for the vote for women across the north of England. Local author and historian Jill Liddington is now taking a well-earned break.

- A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka (£7.99)
Entertaining novel about two Ukrainian sisters, their father and his new wife in Peterborough, which has been near the top for most of the year.

- Wild Nature Yearbook 2007 (£12.95) From the John Muir Trust, a spiral-bound diary full of wonderful nature photos from Scotland.- John Muir Diary

10. Winter Book - Tove Jansson (£6.99)
A collection of some of Tove Jansson’s best-loved stories, drawn from youth and older age. Our November Fiction Book of the Month.

BESTSELLERS FOR 2006

1. Rebel Girls - Jill Liddington; 2. If You Fall - Karen Darke; 3. Weird Calderdale - Paul Weatherhead; 4. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka; 5. Passage to Africa - George Alagiah; 6. We'Moon Diary 2007 - Gaia Rhythms for Women “On Purpose”; 7. Gone Walkabout - Anna Carlisle; 8. Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn Iggulden; 9. South Pennines 1:25000 map; 10. Tie: Kite Runner - K Hosseini; Winter Book - Tove Jansson

Best wishes from your local independent 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

"There must have been a thousand books in the sitting-room by the end, each a doorway leading somewhere I had never been before."

Romesh Gunesekera, The Reef, 1994


Links to previous Newsletters:

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001