This Month - Signed Books by Joanne Hill

It was with great excitement that we discovered that most books in a very large recently purchased collection had been signed by either the author or the illustrator, and sometimes both. It was my task to sort and catalogue them and for many weeks I watched the different boxes of well kept books being unloaded onto my 'cataloguing' shelves. As soon as each shelf was filled the excitement would get the better of me and I would have to see what had just arrived!

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Featured Books - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

"My name is Gulliver, Lemuel Gulliver. I was born in Nottinghamshire and was sent to Cambridge University when I was fourteen years old. Three years later I began training as a surgeon, first in London and afterwards in Leyden in the Netherlands. I made several voyages as a ship's surgeon, but grew tired of the sea and decided to set up as a doctor in Wapping, where I moved with my wife and children. However, business did not go well and I again took a post as a ship's surgeon."

So starts (a slightly abridged version of) the most intriguing and imaginative travel book that you will ever set eyes on! What travel book do you know that describes extraordinary voyages into lands so diverse that you can be a giant in one and a midget in the next? Read More

A Sample of New Stock

Falconry by Gilbert Blaine

Beagling by J. Ivester Lloyd

Green and Silver by L.T.C. Rolt

Asterix and Cleopatra by
Rene Goscinny illustrated by Albert Uderzo

Price: £ 15

Other Falconry Books

Price: £18

Other Beagle Books

Price: £35

Other Canal Books

Price: £ 18

Other Asterix Books

Selection from our Special Book Room

A Book of Cats by Michael. Joseph. Illustrated by Foujita.

Undine by Friedrich De La Motte Fouque. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

Silver and Gold by
Enid Blyton. Illustrated by Ethel F. Everett.

Naples by Sybil Fitzgerald. Illustrated by Augustine Fitzgerald.

1st ed thus1987. Poems in prose by Michael Joseph plus illustrations by Foujita, the renowned Japanese artist. Twenty cats come vividly to life. Price: £160

De-luxe edition limited to 1000 numbered copies. Full vellum binding. 15 beautiful tipped-in colour plates mounted on brown paper with captioned tissue guards. Copy no. 156 SIGNED by Rackham. Price: £1100

1st ed US 1927, blue cloth, gilt titles. Colour pictorial onlay to front cover. Colour pictorial endpapers. 8 colour plates. Poetry for children. Price: £ 140

1st ed1904, red pictorial cloth, gilt titles. 80 tissue-guarded colour plates. A & C Black Colour Book 20 Shilling series. Price: £130

News in Brief

Amongst the books catalogued this month we have collections of Canal Books, Cat Books, Girls Own Annuals, and books on Beagles.

This year's Hay Festival of Literature & the Arts will take place between 24th May - 3rd June 2007. Please visit the official website for more details.

Following your requests we have made it possible to search our Special Book Room from the advanced search page. Just click in the box!

This month's photograph is of the bluebells in the woods around Tintern.

For further news please click here