Stella & Rose's Books

One of the songs we were taught at primary school was “Boney was a warrior”  the lyrics of which taught me very little about Napoleon and left me fairly unmoved by the last verse which finished with “Boney broke his heart and died”.  What I have learned over the years has been from the British perspective and there are several myths and half truths that are passed on, just as with many historical figures.   

Napoleon & Josephine - A Love Story by Theo Aronson  

After a crushing defeat at Waterloo Napoleon abdicated and the British sent him in exile to St Helena – one of the remotest places on Earth where they almost certainly thought he would be forgotten. They were wrong.  He died on the island at age 51 and a mere nineteen years after his death the French people brought his body back to Paris where he was given a magnificent funeral.  A reported million people lined the route of the cortege which passed under the Arc de Triomphe and into the Royal Chapel of Les Invalides.  His tomb is a huge sarcophagus which contains six coffins made from iron, lead, beech, oak and ebony.  This is not the ending the song of my childhood suggests – far from it.

(Published 25th May 2021) Read full article

Being a keen cyclist – and having recently moved to Chepstow – I was excited to hear about the new Wye Valley Greenway. It opened on the 1st April 2021 and having walked it a couple of times I thought I’d share a little information about it!

The cycle way follows the southern route of the Wye Valley Railway from Chepstow, starting at Sedbury, through to Tintern. Adam wrote a fascinating article on the Wye Valley Railway back in 2014. The Wye Valley Railway opened to passengers and goods trains on the 1st of November 1876, connecting Chepstow and Monmouth (along with a branch line to the Tintern Wireworks). The line consisted of two tunnels, Tidenham and Tintern, as well as four river crossings (not including the branch line).

(Published 4th May 2021) Read full article

I enjoy motor racing and I enjoy reading about the pioneering early days of racing, written by the characters who took part in this dangerous sport. I have read a few books now about racing drivers, pilots and stunt drivers and the thing that leaps out when reading about these escapades is the sheer joy and certainty that this was what they wanted to do.

By today’s standards they did what interested them and did not worry about the consequences.  These drivers however seemed to exceed their quota of catastrophic mechanical failures. Steering failures, detached wheels and cockpits flooding with fuel, rather than warning them off, provided them with a diet they absolutely thrived on, with only a vague relationship with Health and Safety by today’s standards! Most of them seem to suffer many accidents, some serious, that required stays in hospital, sometimes for a considerable time. I suppose to a degree I envy them their freedom to undertake their activity without any restrictions.   

(Published 17th Mar 2021) Read full article

Question:

What did Andy Pandy, Christopher Robin, Zippy, Kermit, Bill Badger and Noddy all have in common?

Answer: They all had a bear in their lives! (To find out which bears you have to read to the end of the article…)

While these bears take many forms, I am going to focus on the beloved Teddy Bear for this article. How this delightful stuffed toy got its name is quite a long story. It began with Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States . His nickname was Teddy and he hated it! In 1902 he went on a bear hunting expedition.  While other hunters had already been successful, he had not and so his attendants cornered, clubbed and tied an American black bear to a tree, inviting Roosevelt to kill it. Deeming this to be unsportsmanlike (I should think so!) he refused but instructed his attendants to put the poor creature out of its misery.

(Published 23rd Feb 2021) Read full article

Question: What do all the books and book series listed below have in common?

The Fables of Aesop, Watership Down by Richard Adams, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Babar (the elephant) series, by Jean De Brunhoff, The World of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Doctor Dolittle Series by Hugh Lofting, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Little Grey Rabbit Series by Alison Uttley, The Black Stallion by Walter Farley, Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Call of the Wild by Jack London, Brambly Hedge Series by Jill Barklem or the more recent books by Julia Donaldson

Answer: They can all be classed or categorized as animal stories or tales.  

(Published 26th Jan 2021) Read full article

After the celebrations of the festive season January is normally seen as a dark and cold  month just to get through until payday.I think January 2021 will be different, firstly we will hopefully  see the vaccination against Covid 19 rolled out around the world and what an amazing thing that will be!!

So such good news is something to celebrate, so I thought I would look to see what other good or interesting events have happened in January over the years.

On January 3rd, 1924 the British archaeologist Howard Carter and his team uncovered a stone sarcophagus, containing three coffins nested within each other. The last, golden one contained the mummified body of the teenage pharaoh Tutankhamun.

(Published 17th Dec 2020) Read full article

Wow! What a year! So many things have happened… well, two main things but it seems like a lot!

The evening of March 11th 2020 saw extremely high Spring Tides in Tintern resulting in the River Wye, which flows opposite our shop, deciding it was going to overflow its banks and the road, and come into the building and browse our shelves! Prior to this, we did have a flood alert from the Environmental Agency and we had prepared ourselves. The flood boards were in place and books were moved from floor level to shelves to higher up. This we thought would be enough and, anyway, the river was highly unlikely to enter the building - wasn’t it?

(Published 1st Dec 2020) Read full article

“Art is a necessity – an essential part of our enlightenment process. We cannot, as a civilized society, regard ourselves as being enlightened without the arts.” Ken Danby

Art can move us to tears, it can make us laugh, it can question our beliefs and the way we look at the world. I think art can be more than just a painting it can be an illustration, a building, ceramics, a film, a play, books -  in fact it I think it can be all of them.

(Published 3rd Nov 2020) Read full article

“We the People……………”

I have discovered that despite believing I knew a fair amount about the USA, its history, its geography, its politics, I actually have huge gaps in my knowledge.  America has always seemed so familiar and what I know of it, I must confess, has mainly been learned through films, books and television. For reasons that may or may not be obvious my desire to understand more about the USA has grown over the last few years.

(Published 29th Sep 2020) Read full article

Thanks to all our customers regular and new, we have been kept gainfully employed over these past few months.

The range of books we have shipped has been very interesting, encompassing a wide spectrum of subjects.

There have been many children’s books either old favourites such as Billy Bunter; Jennings; Rupert; Chalet School and the Enid Blyton’s series, or more recent authors/illustrators such as Lemony Snicket; J.K. Rowling; Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake.  There have also been books to enchant such as the Pop-ups or to entice such as the Early Readers.

(Published 1st Sep 2020) Read full article

Trains and Railways is one of the most popular sections in the shop and online.

There have been many books written on Trains and Railways, detailing plans of carriages, Railway layouts, signalling, station plans etc. More Engineering than Romance, although I am not saying they are mutually exclusive.

However what interests me is that they were more than just a means of getting from A to B; railway travel was holidays, romances, livelihoods, adventures, first dates and new beginnings.

So, this little book caught my eye The Cornish Riviera Express – Paddington to Penzance by Alan Anderson.

(Published 21st Jul 2020) Read full article

Who does not like flowers? Whether it be a beautiful bouquet, a stunning garden display or a springtime collection of wild flowers along the roadside – there cannot be many of us who do not appreciate their variety and beauty.

We use flowers for so many occasions – a wedding bouquet, a funeral wreath, a get well wish for a sick loved one. When we are lost for words, flowers speak for us. They bring beauty to our environment and can be objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and even a source of food. The book ‘The Language of Flowers’ contains a dictionary of over 700 flowers and plants with their meanings. Although symbols or emblems of flowers can be traced back to ancient times, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the language of flowers appeared in the Western world. The origins are unclear but may have come from Turkey where flowers were used by the harem ladies to send secret messages to their lovers!

(Published 1st Jul 2020) Read full article

So I thought this month I’d raise a controversial subject: are you a ‘dog person’ or a ‘cat person’? The nation seems fairly evenly split – so maybe it’s time to wade into this debate from a Stella Books perspective. Whilst we do have some cat lovers here, I think it’s safe to say that the dog lovers are in the majority!

Before the current pandemic, we would regularly have 4 dogs in the office. So, I thought I’d write a little piece about my love of dogs, a short bio on each of our 4 office dogs, and finally try and find a tenuous link to books!

(Published 27th May 2020) Read full article

As a child (too long ago now) I remember being so happy to receive book tokens at Christmas time. I would save them until the New Year and then use them to buy as many annuals as I possibly could in the sales. Usually one or two of the girls annuals (such as Bunty for Girls or June for Girls) and of course a copy of the most popular annual of all – The Beano Annual.

(Published 28th Apr 2020) Read full article

What springs to your mind when you hear the word steam? The kettle boiling, ready for a steaming hot cuppa? A steaming hot bath? Or sauna maybe? Or, like me, do you think of the magnificent steam locomotives that used to be a regular sight on our railways?

My earliest memories of steam trains are those of going on holiday to far away climes, well, actually it was to the south coast of England but in those days that was an epic journey by train from where we lived. We would wait eagerly on the station platform, listening out for the chuff, chuff, chuff which told us the train was approaching. Then the smell of the engine, then finally the sight of this great noisy beast that was going to whisk us away for our annual holiday.

(Published 18th Mar 2020) Read full article

The books published by the Folio Society include just about every subject imaginable. They are beautifully covered and bound exceptionally well. The Folio Society was founded in 1947 and has been publishing carefully crafted editions for over 70 years.

Much thought, care and attention is taken in designing the books so that each one is a unique entity. Features of the books include:

Decorative head and tail bands and gilded or coloured top edges where appropriate. Bindings which are all sewn in 16-page sections to the highest standard so that they not only look good on the shelf but are also easy to read. The slipcase which is a distinctive feature of Folio Society books and is also the traditional protective covering keeping the books in pristine condition.

The main design feature is the cover of the book. Different mediums are used such as silk which combined with lavish illustrations make a beautiful binding. The variety of designs of the books and covers is virtually innumerable.

(Published 26th Feb 2020) Read full article

Honor C. Appleton, or Honor Charlotte Appleton in full, was born to parents Georgina and John Hoblyn Appleton, in Brighton on the south coast of England, on 4th February 1879.  Appleton grew up with two older sisters, Rachel and Alice Mary (nicknamed 'Sissy') and one younger brother named John.  Although not a great deal is known about her early childhood, it seems that her mother, Georgina, encouraged Honor and her sisters to take up the creative arts and painting.

 

Appleton was a student at various art schools. Firstly she attended South Kensington School, after which, on scholarship, she attended Frank Calderdon's School of Animal Painting.  After a short time at the Studio of Sir Arthur Cope, RA, in January 1901 she and her sister Sissy registered at the Royal Academy School.   It appears that Appleton loved learning and made good use of the opportunities afforded to her to develop her skills in different mediums, including sketching and watercolours. Many of her sketchbooks and original watercolours still survive, in which the development and progression of her work can be seen.

(Published 28th Jan 2020) Read full article

A couple of weeks ago we sold a copy of "Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis.  This is one of my favourite books. My brother had recommended it and I first read it years ago amid tears of laughter.  It is so unusual to laugh like this while reading and it is pure joy when it happens.  The main character Jim Dixon is trying so hard at his new academic post but it is so obviously the wrong environment for him and the constant sneering and disapproval that he encounters are seriously funny.

We can all find things less worrying or concerning if we can laugh at them and Jim’s hapless attempts at fitting in were probably striking a chord with me as I was starting out in a new job and in a new city with new people.  I have recommended this book to other people with mixed reviews.  Some have loved it and some have been unable to find anything funny in it at all. It is a gift if, as an author, you can make people laugh.  Humour is subjective and often needs to be in context and it is possible that my sense of humour is not very sophisticated. I confess that not long ago I watched ten minutes of a YouTube compilation of people trying to stay upright on an icy pavement and I laughed so much it hurt!

(Published 31st Dec 2019) Read full article

I haven't always lived and worked in the Forest of Dean and The Wye Valley, but it is a place I have grown to love. It is is quite simply a beautiful area at any time of the year but especially so in my two favourite seasons - spring and autumn.

In early spring we see the trees tinged with green as they begin to shake off the austerity of winter. As the spring progresses the forest floor is covered with a blue misty haze as the bluebells come into bloom. In autumn the trees put on a last hurrah before winter arrives, as the leaves turn from green, to gold to orange and to deepest red – a riot of colour – it is stunning.

(Published 27th Nov 2019) Read full article

What a pleasure it is to work here at Stella & Rose's Books and in such beautiful surroundings. I can look out of the window and see the tallest part of the ruins of Tintern Abbey with the magnificent backdrop of trees and cliffs. I can watch the River Wye flow, ripple, rise and fall with the tide, which is the second highest in the world. I have seen otter, little egret, ducks, geese and swans. Swallows dipping skilfully to drink. I have even seen a seal coming in to hunt on the highest tides. I can see the clouds drifting or hurrying and the changing colours of the seasons. Unavoidably I can also hear and see the low flying training flights of the helicopter pilots alarming the birds making them rise all along its winding path following the river's course.

(Published 30th Oct 2019) Read full article