Stella & Rose's Books

View current stock of Gardening books

Dull… I hear you say. But wait – these visitors to our garden in Portugal are certainly not dull to look at and most are fascinating to learn about. Join me in a trip around the garden in late summer and autumn.

My husband Cliff and I have been living here in our little country cottage for three months now and have not ceased to be fascinated by the variety of wildlife we see here. When we first arrived at the end of the summer we were amazed at the clouds of butterflies which flew up from the straggly plant bearing pink flowers just by the house. We have since found out that the plant is oregano - both beautiful and useful. The oregano was superseded by the bushes of thyme with their delicate purple flowers. Bees, butterflies and other insects love them.

View current stock of Literature books

I finished reading a book a few weeks ago that had such a profound effect upon me that I am still recovering from its influence now! Perhaps you would say this is not such a strange thing for avid readers to experience from time to time, however, what is a little different in this case, is that this particular book was actually written for early teen readers. I know this may prompt some sarcastic commentary on my mental age but, in my early 30s, the achingly beautiful 'Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe' simply blew me away. A somewhat introspective coming-of-age story about two Mexican-American boys growing up in El Paso, Texas, in 1987, the story brings up questions of identity, both in terms of sexuality and culture, the nature of trust and loyalty and explores teenage experimentation with drugs and drinking. The book's real focus though is friendship and how the perspective and love of a good friend can make you look at yourself differently and motivate you to change for the better.

View current stock of Railway Books

Having lived in the village of Tintern all my life (since the mid 70s) one of the main things that I wish I had been able to see is steam trains chuffing their way along into Tintern Station. This would have been a spectacular sight as from the south the railway line exits a short tunnel then runs straight on to a bridge across the River Wye before a short run into Tintern Station.

Tintern Station is located at the end of the village about ½ mile from the north edge and about 1 mile by road from Tintern Abbey - although only ½ mile by railway line, as the road follows the river's broad horseshoe bend whilst the railway was constructed to follow a relatively straight line. The station is the only station on the Wye Valley line open to the public, it is operated as a Tourist Attraction by Monmouthshire County Council, and they regularly hold events there. It includes a permanent display charting the history of the railway with so much more information than I could give you in this short article, so well worth a visit if you are in the area.

View current stock of Wye Valley books

It is good indeed to have a haven to retreat to in these troubled times, and the beautiful Wye Valley is just that, not only for myself, and the other families lucky enough to live here, but the many visitors who come to appreciate its many qualities and splendour. It is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with rolling hills, many lovely stone-built houses and a wealth of history. The River Wye is reputed to be Britain's most beautiful river and also one of the cleanest, and its important plant and animal life has made it a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It has been appreciated for centuries, and a "Wye Tour" was considered a must for those wishing to seek out Europe's most picturesque settings.

After the snow in January - I looked out into my garden last week and noticed some Snowdrops and thought, although it's still winter, spring is soon going to be on its way – and I can't wait!!

It's a long-standing joke here at Stella Books that I feel the cold - and come in with many jumper layers in the winter (and sometimes even in the summer!), with blankets to go over my knees and occasionally even heat packs! So I look forward to the warmer days and longer hours of daylight that spring (and summer beyond) bring.

One of my favourite things about the spring time is seeing all the baby animals - spring lambs, baby goats, little cows, piglets - really anything small and cute! At least once during the spring/summer time I have to visit a local farm or petting zoo to see all the new animals. What's better than some fresh air, spring sunshine and adorable baby animals to make you smile, after being cooped up for the winter?!

"Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard." Genesis 9.20-21

Many have noticed the striking coincidence that Mount Ararat, where the Ark came to rest, is located where the cultivation of grapevines is believed to have originated - Transcaucasia, south of the Black Sea. However, even if one accepts the Biblical origins of viticulture, it is not necessary to plant a vineyard in order to produce wine. It is likely that early communities discovered the apparently miraculous transformation of grapes into wine when they first collected the fruit of wild vines: the berries will naturally, and quickly, ferment due to the presence of air-borne yeast on the grape skins. One wonders how these communities explained how grape juice acquired the intoxicating properties which seem to have caught poor Noah unawares - "When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent."

View current stock of William books

He is one of the strongest and most vividly drawn characters in all fiction.She was a private person not overly well known.

He stands comparison with Mr. Micawber, Long John Silver, Falstaff, Sherlock Holmes and Tom Sawyer – in fact, he is more rounded a character than any of them.She stands comparison with Maupassant, Somerset Maugham, O’ Henry and Mark Twain --- and, although her range may not be as broad, she is funnier than any of them.

View current stock of Wild Flowers books

Whether you are a keen botanist or simply entranced by their natural beauty, wild flowers are a source of both interest and pleasure.

From the Snowdrop signalling the imminent arrival of Spring and its Primroses, through the showy carpets of Bluebells and Wild Garlic to the vertical splendour of the Foxglove and Willow Herbs, wild flowers mark the passing of the year.

Left: Carpets of Bluebells gladden the heart...

First let's look at books that fulfil the need for basic identification.

In 2008 the Year of Reading, it is worth asking ourselves - Why do we read? At the most banal level it's because we can and we want to. Like Mallory's mountain - 'because it's there'. If I look at my own reading, I see just how much of my day is taken up in one way or another with reading. I read at least one newspaper a day usually before I leave for work. (I also like to complete a daily crossword but don't always achieve that!) At work there is barely a task which doesn't necessitate some element of reading.

I also always have more than one book 'on the go' at a time. My butterfly mind constantly hops from one interest to another. At the point of writing I have a stack of six books beside the bed - I'll spare you the details - all in varying stages of being read. A simple rule is that I only read one novel at a time but will nonetheless be simultaneously reading drama, poetry, invariably something political and usually a popular science book. (I can't do the 'serious' science - the detail is beyond me. As Peter Cook said of being a judge - 'I didn't have the Latin!')

View current Disney stock

Thinking back to early childhood – one of the things most people remember with a great fondness, is the first ever Walt Disney film that they saw at the cinema. For me, it was Jungle Book – I remember waiting for the lights to dim, the hushed whispers as the curtains opened, watching in anticipation and wonder as the story of Mowgli and friends unfolded before my eyes. But, be it one of the animated classics such as Jungle Book, Snow White or Lady and the Tramp or a live-action Disney picture, such as Mary Poppins or The Swiss Family Robinson, you were always taken to a magical place of make-believe, adventure and romance.

View current stock about Airships

At the end of the nineteenth century a small, dapper young man took to the skies above Paris in a hired gas balloon. He ensured that he was adequately provisioned for his first ascent - with a lunch of roast beef, chicken, ice-cream, cakes, champagne, coffee and chartreuse! The flight made a huge impression on him and that night he enthralled sophisticated Parisians with descriptions of his adventure - "no dining room is so marvellous in its decoration". The man's name was Alberto Santos-Dumont and his development of steered airships or dirigibles was to win him the title 'father of aviation'.

I spent many of my younger days travelling to and from London both for work and pleasure.

I knew how to get to different stations, I knew where the interchanges were and which were the busier stations (although at Rush Hour everywhere was busy) all without consulting that iconic Tube Map – it was practically second nature!

When you were in an unfamiliar area of London after a night out, the sight of the Underground sign and the light emanating from within was like greeting an old friend.

Commuting in the morning and early evening was completely different, packed trains, nose to nose standing, straphanging, the excitement of getting a seat - a sea of people emerging from below, blinking in the light!

What is a Trade Directory? If, like me, you happen to have been born after 1970, then you may not have come across them before. Simply put, they are the old fashioned equivalent of the Telephone Directories and Yellow Pages rolled into one book.

The earliest known directory of London merchants was published in 1677 and is kept in the Guildhall Library in London. However it was not until 1781 that the first national directory was published. It was the industrial revolution and the growth of the British Empire that boosted the publication of directories. Before the second world war the directories were typically split by counties, apart from those for the larger industrial cities. After the second world war they had grown so much in size it was necessary to split the directories into large towns or city volumes, for example, Kelly's Directory of Rochester Chatham, Gillingham , Strood, Rainham and Neighborhoodwould originally have been part of Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex. A number of companies published these directories including Pigot, White, Slater and Baines, but from now on we are going to focus on those which are arguably the most famous, the Kelly's Directories.

Earlier this year I read an article in a newspaper which listed the top ten children's books of the past 150 years. This list was based on a poll of 2,652 adults and, I assume, carried out in the UK. Some titles which featured in the top ten I wholeheartedly agreed with, some I didn't and some were titles I hadn't read so couldn't express an opinion. Top of the poll was Winnie-the-Pooh, a worthy winner in my opinion as the mix of characters and personalities have wide spread appeal - who could resist a character as adorable as Winnie-the-Pooh, or Piglet, or Eeyore?

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PART 2 THE DOUBLE-VERSION DUSTWRAPPERS

FIVE GO OFF TO CAMP

The first edition was published in 1948 and the second impression in 1949. Two different dustwrappers have been found accompanying first edition books and one further dustwrapper is associated with the second impression book.

The last title listed on the rear flap of the second impression dustwrapper is Five Get Into Trouble which was first published in 1949 - this alone is enough to confirm that this dustwrapper is a reprint. This leaves 2 dustwrappers to consider. As the spine and pictorial front panel are identical on these dustwrappers, only the flaps and rear panel will be compared (the same will apply to titles 8 and 9).

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Collectors of the Famous Five (FF) series will know that a total of 21 titles were published by Hodder and Stoughton (H and S) between 1942 and 1963. What is less commonly known is that 24, rather than 21, first edition dustwrappers are known to exist - so the question is why are there 3 extra dustwrapppers?

Research has shown that this is a complex question to answer but hopefully this article will provide some degree of explanation.

In the first instance it is necessary for the reader to be aware of the 3 different types of dustwrappers that were used during the series:

Those of you interested in Classic Cars may remember the article I wrote in August 2009 about the Alfa Romeo Day in Ripon, North Yorkshire that I attended with my husband Steve. Steve (a bit of a petrol head) has spent the last six years rebuilding a 1967 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT from a bag of bits (literally - when Steve purchased the car everything had been stripped down to its component parts!) Well, this year is the centenary of Alfa Romeo (1910-2010) with big celebrations being held in Milan. Of course my darling beloved was determined to attend and this gave him a huge incentive to complete the restoration of Guilia, his Alfa Romeo, before we left. (Personally, I never thought he would have enough time!) To keep me happy he cleverly planned a holiday to Lake Como, Italy, to coincide with the events being held over the weekend of 26-27 June 2010. This is a diary of our holiday:

There are numerous stories about how the 'teddy bear' was created, but one commonly heard is based in the USA. The story goes that in 1903 the 26th president of the USA, Theodore Roosevelt, went on a bear hunt during a visit to the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, which turned out to be unsuccessful. His hosts in an effort to please the president captured a bear cub and bought it to the president for him to shoot. After the president refused to shoot the cub the incident was reported in the Washington Post newspaper. This article was later captured in a political cartoon and published in newspapers across the country to the nations delight!

If you have an irrational fear of spiders/tarantulas, you may want to look away now! You have been warned...

However, I happily admit to being an arachnophobe and I am quite happy as such, as my colleagues will testify after hearing my blood-curdling screams when a money spider is seen running across the desk! No amount of cajoling will get me to change my fear of spiders or even attempt to overcome it.

The strange thing is - and this my colleagues cannot understand - I just love tarantulas!

This all started when I was a wee girl of 14... my parents bought a Mexican Red Knee tarantula sub-adult female (i.e. almost, but not quite, full grown) home as a 'surprise' new pet. I still think that they had the ultimate morbid aim of curing me of my fear. However, it didn't work - to me a Tarantula is not a spider, it is an arachnid of the order Theraphosidae, completely different to 'true' spiders. A true spider has fangs that move on an axis, a Tarantula's fangs are fixed and therefore it must rear up and lunge in order to get a bite of food or your hand! I loved our Mexican Red Knee (latin name of Brachypelma Smithi) - we named her Tabatha. She was very mild-mannered and we were able to handle her as the photo to the right shows. B. Smithi's are known for their long life and females can live to 20 years and longer. Tabatha lived a good life although not quite that old.

It all started when my better half announced "I have always wanted a motorhome". This came out of the blue, after over 20 years together, with not a mention of this heartfelt desire - no "now that we are retired.", no "how do you feel about.", just came straight out with it.

Knowing better, through bitter experience, than to question this pronouncement, it was followed by trips to an assortment of venues to inspect dealers' stock of acceptable vehicles. Now I admit some were magnificent, all mod cons and resplendent in manufacturers logos etc. but when common sense returned in small measure and we inspected the grotty ones out the back that we might have a chance of affording, opinions began to differ!