Stella & Rose's Books

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!

What is a strip book? Having searched the internet, I don't seem to be able to find an answer so this is how I define a strip book:

It has to be oblong format

Nearly always paperback format

There is more than one picture per page, with just a few words below telling the story.

They are typically small in size, around 15-20cm across and 7-10cm deep

These books are aimed at the very young, aged 1-5. The idea is that the child looks at the pictures while an adult reads the story to them. The multiple pictures on each page hold the child's interest long enough for the adult to read the few words, as well as helping the child to build their vocabulary of words.

Engines, just engines, surely not, those snorting, steaming leviathans must be alive. They certainly have character - huffing and puffing their way around Vintage Steam shows. They even smell alive with the steam, coal and grease. Today we see them immaculately preserved and maintained but in the latter half of the nineteenth century Traction Engines, grimy and muddy, were essential to farming and local industry throughout the UK.

The Traction Engine came into being around 1850 with Ransomes of Ipswich being credited with producing the first self-moving agricultural engine and although there was development, the form of the machine did not change right up till their demise around 1930. There are other rival claimants to being first: Aveling and Porter for example. The 1850's and 1860's saw a rapid expansion in production which continued throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century with firmssuch as Burrell,Allchin, Clayton & Shuttleworth, Fowler, Garrett and Ruston being the major names we know today.

Depending on the occasion a collectible book can make the ideal gift.

To commemorate that special birthday why not try an annual from their birth year? For example anyone celebrating their 18th this year would mean looking at 1994. Our present selection would include Dandy and Beano annuals, themselves celebrating 50 years at the time, or maybe Dennis the Menace or Rupert might be more appropriate? With annuals covering the mid 1930's to the present day, there are many other titles to chose from so there is something for most tastes.

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!

When we refer to walking today we think of walking for leisure. Yet until relatively recent times most people went on Shank's Pony (derived from 'shank' meaning 'leg') for their everyday business. From the Welsh drovers, who took the cattle from the hills of Wales to London , to the door to door hawkers and pedlars.

Walking for leisure started with the first  "tourists" in the eighteenth century and an early example is the Reverend Richard Warner. In "A Walk Through Wales" he travelled 469 miles in 17 days on foot. No modern walking boots, rucksack and bright shiny waterproofs. To quote: "In preparing for a pedestrian tour, few arrangements are requisite; a single change of raiment and some other little articles". He had extra pockets added to his coat to carry these items and that was that - one suspects that after a few days hard walking in the rain he stank!

Although the butt of many jokes Dyb Dyb Dyb and Woggles were for millions of us all part of that great life that was and is the Boy Scouts.

2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Boys Scouts movement by Lord Robert Baden-Powell (BP). It started with a camp for boys from mixed social backgrounds on Brownsea Island to which Baden-Powell had been a frequent visitor as a guest of the Van Raalte family who owned the island. Although this camp in August 1907 is seen as the formal start of the movement it was in fact the culmination of several years of thinking and absorption of ideas from other people and groups. The Boys Brigade and author/naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton contributed but there's no doubt the main ideas came from BP's experience in the Boer war where he used young cadets as messengers during the siege of Mafeking .

With our latest themed room being based on 'school years', I thought, why not write about my own memories of school? After all, someone might be interested!

I remember my first day at infant school which was Wood End First School in Stantonbury, Milton Keynes. This was in the mid 1970s and I remember my mother wearing fake fur gloves on the day. I was sobbing my heart out into these gloves crying 'don't leave me mummy' - they must have been drenched!

I don't remember a great deal about my time at Wood End First School but I do remember the teacher trying to teach the class how to write their date of birth and I just didn't get it. This was probably due to the fact that my deafness at this point was undiagnosed and no doubt I wasn't hearing what the teacher was saying. (As a baby Mum used to think I was just a sound sleeper because I slept through the noise of vacuum cleaning, washing machine - anything!). Anyway, I got so frustrated with being unable to understand what was required, I picked up the chair I was sitting on, threw it across the room and stormed out of the school - I was only five years old! I have no idea what happened then but I marched home and remember being sent back to school the next day.

‘A Day In The Life’…no,‘A Year In the Day’…no, not quite right,‘A Life In the Year’… oh dear ...

Mummy says Stop Woofling and Get On With It! So here goes – ‘The Amazing, Breathtaking, Colourful…’ no stoppit – ‘Some Adventures From The Diary of a Swedish Vallhund’ (That’s me – Sammy! And this is all about when I was a baby and first came to live with my new Mummy and Daddy…)

Sunday 27th July

Today my new Mummy and Daddy came to take me to my new home. I was a bit frighted, leaving my doggy mummy and brothers and sisters and going off in a big grey box with wheels on and I did cry a bit but Mummy cuddled me and that was so nice I fell asleep. It took such a long time to get to my new home, Mummy and Daddy stopped half way to let me get out for a break and a drink of water. There were lots more big boxes on wheels, more people than I’ve ever seen before, miles of grass and everything was so interesting I just kept looking and looking. When we reached home I found a lovely new crate and pen, all of my own. My pen is my own play space with my crate where I sleep, my water bowl and a tray for me to use for wee and poo. I have lots of new toys, a ball, a rope, a bone and some chew toys. Then Mummy and Daddy put me in my pen in the garden – I wasn’t very happy about that and shouted to let Mummy know. Lots of visitors (Aunties, Uncles and Neighbours) came to meet me and play with me. I loved playing tug of war with Daddy and my rope. At the end of the day I was so tired I fell asleep on Daddy’s feet.