Stella & Rose's Books

I was wondering which book I should feature this month and, when browsing the shelves of the shop, this one in the Children's section jumped out at me.  I am not sure why. Perhaps it was the intriguing title, perhaps it was because I am a cat lover or, perhaps it was Beryl Cook’s wonderfully bold illustrations?

Did you know that if you are kind to a six-toed cat for seven years and a day it will grant your fondest wish? I didn’t! 

(Published on 13th May 2025) Read full article

The Silver Tide is an enchanting story by author Michael Tod.  Published in 1993 it is the first book of the Woodstock Saga about the introduction of the grey squirrel into the UK native red squirrel population and the impact this had. 

Front Cover / Michael Tod  

I have a soft spot for animal stories, particularly those like Duncton Wood by William Horwood and Watership Down by Richard Adams, where the animals are portrayed acting like animals. I am less keen on the stories where the animals act like humans – wearing waistcoats, jackets and smoking pipes for example.  This book falls into the former category and Tod offers us a fully developed, imagined world in his book.  For example, the red squirrels have a folklore that they live by, which is remembered by bits of squirrel wisdom called ‘Kernal’s’.  Each kernal works as an arrangement of sounds, five, then seven, then five.  For example:

(Published on 15th Apr 2025) Read full article

Aircraft have always fascinated me. When I was younger, one of my hobbies was radio-controlled cars. I always wanted to progress onto aircraft – but sadly never had the funds!

Mosquito Books in Stock  

Over the last few years, I’ve played around with building my own drones (with limited success) and even building a radio-controlled hovercraft, but I’ve never lost my interest in aircraft. One of these days, I might just build a model aircraft and, if I did, it would probably be one of my all-time favourite aircraft – the De Havilland Mosquito.

(Published on 15th Mar 2025) Read full article

“The motor-car went Poop-poop-poop, As it raced along the road. Who was it steered it into a pond? Ingenious Mr. Toad!” from Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame” published 1908.

The early 1900s were a very exciting time for Motoring and Motor Sports, in 1901 the first Grand Prix was held in France, although the first racing track was built at Brooklands in Surrey in 1907. In 1900 there were approximately 700 to 800 cars on the UK roads but by 1920 there were 187,000. One of the first all British made cars was from The Wolseley Tool and Motor Company. Everybody was excited by the new technology eager to find out what would happen next.

(Published on 15th Feb 2025) Read full article

I must admit, I am rather partial to watching Michael Portillo’s television programme Great British Railway Journeys.  He uses a Victorian guidebook called Bradshaw’s Guide which was a comprehensive travel guide to the railway system in Great Britain of the day.   Jump forward a number of years to 1934 when another set of guidebooks were being written, this time by the famous poet, Sir John Betjeman.  He wrote guidebooks not for the railway enthusiast but now for the motorist.

Sir. John Betjeman  

Sir Betjeman initiated these books for the motorist because he wanted everyone to see what the real towns and villages in the counties were really like.  Previously you could only visit the countryside either by foot, bus or train.  Now as more people were buying cars there was a greater demand for petrol and as a result going for a car ride was gaining great popularity. 

(Published on 15th Jan 2025) Read full article

This book is nothing much to look at from the outside – it looks like a typical Victorian cloth covered book. The full title is ‘The Zoological Garden. An Invitation to the Youth of both Sexes to Contemplate Animated Nature.’ You can glean from the title that this is an old book, dating back more than 100 years. The book itself is undated but has a contemporary gift inscription in the front dated 1863, so we will assume it is from around this time.

Front Cover  

Upon opening it to the frontispiece and title page… wow! I changed my mind - this is a beautiful book! The frontis shows a lion attacking a crocodile outside its den where the lion’s mate and cubs are crouching, a giraffe in the background and an ichneumon in the foreground – did you know ichneumon is another name for a mongoose? I did not and had to Google it! The picture is hand-coloured, as are all 16 stone engravings, and strikingly so.

(Published on 10th Dec 2024) Read full article

Those of you who are familiar with our shop, Stella & Rose’s Books, know that it sits on the bank of the River Wye in Tintern, separated from the river by the main road running from Chepstow to Monmouth. A beautiful location with views over to the majestic ruins of Tintern Abbey. While the Lower Wye Valley is a popular destination for tourists, how many know of the journey the river takes before arriving at the River Severn beyond Chepstow? This book enlightens us.

Front Cover / Monmouth

 

(Published on 19th Nov 2024) Read full article

Growing up in the age of diesel locomotives, I have always been fascinated by steam. Partly I have my father to blame for this. He’s an engineer and welder and would often take us kids to museums that featured various engineering marvels. One of my favourites remains the York Railway Museum. I also grew up living opposite an old GWR station and goods shed in Sennybridge, Wales; the station closed in October 1962 with the Neath and Brecon Railway line closing completely in November 1969. I often wondered what it used to be like to have steam trains running past the house!

(Published on 15th Oct 2024) Read full article

The title of this book intrigued me. What did it mean and what was the book about as the title does not make it clear?

This is the autobiography of Captain Doust who spent most of his working life on the sea. His area of expertise was marine salvage where his engineering skill and his amazing ability to improvise, with whatever equipment was available, under the most difficult of circumstances made him a master of his profession.

He was born in Portsmouth in April 1895 into a strong nautical family background. Both his grandfather and father were Royal Navy engineers, so whatever his career it would be to do with the sea.

(Published on 14th Sep 2024) Read full article

It was the name that got me first - ‘Lemony Snicket’.  It rolled off the tongue and sounded like a cake or a nice yellow flowered plant. That’s what persuaded me to read the back cover to see what the book was about:

“Dear Reader, I’m sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant, don’t read this, whatever you do.  It will sadden you and cause harm to your mind.” 

Lemony Snicket was not wrong.  The three children the book is about, the Baudelaires, are newly orphaned and go to live with a distant relative who cares nothing for them and sees them as a form of cheap labour and a way to access their parents’ fortune.  Not cheery then, and actually pretty cruel in places.  When the children first encountered Count Olaf’s ‘troupe’ of followers one of the followers says:

(Published on 14th Aug 2024) Read full article

This book was once owned by the internationally renowned Eleanor Lowenstein, her bookplate is in the front of the book. Eleanor Lowenstein opened the Corner Bookshop on Fourth Avenue New York and was offered her first cookery book collection in 1946. This was just the beginning and the rest as they say is history!

Mr Briggs in his Preface says of his recipes the following  ‘I have bestowed every Pains to render them easily practicable, and adapted to the Capacities of those  who may be ordered to use them. To waste Language and high Terms on such Subjects, appears to me to render the Art of Cookery embarrassing, and to throw difficulties in the Way of the Learner…’

(Published on 14th Jul 2024) Read full article

It was the colourful cover of the book that caught my eye and also the title. I was intrigued to know who Spring-Heeled Jack was, so I turned the book over and it describes him as a sort of modern-day Superhero.  I have since found out that he was a notorious figure in Victorian times who was reputed to have attacked women, terrorised and harassed people at night and was able to leap high into the air.

Victims described him as having a terrifying appearance with "eyes that resembled red balls of fire" like the devil, but more importantly was his ability to make extraordinary leaps into the air to escape capture. He would leap across rooftops with astonishing agility blowing flames from his mouth so newspapers and the public at the time gave him the name "Spring-Heeled Jack".  Although he was never caught, he became one of the most popular characters of the period and eventually was portrayed as a hero of sorts which is probably why the renowned author, Sir Philip Pullman portrays him in this vein too.

(Published on 14th Jun 2024) Read full article

Looking around the office again for inspiration in preparing my featured book article, I noticed we had multiple copies of Deer of the World. I don’t know about you, but I am an animal lover and was immediately drawn to this title. Here in the Wye Valley and the neighbouring Forest of Dean, we have many Deer although I could not tell you what ‘brand’ they are! They are very stealthy creatures and I find myself in awe of them whenever I come across one… so silent in their comings and goings. I guess not so good if they are loose in your countryside garden demolishing your beloved plants!

(Published on 14th May 2024) Read full article

Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives

As I am normally the buyer of Children’s books for the business I often write about children’s books, authors and illustrators. However, as we have recently purchased a very large collection of books about trains and buses, I thought I would take a look at what the collection contained. 

Yeadon’s Register is a series of 56 books covering all the locomotives of the LNER (London and North Eastern Railway). Each volume is well illustrated with class introduction and full history of each locomotive, leaving the reader in no doubt as to what happened to any particular LNER locomotive during its lifetime. A must for the railway enthusiast!

(Published on 14th Apr 2024) Read full article

Or… Herbert’s Guide To London, Being a Guide to Hotels, Places of Amusement, Objects of Interest, Parks, Clubs, Markets, Docks, Railway and Steamship Routes. In fact, anything you could wish to know about the London of almost 150 years ago appears to be in this Guide!

Front Cover / Title Page  

Books like this have always fascinated me. Despite the fact that I hated history lessons at school, I find that I’m drawn to books that describe what life was like in the past. This particular book is beautifully presented – unusually so for a directory, which are usually dull affairs. Not so this one, as every page is embellished with a beautiful gold and purple border and scattered throughout the book are full-page black and white engravings of various monuments and buildings to be seen in London.

(Published on 15th Mar 2024) Read full article

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There was first published in December 1871 and is the sequel to Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (1865), by author Lewis Carroll.

Alice Through the Looking Glass - John Tenniel, Tony Ross & Helen Oxenbury  

Alice again enters a fantastical and nonsensical world, but is this the Wonderland that she happened upon once a lazy dream ago, when she followed the White rabbit down that hole?  This time it is snowing outside so she is playing inside with two kittens, a black one called Kitty and a white one called Snowdrop, so this is quite different to the sunny day when she entered Wonderland previously.  But again, we see the 'dream' quality - is this a prerequisite for entering fantastical and wondrous worlds?  “Alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the great armchair, half talking to herself and half asleep”.

(Published on 15th Feb 2024) Read full article

This is a book filled with beautiful photographs showcasing the work both at home and abroad of the gardens and public places designed by Thomas Mawson.

Thomas Mawson / Front Cover  

This is the first full biography of Thomas Hayton Mawson (1861 – 1933) and charts his successes from Cumbria to Greece and the Civic Art he designed such as Hanley Park near Stoke on Trent.

In the early twentieth century he was the most sought-after garden and landscape designer of the day and could name crowned heads of Europe among his clients.

(Published on 15th Jan 2024) Read full article

I chose this lovely book as the picture on the cover reminded me of when I used to live in Kent.  It is about landscape artist Stanley Roy Badmin of whom, I imagine, some of you may have heard.  His works have appeared on greeting cards, calendars, in copies of the Readers Digest and Radio Times magazines and much more.

The book has been written by Chris Beetles, a London art dealer, who has put together 44 of the artist’s watercolours plus some etchings.  Chris Beetles has been a leading authority on S.R. Badmin for the past thirty years and the book provides an informative history of Badmin’s career and his development as a prominent etcher and fine artist.

(Published on 13th Dec 2023) Read full article

Written and illustrated by Ul De Rico and published in 1996, this is the sequel to The Rainbow Goblins which was published in 1978.

It is a children’s book (probably for older children unlike its predecessor) and the story is about the White Goblin who was banished by his brothers, the Rainbow Goblins, and lives in a world of snow and ice.  After learning of his brothers’ ignominious death, he wonders, “who am I to be thrust out of the beautiful, coloured world” and goes on a very selfish colour-drinking rampage.  He greedily catches, licks and sucks every colour he can reach.  He then self-righteously decides that he is now the ruler of the world and descends into the Cave City and persuades the Cave Goblins (living in peace, harmony and happiness at this point) to help him build gigantic buildings and cities.

(Published on 15th Nov 2023) Read full article

Scenes of Commerce by Land and Sea by Rev. Isaac Taylor

So, I was browsing the Natural History section in our Special Book Room on our website and this title caught my eye. That looks interesting I thought, especially when I saw the subtitle “Where Does It Come From? Answered”. And indeed, it is interesting!

Published almost 200 hundred years ago in 1839 by John Harris, leading British publisher of illustrated books and fiction from 1801 to 1839, this book has 396 pages including an index and 66 black and white engravings. Let’s take a look inside…

(Published on 14th Oct 2023) Read full article