Stella & Rose's Books

I have recently read the book ‘Orbital’ by Samantha Harvey, which is beautifully written and well deserving of winning the Booker Prize 2024.

The story takes place over 24 hours and tells the story of six astronauts/cosmonauts on board the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth. There are only sixteen chapters in the book, which cover the sixteen 90-minute orbits of the earth which equals sixteen sunrises and sunsets!

I am now hooked on watching the International Space Station orbit the Earth, it is quite mesmeric and awe inspiring – thank you NASA and YouTube.

What a long way we have come from the turn of the 20th century and the scientists that were inspired by the writers of fiction - books such as ‘From Earth to the Moon’ by Jules Verne and ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G.Wells.

(Published on 1st May 2025) Read full article

Everyone in the UK has heard of the M25 Motorway and a vast majority of people have travelled on it at some time in their lives. 

Map of the M25  

I have the pleasure (or misfortune) of travelling on it at least a couple of times a month to visit family in Kent. To make this journey from Tintern in Monmouthshire, where I am lucky to live, I take the M4 and then join the M25 at junction 15 near Heathrow Airport and continue anti-clockwise to junction 2 which is just before the Dartford Crossing.   I join the M25 at Junction 15 which is all well and good, but you are actually joining it in lane three of six fast flowing lanes of traffic as shown in the photograph below.

(Published on 1st Apr 2025) Read full article

With Stella & Rose’s Bookshop sitting on the banks of the River Wye it’s natural that it holds a fascination for us. With the river being tidal from its junction with the River Severn, for about 15 miles to Brockweir the next village upriver from Tintern, the vista is constantly changing.

The valley of the River Wye has some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the UK. In fact, Tintern, where our shop is located, has been referred to as “Little Switzerland” due to the dramatic scenery surrounding the village. Being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB) and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, (SSSI) and thus protected, the Wye Valley and Tintern offers much to lovers of wildlife, hiking and, of course, books!

(Published on 1st Mar 2025) Read full article

A Tale of Two Abbeys

We all know Tintern Abbey is in the Wye Valley and is the only one. Well, apparently not.

A random question from one of our customers got me doing a bit of research and I was surprised to find out that there is another Tintern Abbey. I thought I would do a bit more digging and find out about the monks and how they lived along with the history of the abbeys.

 

Tintern

Tintern was founded in 1131 by Walter fitz Richard (d. 1138), the Anglo-Norman lord of Chepstow, and a member of the powerful family of Clare. Walter of Clare was also related by marriage to Bishop William of Winchester, who had introduced the first colony of White Monks to Waverley in 1128. Tintern was the first Cistercian house to be founded in Wales and the second in the British Isles after Waverley.

(Published on 1st Feb 2025) Read full article

Monica Edwards  

Twenty-seven years ago, this month (January 2025) Monica Edwards died aged 85.  Over a period of almost 30 years she had published 35 books, including her two best known series of novels the ‘Romney Marsh’ and ‘Punchbowl’ books. 

Anne Bullen - The Black Riders / No Mistaking Corker  

It was 1947 when Monica wrote her first book and the first of her ‘Romney Marsh’ series ‘Wish for a Pony’.  It was marketed as a ‘pony’ book by her publisher Collins and illustrated by Anne Bullen, a leading pony book illustrator.  Collins seemed to want to market her as a ‘pony’ author, maybe trying to capitalise on the success pony authors like Ruby Ferguson and Lorna Hill were having at the time. But in 1949 Monica wrote ‘The Midnight Horse’ introducing two boys into the story and made a determined effort to break away from her ‘pony’ author image.  When ‘The White Riders’ was published in 1950 the front cover had a very different image, as the horses were ghost-like wraiths from a different artist, Geoffrey Whittam.  From then on, he became Edwards' chief illustrator and continued to illustrate most of her future books.

(Published on 1st Jan 2025) Read full article

I have recently been pricing up a large collection of Children’s books. In amongst them were two items illustrated by Willebeek Le Mair. I loved the illustrations. Similar to Mabel Lucie Attwell (my favourite illustrator), Henriette seems to be able to capture the beauty and innocence of little children so well in her elegant watercolour illustrations. I decided to do a little research on her and this is what I found.

The Land of Nod (A Child's Garden of Verses)  

Henriette was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1889. Both of her parents were themselves artists and they greatly influenced her as a child by writing verses for her to illustrate. Another important influence on Henriette’s artistic development was the French illustrator Maurice Boutet de Monvel (himself greatly influenced by English illustrator Kate Greenaway) as her parents took Henriette to visit De Monvel in Paris for advice.

(Published on 1st Dec 2024) Read full article

We may not all be familiar with the title ‘Kinder – und Hausmarchen’, but you will be familiar with the Folk Tales within – Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, the list goes on!

The Robber Bridegroom / Hansel & Gretel  

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German academics who collected and published folklore and their first book was published in 1812.

In 1796, when the brothers were quite young, their father died. As a result they experienced great hardship growing up, but they worked hard at school and excelled in their studies.

(Published on 1st Nov 2024) Read full article

What a contrast! Where can we find that kind of variety in the natural world? In the world of insects! Over one million species of insects have been discovered and described but it is estimated that there may be as many as 10 million species on earth.  There are approximately 1.4 billion insects for every person on Earth and the total weight of all the insects is about 70 times more than all the people. Wow! What amazing statistics from the Royal Entomological Society! Aren’t we glad that insects are such tiny creatures….

My late husband, Cliff, and I were keen natural history photographers, but while he usually had his camera pointed upwards to the sky, capturing birds in flight, mine was pointed towards the ground where the insects were going about their daily business. I’ve always been fascinated by these little creatures, although when young I did have a fear of spiders. (Yes, I know they are not insects but for the purpose of this article I am including them). Since having a tarantula as a pet and my daughter having 100 of them (really!)  I have grown out of that fear. The only fear I have now is the fear of hurting them if I pick them up to relocate them!

(Published on 30th Sep 2024) Read full article

Born on 14th December 1892 in Burma to parents who were methodist missionaries, of the first four years of his life he has no recollection. Having been seriously injured in the upper spine, he and his sister were sent back to the UK in 1897. What had happened remains a mystery to this day. Did they fall from their pony? Fall down the stairs during a game of make-believe? Or was it a more serious event caused by their ‘ayah’ who was responsible for them at the time? Whatever the cause, his parents would not reveal it, and Bestall, although not crippled, was left with partial speech paralysis and a persistent stutter.

(Published on 2nd Sep 2024) Read full article

I am extremely lucky where I work, as the view from my desk overlooks Tintern Abbey and the surrounding Wye Valley countryside which is stunning.  I was aware of a poem called “A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” written by William Wordsworth so thought it would be interesting to find out a bit more about it.

William Wordsworth (WIkipedia) / Folio Wordsworth  

William Wordsworth was born in 1770 in the Lake District town of Cockermouth and was the second of five children.  Both his parents had died before he was fifteen, so the children were left in the care of different relatives.  It was in 1795, when he received a legacy from a close relative, that he and his sister Dorothy moved to Dorset and two years later moved to Somerset to be near the poet Samuel Coleridge.  In 1799 they then moved to Grasmere in the Lake District, to Dove Cottage, and it is here that he wrote his famous poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”. In 1802 he married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson and together they had five children.  In 1813 they moved from Grasmere to Ambleside where he remained until his death in 1850 aged eighty.

(Published on 31st Jul 2024) Read full article

We are very lucky in that we have a very nice little camper van (a VW T6) to use for our holidays. Last year we did a tour of Italy, this year we decided to travel a little closer to home and visit Scotland. We planned to follow the NC500 (North Coast 500) route but knew that we wouldn’t have time to seriously enjoy ourselves if we attempted to do the whole 500 miles from Inverness to Inverness.  We therefore decided to follow the route travelling the west coast of Scotland and just see how far we got.

(Published on 30th Jun 2024) Read full article

Whilst idly staring at a shelf of Ferrari books, (and daydreaming of owning one), a question popped into my head: which are there more of - actual Ferrari cars, or books about the iconic vehicles?

Before we attempt to answer that conundrum, a very brief history about this famous brand.

After working as a racing driver for Fiat and Alfa Romeo, Enzo Ferrari set up Scuderia Ferrari in 1929. Scuderia Ferrari was effectively the racing division of Alfa Romeo and was very successful in the pre-war years.

After a disagreement with Alfa's managing director, Ferrari left in 1939 and founded Auto-Avio Costruzioni, a company supplying parts to other racing teams. With the outbreak of World War II, Ferrari's factory was forced to undertake war production for Mussolini's fascist government. At the end of the war, Ferrari decided to start making cars bearing his name, and founded Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947. Initially, Ferrari existed to build (and race) racing cars. However, to finance his racing endeavours, the company soon started selling sports cars.

(Published on 3rd Jun 2024) Read full article

“What dull men are those that tarry at home,When abroad they might wantonly rome, (sic)And gain such experience, and spy tooSuch Countries, and Wonders as I do.  – Cowley”

Excerpt from Highways and Byways in Northamptonshire and Rutland, by H. A. Evans (1918)

We sell a number of different types of old guidebooks in our shop and one of my favourites is the ‘Highways and Byways’ series, each with numerous illustrations, some by noted artists. The ‘Highways and Byways’ series includes 36 pocket-sized regional guides which were hugely popular in their day.  They had very distinct branding (before the word branding existed), which made them instantly noticeable, with their dark green covers (blue for the later editions) and gilt writing on the front and spine. 

(Published on 30th Apr 2024) Read full article

We are having to get used to the frequency and ferocity of storms. We have currently experienced more than seven storms this winter already. With this information in mind, I was very interested in an article about a shipwreck off Porth Alerth near Moelfre on Anglesey that was instrumental in the creation of the shipping forecast. As often happens, tragedy leads to a catalyst for change.

In British weather history, the Royal Charter Storm of 1859 was a devastating tempest off the west coast of Britain which played a pivotal role in the founding of the shipping forecast and has had an enduring impact on weather forecasting in the UK and beyond.

(Published on 31st Mar 2024) Read full article

Is it too early to talk about holidays? – I don’t think it is, it’s how we get through the winter months.

I am off for a short break to Yorkshire in the Spring, York to be precise. York comes from the Viking name for the city, Jorvik and shire comes from an old English or Nordic word.

 

I have been to York before, but not for many years now, and I am eager to reacquaint myself with all it has to offer or as much as can be accomplished in a weekend.

(Published on 1st Mar 2024) Read full article

I have been asked to write an article for the Stella & Rose’s Books monthly newsletter and, as it is my first one, I thought what better than to write about a particular type of book of which I have quite a few!  I imagine that many readers will also have at least one in their collection or have seen them.  I am referring to Haynes Workshop Manuals. 

Manuals on the Workshop Shelf  

John Haynes OBE, founder of the Haynes Publishing Group, published the first manual in 1965 for the Austin-Healey Sprite. This was after he had been asked to help rebuild a Frogeye Sprite and realised that the official factory manual was not designed to help the average car owner.  He captured the rebuild process by taking step by step photographs and he linked these to exploded diagrams which became the trademark of the Haynes manuals.

(Published on 1st Feb 2024) Read full article

You would be forgiven for never having heard the name Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, an Australian illustrator of children’s fiction (I am writing this from the UK). At the turn of the 20th century, she was well known for bringing fairies and other magical creatures to life, using mainly pen and ink and watercolour. Fairies, brownies, elves, and witches interact with the animals of the Australian outback. When she died in 1960, her fame was dwindling, as artistic tastes of children turned to focus on the less naïve.

(Published on 2nd Jan 2024) Read full article

Recently, my brother-in-law invited me on a day’s walk in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Being unable to resist the allure of the mountains, I immediately agreed. So, on a cold, crisp November morning I found myself in the carpark just below the disused Neuadd reservoirs.

The plan for the walk was to combine our shared love of walking the mountains with some bird watching and a sneaky detour to find the wreckage of a crashed WW2 Spitfire. During the winter months Snow Buntings leave their ‘summer’ breeding grounds in the Arctic and head south. They can occasionally be found on the high moorlands of the Beacons – parts of our walk would take us through some perfect habitat. We also wanted to keep an eye out for Red Grouse.

(Published on 1st Dec 2023) Read full article

If you are interested in books on a particular subject, it can be hard to find the books that interest you through general searches on websites.  On the Stella and Rose’s Books website we provide a number of features to help with this.  In case you haven’t come across these features on our website search before, here is some information to get you started.

Search by Category

Categories is a powerful search feature we have on the website.  Every book at Stella & Rose’s is assigned one or more categories with the primary category dictating where you find the book in the shop and also where it ‘lives’ on the website.

(Published on 1st Nov 2023) Read full article

When I took over the buying of books from Cliff & Chris more than ten years ago (that is, everything except children's which is Maria’s speciality), I never would have guessed how many military type books there are! I say type as many end up on the history shelves as opposed to the military shelves, also the aviation shelves, and the maritime shelves… It is hard to know where to draw the line when military becomes history. I try to stick to a rule of thumb that our military shelves are from World War I subjects onwards, anything before that goes into history or, sometimes, our transport shelves but it doesn’t always work out that way!

(Published on 2nd Oct 2023) Read full article