Literature 23
68474 BRITAIN AT PLAY by W. Heath Robinson
Although his name has become a commonly employed adjective to describe bizarre mechanical contrivances, William Heath Robinson’s cartoons of eccentric contraptions were only part of his huge and wide- ranging output. Britain at Play features his work for such publications as the Tatler, Sketch, Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and Bystander between the 1900s and late 1930s. The 180+ colour and b/w illus. are split into chapters such as Golf, Winter Sports, Hunting, Shooting and Fishing, Other Sports and Games, On Holiday, Motoring, Courting, At Home, Radio, The British Character and
Gardening, and we are treated to the delights of Jazz Tennis, Fish Squash, Mountain Cricket, ingenious methods of keeping cool or stealing a kiss and some particularly delightful methods of swimming practice. 192pp, 8½”×11¼”.
£21.99 NOW £7.50 66865 NEW YORKER CARTOON CAPTION
CONTEST BOOK by Robert Mankoff Since its founding in 1925, the New Yorker has been famous for its cartoons. The caption contest was begun in 1999 and has quickly become one of magazine’s most popular features. In every issue on the back page, the contest invites readers to craft their own captions for the weekly cartoon. There is only one winner. Here are the very best captured in one book. Write your own caption for the hundred included and see the winners and runners up, learn how the finalists came up with their captions and how their lives have changed after winning. 202pp complete with voting pie chart and full page cartoon. $24.99 NOW £3
67367 MONTY PYTHON: From the Flying
Circus to Spamalot by Richard Topping Back in 1969 Cleese, Palin, Chapman, Gilliam, Jones and Idle were brought together and a comedy legend was born. Gwen Dibley’s Flying Circus, after a swift name re-think, pioneered a new comedy. This fully updated papperbok edition includes a full episode guide and filmography, plus biogs of all the Pythons (sorry, Dibleys) plus 16 pages of b/w archive photos. Let’s revisit unashamedly the Knights Who Say Ni, the Upper Class Twit of the Year Competition, The People’s Front of Judea, (not to be confused with The Judean People’s Front, nor the Judean Popular People’s Front) and The Galaxy Song. 188pp. £8.99 NOW £2
LITERATURE
I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don’t know what I did before that. Just loafed I suppose.
- P. G. Wodehouse
69529 STET by Diana Athill
A stet is usually an instruction written on a proof sheet, after the Latin for ‘let it stand’. For 50 years, the author influenced many volumes of modern literature. She edited for André Deutsch, working with the writers V.S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys and Brian Moore among others. Widely regarded as one of the finest editors in London, Athill herself wrote
Instead of a Letter and After a Funeral; titles she calls her ‘documentary books’. She has also said, ‘…a friendship, properly speaking, between a publisher and a writer is… well, not impossible, but rare’. This is an honest book about the process of making books, and the people involved. ‘When I was moved to scribble ‘Stet’ against the time I spent being an editor it was because it gave so many kinds of enlargement, interest, amusement and pleasure to my days.’ 250 page paperback.
£7.99 NOW £4 69347 JOHN KEATS: A Poet and His
Manuscripts by Stephen Hebron In his brief but exceptionally creative life, the English Romantic poet John Keats published just three volumes. Behind his published poetry, however, lies a remarkable wealth of manuscripts. Amongst the most revealing of literary documents his surviving manuscripts include original drafts of such celebrated poems as Ode To A Nightingale, Hyperion and The Eve of St Agnes as well as hundreds of marvellous letters in which Keats combined gossip and humour with profound literary and philosophical speculation. Mostly shown here in their entirety, many at actual size, Keats’ original manuscripts provide a unique visual record of his creative processes and rapid literary progress. Nearly 200 years after they were first written, they have lost none of their immediacy. The accompanying commentary by the author explores each manuscript in detail, highlighting the literary landmarks and tracing the poet’s development as a writer and thinker. 165 large pages with more than 90 colour images, including a wealth of original manuscript folios, many rarely seen before in colour, info on collecting John Keats’ work, and list of manuscripts.
£25 NOW £8.50 67368 MUST TRY HARDER: The Very Best
Howlers by Schoolchildren by Norman McGreevy
Long-suffering school teacher Norman McGreevy has both enjoyed immensely and been horrified by his time compiling this collection of the best (or worst, depending on your outlook) howlers made by schoolchildren struggling with the banana skins of the English language. Arranged by school subject, here are some absolute beauties. Students of the British Empire will be fascinated to learn that “Clive committed suicide three times, and the third time they sent him to India”, and all cynical bibliophiles will be unsurprised to hear that “John Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained”. Some 300 gems. 119pp paperback.
£5.99 NOW £3
67422 BEST OF MAC 2000-2009: A Decade of Cartoons from the Daily Mail by Stan McMurtry (Mac) edited by Mark Bryant
Instead of publishing the usual annual book, the Daily Mail, in its wisdom, decided to leave it to the author to pick his favourites from the past ten years. Considering that he is never truly happy with what he drew last week, never mind a whole decade’s worth, this was a gargantuan task. Rising oil prices, GM food protests, the credit crunch, financial irregularity, failing schools and hospitals, sex scandals and more! 128 hilarious pages. £9.99 NOW £2.75
67889 QUEEN ELIZABETH’S WOODEN TEETH:
And Other Fallacies by Andrea Barham This absorbing and chuckle-inducing little book will set the record straight by revealing the monstrous myths, fibbing fabrications and awful ambiguities among the annals of history. Sir Walter Raleigh did not bring back either the potato or tobacco from the New World. Abraham Lincoln did not write his famous Gettysburg speech on the back of an envelope, and King Canute did not try to hold back the tide. You will soon wonder what you can believe! 192 pages. £9.99 NOW £3
68512 MAMMOTH BOOK OF GREAT BRITISH
HUMOR edited by Michael Powell This spanking-new compilation offers a superlative mix of cutting-edge British humour, contemporary comedians of the likes of Jimmy Carr, Armando Iannucci and Adrian Edmondson, obscure cult legends and old-school comedy gurus such as Oscar Wilde and P. G. Wodehouse. Over 70 categories in alphabetical order, covering everything from Animals to Work, America to the Welsh and Sex to School give you the chance of mining it for treasured sayings about any subject under the sun, or you can just enjoy, as we did, quoting Margaret Thatcher: ‘As God once said, and I think rightly...’ 564 paperback pages. $13.95 NOW £6
69414 JOY OF READING: A Passionate Guide to 189 of the World’s Best Authors and Their Works
68978 MAKING THE CAT
LAUGH by Lynne Truss A funny, touching and completely unique diary of life as a modern single woman. When Lynne Truss returned to single life after years of cohabitation it threw up some surprising problems. How do you avoid to going to married people’s houses with out point-blankly refusing? Why is it not OK for a woman to go to the cinema on her
own, and eat two boxes of fruit pastilles? And, the greatest problem of all, when your cats are the most important personalities in your life, just how do you make them laugh? With startling candour. 212pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.75
68025 UTTERLY EXASPERATED HISTORY OF MODERN BRITAIN: Or 60 Years of Making the
Same Stupid Mistakes as Always by John O’Farrell
This witty and erudite volume informs, elucidates and laughs at all the bizarre events, ridiculous characters and stupid decisions that have shaped Britain’s story since 1945, leaving the 21st century reader feeling fantastically smug for having the benefit of hindsight. Here are the tragic split of 70s rock superstars The Wombles after Great Uncle Bulgaria overdosed on amphetamines and bourbon, and the mild scandal of the Royal Wedding when Lady Diana’s marriage vows omitted the word ‘obey’. 375 pages. £18.99 NOW £4
68178 GRUMPY OLD WIT by Rosemarie Jarski
From Socrates, Saki, Joan Rivers and Homer Simpson to Jack Dee, Basil Fawlty, Stephen Fry and Victor Meldrew, here are just some of the world-class curmudgeons who sound off hilariously about everything that makes us seethe. From cold callers to caravans, traffic wardens to dog mess, political insults, language, garden, tennis, sex, insults, fear, football, fashion, the law, poetry, politics, here are 4,000 entries. Fasten your seatbelts for a grumpy ride. 464pp in large softback. £7.99 NOW £4
68607 IT’S A BIG WORLD, CHARLIE BROWN by Charles M. Schulz Life isn’t easy for Charlie Brown. Between that pesky kite-eating tree, a complete lack of Valentines in the mailbox, and his troubles on the pitcher’s mound, it can be pretty downright disheartening. Fortunately he has Snoopy, Linus, Peppermint Pattie and the Peanuts gang to make the big world seem a lot friendlier. For the first time in book form, here is another collection of our old favourites. 160 large pages in softback, this time the cartoon strips are is in full colour. £9.99 NOW £4
by Charles Van Doren A must for bibliophiles. Like a professor whose enthusiasm inspires his students, Dr. Van Doren explains what is wonderful in the classic and contemporary books you have missed, and awakens your desire to reopen the works you have loved. This engaging love letter to reading
explores the work of the authors who transformed the world, from Aristotle and Herodotus in ancient Greece to Salinger and Vonnegut in 20th century America, J. K. Rowling in 21st century Britain and Henning Mankell in Sweden. Divided chronologically by the eras in which these books were written, each work is put in its historical context and brought to life by the author’s sometimes surprising but always insightful comments. The volume delves into a wide range of genres - fiction, poetry, drama, children’s books, philosophy, history and science. 525 pages with unique ten-year reading plan, instructions on how to use the book and alphabetical list of authors and their works. £12.99 NOW £6
68839 A ROOM OF ONE’S
OWN & THE VOYAGE OUT by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One’s Own (1929) has become a classic feminist essay and perhaps Virginia Woolf’s best known work; The Voyage Out (1915) is highly significant as her first novel. Both focus on the place of women within the power structures of modern society. The essay lays bare the woman artist’s struggle for
a voice, since throughout history she has been denied the social and economic independence assumed by men. Woolf’s prescription is clear: if a woman is to find creative expression equal to a man’s, she must have an independent income, and a room of her own. This is both an acute analysis and a spirited rallying cry; it remains surprisingly resonant and relevant in the 21st century. The novel explores these issues more personally, through the character of Rachel Vinrace, a young woman whose ‘voyage out’ to South America opens up powerful encounters with her fellow-travellers, men and women. As she begins to understand her place in the world, she finds the happiness of love, but also sees its brute power. Woolf has a sharp eye for the comedy of English manners in a foreign milieu; but the final undertow of the novel is tragic as, in some of her finest writing, she calls up the essential isolation of the human spirit. Wordsworth paperback. 463 pages. ONLY £2
68840 NIGHT AND DAY &
JACOB’S ROOM by Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf’s second novel, Night and Day (1919), portrays the gradual changes in a society, the patterns and conventions of which are slowly disintegrating; where the representatives of the younger generation struggle to forge their own way, for ‘... life has to be faced: to be rejected; then accepted
on new terms with rapture’. Woolf begins to experiment Bibliophile Books Unit 5 Datapoint, 6 South Crescent, London E16 4TL TEL: 020 74 74 24 74
with the novel form while demonstrating her affection for the literature of the past. Jacob’s Room (1922), Woolf’s third novel, marks the bold affirmation of her own voice and search for a new form to express her view that ‘the human soul... orientates itself afresh every now & then. It is doing so now. No one can see it whole therefore.’ Jacob’s life is presented in subtle, delicate and tantalising glimpses, the novel’s gaps and silences are as replete with meaning as the wicker armchair creaking in the empty room. 565 page paperback. New from Wordsworth. ONLY £2
69370 SPANISH BOW by Andromeda Romano-Lax When Feliu Delargo is born, late 19th century Spain is a nation slipping from international power and struggling with its own fractured identity, caught between the chaos of post-empire and impending Civil War. Feliu’s troubled childhood and rise to fame, including musical apprenticeships in anarchist Barcelona and at the ill-fated Madrid
royal court, lead him into a thorny partnership with an even more famous and eccentric figure, the piano prodigy Justo Al-Cerraz. The divergent artistic goals and political affiliations of the two musicians threaten to divide them as Spain plunges into Civil War. But, as Civil War turns to World War, their shared love for their trio colleague, an Italian violinist named Aviva, forces them into their final and most dangerous collaboration. 554 paperback pages. £12 NOW £4
69541 DOGS IN POETRY by Tempus Publishing Treacherous Towser, The Yelping Nuisance of the Way, The Meddling Mastiff, The Turnspit Tort, The Mad Dog, The Miser’s Only Friend, A Dog’s Tragedy, The Fawning Whelp, The Property of the Good Greyhound, Sunday Bear-Baiting, The Battlefield Staghounds, Epitaph on a Spaniel, The Drowned Spaniel,
On an Irish Retriever, Kaiser Dead and On the Elegies of a Lap-Dog are some of the ancient texts grouped together under the vague heading as referring to dogs. By today’s standards cruel, bloodstained, gnashing, full of sickness and violence, the collection has no authors attributed so they must be out of copyright. Please do not pass to dog lovers as suggested on the book jacket - this is a book for wordsmiths who do not mind a few shocking sonnets, limericks and odes. 96pp, woodcuts. £9.99 NOW £3.50
69493 LOVE FROM NANCY:
The Letters of Nancy Mitford edited by Charlotte Mosley “A gun-battle with burglars in the next street - I dashed round but arrived just too late. It did sound lovely.” One of the great letter- writers of the 20th century, Nancy Mitford wrote with vitality, irreverence and a delicious bitchiness, claiming that publication of any letter of hers would trigger “a
major libel suit as well as one or two suicides”. One of the six daughters of Lord Redesdale (her parents are always “Muv” and “Farve”) and moving in the feverish
e-mail:
orders@bibliophilebooks.com 69035 THE DOINGS OF HAMISH AND
DOUGAL: You’ll Have Had Your Tea? by Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden “These are the actual transcripts of our wee show of which we partook on the wireless when most of you were probably in your beds. Many of these adventures involve our cleaning-lady/house-keeper Mrs Naughtie and of course our feisty friend His Lairdship who lives up at the big hoose where he shoots grouse, sniffs Johnny Walker and smokes salmon. Mrs Naughtie has been with us since we first met her at the Krankie Arms where she was working part time as a barmaid and bouncer.’ In addition to the scripts you will also find all kinds of other things tucked away like recipes, Folk o’ the Glen by the Laird, Highland fun and games and more besides”. As heard on BBC Radio Four. 280 page paperback. Illus. £7.99 NOW £3
69036 DON’T GET ME STARTED: The Very Grumpy Guide to the Most Annoying Aspects of
Everyday Life by Mitchell Symons All the irritations of the modern world are here - hilarious, entertaining and downright therapeutic. People who use finger signs to denote quotation marks, talking birthday cards that just will not shut up, train journeys that are more expensive than flights to the same destination, pubs that advertise things happening TONITE and Brian Sewell’s voice are just a few of life’s annoyances, up with which Mr Symons just will not put. 248 page paperback.
£7.99 NOW £3
69040 GARFIELD TREASURY 6 by Jim Davis The orange and black striped cat Garfield has kept us laughing for many years and here Jim Davis’ creation tickles our funny bone with his antics through no less than 80 full colour, full page cartoon strips. ‘Garfield, why don’t you eat mice like other cats?’ ‘I don’t like to hurt mice. How can I get that through your thick skull?’ Then he sits at the typewriter: Dear Jon: The mice and I have an agreement. They don’t bug me and I don’t bug them. Therefore I will never hurt
mice...signed Garfi*’ Large softback.
£10.99 NOW £4.50
67904 STRINGLOPEDIA: Unravel the Secrets of Knots and Reel in Lashings of Twine-Related Trivia by Adam Hart-Davis
From its early role in building the pyramids to modern scientific applications and string theory, string is woven into every aspect of our lives. If you string along, you will find out how to open this book for a start, then how to tie your shoelaces in seven different ways, what ‘cutting the Gordian knot’ means, why a bungee rope bounces back, where you can find the world’s biggest ball of string and much, much more. 192 pages with rib- tickling line drawings and stringy websites. £9.99 NOW £2
high society of the 30s, she had to cope with the affairs of her playboy husband Peter Rodd and the Fascism of her sisters Unity and Diana. After the war Nancy lived in Paris with her lover Gaston Palewski and had a huge success with the novel The Pursuit of Love, though her spelling and punctuation famously had to be brought in line by her close friend Evelyn Waugh. In the 50s she moved in the world of the arts, including in her circle Peter Brook, Alexander Korda, Enid Bagnold and Graham Sutherland. Nancy met everyone who was anyone and some of her most waspish remarks are reserved for the Kennedys (“they say Kennedy is doing for sex what Eisenhower did for golf”), Coco Chanel, Rudolf Nureyev, Cecil Beaton and British politicians (“I take a frivolous view of the Profumo affair”). A wonderful book to dip into. 624pp, paperback, photos. £9.99 NOW £5
69416 MODERN NOVEL WRITING: Or The Elegant Enthusiast
by William Beckford First published in 1796 under the pseudonym Lady Harriet Marlow, this volume is a satirical attack on what its author perceived as characteristically feminine novel- writing. It ridicules the sentimental and sensational novels of the day, and especially the productions of
William Lane’s Minerva Press. However, it is also a political satire, attacking the Tory party and its leader, William Pitt the Younger, for the war with France, repressive legislation and neglect of the poor. This is the first scholarly edition to be published and it includes a comprehensive introduction and notes. The author, who lived from 1760 to 1844, was a novelist, travel writer, art critic and collector. One of the most controversial figures of his time, as well as being reputedly the richest man in England, he is probably best remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Vathek. The editor is an acknowledged expert on William Beckford and has written numerous books and articles on his life and works. Edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Gemmett. 192 paperback pages with Address to the Doers of the British Critic. £14.99 NOW £4
65656 DORE’S LONDON: All 180 Images from the Original London Series with
Selected Writings by Gustave Doré This luxury volume attempts to convey the immense power and emotional truth of Doré’s images by setting them in the context of the writings of the period - Dickens, Henry Mayhew, Wilkie Collins, Thackeray, Gissing, Henry James, Anthony Trollope, Oscar Wilde and others. This involved liberating the 180 drawings from their imprisonment in a minor work and arranging them, in a simple but potent narrative. Doré’s method was to sketch unobtrusively in the street, screened by Jerrold and, in the poorer districts, protected by plain clothed policemen. In the Riches section is ‘The Eustace Diamonds’, ‘The Woman In White’ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, in Rags are ‘Sketches by Boz’, ‘The Mysteries of London’ by G. M. W. Reynolds and ‘Oliver Twist’; in Work there are excerpts from ‘London Labour and the London Poor’ and under Play, ‘Pendennis’ by Thackeray and ‘Twice Around the Clock’ by G. A. Sala. Exquisitely detailed woodcuts and engravings by Doré himself. 384 outsize pages. £16.99 NOW £8
LITERATURE CONTINUED OVER PAGE
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