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"Discover Hebden Bridge" - Town Centre Trail (£2)

From Hebden Bridge Local History Society and Hebden Bridge Walkers' Action, a colourful new guide to a 45-minute walk around the town, giving details of points of interest and photographs of the same scenes in times gone by. The trail is accessible by wheelchair.

JUST OUT

Growing Up in Sowerby ... and more by Jean Illingworth (£9.99)

The ancient hilltop village of Sowerby with its fine Georgian church can be seen for miles around. Jean Illingworth's engaging history weaves her own memories with the recollections of others in her local community to reveal a rich and detailed picture of the life and character of this "very special" place. Many old photographs and illustrations. Order it online here!

" ... it's lovely. Brings Sowerby to life, and I love the photos" - Austin Mitchell MP

"Charming and gripping" - Linda McDougall, journalist and author

" ... a wonderful collection of events, characters, chunks of social history and personal memories which will have readers sighing with nostalgia" - Virginia Mason, Evening Courier

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act in 1928 when women over 21 finally won the right to vote, and the centenary of the Edwardian suffrage caravan tour when a horse-drawn caravan set off from Whitby harbour  to take the Votes for Women message out to the remotest Yorkshire dales and market towns in 1908, Jill Liddington and her bestselling Rebel Girls book has been touring Yorkshire over the summer. Yet to come:

1 October - Leeds (0113 293 9286); 9 October - Halifax Library (01422 392629)(and a writers' workshop on Monday 13 October); 14 October - Castleford, Wakefield (01924 302754)

The Book Case has the book (which includes local heroine Lavena Saltenstall) - it's a big paperback at £14.99 and a wonderful read, and Jill is a great speaker!

Phyllis Bentley children's books

Gold Pieces - Phyllis Bentley (£5.95)
The first in the series, the exciting story of a boy who gets involved with the Cragg Vale Coiners - gives a fascinating insight into life in the Calder Valley and the local weaving industry over 200 years ago.

Ned Carver in Danger - Phyllis Bentley (£5.95)

The second of our three "Tales from the Tops" reprints of Phyllis Bentley's locally-based historical novels for children. A 13-year-old boy starts work at a Calder Valley cropping shop in 1812 just as his friend's mill-owning father introduces the cropping frames that will put his skilled companions out of work. Ned's sympathies are with the Luddites who plot violence.

Coming soon - The Adventures of Tom Leigh

Young Tom, newly arrived in the Calder Valley from Suffolk in 1722, loses his father; then he himself is threatened when as a weaver's apprentice, he uncovers a crime. The first one written and also the earliest in historical terms.

The Backbone of England:

Landscape and Life on the Pennine Watershed

- Andrew Bibby, photos John Morrison.

Available for £14.99 at The Book Case while stocks last.

Well-known Hebden Bridge author and journalist Andrew Bibby has collaborated with ex-Hebden Bridge photographer John Morrison to produce a splendid new book on "Landscape and Life on the Pennine Watershed", entitled The Backbone of England. The launch at the Little Theatre on 20th March went splendidly, and we have some signed copies in stock at the shop at the special price of £12 while stocks last.

Hebden Bridge-based journalist Andrew Bibby walks the route of the watershed in England that separates the water flowing westwards to the Irish Sea and the Atlantic from the water heading towards the North Sea and explores various aspects of the area's history, ecology, geology and culture, and meets many of the people whose lives are shaped by the landscape. Ex-Hebden Bridge John Morrison supplies atmospheric colour photos.

NOW IN STOCK - HEBDEN BRIDGE HISTORY!

Hebden Bridge: a short history of the area - Peter Thomas (£5.99)

As Royd Press, we're delighted to have published an updated and revised version of Peter Thomas's very readable history of the area. Selling briskly. Thanks to Hebden Bridge Local History Society, the Alice Longstaff Collection and the Jack Uttley Photo Library for the use of their photos.

Milltown Memories - back issues available

We're delighted to have in stock copies of the Upper Calder Valley quarterly magazine featuring aspects of local history and old photographs: a list of contents can be found at http://www.milltownmemories.org.uk/

and the magazines cost £2.50 or £2.80 each. Missing is issue 2. Milltown Memories ran from 2002 to 2006.

YORKSHIRE AND LANCASHIRE MILLTOWN LIFE IN 1849

In 1849, energetic young journalist Angus Bethune Reach visited the textile towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire and sent his graphic reports to The Morning Chronicle. Reach visited the mills, interviewed the management and workers and described what he saw; went into people’s homes, decent or filthy, talked to the tenants and described the interiors and furniture; he interviewed the Manchester druggists who were supplying an often lethal opium mixture for babies, and the parents affected, talked to teachers, booksellers and librarians to find out what people wanted, recorded the comments of the poor Irish immigrants and visited a Manchester music hall. His gift of reproducing exactly what people said and what he saw brings them and the scenes back to bustling animated life.

We're delighted to have reprinted a number of the extracts in the above two books, edited by textile historian Chris Aspin, and they are now available again from Royd Press at The Book Case:

Fabrics, Filth and Fairy Tents: the Yorkshire Textile Districts in 1849 (£6.95): covers Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley, Halifax, Bradford and Leeds

A Cotton-Fibre Halo: Manchester and the Textile Districts in 1849: covers Manchester, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Egerton, Macclesfield, Middleton and Saddleworth. The latter towns were chosen as being different in some way from the “typical” cotton town, so that his reports on Manchester may stand for many of those not mentioned. Now in stock.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the social history of the Victorian milltown, textile historians and anyone researching their milltown ancestors who wants to find out just what life was like for them.

Royd Press is based at The Book Case. Please make any cheques out to The Book Case, not Royd Press. Thanks!

   To go to the Royd Press website, click here 

RECENT LOCAL PUBLICATIONS

Looping the Loop DVD and video - Peter Thornton and Ray Riches, £12.99

A journey on the Mary Towneley Loop in the South Pennines, a 48-mile circular spur off the Pennine Bridleway. Using ancient packhorse trails and bridleways, it visits hidden villages and hamlets, taking you through spectacular scenery, across wild moorland and into green wooded valleys. 78 mins.

See below for other recent local interest items.

A Village Childhood - Gertrude M. Attwood, nee Ogden (£12)
A personal recollection of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge in the 1920s and '30s. Gertrude looks back at those early years and describes how they influenced her life. Sumptuously illustrated, with lots of fascinating detail about everyday life.

Infamous Yorkshire Women - Issy Shannon (£12.99)

From the well-known local journalist, a collection of remarkable women with Yorkshire connections - ranging from Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes to Mary Newall of the Cragg Vale Coiners. Nicely presented and well illustrated.

Pennine Perspectives: Aspects of the History of Midgley - Midgley History Group, ed. Ian Bailey, David Cant, Alan Petford and Nigel Smith (£18)

A big well-illustrated book covering many aspects of Midgley’s past, from pre-history, through to medieval times, the Victorian era and the early twentieth century. Topics include religion, railways, Murgatroyds’, quarrying, farming, self-help, housing, pubs, leisure, riots, geology and folklore. The whole of the ancient township of Midgley is covered, including Midgley Moor, Luddenden, Luddenden Foot and Mytholmroyd as well as the village. It has 352 pages, hardback with over 160 illustrations of photos, maps & archive documents.

A Laureate's Landscape:

walks around Ted Hughes's Mytholmroyd - John Billingsley

Engrossing and informative illustrated booklet that takes us around the area in which the ex-Poet Laureate grew up and which inspired some of his most memorable work. The relevant poems are referred to (but not quoted! - the copyright is closely guarded) in the text. Local historian John Billingsley has led many Ted Hughes walks around Mytholmroyd, and here is a permanent memento - or a good substitute if you are unable to take part. (£4.50)

Folk Tales from Calderdale, Vol. 1 - John Billingsley

The eagerly-awaited collection of tales from the moorlands of the Upper Calder Valley - the first of a projected series on the folklore of Calderdale by the well-known local historian. The Witches of Eagle Crag, the Cliviger Boggart, the Bride Stones, the Eve Stone, Stoodley Pike, Great Rock, Tom Bell's Cave, the Miller's Grave and Churn Milk Joan are included. (£7.50)

Facsimile Mill Rules poster of 1851 from Waterfoot Mill,
Haslingden, £1.00

21 rules laid down for the Hands, covering lateness, untidiness, damage, Talking, behaviour in the Necessaries, Oaths and insolent language, Smoking and especially personal cleanliness:

“The Masters would recommend that all their workpeople Wash themselves every morning, but they shall Wash themselves at least twice every week, and any found not washed will be fined 3d for each offence.”

Customer Forum
We're grateful to our customers for sharing their ideas on books they've enjoyed or found valuable: links to on-going lists are below. Any contributions can be e-mailed to us or written on the pad on our centre table.

Nice Novels

A Guardian reader asked in "Notes and Queries" if there were "any novels worth reading in which people are generally nice to each other and nobody dies". Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and a list of nice and not-so-nice novels can be seen here.

Inspirational books
This one started as "Philosophical Favourites" but soon broadened to books that people had found personally inspiring - the list so far is here.

Women's Watershed Fiction

An Orange Prize survey carried out in 2004 asked women for the books which had "which has spoken to you on a personal level. It may have changed the way you look at yourself or simply made you happy to be a woman. Your selection can be written by a man or a woman, in this country or abroad, as long as it touched your life in some way." The results can be found here - additions from you welcome!

Men's Milestone Fiction
In 2006 Professor Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins of Queen Mary College carried out an Orange/Guardian survey on books that had most changed men's lives. Their findings and our customers' contributions can be found here.

Historical Fiction

We now have online a list of good historical fiction - click here for our suggestions, and please e-mail your own.

Reviews

We're always happy to receive reviews to add to our Reviews page. Just e-mail them in and they'll be added (within reason).

Words:

A reminder of the shop's parallel info-only "Words" site, where you can find poems by the late Rev. John Browne on the changing atmosphere of the Calder Valley through the seasons, the answers to all the past quizzes, a Commonplace page of interesting or entertaining snippets about books and reading and our list of nice novels

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Recent Quotes from Customers:

"I'm astonished how quickly you can order books in. With Waterstone's, it's always a fortnight."

"I tell my staff to look at your site to see what to buy." - Waterstone's manager

"What a wonderful shop you are!"

"Oh, have you got it in stock? I waited for about eight months to get it from Amazon and it never came."

"You're quicker than Amazon!"

"You don't get this level of service from Waterstone's, you know. You say 'Hobson's Choice' to them and they look blank."

"A friend of mine in Tennessee says, 'I'd love to live in Hebden Bridge because of The Book Case'."

"You've got an amazing selection of books here!"

"It's a nice shop to look in." "Yes, it is, it's a lovely shop."

"I still can't understand how you can get books so much quicker than a big national chain."

"I love coming to your shop."

"Don't believe any other shop would go to so much trouble!"

"Once again you live up to your reputation. You are the best shop ever for getting stuff in the next day."

"You are wonderful."

"Wonderful shop - brings back childhood memories of browsing in bookshops."

"A little gem of a bookshop."

"The Book Case, as ever, is brilliant."

"We are very lucky to have such a wonderful bookshop in our midst."

"Dear Bookcase, thank you! Why the Guardian didn't include you among its piece on independent bookshops, I don't know."

Customer purchasing Stainer's Crucifixion on a Naxos CD: "I've just spent all morning searching on internet for an mp3 download of this - then I thought 'Let's see what Hebden Bridge has to offer"

"Thank you for sending me the fascinating book on Marriner's yarns. I can't believe it came so quickly - you certainly knock Amazon into a cocked hat!"