Bailey Hill Book Shop in The Guardian

Ibooknet member Bailey Hill Book Shop has been mentioned in a nice piece in The Guardian My Perfect Days out in the UK. Scroll to just over half way and the section subtitled: Amy Jenkins, screenwriter – Arthurian legends and a hard boiled egg, Somerset.

Amy Jenkins says:

"Next stop is nearby Castle Cary, one of the prettiest hamstone towns in the area. Make sure you take in the charming Round House, built in 1779 to lock up local miscreants, and then head for Bailey Hill Bookshop (01963 350917, baileyhillbookshop.co.uk), which is the nicest I know. There's a lovely upstairs gallery where the secondhand books are kept and you are welcome to sit for hours and browse."

Roald Dahl Funny Prize

Held at The National Theatre on Saturday 11 September 2010, the Roald Dahl Funny Prize is part of the annual celebration of legendary children’s author, Roald Dahl.

Michael Rosen, poet and former Children’s Laureate, is the brains behind the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. To mark the third year of the prize and the fifth annual Roald Dahl Day, he is joined by a host of special guests including author Philip Ardagh and comedian Shappi Khorsandi, both Roald Dahl Funny Prize judges.

Side-splitting stories, revolting rhymes, and priceless poems are guaranteed to make you and your children guffaw. Even the book-signing afterwards will have you in stitches.

Click here to buy tickets for the event

The prize has two categories:

• The funniest book for children aged six and under

• The funniest book for children aged seven to fourteen

Verily Anderson, 1915-2010

Verily Anderson was an author whose writing received what her obituarist in The Times called "respectful attention". The daughter of a vicar, she was born in Edgbaston, and grew up in East Sussex, where she went to Normanhurst School. Here, whether you owned a horse or not, foxhunting was on the curriculum. Verily Anderson showed some musical talent, and was accepted at the Royal College of Music, but her time there ended abruptly. Her father stopped paying the fees when it became clear she would not succeed as a concert pianist.

As a child, she had been a keen guide, and had many badges. Using these as qualifications, she embarked on a varied series of jobs: designing toffee papers; a chauffeur, and by 1939, a sub-editor on The Guide, the Guides' magazine.

In 1940 she married Donald Anderson, a playwright, and the couple both became freelance writers. They had five children, and when Donald died in 1956, Verily Anderson had to support the family on her own. She wrote about bringing up her family on virtually nothing (the wonderfully named Spam Tomorrow as well as five others), and wrote the eight book Brownie series. Alas, the Brownie books were considered too exciting by the Girl Guide Association for it to support them.

I had no Brownie experience with which to compare them, having not been allowed to join the Brownies, but I found the books completely enchanting as a child: they were a window into another world where girls worked together and had adventures.

Verily Anderson carried on writing virtually until her death. The day before she died, she finished a book about Herstmonceux Castle.

This piece is illustrated with the following:

Daughters of Divinity: Hart-Davis, London, 1960. 1st edition hardback in dw, vg/vg. Very clean copy in d/w that has slightly browned in places. This book comes from Malcolm Saville's book collection, and contains the inscription "Malcolm Saville best wishes Verily Anderson" on fep. £70.00 Peakirk Books

Brownies on Wheels: Brockhampton Press, 1st edn, 1966. VG/VG. Very good book in very good dustjacket. No previous owner's name, pages clean, binding tight. Black and white illustrations by Edgar Norfield. Very good unclipped dustjacket (9/6) with minimal wear to spine tips and corners. A holiday for Brownies in a real gipsy caravan! The trek into the New Forest provides Amanda, Tulip, Lucinda and their Brownie friends with an exciting holiday, but it also proves how resourceful Brownies can be... £10.00 March House Books

Conan Doyle's old house, Undershaw, to be redeveloped

Undershaw is the house Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived in, having had it built in 1897 as his wife needed to move into the country for health reasons. He lived there for ten years, and wrote while there, among other things, The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Undershaw Preservation Trust would like to turn the Grade II listed building into a museum, but in June Waverley District Council granted listed building and planning consent for the conversion of the house into three apartments with an extension containing five town houses. The council has previously spent over £70,000 on emergency repairs to the building which had been neglected by the owners.

There has been a lengthy campaign, the latest stage of which has seen a number of people, including Conan Doyle’s great-great-nephews, Joshua and Oliver Conan Doyle, writing to Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey - he had previously been in favour of preserving the property. Stephen Fry, Christopher Frayling and Uri Geller are listed among the campaign's supporters.

You can read on at Bagotbooks's Blog.

Five go to Tintagel

Further Famous Five news: on the afternoon of August 10 there will be readings from Five Go to Sea in the courtyard of Tintagel Castle, and I can't think of a more evocative setting for storytelling. Mike O'Connor, renowned storyteller, musician, and researcher into Cornwall's folklore and musical heritage, will be telling the tales.

Dornford Yates and C. W. Stamper

In 1913 Mills and Boon published a book called ‘What I Know’, by C. W. Stamper, the memoirs of a chauffeur/motor engineer to King Edward VII from 1905-10, with an acknowledgement in the foreword to Dornford Yates 'but for whose tireless assistance these memories might never have been published'.

Dornford Yates (real name Cecil William Mercer) was at this time still a practising barrister but he was short of work and had been writing stories for the Windsor Magazine, a popular monthly, since 1911. His first book in his own name however, a collection of these short stories, would not appear until 1914. After WW1 he went on to give up the bar, became a full-time writer and wrote a further thirty-three books.

Although no acknowledgement of ‘What I Know’ ever appeared in Dornford Yates’ other works it was presumed that he was the ghost-writer but there was never any certainty. In 1982 A. J. Smithers biography of Dornford Yates failed to mention the title at all although there was a note in the preface to the 2nd edition in 1985 that the existence of the book had since come to his notice. Yates himself never mentioned it in his quasi-autobiographies.

The full story of how the connection has been established, in Yates' own hand, can be seen at A Book for all Reasons

Man Booker Longlist Announced

The Man Booker judges have announced the long list of thirteen titles. This years judges, chaired by Andrew Motion former Poet Laureate, are Rosie Blau, Literary Editor of the Financial Times; Deborah Bull, formerly a dancer, now Creative Director of the Royal Opera House as well as a writer and broadcaster; Tom Sutcliffe, journalist, broadcaster and author and Frances Wilson, biographer and critic.

Three authors have been shortlisted before: David Mitchell (twice shortlisted in 2001 for number9dream and in 2004 for Cloud Atlas), Damon Galgut (in 2003 for The Good Doctor) and Rose Tremain (shortlisted in 1989 for Restoration). She was also a judge for the Booker Prize in 1988 and 2000.

Howard Jacobson has been longlisted twice for his book Kalooki Nights in 2006 and for Who's Sorry Now? in 2002.

Ibooknet members who stock a lot of modern fiction including first editions and signed copies are Simon French, Stephen Foster, The Glass Key, Hessay Books, Diaskari Books (contact chris.tyzack@btinternet.com ) and Barter Books.

The long listed titles are:

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Faber and Faber)


Room by Emma Donoghue (Pan MacMillan - Picador)


The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore (Penguin - Fig Tree)


In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Books)


The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)


The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Headline Publishing Group – Headline Review)


C by Tom McCarthy (Random House - Jonathan Cape)


The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Hodder & Stoughton - Sceptre)


February by Lisa Moore (Random House - Chatto & Windus)


Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Penguin - Hamish Hamilton)


Trespass by Rose Tremain (Random House - Chatto & Windus)


The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (Grove Atlantic - Tuskar Rock)


The Stars in the Bright Sky by Alan Warner (Random House - Jonathan Cape)