| Harrison Ainsworth,
The Lancashire Witches |
Ainsworth's last masterpiece, The
Lancashire Witches proved a best-seller in its day and influenced
many contemporary authors. The Lancashire Witches begins in the
16th century: when a Cistercian monk, Borlace Alvetham, is falsely
accused of witchcraft and condemned to death by his rival, Brother
Paslew, he sells his soul to Satan and escapes. Years later, granted the
powers of a warlock, he returns in the guise of Nicholas Demdike to
witness Paslew's execution for treason. Dying, Paslew curses Demdike's
offspring - who become the titular Lancashire Witches...
The rest of the book is set in the 17th century. Mother Demdike, a powerful
witch, and her clan face rival witches, raise innocent young Alizon Devi
as their own, and try to corrupt Alizon despite her innocent ways.
Ultimately, the book becomes a struggle between Heaven and Hell, with
Alizon's fate hanging in the balance.
Price £6.95 (paperback) ISBN 1899181490 |
| Mary Joyce Baxter,
Reflections |
The latest collection of poetry by this
local author.
Price £2.50 (paperback) ISBN 1898722617 |
| Ben Brierley, Spring
Blossoms and Autumn Leaves |
This new edition republishes a fine
selection of poems by Ben Brierley, Lancashire's most popular dialect
poet of the Victorian age. This collection of Brierley classics reveals
the author in his many moods, from the riotously funny 'Wigan Sam' and 'Owd
Pigeon' to the sad lament on Annie's death, his teenage daughter who was
buried in her bridesmaid's dress.
Price £7.99 (paperback) |
| Andrew Brown, Giving Up
Smoking: The Painful Method |
A hilarious account of one man's life,
from a skint, naughty Burnley schoolboy to a millionaire at forty,
retiring only to risk it all on a completely different venture.
Price £4.99 (paperback) ISBN 1905529147 |
| E L Campbell, Two for a
Penny: A Post-war Childhood |
From his birth in May 1945, Tommy
Calvert's young life is shadowed by events of momentous historical
significance taking place in the world around him, but it is the smaller
scale, personal histories of Tommy and his friends which hold us
spellbound in this beautifully evocative book.
A victorious ascent of Pendle Hill, the purchasing of a television set
and an FA Cup Final trip may not go down in the history books with the
defeat of Nazi Germany or the death of King George VI, but these
anecdotes bear witness to a changing world as the memories of a time
gone by, and they cannot but make us smile.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN 1844015017 |
| Jennifer Lee Cobban, Wall
of Silence |
The murder of farmer Jim Dawson on a
lonely country lane near Clitheroe on March 18th 1934 was never solved
and has been described as the perfect crime. But did the villagers of
Bashall Eaves, dubbed by the media 'The Village That Wouldn't Talk'
really close ranks and maintain a wall of silence after the shooting?
And why does the murder remain such a touchy subject in the local area?
I this book, the full tragic story of Jim Dawson is chronicled for the
first time by his great-niece, Jennifer Lee Cobban, as she explores the
mysteries behind his bizarre murder, delving into one of the most
remarkable puzzles in the history of crimonology.
Price £9.50 (paperback) ISBN 0955043700 |
 James
Cowell, God Loves a Trier |
The personal story of a boy's journey
from Second World War rationing and fear of the Nazis, to childhood
adventures and escapades; from working in the coal mines at only fifteen
years old, to manhood and finally taking his place in the world. Fans of
his brother John's The Broken Biscuit and Cracks in the
Ceiling will love James's take on life in Burnley.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN 1904034608 |
 John
Cowell, The Broken Biscuit |
The story of one woman's struggle and
refusal to succumb to adversity - the beatings of a violent husband, the
crippling poverty of the age - to raise six children and devote a
lifetime to charity and good works.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN 190340245X |
 John
Cowell, Cracks in the Ceiling |
The coming-of-age saga of John Cowell.
John is the hugely likeable son of Winifred, whose story he told so
movingly in the bestselling biography The Broken Biscuit.
Cracks in the Ceiling takes us through John's young life during the
Forties and Fifties when he lived in Burnley with his adored mother,
Winifred, his father, Jack, and his siblings until - as a young National
Service soldier - he leaves for the faraway Cameroons in West Africa.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN 1903402883 |
|
John Cowell, Elephant Grass |
The final part of John Cowell's
autobiographical trilogy.
Price £12.99 (hardback) ISBN-13 9781898722731 |
|
Ernest Dewhurst, A Pennine Childhood |
As a boy in the 1850s Ernest Dewhurst's
great-grandfather was dispatched by train from Bolton to Colne in
Lancashire. The label pinned to his jacket read 'Anyone can have this
lad that wants him'. Thinking about the harshness of his
great-grandfather's childhood prompted Ernest to examine his own
upbringing, and the comparative cosiness of a small Pennine farm above
Nelson between the Pendle Witch Country and the more distant Bronte
moors.
Set in a clearing between two world wars, A Pennine Childhood -
with its memories of cotton mills, milk rounds and markets, chapels and
chip shops, gaslight and gossip, cowboys, comics and classrooms - will
bring back memories for anyone who lived through this period.
Price £12.99 (paperback) ISBN 0750943165 Temporarily out of stock |
 Martin
Dobson, Ultimate Goals |
Former Burnley player Martin Dobson is
the first England footballer to write a novel, and Ultimate Goals
- aimed at a young teenage readership - is full of the kind of detail of
life at a football club that should grab these readers' attention.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN-13 9781899807598 |
| P J Fyles, Burnley Boys |
The local hit of 2006, now available
again in limited quantities: Peter Fyles' autobiographical novel about
growing up in 70s Burnley.
Price £9.99 (paperback) |
|
Silas
Hocking, Her Benny |
Two homeless waifs, with only their
courage and love for one another to keep them going, Benny Bates and his
sister Nell face the injustice and hardship of the Liverpool of a
hundred years ago. While little Nell sells 'fusees' in Paradise Street,
'her Benny' earns a copper by carrying the bags of the gentlemen
travellers at the Pier Head. Somehow, with the help of their old friend
Joe Wrag the night watchman, they survive... until one terrible day...
Silas Hocking was a sensation in Victorian England. He was the first
novelist ever to sell a million copies of a novel, Her Benny,
which he wrote while living at an address in Albion Terrace, Burnley.
Price £5.95 (paperback) |
 Colin
Ingram, The Family Grit |
A children's fairy tale by a local
author about the adventures of the Family Grit - a family of mice who
fall on hard times but make a new life in the country after meeting
charismatic mouse Dandelion.
Price £8.99 (paperback) ISBN-13 9781906050238 |
| Albert Morris, Rolling
Out the Days |
A nostalgic memoir of growing up in 20s
and 30s Barrowford (originally published as In Those Days), now
reissued in a new omnibus edition, complete with the previously
unpublished account of the author's subsequent adventures in wartime
India and Burma.
Price £7.45 (paperback) ISBN 0955382130 |
 Kate
Mullholland, A Cry of Innocence |
The tragic tale of the Pendle Witches,
who were taken from their homes to die on the scaffold at Lancaster in
1612, unfolding a rich tapestry of love, hatred and final betrayal in
the shadow of Pendle Hill.
Price £6.95 (paperback) ISBN 0860671291 |
| Robert Neill, Mist Over
Pendle |
The Forest of Pendle during the early
seventeenth century: a wild inaccessible corner of Lancashire where the
ancient fear of demons and witches is still part of life - and death.
When several local people die in mysterious circumstances, Squire Roger
Nowell dismisses talk of witchcraft as superstition. But soon a series
of hideous desecrations take place, and there are unmistakable signs
that a black coven is assembling to plot a campaign of evil and
destruction...
The classic novel, now available again at last.
Price £5.99 (paperback) ISBN 0099067803 |
 Charles
Nevin, Lancashire, Where Women Die of Love |
Enough! For far too long, Lancashire has
languished under the grimy pall of smoke and muck and mills and mines,
enveloped in outdated condescensions, smothered by the easy dismissals
that put down the north of England as just 'up there' and 'grim'. Thank
you very much George Orwell, Monty Python and every London cabbie.
Join Charles Nevin, Fleet Street journalist and humorist, as he returns
to his roots to celebrate all that is wonderful about our county in this
wry celebration of Lancashire and its people.
Price £7.99 (paperback) ISBN 1845960378 |
 Thomas
Potts, The Wonderfvll Discoverie of Witches in
the Covntie of Lancaster |
Nearly 400 years after they were tried,
there is still huge interest in the Lancashire Witches. Their
activities, arrest and trials have been the subject of many books, none
of which could have been written without reference to Thomas Potts'
Wonderfvll Discoverie of Witches in the Covntie Of Lancaster.
Previously only available in libraries and museums, Potts' book has been
reproduced here from the original 1612 volume. A unique and invaluable
reference work.
Price £6.95 (paperback) ISBN 1859361005 |
| Charlotte Richardson,
Poetry, Prose and Pondering |
A collection of stories, poems and prose
written by local author Charlotte Richardson over a period of thirty
years.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN 1898722587 Temporarily out of stock |
| Charlotte Richardson,
Tyn-y-Morfa's Dreams |
A collection of children's stories based
on the author's family holidays in Wales.
Price £5.95 (paperback) ISBN 1898722536 |
| Charlotte Richardson,
Fairies & Facts the Lancashire Way |
A further collection of children's
stories.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN 1898722676 |
| Linda Sawley, Everyone
Else's Children |
Forget Casualty, ER and
Children's Ward; this book is about the real world of nursing and
hospital life. Driven by childlessness, Linda Sawley has always cared
for everyone else's children, first as a nursery nurse, then as a
midwife and later as a sister on a children's ward. Sometimes funny,
sometimes sad, this autobiography describes how the author worked with
children from the late sixties until 1991 when she left to teach
nursing.
Price £5.50 (paperback) ISBN 0953432904 |
| Linda Sawley, A Ring in
Time |
Sarah Evans is a librarian in Whalley.
Her life is exciting and fulfilled until disaster strikes.
The first novel by local author Linda Sawley.
Price £6 (paperback) ISBN 0953432912 |
| Linda Sawley, Changes |
Award-winning local author Linda
Sawley's sequel to her popular novel The Key. Set in 1895 in Clitheroe, it continues the story of Jenny Marshall
during a time of rapid change that affects her life, the town where she
lives, and the wider world.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN 0953432963 |
| Linda Sawley, The
Survivor |
Arabella Montague is a spoilt pampered
heiress who spends her nineteenth birthday aboard the Titanic. Although
she survives the fateful maiden voyage of 'the unsinkable ship', her
life is irrevocably changed, and she eventually ends up as a nurse in
World War One.
The latest novel by Read-based Linda Sawley.
Price £6.99 (paperback) ISBN-13 9780955725807 |
| Michael Spencer,
The Life & Rhymes of Mickey Plum |
The lively and humorous autobiography of
a child growing up in Rosegrove in the forties, written in an endearingly
screwball style.
Price £10.99 (paperback) ISBN 0646425609 |
| Jill Swallow, Days before
Dibley |
An informative and moving account of the
days when women could only be deacons in the Anglican Church.
The hugely popular TV series 'The Vicar of Dibley' transformed British
attitudes to women priests. A few years before it was created things
were very different. Jill Swallow faced ignorance and prejudice every
day. But she recounts her experiences as a deaconess in the time before
women priests, much of it at parishes in Goodshaw and Crawshawbooth,
with humour and insight.
Price £8.99 (paperback) ISBN-13
9781850787242 |
| Margaret Alice Threlfall,
My Love of Life |
A collection of Christian poetry by a
local author.
Price £4.99 (paperback) ISBN 1898722641 |
| Tattersall Wilkinson,
Memories of Worsthorne and District |
Newly edited by Ramon Collinge.
Price £9.99 (paperback) |