Signed Copies

 

Notting Hill is home to an eclectic range of writers and novelists. A great many more know the area for its great bookshops, record shops, art galleries and restaurants and few can walk down Portobello Road without stopping by The Travel Bookshop.
Below is a list of signed books we currently have in stock.

Deep Country

Neil Ansell

Neil Ansell spent five years living between the back of beyond and the
middle of nowhere, on his own, with no electricity, gas or water and
effectively only the wildlife around him for company. His dilapidated
cottage, rented for GBP100 per year, is so exposed to the elements that
it appears to rain uphill, and so remote that you can walk for twenty
miles west without seeing a single other dwelling. As the years pass he
feels himself dissolving into, and becoming, just another part of the
landscape.

Hamish Hamilton 2011

ISBN 9780241145005

Hbk £16.99

Unnatural:The Heretical Idea of Making People

Philip Ball

Can we make a human being? That question has been asked for many
centuries, and has produced recipes ranging from the homunculus of the
medieval alchemists and the clay golem of Jewish legend to
Frankenstein’s monster and the mass-produced test-tube babies in “Brave
New World”. All of these efforts to create artificial people are more or
less fanciful, but they have taken deep root in Western culture. They
all express fears about the allegedly treacherous, Faustian nature of
technology, and they all question whether any artificially created
person can be truly human. Legends of people-making are tainted by
suspicions of impiety and hubris, and they are regarded as the ultimate
‘unnatural’ act – a moral judgement that has its origins in religious
thought. In this fascinating and highly topical study, Philip Ball
delves beneath the surface of the cultural history of ‘anthropoeia’ –
the creation of artificial people – to explore what it tells us about
our views on life, humanity, creativity and technology, and the soul.
From the legendary inventor Daedalus to Goethe’s tragic Faust, from the
automata-making magicians of E.T.A
Hoffmann to Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein – the old tales and myths
are alive and well, subtly manipulating the current debates about
assisted conception, embryo research and human cloning, which have at
last made the fantasy of ‘making people’ into some kind of reality.

The Bodley Head 2011

ISBN 9781847921529

Hbk £20.00

Notting Hill Behind the Scenes

Hermione Cameron

Behind the Scenes Publishing 2007

(Signed copies available)

ISBN 9780955665905

Pbk £12.99

In Byron’s Footsteps

Tessa de Loo

When Tessa de Loo saw Albania for the first time, no foreigners were
allowed to enter. Filled with a great curiosity, longing, and a sense
of wonderment by this isolated land, de Loo gazed toward the mountains
that stood like ‘the backs of patiently waiting elephants’ across the
water from Corfu. Inspired by the famous Thomas Phillips portrait of
Lord Byron in Albanian national costume, de Loo stole her way in and
found a country suffering the hardships of post-communist reality and
the constant and sometimes fractious clash between tradition and
modernity. In the tradition of Bruce Chatwin, de Loo, the award-winning
author of The Twins, has written a fascinating travelogue and a very personal reassessment of the life and works of Lord Byron.

Haus Publishing Ltd 2011

ISBN 9781906598778

Pbk £9.99

Orchards in the Oasis

Josceline Dimbleby

Celebrated cookery writer Josceline Dimbleby is widely credited with
introducing new ways of using spices to the domestic kitchen. This
enchanting memoir explores the food influences of her rich and varied
life and provides an outstanding collection of exciting recipes. As an
itinerant child with a diplomat stepfather, Josceline spent much of her
time in the kitchen – in a succession of different countries – watching
cooks transform food with spices and herbs. As a consequence, she
acquired not only a taste for food but also a passion for discovering
other lands and different cuisines. From Syria to Morocco, from North
America to Burma and Laos, her adult life built on and broadened her
early gastronomic experiences. She found that her astonishing memory of
tastes – together with her natural ability to combine flavours and
textures harmoniously – enabled her to create very personal
interpretations of dishes she had eaten around the world. Orchards in
the Oasis is Josceline’s absorbing account of her lifelong love affair
with food and flavourings.
It is interspersed with 75 inspiring but accessible recipes from the
diverse cuisines she has experienced on her travels: Rose petal tart
from Syria, Peruvian potatoes, Bosphorus mussel stew, Marrakesh
meatballs and Chicken noodle hotpot from Vietnam. Evocatively
illustrated with mouth-watering food photography and the author’s
personal photographs of her travels, it is, indeed, an irresistible
memoir.

Quadrille 2010

(Signed copies avalailable)

ISBN 9781844008483

Hbk £25.00

Return to the Olive Farm

Carol Drinkwater

After sixteen months of travelling round the
Mediterranean in search of the ancient secrets of the olive tree, Carol
returns to her beloved olive farm in the south of France, to her
husband Michel and his burgeoning family. However, the homecoming
celebrations are overshadowed by disturbing discoveries. The plight of
the honey bee has become an international crisis and Carol is faced
with unsettling news about the hives on her own olive farm. The bee
colony that has regularly wintered at Carol’s farm has been decimated
while she was away, poisoned by insecticides. While the multinational
companies are pushing for ‘bigger, better, bumper’ crops, a small band
of farmers and ecologists are calling for a halt to many of the modern
farming malpractices that are endangering the planet. Carol is amongst
them. But it puts her own farm, her idyll, under threat. At what point
do you turn your back on all that you believe in and all that you have
been fighting for? This is the story of how Carol and Michel struggle
with some difficult choices, and how they decide to deal with the
unavoidable disappointments and inevitable responsibilities that come
with running an organic farm.
Return to the Olive Farm is a song of the earth. With its lyricism,
humanity and humour, Return to the Olive farm is a beautifully written
book that passionately confronts the issues of today; issues that
impact upon each and everyone of us.

Weidenfeild & Nicolson 2010

ISBN 9780297856948

Hbk £18.99

Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation 1940-1944

Charles Glass

An exciting and fast paced account of the moral contradictions faced by Americans in Paris during France’s most dangerous years including bookseller and publisher Sylvia Beach; Countess Clara Longworth de Chambrun; Charles Bedaux and Dr Summer Jackson, wartime chief surgeon at the American hospital in Neuilly.

Highly recommended

Harper Collins 2010

(now in paperback)

(Signed Copies Availble)

ISBN 9780007228522

Hbk £10.99

Notting Hell

Rachel Johnson

Our neighbours divide into the haves and the have
yachts. Meet Mimi and Clare, two married women making the most of their
Notting Hill postcode. New best friends, and close neighbours, that
doesn’t stop them being rivals, in fact it compels it. Both are
aspiring Notting Hill Mummies (Clare needs the baby, Mimi needs the six
figure income) and, keeping up with all the area’s fads, fashions and
fabulousness is a full-time job. But the arrival of sexy billionaire Si
in their exclusive communal garden strains loyalty to friends, family,
spouse and feng-shui guru alike, and only one of them can win. But who
will that be? Clare or Mimi? Are they friends, or just neighbours?

Penguin 2007

ISBN 9780141020839

Pbk £7.99

A Diary of The Lady: My First Year as Editor

Rachel Johnson

Fig Tree 2010

(NYP 30/9/10)

ISBN 9781905490677

Pbk £16.99

From Notting Hill with Love…Actually

Ali McNamara

She was just a girl, standing in front of a boy …wishing he looked
more like Hugh Grant. Scarlett loves the movies. But does she love
sensible fiance David just as much? With a big white wedding on the
horizon, Scarlett really should have decided by now …When she has the
chance to house-sit in Notting Hill ? the setting of one of her
favourite movies ? Scarlett jumps at the chance. But living life like a
movie is trickier than it seems, especially when her new neighbour Sean
is so irritating. And so irritatingly handsome, too. Scarlett soon
finds herself starring in a romantic comedy of her very own: but who
will end up as the leading man?

Sphere 2010

ISBN 9780751544954

Pbk £6.99

Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler’s Capital

Roger Moorhouse

Berlin was the nerve-centre of Hitler’s Germany. It
was the backdrop for the most lavish of Nazi ceremonies, the venue for
Albert Speer’s grandiose plans to forge a new ‘world metropolis’, and
the scene of the final climactic battle to defeat Nazism. Berlin was
the stage upon which the rise and fall of the Third Reich was most
visibly played out. Yet while our understanding of the Holocaust is
well developed, we know little about the wider challenges posed to the
German people by living under a dictatorship in wartime, the
compromises demanded and the hardships endured. As a result our
understanding of everyday life in Nazi Germany is profoundly
imbalanced: we know in intimate detail how a minority died under
Nazism, but we understand precious little about how the majority lived.
In this vivid and important study, Roger Moorhouse seeks to portray the
German experience of the Second World War, not through an examination
of grand politics, but rather from the viewpoint of the capital’s
streets and homes – a ‘Berlin-eye view’ that makes use of published and
unpublished memoirs, diaries and interviews.
As well as giving a flavour of everyday life in the German capital,
“Berlin at War” also raises issues about consent and dissent, morality
and authority, which go to the heart of the experience of war and
dictatorship. Above all, it charts the violent humbling of a once-proud
metropolis – the fear, the cruelty, the petty heroism and the
individual tragedy.

The Bodley Head Ltd 2010

ISBN 9780224080712

Hbk £25.00

Inside Notting Hill

Sarah Anderson & Miranda Davies

Inside Notting Hill is the
only guide to a fascinating area of London.
Following the huge success of the first book, this new edition contains more
landmarks and legends, up-to-date listings of where to stay, eat, drink,
shop and much more. It also features new
writings by Tim Lott, Michael Horovitz, Virginia Ironside and Rachel
Johnson as well as contributions by Colin MacInnes, Michael Moorcock, Mustapha
Matura, John Michell, Nicky Gemmell and other writers connected with Notting
Hill, past and present.

Read more

Umbrella Books 2007

ISBN 0954262417

Pbk £12.99

Splendour and Squalor

Marcus Scriven

From stunning stately homes to the prisons of wartime
Britain; from the House of Lords to Edwardian asylums; from the Ritz
and the Dorchester to East End pubs, “Splendour and Squalor” tells the
stories of four of Britain’s most illustrious aristocratic dynasties
and of the black sheep who brought them down. They kept monkeys in West
End hotels, and rent-boys in Deauville and Kensington. They spiced up
life in pre-war Britain by patronizing illegal gaming clubs and staging
elaborate five-in-a-bed sex in stately homes. They used firearms with
convincing disregard for their own and others’ safety and drove their
Rollses and Bentleys with apparently suicidal intent. They acquired
yachts and helicopters as they shipped the family silver to California
and disposed of Old Masters at auction. They married frequently and
unsatisfactorily, humiliating their wives and always withholding from
them dynastic secrets of schizophrenia and insanity. Lacking the energy
and appetite to do so, they rarely developed their talents. Carpeting
their lives with deceit, they sought consolation in ferocious
expenditure, funding narcotic and alcohol-fueled blow-outs.
They ignored the advice of sane relations, shrugged off trustees, and
experimented with burglary, shop-lifting, vagrancy and fraud. Their
primary, possibly sole, accomplishment was to drag down their families
with them. They were the black sheep of aristocracy and this is their
story.

Atlantic Books 2010

ISBN 9781843541257

Pbk £12.99

Atlantic: A Vast Ocean of a Million Stories

Simon Winchester

The definitive biography of the world’s most important body of
water — the Atlantic. One hundred and ninety million years ago, the
shifting of two of the world’s tectonic plates led to the creation of an
immense chasm. This giant gash in the flanks of the planet slowly
opened up and eventually evolved into the most important and most
travelled ocean in our world. In this utterly original biography, Simon
Winchester explores the life of the Atlantic; it’s birth, its
relationship with mankind, and what lies in store for it once man has
left the stage. He charts the development of the first settlements by
the Oceanside — the communities of Celts and Vikings and whose lives
depended on the sea — and delves into the age of exploration, venturing
to forgotten worlds. The building of some of the world’s most beautiful
port cities — London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Casablanca — is also
examined, along with the creation of settlements and colonies in and
around the sea. Completely unique and highly readable, Atlantic takes
its reader on a wonderful journey through time, along the waves of our
planet’s most significant ocean.

HarperCollins 2011

ISBN 0007341377

Hbk £25.00

 

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