One of Jane Austen's most charming youthful 'novels' in miniature, presented in a deluxe illustrated edition with Leon Steinmetz's gorgeous black and dark red illustrations. Most people think Jane Austen wrote only six novels, though very short ones, while still a young girl. She was only 12 or 13 when she wrote The Beautifull Cassandra, an irreverent and humorous little masterpiece. Weighing in at 465 occasionally misspelled words, it is a complete and perfect novel-in-miniature, made up of a dedication to her older sister Cassandra and 12 chapters, each consisting of a sentence or two. Narrating the slightly criminal adventures of the 16 year old title character, the novel gives us Austen's most irrepressible heroine, who, after stealing a hat, leaves her mother's shop to flounce around London, eating ice cream (without paying), taking coach rides (without paying), and encountering handsome young ladies and gentlemen (without speaking) - all to return home hours later with whispered joy: 'This is a day well spent.' Austen fans will love the strong-willed Cassandra who can eat six ice creams and then refuse to pay for them! Special import from Princeton University Press, 72 page landscape softback, illus.
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After 20 years running The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, Shaun Bythell's life is spent roaming the bookshelves picking online orders, poetry nights by the log fire, and frequent drop-ins from friends and former colleagues with the latest gossip from the small town. Mostly. Apart from the familiar stream of antiquarian porn-hunters, die-hard trainspotters, and toddlers just looking for a nice cosy corner in which to urinate, Shaun must contend with Granny's antics, the frantic rush to organise the Wigtown Book Festival, and the town's only pub changing hands. To say nothing of Sandy the Tattooed Pagan. Customers come and go, whether they've paid or not, but there's never a quiet moment and Wigtown's Pepys gives us the lowdown, a perfect read for every bibliophile. The daily diary records online orders, books found, till total and number of customers per day. Crammed with literary nuggets and musings, for example on Walton's The Compleat Angler with its one page printed upside down so two singers can face each other while singing together! Shaun could find a copy online from a New York dealer at a price of £47,221.25. 377pp.

STEVE MCCURRY ANIMALS

Great for crafts and hobbies and to look pretty when pinning Christmas or other cards onto string, these weeny 3.5 cm real wood clothes pegs are in a natural wood colour. Pack of 35.