Hoddesdon & Broxbourne Calendar 2012

Our new 2012 calendar is now on sale at £7.99 featuring 12 full colour photos by members of the Hoddesdon Camera Club chosen as part of a competition we ran with them over the last 9 months. A great Christmas gift idea and we sell card envelopes if you wish to send some abroad. Our 2011 calendar sold out last autumn in just three weeks - so don’t leave it too late to buy yours this year!

Hertford Through Time

We've produced a major new history book Hertford Through Time written by local history experts Councillor Peter Ruffles and Jean Purkis in partnership with Hertford Museum, with all royalties going to the Museum. The book, published on 11th September priced £14.99, features 180 'then and now' photographs of our historic County town. There is an official signing at Hertford Museum on Sat 9th October 11am and a talk on Tues 15th Nov 8pm We offer a FREE delivery service for Hertford customers buying by phone. More information here

Back to School Stationery at Discount Prices

As everyone heads back to school and college we’re offering a wide range of files and folders, A4 writing pads, pens, protractor sets, memory sticks and many other stationery items at amazingly low prices in our Stationery Shop. We have two great value student stationery packs - the basic pack with an A4 folder, A4 lined pad and A4 dividers retails at an amazing £1.99, while the Bumper Pack with an A5 notepad, plain and lined A4 paper, post-it notes, hi-lighter, glue stick, snow tape and paper clips sells for £7.99.

Local Interest Titles

In the re-issued Tales of Old Hertfordshire costing £7.95 author Doris Jones-Baker recounts a range of great stories, offering a blend of humour, romance, excitement and wickedness. If you want to find out why Lady Katherine Ferrers became a masked highwayman, why a stout post was driven through the body of the murderous pie man of Hertford, or whether a hoard of monastic treasure was really hidden by the monks of St Albans' Abbey then this is a book for you. Up to now our local author, Maurice Pledger, has been best known for his wonderful series of beautifully illustrated children's books. However, it turns out he is also a passionate fisherman and he has written a new book While My Float's Still Cocked - a witty and whimsical recollection of his successes (and many failures) in pursuit of specimen perch, pike, carp and chub. Full of Maurice's stunning colour paintings this book, priced at £19.95, is about the evolution of an angler, the love of old and eccentric fishing tackle, and the personal quirks and foibles all fishermen suffer from.

Official: Bookshops are an Endangered Species

A new independent report has just revealed the shocking fact that the number of bookshops in Britain has halved in the past six years, with nearly 600 towns having none at all. Heavy discounting by supermarkets, the rise of internet retailers and the growing popularity of e-readers are the key factors forcing nearly 2,000 bookshops to close since 2005. At the beginning of September four independent bookshops with a combined total of 175 years on the high street announced their closure within a week, also blaming their downfall on high rates, competition from internet retailers and supermarkets, and e-books. We are one of only three independent bookshops remaining in the whole of Hertfordshire, and we are not immune from what is happening. If you want your local independent bookshop to survive then we need the help of you - our loyal customers. Please tell your friends, neighbours, work colleagues about our great range of titles, terrific bargain book selection, excellent personal service and our 48 free ordering offer and encourage them to support us.

The Gardeners 'Expert' Series

In each newsletter we highlight a particular ranges of books which are competitively priced, and we know will particularly appeal to our customers. At this time of year there are so many tasks you need to get done in your garden to prepare for the winter, and we stock a great range of paperbacks priced at £7.99 in the "Expert Guides" series by gardening guru Dr D G Hessayon. Covering everything from bedding plants, bulbs and containers to trees, shrubs and vegetables each of these titles is filled with clear advice and useful tips accompanied by full colour photographs and explanatory diagrams. There's now even the Garden to Kitchen expert with the sub-title "You grew it, now cook it…" All the books have all been updated and reprinted over the last two or three years.