Theatre: technical & background skills – The Bell Bookshop

The Costume House

Emma — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the world’s most revered costume suppliers and creators, Cosprop was founded by John Bright, an Oscar-and BAFTA-winning costume designer, collector, and philanthropist. The Costume House explores some of the most celebrated film and television series in history, from Merchant Ivory to Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, and Peaky Blinders. Featuring interviews with leading costume designers, directors, and actors, and never-before-seen costume designs and photographs, this book is an unprecedented firsthand insight into costume design and making, and their significance to stage and screen worldwide.

“We entered Cosprop as ourselves and walked out as the person we were playing.”-Helena Bonham Carter CBE

“Cosprop is a magical place that is an important part of the nation’s rich cultural heritage. This book should be essential reading for lovers of costume drama and for aspiring costume designers and makers. The industry as a whole should value this document as a glimpse into what excellence can be achieved in one lifetime, with the right balance of vision and modest ambition.”-Dame Judi Dench

Distributed for Cosprop

Book of Face Painting

Emma — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Perfect for children, parents or anyone else keen to try their hand at face-painting anything from tigers, aliens and sharks to unicorns, rainbows and superheroes.

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens

Emma — Thu, 31 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Get to know a national icon in Eddie Izzard’s hilarious and dazzling autobiography

‘Comic genius . . . Entertainment incarnate’ Telegraph
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Star of stage and screen. Tireless supporter of charity. Marathon runner. Political campaigner.
Fashion icon. Human.

There is no one quite like Eddie Izzard. This is the story of how she broke through.

Her relentless optimism has led her to always do things her own way, even if it didn’t work the first time, and her incredible self-belief has pushed her to keep on trying, even if it didn’t work the second or third time either.

Whether she was putting on teddy bear shows on boarding school beds or swordfighting on the streets of London, Eddie never stopped trying to achieve her dreams of becoming a performer.

Brimming with her distinctively surreal humour and disarming candour, Believe Me tells the story of a person who never took no for an answer.
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‘This book is a raw, honest exploration of what it means to live your truth, to be unapologetically ambitious. It’s about being brave. And hilarious’ Chelsea Handler

‘Laughter trumps sorrow in candid comedian Eddie Izzard’s Believe Me’ Vanity Fair

‘A comedy gem’ Guardian

Look Back In Anger

Emma — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Look Back in Anger transformed the face of British theatre; legend has it that audiences gasped at the sight of an ironing board on a London stage. John Osborne’s play launched the ‘angry young men’ movement, writers from working or middle class background who had become disillusioned with British society, were sick of contemporary theatre’s escapism, and wanted their work to reflect life as they knew it.

The play tells the story of a love triangle between Jimmy, an intelligent and educated man of working class background, his upper-middle-class wife Alison, and her superior and disdainful best-friend Helena. Jimmy hates his wife’s background, almost as much as he hates himself. Dark and savage, Look Back in Anger makes readers and audiences re-examine what was once called ‘the good life’.