Quiller Publishing – The Bell Bookshop

Some Damn Fool’s Signed the Rubens Again

Emma — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The artist Norman Thelwell (1923-2004) was famous for his horse and pony cartoons, but his work was far more wide ranging. He focused his exceptional talent and humour on many diverse subjects, with his witty and wry observations providing amusement and sharp social comment.Some Damn Fool’s Signed the Rubens Again is Thelwell’s look at life in Britain’s stately homes, and what happens when they are opened to the public. Here are the castles, country estates, and the quirks of the British class system all depicted in the artist’s inimitable style.When an ancestral home is crumbling, or an aristocratic family is debt-ridden, the solution calls for drastic action. It is time to welcome in the paying public. Thelwell’s cartoons capture the comic situations that result when the noble residents come face to face with the curious visitors. See the duke in his tower preparing to repel the coachloads with boiling oil; a ghost train in the family vault; toddlers wrecking treasured heirlooms; and animals in the safari park watching the hilarious human spectacle unfold.

Moorland Matters

Emma — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

With Britain’s islands holding more than three-quarters of the Earth’s stock of heather moorland, it is an extraordinary fact that it stands as one of the world’s rarest habitats.

A landscape beloved by millions, it’s renowned for the tranquillity and solace it provides – however, this tranquillity is an illusion. Britain’s moorlands have, in less than a decade, moved from a position of benign consensus to the epicentre of the bitterest conflict within UK conservation.

This insightful book sets out to examine and expose the hidden issues surrounding UK moorland conservation, giving a voice to the many people who work and live there and who feel that what they have to say is often ignored, if it’s even heard at all.

The fate of our uplands is in our hands, and it is important that an alternative narrative, from the perspective of the practitioners who have cared for these places for generations, are considered.

It may be that those with power chose to ignore these facts and sweep them away, but at least now they cannot say they didn’t know.

A Drink At the Bar

Emma — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A Drink at the Bar: A memoir of crime, justice and overcoming personal demons is the witty, opinionated and revealing memoirs of Judge Graham Boal QC, a criminal barrister for thirty years before serving as a judge for nine years until his retirement as a Permanent Judge at London’s Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, in 2005.

Boal’s career highlights included his being the legendary George Carman’s junior in the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe’s trial for conspiracy to murder in 1979, leading for the Crown at the Appeal of the Birmingham Six in 1991 and becoming First Senior Treasury Counsel. His memories of key cases in his career are fascinating but his day-to-day experiences, and the underlying legal issues and happenstance, are every bit as revealing and interesting.

Boal has been described as ‘clubbable’, a man who enjoys cricket, golf and life in a Norfolk village, but as his brilliant career progressed he found himself increasingly dependent on the demon alcohol. He went into treatment for alcoholism and depression in 1993, and has been a recovering alcoholic ever since, including his years as a judge at the Old Bailey, the court at which most of the most serious criminal cases in the country are tried.

This intriguing memoir reveals the many inside stories of classic criminal cases and the author is unstinting in his analysis of his professional achievements and personal struggles. This will be an essential read for all those interested in legal and political issues and the toll that the pressures of high office can put on one’s personal life and wellbeing. The author is now a trustee and board member of WDP, a leading addiction charity.

Lowering the Tone & Raising the Roof

Emma — Thu, 20 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this much-anticipated autobiography, Raymond Gubbay brings to life his extraordinary fifty-year career as one of the most experienced and well-connected impresarios in British music and entertainment. With a provenance rich in history and talent, he retraces the musical legacy of his family, growing up in a liberal Jewish household in 1950s post-war London with the challenges he faced while embarking on his musical journey after a few failed attempts at corporate conformity.

Beginning his career at the Royal Albert Hall, his introduction to the entertainment industry commenced under the guidance of the late Victor Hochhauser – Britain’s foremost promoter of Russian ballet and classical music.

Passionate and enigmatic, this memoir delves right into the heart of 1960s performing arts, with Gubbay absorbingly recounting both the stress and excitement that came with marshalling three coach loads of Russian performers around the country at a time of conflicting traditions, theatrical decline, amid Soviet tensions – and this was only the beginning?

Setting up on his own, he started with a handful of performers touring to modest venues around the country, building a brand and a style which seemed very much in tune with the times.

Later, working alongside some of the most prestigious classical and popular artists of our time – from Yehudi Menuhin, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Luciano Pavarotti and the English National Ballet to Ray Charles, Miles Davis and Andrew Lloyd-Webber – Gubbay has witnessed and played a hand in promoting and producing some of the most iconic performances of opera, ballet and classical music ever staged in some of the largest music venues in Britain, the Royal Festival Hall, Symphony Hall Birmingham – and not least of all the Royal Albert Hall. He was in at the start of the Barbican in the City of London and provides a keen insight into the early years there.

Lowering the Tone is rich with stories of showbusiness and the behind-the scenes business of the great musical venues, with appearances from a wealth of household and international names.

This is the story of achievement, imagination and a desire to bring happiness and entertainment to generations of music lovers.