Salt – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:53:19 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Salt – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 Shadow lines https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/shadow-lines/ Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/shadow-lines/ The 'shadow line' is a term Royle uses to describe the faint line on the top edge of the text block that allows him to see whether a book on a shelf contains an inclusion - those items inserted into books and long forgotten.

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Nicholas Royle’s love of second-hand books and the ‘inclusions’ he finds inside them, their presence betrayed by ‘shadow lines’, is about making connections. Someone has scribbled a number in a book? He’ll text or call. An old address? He’ll return the book to where it used to live. Follow him as he walks between bookshops, reading as he goes, on the hunt for treasure, for ways to make us feel closer – to the books on our shelves, to each other and to our own lives.

Share in Royle’s enthusiasm for the Rev W Awdry’s Railway Series, Penguin Modern Stories and Paul Auster’s cult classic, The New York Trilogy, as well as books in art and film.

The brilliant follow-up to the instant classic, White Spines.

Praise for White Spines

‘A fiercely intelligent memoir of an obsession by one of our leading prose stylists, but also a loving and enormously warm-hearted record of a life lived in books. I adored White Spines and will treasure my copy  every bit as much as Royle treasures his beloved Picadors.‘ –Alex Preston

If you love books, bookshops and browsing, this is your perfect all-year gift – head to your happy place with a copy Shadow Lines today! (Note: ‘inclusions’ not supplied.)

]]> Seahurst https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/seahurst/ Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=31575 Evie Meyer and her son Alfie flee from her abusive partner Seth in Toronto to spend New Year with her half-brother Luke at their late father's summer home on the Suffolk Coast, only to find Seahurst abandoned and Luke missing.

]]> Evie Meyer and her son Alfie flee from her abusive partner Seth to spend New Year with her half-brother Luke at their late father’s summer home on the Suffolk Coast, only to find Seahurst abandoned and Luke missing. Evie searches for her brother, filled with a deepening dread that something is very wrong at Seahurst and their father’s death may not have been suicide after all. As Seahurst’s ancient and sinister secrets unfurl around her, Evie fears the souls of the dead will soon claim another terrible revenge.

]]> Eastmouth and Other Stories https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/eastmouth-and-other-stories/ Sat, 15 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/eastmouth-and-other-stories/ Eastmouth and Other Stories is her second collection, featuring stories published in the subsequent decade, including stories that have appeared in Best British Short Stories, Best British Horror and Best New Horror, as well as new, unpublished work.

]]> Alison Moore’s debut collection, The Pre-War House and Other Stories, gathered together stories written prior to the publication of her first novel.

‘The tales collected in The Pre-War House? pick at psychological scabs in a register both wistful and brutal.’ –Anthony Cummins, The Times Literary Supplement

‘Moore’s writing is surprising and exact and culminates in the title story, the novella which brings the collection to a powerful crescendo’ –The Arkansas International

‘just as uncompromising and unsettling as The Lighthouse? Moore’s distinctive voice commands exceptional power’ –Dinah Birch, The Guardian

Eastmouth and Other Stories is her second collection, featuring stories published in the subsequent decade, including stories that have appeared in Best British Short Stories, Best British Horror and Best New Horror, as well as new, unpublished work.

]]> Stewkey Blues https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/stewkey-blues/ Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=20597 Some of the characters in Stewkey Blues have lived in Norfolk all their lives. Others are short-term residents or passage migrants. Whether young or old, self-confident or ground-down, local or blow-in, all of them are reaching uneasy compromises with the world they inhabit and the landscape in which that life takes place.

]]> Some of the characters in Stewkey Blues have lived in Norfolk all their lives. Others are short-term residents or passage migrants. Whether young or old, self-confident or ground-down, local or blow-in, all of them are reaching uneasy compromises with the world they inhabit and the landscape in which that life takes place.

]]> The Retreat https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-retreat/ Thu, 21 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-retreat/ Since childhood, Sandra Peters has been fascinated by the small, private island of Lieloh, home to the reclusive silent-film star Valerie Swanson. Having dreamed of going to art college, Sandra is now in her forties and working as a receptionist, but she still harbours artistic ambitions.

]]> Since childhood, Sandra Peters has been fascinated by the small, private island of Lieloh, home to the reclusive silent-film star Valerie Swanson. Having dreamed of going to art college, Sandra is now in her forties and working as a receptionist, but she still harbours artistic ambitions. When she sees an advert for a two-week artists’ retreat on Lieloh, Sandra sets out on what might be a life-changing journey.

]]> White Spines https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/white-spines/ Thu, 15 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=14876 A mix of memoir and narrative non-fiction, White Spines is a book about Nicholas Royle's passion for Picador's fiction publishing from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s.

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A mix of memoir and narrative non-fiction, White Spines is a book about Nicholas Royle’s passion for Picador’s fiction and non-fiction publishing from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s. It explores the bookshops and charity shops, the books themselves, and the way a unique collection grew and became a literary obsession. Above all a love song to books, writers and writing.

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