December Highlights
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this December
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this December
The Bristol Ideas Book of Walks
Follow in the footsteps of the Romantic poets and Brunel. Learn about Bristol’s council housing, commerce and public life. Discover the myths people tell about the city. Experience arts, music history and nature. And see how different the city might have looked if some projects had gone ahead. This book brings together a series of walks created and commissioned by Bristol Ideas to help you explore this unique city. Edited by Andrew Kelly and featuring walks from Robin Askew, Eugene Byrne, Melanie Kelly and Amy O’Beirne.
Price: £14
Doris Pliosaur
Bristol Books have published Bristol Museum & Art Gallery's new children’s book 'Is that Doris?'. The colour picture book based on the pliosaur fossil in the museum’s collections has been beautifully illustrated by Tilia Rand-Bell. Copies of the book are now available to purchase from the museum shop.
Bristol Books and Tangent Books
Our online shop is stocked with a wide range of Bristol-themed books this Christmas, including books from Bristol Books and Tangent Books. Buy a local book this Christmas!
Chris Packham receives A Life with Buzzards
Bristol Books were delighted when Chris Packham – the keynote speaker at the Clifton LitFest this November – received a copy of Robin Prytherch's book, A Life with Buzzards.
Louise Brown with Thomasin McKenzie who plays Jean Purdy in the film “Joy”, appeared on BBC's The One Show together.
Joy to the world
The top Netflix film "Joy", which follows the three pioneering British scientists in the 60s and 70s and their struggle to develop IVF has been among the most watched this month.
Culminating in the birth of Louise Brown, who grew up and lives in Bristol, it centres around Jean Purdy, the world's first embryologist as she worked with Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe top help people have babies.
At 11.47 pm on July 25, 1978, they achieved their goal when Louise Brown was born. As the first person to be conceived this way it made Louise instantly world famous.
You can read about her parents and the story of her life as a world first in her biography. We have some hardback first editions left and the paperback "Louise Brown, 40 Years of IVF". Both book contain photographs of Louise's remarkable story.
Bristol 100 years in Music & Film
Bristol Books were proud to sponsor and produce the souvenir programme for Bristol 100 years in music and film at Bristol Beacon this December 1.
The event celebrated the centenary of Bristol Archives with over 90 young musicians from Bristol Youth Orchestra accompanying remarkable archive cine footage of Bristol.
Film makers David Parker and Bob Pitt worked with Bristol Archives to select around 100 minutes of film which was projected on a massive screen while the orchestra, conducted by Tim Harrison, performed music from Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Florence Price. Bristol pianist Sandie Middleton also premiered a new composition, specially written for the concert.
November Highlights
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this November
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this November
Buy a local book this Christmas
Bristol Books is joining forces with Tangent Books in the run-up to Christmas to bring you the widest selection of Bristol-themed books available from our shop.
We now have best-selling titles from Tangent Books on our website and will also be distributing both publishers titles to local independent bookshops.
If you are looking for a special local gift for a Bristol enthusiast this Christmas then take a look at our online shop.
Discover Vegan Bristol this World Vegan Day
Friday 1st November is World Vegan Day and Bristol boasts an extensive vegan food scene that you can find out more about in our mouth-watering book Vegan Bristol.
It is a guide to the most tantalising spots to discover vegan food in Bristol. Covering a range of cuisines and cultures – from restaurants and cafés to pubs and pop-ups – this guide is the sure-fire way to find your next delicious plant-based meal in the South West’s cultural capital, regardless of your budget and desires.
There are more than 40 locations to choose from and all have been carefully researched and chosen for their quality and atmosphere.
Bristol 100 years in Music & Film
Bristol Beacon, Sunday 1st December, 7pm
A unique evening celebrating the history of Bristol on film accompanied by a full live orchestra will take place at Bristol Beacon on December 1.
“Bristol - 100 years in music and film” will celebrate the centenary of Bristol Archives with 100 young musicians from Bristol Youth Orchestra accompanying the remarkable cine footage of Bristol at work and play, much of which has never been shown in public before.
The film will be projected on a massive screen at Bristol Beacon while the orchestra, conducted by Tim Harrison, performs music from Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Florence Price. Bristol pianist Sandie Middleton will also premiere a new composition, specially written for the concert, during a section showing bomb-ravaged Bristol in the Second World War.
Film makers David Parker and Bob Pitt worked with Bristol Archives to select around 100 minutes of film from the collection stored at B Bond Warehouse, which was the first borough archive in the country when it was formed in 1924.
Clifton Village LitFest
Friday 15th November - Sunday 17th November
Bristol Books director and author Clive Burlton will be among a glittering line-up of speakers at this year’s Clifton Village LitFest.
The festival boasts big names such as Chris Packham, Carol Vorderman and Jonathan Dimbleby in an amazing weekend of talks, workshops, poetry and lively discussion. You can see the full line-up here.
Clive will be speaking in the Crypt of Christ Church at 10 am on Saturday November 16 and the subject is the story of the modern Matthew. Built to commemorate the 500th anniversary of John Cabot's medieval voyage the modern Matthew can be seen every day in Bristol’s historic harbour. The talk includes a 30-minute film about how the modern Matthew was built.
Steve’s story
The story of Steve Stacey, the Bristol-born son of an American GI, who became the first footballer of African-American descent to play professionally in the English football league, has excited interest during black history month.
Bristol Books ensured his remarkable story has been captured by publishing his story in his own words in The Colour of Football.
Steve started out playing in the gas-lit streets of post war Bristol and made it to the top flight. Along the way he played 119 games for Wrexham and that part of his career excited interest this month from the BBC. You can read their article here.
October Highlights
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this October
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this October
Award Nomination
Bristol Books has been shortlisted in the first ever South West Business of the Year Awards.
Winners will be announced at a glittering black-tie dinner in Bristol’s Harbour Hotel on November 14.
Bristol Books is one of six businesses shortlisted in the Community Impact category with the winner being selected by a panel of judges.
The mystery of Marie Antoinette’s sister
Did a half-sister of Marie Antoinette live in a haystack in Flax Bourton, near Bristol while the Queen of France was sweeping through the mirrored halls of Versailles? The conspiracy theory about the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Francis I swept across Europe in the 18th Century.
In Maid of The Haystack author Martin J. Powell has captured the story of what Bristol was like in those times and how the scandal unfolded with philanthropist Hannah More playing a major part in the life of the “stranger” who arrived in Bristol and the stories that surrounded her. Written as an historical novel it brings to life the city and the rural areas of North Somerset while exploring the theories surrounding these true events.
October history talks
Bristol Books director, Clive Burlton will be doing a series of talks for local history and community groups in and around Bristol throughout October.
Audiences will hear about how Harry Dolman rose from rural roots to lead Bristol City FC; how the site of the Bristol International Exhibition of 1914 was transformed into a barracks for volunteer soldiers in WW1 and in two film screenings, how Bristol's emergency services operated during World War 2 and how Bristol's health services have run since 1948.
Talks include:
2nd Oct - 2.30pm - Downend Ladies Enterprise, Downend Baptist Church - Film screening - "70 years of the NHS in Bristol"
9th Oct - 7pm - Blagdon Local History Society - Film Screening - "The Citizens of Bristol at War"
15th Oct - 2.30pm - Bromley Heath Gardening Club - Film Screening - "The Citizens of Bristol at War"
22nd Oct - 10.30am - Clevedon Probus Club - Talk - "The Life and Times of Harry Dolman"
24th Oct - 10.30am - Nailsea Probus Club - Talk - "Bristol's Lost City"
28th Oct - 10.30am - Memories of Bedminster Group - Talk - "Bristol's Lost City"
Buzzards Flying off shelves
Our latest book Robin Prytherch: A Life With Buzzards has proved incredibly popular both locally and nationally, with bird enthusiasts loving the story of Robin and his observations of buzzards around the Bristol area. The hardback book, which features Robin’s drawings and fieldwork observations of the behaviour of buzzards is a unique insight into the birds' habits.
Television ornithologist Iolo Williams, a regular presenter on Springwatch said: “A cracker of a book by the doyen of buzzard watchers. Robin’s words and sketches ooze from every page.”
September Highlights
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this month
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this September
Robin Prytherch – A Life with buzzards Q&A
Lyndon Roberts, who compiled and edited our latest book: “Robin Prytherch: A Life With Buzzards” talks about the publication. A full version of this interview can be read here:
What was special about Robin Prytherch?
“Robin Prytherch was a man with a passion for birds and one in particular – the common buzzard. He was an old-school field naturalist, arguably one of a dying breed. For more than 40 years rain or shine, armed with a cheese sandwich, a flask of coffee, a pair of binoculars and a telescope and a telescope, he headed out to watch them. “
How did the book come about?
“A group of his friends felt that there was something missing from Robin’s legacy. While his painstaking studies of buzzards was well known to ornithologists through the talks that he gave and articles he wrote In British Birds, the intimate connection he formed with his subject matter was less well known, except to those who were lucky enough to receive his buzzard-themed Christmas cards which combined his own illustrations with fascinating commentary about the birds he studied.”
What was unique about his work with Buzzards?
“He had an ability to distinguish individual birds in the field and to document their often-complex life histories including, in many cases, their demise. Most of the buzzards Robin studied were individually named by him; he was able to recognize them by observing their plumage variations and other characteristics.”
Harry’s story back in print
Harry Dolman OBE was a brilliant inventor and draughtsman, who became a millionaire through his skills before dedicating nearly 40 years of his life to his beloved Bristol City Football Club – where a stand bears his name today.
Now back in print, Harry Dolman: The Millionaire Inventor Who Became “Mr Bristol City”, by Martin Powell and Clive Burlton, was written in co-operation with Harry’s widow, Marina Dolman MBE, President of Bristol City FC, who said: “During research for the book, I was thrilled to re-discover Harry’s hand-written notes with his version of events.
The book describes how Harry rose from his humble rural roots in Wiltshire to a Rolls Royce-driving multi-millionaire with more than 100 patents to his name, from London Underground ticket machines to egg grading machines, a laundry marking system and a coin slot roulette wheel. He even built a Flying Flea single-seat, ultra-light, aircraft, which is now on display in the M Shed museum.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll
“The West’s Greatest Rock Shows” is a fantastic hard-back book chronicling lost, forgotten and previously untold eye-opening tales from gigs you’ll wish you had seen around the West Country between 1963 and 1978.
Robin Askew, who spent more than 40 years writing about film and music in Bristol, has uncovered the best anecdotes of gigs by the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Queen, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Led Zepp3eling, Jimi Hendrix...and yes, many many more!
As Tim Davey, who reviewed Deep Purple for the Evening Post, recently wrote to the author: “I am writing to say how very grateful I am to you and your marvellous book for reminding me precisely where I was on the night of February 13, 1971.
“It must have been James Belsey’s night off (or he didn’t fancy it!). I often deputised for him but, because my girlfriend (now wife) Sue, and myself were up for reviewing and the Western Daily Press had no one much interested in rock/pop culture I wrote loads of reviews for them and they were quite often uncredited as my name appeared daily in their sister paper. That was me reviewing Bowie at the Hall for them in ’73, for example.
Back in the Sixties when I was a country dwelling Mod and teenage cub reporter in rural Gloucestershire I saw Otis, Stevie Wonder, Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles and many, many, great American soul and Motown artists on stage in Bristol and at the legendary Blue Moon Club in Cheltenham High Street where the backing band Bluesology was led by a certain Reg Dwight and the backing singers were R.Stewart, L.J. Baldry and Ms J Driscoll. Quite a line-up. I saw Jimi Hendrix there, too, when Hey Joe had just entered the charts.
Anyway, sorry to bore the hell out of you, but it’s the least you can expect for writing such wonderful memory-provoking stuff.”
Happy Birthday Steve
Former Bristol City player Steve Stacey celebrated his 80th birthday this week. His remarkable story is told in The Colour of Football (£12)
The son of a GI from Kemper County, Mississippi, the killing fields of black America and a woman from Bristol, he was given the middle name Darrow, after a black rights advocate.
His 40-year ancestry search underpins his rise through the football leagues. It’s all here, the dressing room banter, the famous names, the injuries as Steve plied his trade with Bristol City, Wrexham, Ipswich, and Exeter then breaking more boundaries as one of the first black footballers in Australia playing for Floreat Athena in Perth.
Steve Stacey rose from kicking a ball in the gaslit streets of post-war Bristol to running out in the topflight of English football. Often the only black face in the team he was the first African-American to grace the professional English game.
August Highlights
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this month
News, events and new titles from Bristol Books this August
Read a Bristol book this summer
It’s time to settle down on the beach or sun lounger to enjoy a well-earned break and make sure that alongside the Factor 50 and the sunglasses you have that essential accessory – a good book!
This year, instead of a murder mystery that is soon forgotten, why not pick up a book that gives you a fascinating insight into Bristol life.
Check out our website where you will find biographies of people with links to Bristol including musicians Adge Cutler and Fred Wedlock, scientific miracle Louise Brown, charity runner John Reynolds and footballer Steve Stacey.
There is an 18th Century dramatised true story of European royalty living in a haystack near Bristol; there are fascinating tales of early medical treatment in Bristol; rock gigs in the 1970s and tales of slavers and quakers.
Footage Rediscovered - Bristol Archives & the home movie movement
Sat 27 July 11:10am (ends 12:55pm), Watershed, Cinema 3
Bristol Books director Clive Burlton, who has researched many of our books, discovered a reel of film held at the British Film Institute in Southbank, London, revealing footage of Bristol from 110 years ago, that touched on his own family.
On Saturday he will be taking part in an event at Bristol’s Watershed Cinema “Footage Rediscovered - Bristol archives and the home movie movement” as part of the Bristol UNESCO City of Film Connections series.
Bristol has a rich vein of home movie and amateur film; some of it held in the Bristol Archives. This event explores how amateur film has been used to celebrate the city over the last 100 years, starting with a showing of David Parker’s archive documentary Bristol 650 in 65 minutes (2023).
Bristol’s best guided walk and cycle route
You can download a map of the most exciting walk and cycle route around Bristol through our website.
The book From Brycgstow to Bristol in 45 Bridges has inspired thousands of people to get out and about and find Bristol’s hidden corners.
Each one of Bristol’s bridges has a fascinating story which is woven intimately into the 1,000-year history of the city. Why was it built? What was involved in its design, engineering and construction? What dramatic events sometimes swirled around and perhaps on it? In this book Jeff Lucas tells the story of each of the 45 bridges which span the main waterways of Bristol between Avonmouth and St Anne’s, and which can be crossed on foot.
But more than that it provides a route for the cycle and walk. Many people have completed the walk and got a badge to mark their achievement. For mathematics fans there is also an intriguing challenge to learn about. It is no wonder this is now a best seller.