Julian Roberts Fine Books, Grantham (2026)

31/10/2025

From country houses to space adventures we have books about the whole universe here at Chelsea Book Fair.

24/12/2024

Superb production of at The Theatre by the Lake, Keswick of one of the key titles from the golden age of literature.

10/11/2024

“The Man Who Never Was” is a 1953 book by Ewen Montagu about the World War II

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception operation of the Second World War to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. Two members of British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael, a tramp who died from eating rat poison, dressed him as an officer of the Royal Marines and placed personal items on him identifying him as the fictitious Captain (Acting Major) William Martin.

02/11/2024

Yesterday I was asked about this mural entitled “Literature” which bookstand overlooks at .

Research reveals that having won a competition in 1912, Mary Sargant-Florence (an ardent Suffragette) decorated in tempera the “Literature” panel along with 3 others in George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, & Thomas Carlyle appear in “Literature”. Women are prominent in all the panels. The murals proved controversial and objections were particularly raised to the inclusion of Oscar Wilde. One councillor called it ‘an exhibition of criminals’.

01/11/2024

Welcome to
1st & 2nd November, 2024

27/04/2024

DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL LADY was written by EM Delafield and published in 1930. The Journalist kathrynhughes describes it as “one of the funniest, smartest and most lovable books I have ever read.”

Diary of a Provincial Lady is Delafield’s defining title and a classic of domestic literature - critics on both sides of the Atlantic greeted it with great enthusiasm.

It initially appeared in weekly instalments in Time and Tide - the feminist weekly. The diary is the (largely autobiographical) chronicle of the disaster prone “day to day” life of a wife and mother living a frugal life in the Devonshire country - “above all it is fun”. In 1931 the New York Herald called it “a delicious book - a triumph of art and wit”

13/02/2024

🐉 CHINESE NEW YEAR is upon us and the celebrations started on Saturday, February 10 to welcome in the Year of the Dragon.
We thought this would be a good excuse to feature Smaug from the cover of a catalogue of Tolkien’s drawings.

🐉 This is the First (and only) edition of the catalogue of the 1976 exhibition of Tolkien’s drawings for the Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Father Christmas Letters (14th-27th February 1976-1977) exhibited at The Ashmolean Museum. The cover is adorned by Smaug who is the antithesis to the Chinese Dragon.

Smaug is shown to be, cunning, violent, cruel, arrogant, and greedy, possessing an unquenchable desire for gold. His most distinguishing characteristic (aside from his greed) is his arrogance, as Smaug proudly boasts of his superiority and impregnability to Bilbo during their encounter in The Hobbit.

🐉 The Chinese dragon in comparison, is considered a celestial and divine creature, with the ability to control natural elements such as wind and water. The personality traits of people born in the year of the dragon are charismatic, intelligent, confident, powerful, and they are naturally lucky and gifted. In everything that they do, they tend to do it to the best of their ability with high standards. If you were born in 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 2024 then you are graced with these attributes!

26/01/2024

♥️ This is the Fourth Printing and First Edition of the “Reissue” of Ian Fleming’s first novel, CASINO ROYALE featuring the first appearance of the Pat Marriott “playing card” dustwrapper. This important edition was published on 29th November 1957 and consisted of only 3,021 copies. This copy has the price intact which is rare (13s.6d.net)

♠️ Pat Marriott was an established book illustrator and was married to Michael Howard who, at that time was Ian Fleming’s literary advisor and a director of Jonathan Cape publishers. As an illustrator, Marriot was respected for her skill in capturing a suggestive and evocative moment in time with the minimum of brushwork, and in the year prior to this edition she had illustrated the dustwrapper for Diamonds Are Forever.

🃏And now for some card trivia …

♣️ An interesting theory on why there are 52 cards in a deck is that the number of cards corresponds to the number of weeks within a year.

♥️ Some say that the two colors — red and black — reflect day and night, and that the four suits represent the four seasons.

♠️ It gets even freakier when you notice that there are 13 cards in a suit to match the number of lunar cycles, and 12 court cards that represent the 12 months of the year.

♦️ And, if you add up all the symbols in a deck of cards, there are 365…

#007

19/05/2023

📚Whilst JULIAN ROBERTS FINE BOOKS is exhibiting at FIRSTS Book Fair at the Saatchi Gallery, London, the Staff Dog has been left in charge. Here she is with a first edition copy of The House at Pooh Corner in its dustwrapper, published in 1928.

🦘It is one of her favourite titles as she is named after the smallest & youngest character in the book.

🧸Like most of the Winnie the Pooh characters, Roo is based on a stuffed toy animal that belonged to A. A. Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne. Sadly for Roo, he was lost in the 1930s in an apple orchard somewhere in Sussex. Luckily Roo the staff dog, isn’t stuffed and hasn’t been lost! She is also not a 'Joey' but a miniature Jack Russell Terrier.

🌿Unlike many of the other characters in the Pooh books, Roo doesn’t have a known favourite food, although his mother makes him watercress sandwiches on occasions. This is where the similarities end because Roo the Staff Dog likes ANY food – in fact she’s more like Fantastic Mr Fox than the Winnie the Pooh character!

🍺According to Wikipedia, a tongue-in-cheek psychological study of Roo [the character, not the dog] was published in the year 2000, by pediatricians University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the Canadian Medical Association Journal's end of year issue. This Canadian team was following the trend of analyzing famous art works, to point out that even wonderful people can have disorders. reported as follows about the Canadian study:

The researchers said they are especially worried about baby Roo, who is growing up in a single-parent household and whose closest friend, Tigger, is not a good role model. "We predict we will someday see a delinquent, jaded, adolescent Roo hanging out late at night at the top of the forest, the ground littered with broken bottles of extract of malt and the butts of smoked thistle," the article said.

15/05/2023

First E. H. Shepard illustrated edition of Wind in The Willows written by Kenneth Grahame and published in 1931 by Methuen.

🐭 The novel was based on bedtime stories Grahame told his son Alastair whom he nicknamed "Mouse". It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and gets into trouble.

🎨 "I love these little people; be kind to them,” was the single instruction author Kenneth Grahame gave to Ernest Shepard when Shepard agreed, with some misgivings, to illustrate this edition of The Wind in the Willows.

🐸 Shepard was impressed by Grahame’s deep attachment to his fictional creatures. Since the book’s first publication, countless thousands of readers have felt the same affection for these walking, talking anthropomorphised British wild animals.

📖 Ironically the word “willows” never appears in the book. Kenneth Grahame’s original suggestion for the title of the book was "Mr. Mole and his Mates" but the final title appears to have been decided by the publisher.

🌳 The story of Wind in the Willows takes place throughout the seasons, and Kenneth Grahame's deep love of nature is easily understood through his detailed setting descriptions set in pastoral England.

🌺 Although Kenneth Grahame also never mentioned orchids, the book we show here is surrounded by Early Purple Orchids which are found in ancient woodland, grassland, hedgerows and road verges across the UK. I hope that Mr Mole and his Mates would approve!

05/05/2023

💍 The first edition, first printing of THE RETURN OF THE KING by J.R.R. Tolkien published in 1955. This is the 3rd in The Lord of The Rings trilogy and the perfect title to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III on 6th May, 2023.

King Charles III and Tolkien are due to share a special £2 coin in 2023. It features Tolkien’s iconic monogram on its centre and King Charles’s likeness on the other side.

In this image is a portrait of the first King Charles. Our current day King has worn a signet ring for many years and during the coronation ceremony, it will be joined by the coronation ring which will be placed on the fourth finger by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is a symbol of ‘kingly dignity’.

“One ring to rule them all ……..”!

💐 Along with the wonderful jewels which will feature in the coronation, Westminster Abbey will be adorned with flowers. Amongst these will be humble spring flowers including rosemary, bay for virtue, bluebells and forget-me-nots for constancy of love.

01/05/2023

🦚 This is the famed 1894 illustrated edition of Pride and Prejudice, the so-called 'Peacock Edition', Illustrated by Hugh Thomson. It must surely be one of the most flamboyant cloth bindings ever produced? It’s decadence acts as a visual representation of the book's themes and mood, and hit on the perfect symbol for the issues of courtship, vanity, and the calculated display of wealth and beauty around which the drama revolves.

📖. It was published in 1894 and as well as the glorious illustrated binding, it features 160 illustrations throughout the book by Hugh Thomson who made his name in the 1880s illustrating Mrs Gaskell’s “Cranford”. He was to become one of the most popular and successful book illustrators of the Victorian era.

✍️When Jane Austen started working on the draft of Pride & Prejudice, she referred to it in a letter to her sister as "First Impressions", a title which makes sense given the many misjudgments of the book's characters. However, the draft was not published immediately and in 1811, Austen is thought to have heavily edited the draft before selling it to a publisher for £110. The final title of "Pride and Prejudice" is thought to be inspired by a chapter title from the 1782 novel "Cecilia" by another authoress named F***y Burney.

💷 Apparently Charlotte Bronte detested Jane Austen’s writing – accusing her predecessor’s lack of feeling. However, a big fan of Austen’s work was Charles Darwin. Ironically, Austen took Darwin’s place on the British £10 note in 2013.

Julian Roberts Fine Books

31/10/2025

24/12/2024

10/11/2024

02/11/2024

01/11/2024

27/04/2024

13/02/2024

26/01/2024

19/05/2023

15/05/2023

05/05/2023

01/05/2023

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category