Hungerford Bookshop

by Jeremy Clark
£12.99

Author’s formative years: Resigned from job as refuse collector, returned library books, sold house, went to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Came back altered. Conscious decision to join bourgeoisie. Reviewed book by the late, great Dr Brian Plummer on ferret husbandry for University College London student magazine. Taken on by legendary editor Dr Karl Miller as his latest ‘great white hope’. Book deal. Fifty grand advance. Spent advance. Failed to write book. What Jeremy did next: Became author of Low Life columns in the Spectator. Encouraged by small publisher to rehash old columns in book form

by Michael Holroyd
£8.99

Masterfully atmospheric treasure-trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements and family mysteries. Acclaimed biographer Michael Holroyd peers into dusty corners to bring a company of unknown women into the light: Alice Keppel was the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe and the Prince of Wales; Eve Fairfax was Lord Grimthorpe’s abandoned fiancee and sometime muse of Auguste Rodin; and, the novelist Violet Trefusis was the lover of Vita Sackville-West.

by The Countess of Carnarvon
£19.99

Lady Fiona Carnarvon, the chatelaine of Highclere Castle, near Newbury and the setting of the hit series Downton Abbey, has become fascinated by the rich history of Highclere, and by the extraordinary people who lived there over the centuries, in particular, Lady Almina who oversaw 80 members of staff during the turbulent time of the First World War.

by Anthony Sattin
£8.99

In this beguiling book, Anthony Sattin takes a key moment in the lives of two extraordinary figures Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert on the brink of international fame, and provides a fascinating insight into the early days of travel to one of the greatest tourist destinations on the planet.

by Caroline Moorehead
£20

On an icy dawn morning in Paris in January 1943, a group of 230 French women resisters were rounded up from the Gestapo detention camps and sent on a train to Auschwitz. They supported and cared for one another, worked together, and faced the horror together. Friendship, almost as much as luck, dictated their survival. Forty-nine of them came home. A portrait of bravery and endurance.

by E.H. Gombrich
£25

E.H. Gombrich’s ‘Little History of the World’, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. Blending high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this is both a sumptuous gift book and an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history.

by Duncan Campbell-Smith
£30

The origins of the Royal Mail go back to the early years of the Tudor monarchy: Brian Tuke, a former King’s Bailiff in Sandwich, was acknowledged as the first ‘Master of the Posts’ by Cardinal Wolsey in 1512, and went on to build up a network of ‘postmasters’ across England. Over the following 500 years the Royal Mail expanded to an unimaginable degree to become the largest employer in the country. But it also faced the demands of an increasingly commercial marketplace. Will its employees remain, like Brian Tuke’s postmasters, servants of the Crown?

£16.99

Colonel Rodney Foster, who retired to Hythe in the south of England after a military career in British India, joined the Home Guard in 1940 and kept a diary every day – a highly illegal act at the time – and in it meticulously chronicled his service in the real Dad’s Army.

by General Jack Seely
£14.99

Told by Chrurchill’s great friend, this book (first published in 1934) tells the story of his thoroughbred horse he took to France in 1914 surviving five years of bombs and bullets to lead a cavalry charge in 1918 before returning home where they rode on together until 1938, their combined ages totalling 100. Introduced by Jack Seely’s grandson, Brough Scott with original illustrations by equine and war artist Sir Alfred Munnings which he drew especially for Jack Seely.

by Caroline Bugler
£29.95

This sumptuously illustrated book examines the relationship between cats and humans from ancient times to the present, offering fascinating insights into the prominence of the cat in art in cultures worldwide. Thematic chapters explore in detail a rich and rewarding collection of paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures, creating a book that will have enduring appeal among art lovers and cat lovers alike.

This publisher also publishes ‘The Dog: 5000 Years of the Dog in Art’ and ‘The Horse: 30,00 years of the Horse in Art’ which we can order in for you.