News
Romancing the Rails
As publishers of a new book on railroads, we were delighted to hear of a sparkling new exhibition celebrating the golden age of US rail travel. Romancing the Rails tells how the New York Central confronted competition from automobiles with visually stunning advertising, luxurious dining cars and sleek streamlined trains.
From The Bookshelf
Gary Shapiro hosts the radio show From the Bookshelf, broadcast from the KSCO station in Santa Cruz. He has just interviewed Ian Logan and Jonathan Glancey about Logomotive, their new book on railroad logos and locomotive design. The podcast is up. Board now for a trip back in time.
Wall Street Journal Review
Last Saturday the Wall Street Journal Review ran a piece on railways and design and how the two intertwine in our book Logomotive. ‘The design of the locomotives themselves may have left the deepest impression,’ writes Peter Saenger, ‘especially the sleek, art deco-influenced “streamliners”.’
Red Carpet at Grand Central
They rolled out a red carpet at Grand Central when you boarded the overnight train to Chicago. Those were the days, says Jonathan Glancey, when rail travel was romantic. Hear this and other stories from the last days of steam by watching his Father’s Day interview, now available on YouTube.
America Comes to Stafford
America comes to Stafford this weekend. Where Andrew Carnegie once poured in his steel fortune, Ian Logan and Jonathan Glancey open their great big American train show. Sound far-fetched? It’s not.
You Can Do It, America!
In a rousing talk given recently in Madison, Wisconsin, Ian Logan and Jonathan Glancey recalled the triumphs of American railroad engineering and design in the 1930s. American railroads absolutely had it all, they told their audience. ‘We hope they’ll do it again in the future. Come on, you can do it, America!’
Talking Trains This Weekend
Ian Logan and Jonathan Glancey are talking trains this weekend. They are putting on a double act in Madison, Wisconsin, telling the story behind their new book Logomotive. What took them to Grand Central Terminal or the West 60th Street freight yard? What foot plates did they ride?
Publication in the US
Logomotive is being shipped across the Atlantic. Publication in the US will be on 21st April. Readers in the US can pre-order Logomotive and receive their copies from our US warehouse in April or they can order from the UK and have their books flown across the Atlantic now. A pre-publication offer is open.
A Big Moment
It’s always a big moment when the printed proofs of a book arrive. You open the box, smell the fresh ink and see for the first time how your book looks. If this is exciting for a publisher, it is even more so for an author.
Our Ship Has Come in
Somewhere among the 700-odd containers on board the Y. M. Wellness, owned by the Yang Ming corporation, was our consignment of Logomotive. We are glad to report that our ship has come in. It is now moored in Southampton and our books have been unloaded.
For the Love of Logos
The designer Ian Logan fell in love with railroad logos on his first trip to America in 1968. The design critic Jonathan Glancey and the architect Norman Foster love logos, too, and all that goes with them including loco design, station design, colour, graphics and lifestyle. For the love of logos, they have written Logomotive.
Design Interests of Norman Foster
Say Norman Foster and most people think architect. Prompted to name his buildings, they might mention the Gherkin, Apple Park or the Hearst Tower. How many know that the design interests of Norman Foster run to cars, planes and trains? Meet Norman Foster the one-time loco spotter, classic car collector, lover of period Americana and […]
The Enthusiasm of Jonathan Glancey
Here’s someone who bursts on to your screen, words tumbling out of his mouth. Enthusiasm is his trademark. Meet Jonathan Glancey, co-author of our autumn double-header Logomotive. Leaping on to the footplate with his fellow logo spotter Ian Logan, he transports you back to the mid-century heyday of American style.
The Secret Romance of Ian Logan
Meet Ian Logan, designer to the stars and author of our forthcoming book Logomotive. Here he is beside a set of railway signs he designed in the 1970s. Perhaps best known for his tin trays and themed tin boxes, he was blown away by the graphics he saw painted on the side of American trains. […]
Time to Read
Now’s the time to read, but can you get hold of a book? Most of the book trade is shut and Amazon is prioritizing non-book products. Believe it or not, we are operating normally! Our warehouse has found a way of processing orders safely, with customer care teams working from home. So may we suggest […]
Raise Your Glass
It’s time to pull the cracker and read the joke. Please raise your glass for your own, your Very Own Mr Nick Thomas. He has won our Christmas Cracker Competition with a cup of good cheer. Just what we needed to lighten the mood.
Digital Angst
We’ve been suffering a bout of digital angst. If you attempted to join our membership scheme in the past couple of weeks, you may have been held up by a digital roadblock. We apologize for this. As soon as we discovered the incident, we called in the engineers and they’ve fixed it. If you’d like […]
Winter Joys
When the days are drawing in, it’s easier to feel winter blues than winter joys, but we can change all that. Give your friends a copy of Very Heath Robinson, send out Heath Robinson Christmas Cards and you’ll banish all woes. We will help you make it happen.
Wild Not To Say Shattering
Congratulations to Neville Denson from St Bees in Cumbria, who has won the Wildest Travel Story Competition with his account of a wild, not to say shattering experience in the USA. He receives a copy of Tim Jepson’s Wild Italy: A Traveller’s Guide.
Liven Up Your Coffee Break
In the imaginative world of Heath Robinson you can pour a cup of coffee with your eyes closed. Just pull on a cord and the Super-De-Luxe Coffee Maker does it all for you. What could be easier? This and other inventive ideas will liven up your coffee break when you use the set of six […]
A Festival By The Quay
Adam Hart-Davis, author of Very Heath Robinson, will be speaking at Exeter’s second Literary Festival at 3.30 p.m. this Sunday, 10th November. You will find him at the magnificent 17th-century Custom House by the quay, where Adam will take you on a journey through the Weird and Wacky World of Heath Robinson.
Think of a Cracking Joke
To celebrate our 40th Christmas, we are holding our biggest competition yet. We would like you to think of an original joke to go inside a Christmas cracker – something so dry and witty that it would have impressed Heath Robinson himself. The winner gets a limited-edition book worth £300.
Your Wildest Travel Story
Continuing our 40th anniversary celebrations, this month we want to hear your wildest travel story. Funny, exciting, romantic, we’re all ears. Win this competition and we’ll give you a copy of Wild Italy: A Traveller’s Guide by the intrepid hiker Tim Jepson.
The Man Who Had Everything But
After sifting through a whopping 114 entries, the judges of our Summer Caption Competition have chosen their favourite rib tickler. It’s a whimsical take on the male condition.
We Celebrate 40 Years of Publishing
We have matured! From the figment of an idea tossed about while walking the dog on Clapham Common, we have become a publishing house with finished books on the shelves, each with its sales history around the world, each with Herculean labours, and a few jaw-dropping moments, behind it. To celebrate 40 years of publishing, […]
Pullman Wins J. M. Barrie Award
Sir Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, will receive the J. M. Barrie Award to mark a lifetime’s contribution to children’s literature, it has been announced. We salute him for delighting children and adults with alternative worlds and fictional characters. Less well known, though no less masterfully expressed, is the delight he himself takes […]
Words by the Water
What better place to hold a literary festival than the Lake District, with its magical scenery and literary associations? This month nearly 100 writers, broadcasters and other national figures will arrive in Keswick for Words by the Water, a ten-day event held on the sylvan shores of Derwentwater. The Theatre by the Lake, where they […]
Publishing Traineeships
Are you looking for a way into publishing? Our publishing traineeships introduce recent graduates to every aspect of the industry. We give you the opportunity to work in the editorial, sales and marketing, production and foreign rights departments. We are recruiting now.
Gem in the English Countryside
A small town in the English countryside with a population of 6,000 does not immediately conjure up images of metropolitan buzz, but on closer inspection the historic market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire proves to be a real gem in the cultural life of the country, not least because of the Oundle Festival of Literature. […]
Entertain Your Friends at Christmas
Do you need a bit of help going uphill? Ideas for presents this Christmas? Take a few tips from the master contraptioneer Heath Robinson, who has a solution to every problem.
Sheldrake Membership Scheme for Readers
We invite you, our readers, to join our new membership scheme. We publish books not because we want to make money, though obviously we must, but because we’re excited and enthralled by the idea of creating something new and shining light on subjects that may have been overlooked or under-appreciated. As a Sheldrake Member you […]
Yeovil’s Literary Scene
If you had to name places with literary associations, you might say Haworth, Stratford, the Lakes and Knole, but hardly Yeovil. If anything, the town is known for making gloves, helicopters and Yeo Valley yoghurt. But at the end of October a thriving literary festival takes over the Georgian Manor Hotel, built of local Ham […]
Literature and Landscape in Shute
Chances are the name Shute will not ring a bell, but the Shute Festival of Literature and Landscape is here to change that. Offering a diverse range of talks on writing, film-making, exploration and landscape, the festival will whisk you away to East Devon for a weekend retreat in late September.
Festival on the River
Say Henley and you think rowers, blazers, boaters, marquees and boat houses, Leander Club and Enclosures. But alongside the 179-year-old Henley Royal Regatta there is a stripling challenger, now in its twelfth year, the Henley Literary Festival.
Writers and Readers Gather in Devon
Discussions in the garden, talks in the Great Hall, the Barn and the Dukes Room, word schools, poetry breakfasts, story-telling, comedy events, theatrical performances: words and ideas in all their forms and combinations are on offer at Ways With Words, the literary festival that’s held this July in the idyllic setting of Dartington Hall.
Taking Flight in Penzance
Let your imagination take flight this summer by going to the Penzance Literary Festival. Between 4th and 7th July writers will be talking about their latest books, focussing on flights literal and metaphorical, in the friendly setting of this fishing port and holiday resort on the Cornish coast.
Man Humour for Father’s Day
How do you seduce a most attractive ‘beaut’ in a one-piece bathing suit? And how do you lure a mermaid on to the beach at Margate? For the answers, take up our two-for-one Father’s Day offer and follow the page references.
Heath Robinson’s Birthday
On 31st May 1872 William Heath Robinson was born in Hornsey Rise, north London. Over the next 72 years he made a huge name for himself as a humorous illustrator. He was as well known as Picasso. Going one better, he got his name in the English dictionary as both a noun and an adjective. […]
Competition Winner Announced
Thank you to everyone who entered the Heath Robinson Caption Competition, organized with Gullivers Bookshop and the Wimborne Literary Festival. And congratulations to Nerys Hucker who was declared the winner by the panel of judges led by Adam Hart-Davis, seen above signing copies of his Heath Robinson book. The challenge was to caption a family […]
Caption This!
Heath Robinson’s Weekend All-Weather Tandem makes family excursions possible. Equipped with a horn, twin umbrellas and anti-lock braking system, it can cope with every eventuality. We’re running a competition to caption this picture. Send us your best idea for a chance to win a Very Heath Robinson De Luxe Edition.
Au Revoir Douglas Botting
We are very sad to announce that Douglas Botting has died at the age of 83. Author of Wild Britain: A Traveller’s Guide and General Editor of the Wild Guides series, he is a towering figure in the literature of wild places. To him we owe an eternal debt for capturing in beautifully chosen words […]
Boxed Up
Nested head to toe in this box are De Luxe wooden cases ingeniously designed to preserve the limited edition of Very Heath Robinson. Folded over the waiting hardback books and tied Heath Robinson-style with knotted string, they become rare woodbacks. The first 20, batch produced and finished by hand, go on sale today.
Here’s a Festive Thought!
Need a bit of light relief at Christmas? Our pack of eight Heath Robinson cards will waft you away on a magic carpet of absurdity.
Beer and Books in Taunton
At the back of an old brewery in Taunton’s historic Bath Place lies Brendon Books, an independent bookseller that specializes in maps and travel. Every November the bookshop hosts the Taunton Literary Festival, now in its seventh year. Literary festivals like this are a sign of the new energy in the world of independent bookselling.
Very West Country Event
The picturesque town of Looe, on the South Cornwall coast, is having a very West Country event this week. Local writers, historians, naturalists, photographers, even fishermen, are gathering at the annual Looe Literary Festival to speak on their latest books, tell tales of historic smuggling, exhibit photographs of the beautiful Cornish landscape and journey into […]
Truth and Beauty in Architecture
The Minister of State for Transport has spoken powerfully about the importance of beauty in architecture. Addressing the Advisory Panel of the Railway Heritage Trust on Monday, the Right Honourable John Hayes MP said that most of what we had built since the war should be demolished. A stunned silence descended.
National Bookshop Day 2017
Publishers, booksellers and authors today celebrate the UK and Ireland’s second national Bookshop Day. To mark the occasion, we announce a series of bookshop interviews that we will publish over the next three months as the days draw in and you long for a good book to read by the fire.
A Lovely Way to Say Hello
More babies are born in late September and early October in England and Wales than at any other time of the year: nearly 2,000 a day. If you need a gift to greet one of these new arrivals, we’re offering a book and card with illustrations by well-known artists.
Art Cards Now Available
You can now buy six unusual greetings cards drawn by the satirical artist William Heath Robinson, famous for his funny contraptions and ingenious solutions to common problems. We are making them available exclusively through our website. They are not in the shops.
From the Smoking Room
Congratulations to Chris Schüler, senior editor of some major Sheldrake Press books, who has published a highly readable history of the Authors’ Club. You can now watch a video of him talking about it in the Smoking Room of the National Liberal Club in London.
Bright Ideas
Sheldrake Press are looking for a volunteer graduate with bright ideas to tweet, post and generally promote our major new title Very Heath Robinson.
What the Papers Say
Book of the Month. Coffee Table Choice. Brilliantly executed. A delightful visual feast. Marvel of bookmaking. Hilarious! These are some of the things people are saying about Very Heath Robinson.
Now You Can Mow in Comfort
You can also dance with robots, date by slot machine and boil an egg straight from the chicken, thanks to Heath Robinson. Helpful devices to do all these things are now on view in the big new book we publish today, Very Heath Robinson. The author is Adam Hart-Davis, presenter of What the Romans Did […]
Philip Pullman Writes on Heath Robinson
Philip Pullman has written the Foreword to Adam Hart-Davis’s new book Very Heath Robinson, celebrating the work of one of Great Britain’s best-loved artists.
Text, Pix, Action!
Adam Hart-Davis has delivered the text for our spring book Very Heath Robinson, the pictures have been laid out and the colour proofs approved. In a few days we’ll be ready for press.
Contraption Cuts the Ribbon
The Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen used a Heath Robinson contraption to cut the ribbon when he opened the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner.
A Very Heath Robinson Birthday
On 31st May 2016 Heath Robinson would have been 144. Artist, humorist and Contraptioneer Extraordinary, he satirized the technical advances and social pretensions of three generations, from the 1890s to the 1940s. To celebrate a birthday blow-out, we are proud to announce that the well-known television presenter and author Adam Hart-Davis will write a new […]
Ablutionary Mystery
We are running a mini-quiz in The Oldie magazine. What is the etymology of ‘crap’, we wanted to know. Curiously, the answer is to be found in The Victorian House Book.
Home for Heath Robinson
We would like to congratulate The William Heath Robinson Trust on passing their fund-raising target of £32,500 on Kickstarter.
The Wonderful World of Heath Robinson
We support The William Heath Robinson Trust in their plan to build a Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner, north London. Their fund-raising campaign on Kickstarter is 93 per cent funded. They need help to get to 100%.