Enjoyed The Forsytes on the telly last year? This is 1960s copy of the book but bound in leather with all the trimmings by the prestigious Bayntun bindery in Bath.

As you know I am always here for the gilt

I see a fresh coat of paint in the shop's future...

Had enough chocolates recently? This is the original artwork for a 1lb box of chocs.

Had enough chocolates recently? This is the original artwork for a 1lb box of chocs.

Nominative Determinism strikes again!

Here's a nice little oddity. It's a zinc printing block in Art Nouveau style for the publisher Longmans, Green and Co. from 1902. (Last picture reversed)

Just a quick note to wish you all a Happy Christmas and an an extraordinarily good New Year. We are so very grateful to you all for your continued support of the shop. Don't go anywhere... we'll be back after the break

96 tartans in colour!

The screenplay of Emma Thompson's movie of 'Sense and Sensibility' signed by her and with the premiere ticket inside too.

Someone practicing their typing chooses a passage from Brideshead...

An unexciting outside on this 'book' hides over 100 samples of crochet lace probably from the early 20th century.

I wouldn't normally trouble y'all with a "prize binding" of The Complete Works of Shakespeare but I like this one for a couple of reasons. First, Midhurst Grammar School is local to us and second, how cool to get a prize simply for "common sense".

Sometimes I depair of myself. Why have I just bought a bundle of manuscript pages that I can't possibly hope to read!!

Anyone's bookclub want to read a modern classic? We find ourselves with an embarrasdment of Atonement.

From 1912, a collection of "Folk Tales of Bengal" by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with jewel like illustrations by Warwick Goble.

So this morning we arrived to find this little ball of fur asleep on a pile of boxes on our forecourt. Small, cold, very skinny and hungry. Of course we will do all the vet things & see if theres a chip but if anyone locally knows of a missing black cat we would be glad to hear

"Unlucky Plants. A Folklore Survey" by Roy Vickery... but someone has inserted pressed samples. There's so many you have to wonder if this thing might be cursed!

I can't get over this little Bible and Book of Common Prayer combo. Nearly 200 years old and look like they were made yesterday. Astonishing intricate decoration on the leather bindings and they sit together in a black leather case. Just beautiful.

A copy of "The Idylls of the King" by Tennyson from 1868. It took Tennyson about 40 years to settle on a 'final version', this edition is about half-way through that process. Bound in stunning green leather with gilt stamped decoration.

It's that time of the year again! Gathering some books to put in the window!

Books don't have to be leather bound and centuries old to be scarce and interestimg. This is a wartime paperback encouraging people to grow their own food as much as possible. The book itself was manufactured under restrictive wartime standards meaning this is an unusual survival

"Dickens's Dictionary of The Thames" from 1880. The Dickens in question is Charles Jr., son of the famous author. The best thing about this though is surely the advertising.

With deep sadness The Westwood family announces the death of Mrs Ann Westwood, senior partner of The Petersfield Bookshop. She passed away peacefully on 23rd November 2025. The Funeral will be at 3.30pm on 15th December, at Chichester Crematorium.

James Shirley Hibberd wrote books on a huge variety of gardening themes and we are busy cataloging a small group of them of which this is one, "The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory" from 1873. They knew how to produce a book back then!

Any Scots in your life in need of a pressie they will treasure? The Poetical Works of Robert Burns in 3 volumes bound in full red leather and published in 1839... I mean!

In 1927 the first collected edition of The Flower Faries by Cicely Mary Barker was published. It contains fairies of the spring, summer and autumn.

This is a real rarity. "The Tourmaline" a book about just one crystal, its natural history and properties. Published in Boston it is particularly concerned with tourmaline from Maine. A slim volume but very scarce.

This is a gorgeous little book. Undated but probably about 1880 it gives practical instructions on pattern and lettering in churches with the author given as just "A Practical Illustrator".

Fans of the mad genius of Antonin Artaud should be beating a path to our door about now!

For 80 years this spectacular work of "active imagination" by Carl Jung was locked away in a Swiss bank by his estate, fearful that the contents were so 'out there' that his reputation might not survive publication. But in 2009 this huge & beautiful facsimile was finally issued.

What in the name of the Infernal Library of the Goblin King is that!!??

Let's start today with a rarity. Yes, the book itself is rare for sure, The Douay New Testament (wiki link below). But there is some historic damage to some of the pages and the repair is something I have only heard about, never seen: they have been STITCHED back together!

Two stunning bespoke gift bindings by Bumpus of Oxford to "My Lambkin" (whose full name is tooled in gilt inside). "The Princess and the Goblin" by George MacDonald, and "Puck of Pook's Hill" by Kipling.

Last night we had an event in the shop. The lights were low, the cabinet was looking sparkly. I couldn't resist a bit of a scan along the shelves.

The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory from 1873 by prolific Victorian gardening writer Shirley Hibberd. This is the scarce first edition, pretty to behold from the outside and with fold-out colour plates on the inside.

E. A. Wallis Budge, one of the great Egyptoligists of the British Museum (with all the sensitivities that involves), but a great scholar able to produce whole volumes of translations from multiple dead languages.

A lovely early edition of "At The Back of the North Wind" by George MacDonald but this one a little bit special. It was given on her 9th birthday to Eleanor Farjeon who grew up to be a poet and childrens author, best known today for the words of "Morning has Broken".

Persian Tales from 1919, translated by two Lorimers and illustratated in both b/w & colour by Hilda Roberts. A desirable book in any form but this one has been bound in full navy blue leather with ornate gilt decoration, marbled endpapers and page edges. Quite the school prize.

What a stunner. "Familiar Garden Flowers" by Shirley Hibberd and illustrated with 160 full colour plates by F. E. Hulme. A common book but not in this extraordinary binding issued about 1880 with hand-painted flowers on the inset gold panels in the binding. Just... wow!

A stunning green leather binding on this copy of The Oxford Book of French Verse from 1908. Leather on the inside of the boards a real sign of quality. Full gilt edges on the pages and inscribed by the editor as well. Has an amazing feel in the hand, tactile like a prayer book.

Nearly 1200 pages of The Lord of the Rings. All of it. In one volume. That's the beauty of india paper, sometimes called Bible paper. This is a really excellent copy of the Deluxe Edition of LOTR from 1985, complete with its two part box.

Not the first printing of this cycle of controversial radio plays by Dorothy L. Sayers but nicely signed by her. The Protestant Truth Society got very agitated about these broadcasts and "obligingly did all our publicity for us at considerable expense to themselves"

This is a really interesting copy of Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy from 1903, in which lots of the blank pages have been covered with articles about Hardy, in particular about the burial of his heart.

Of course when we think of war poetry we think of Owen & Sassoon and their bitter & pungent poetry of WW1, but it is a much broader field than that. Here is "Some Volunteer Verse" from 1905 from The Inns of Court Rifles: lawyers with guns!

Are you catering for the equivalent of a country house over Christmas? This is the book you need. From 1813 John Simpson's "System of Cookery", the 3rd ed "with the addition of pickling etc." A bill of fare for every day of the year. Beautiful modern binding by the Abrams Bindery

Show me a bit of red leather and I'm anybody's!

A Dictionary of the English Language By Samuel Johnson This is the 5th edition from 1784 of what some would call THE Dictionary of the English Language... and it is an absolute unit.

The Twitter Fairy has returned from hols... as is customary you get one post of holiday pics and then it's back to the books!

Can we just get this straight please... a "full-cast audiobook" is not an audiobook at all, it's a radio drama. Don't at me!