160,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ 

Late Night Thursday! Our Hobsonville Bookstore is open until 9pm tonight! ✨

Here Be Dragons

By Stella Gibbons
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.58 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 271 ratings, 43 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
When nineteen-year-old Nell Sely leaves the dull confines of Dorset for the bustling, bohemian life of Hampstead, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Entangled with the charismatic John Gaunt and immersed in London's jazz clubs and espresso bars, Nell confronts the city's shifting morals and learns to navigate her newfound independence.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2699
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers who enjoy witty, character-driven general fiction with a strong female protagonist and a vivid portrayal of London's bohemian scene in the early 20th century.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

When Nell Sely moves from sleepy Dorset to Hampstead she leaves behind a childhood of dull teas and oppressive rules for the freedom of the big city. In this city of seductive, shifting morals, smoke-filled jazz-clubs and glamorous espresso bars, Nell must master her new found independence and learn to strike her own course.

'The atmosphere of the cheap cafes...is subtly caught. Packed tight with wit and understanding, it lights the London Scene' - Scotsman

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The atmosphere of the cheap cafes...is subtly caught. Packed tight with wit and understanding, it lights the London Scene - Scotsman

When Nell Sely moves from sleepy Dorset to Hampstead she leaves behind a childhood of dull teas and oppressive rules for the freedom of the big city. Naive and only nineteen, she becomes embroiled with the wayward John Gaunt and falls in with London's bohemian crowd.

In this city of seductive, shifting morals, smoke-filled jazz-clubs and glamorous espresso bars, Nell must master her new found independence and learn to strike her own course.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Scotsman praises the book for its subtle capture of cheap cafe atmospheres, describing it as 'packed tight with wit and understanding'. The Guardian highlights Gibbons's heroines as 'plucky, determined and quietly hedonistic', also noting her skill with melancholy and melodrama. The Independent notes Stella Gibbons as a rare writer who can make readers laugh. Lynne Truss calls Gibbons 'The Jane Austen of the 20th century', and the Sunday Herald simply states, 'Stella is stellar.'

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780099529361

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 04 August 2011

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 26.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 270g

Pages: 384

Collections

Best Sellers at Book Hero Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction New Release Fiction Penguin Books Stella Gibbons

About the Author

Stella Gibbons was born in London in 1902. She went to the North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College, London. She then worked for ten years on various papers, including the Evening Standard. Stella Gibbons is the author of twenty-five novels, three volumes of short stories, and four volumes of poetry. Her first publication was a book of poems, The Mountain Beast (1930) and her first novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932) won the Femina Vie Heuruse Prize for 1933. Among her works are Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm (1940) Westwood (1946), Conference at Cold Comfort Farm (1959) and Starlight (1967). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. In 1933 she married the actor and singer Allan Webb. They had one daughter. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.

Also by Stella Gibbons

View all
  • Cold Comfort Farm
    Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons' hilarious comic novel of rural life, is new to Penguin Modern Classics. When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders β€” cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness;...
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Cold Comfort Farm: Popular Penguins
    When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders, an eccentric group of relatives suffering from a wide variety of ailments. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense...
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $1699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Enbury Heath
    Enbury Heath is Gibbons' semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about three siblings living in a Hampstead Heath cottage. 'Don't show proper feelin', does it, not turnin' up for 'is dad's funeral?' Siblings Sophia, Harry, and Francis have lost both their parents in the last six months. Attending the funeral for their estranged father, they wonder what will become of them now that...
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm
    A Christmas treat from a treasured comic writer Indulge in a feel-good collection of stories from the author of Cold Comfort Farm. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH The title story tells of a typical Christmas at the farm before the coming of Flora Poste. It is a parody of the worst sort of family Christmasβ€”Adam Lambsbreath dresses up...
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Cold Comfort Farm
    A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas and one of the best-loved comic novels of all time. We are not like other folk, maybe, but there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm... Sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste has been expensively educated to do everything but earn a living. When she is orphaned at twenty, she decides her only...
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Charmers
    'Gibbons was an acute and witty observer, and her dissection of the British class system is spot-on' - Mail on Sunday Thrown out of her long-established office job, Miss Christine Smith takes up a new role as housekeeper for a group of middle-aged artists. Charmed by a previous mystical experience, her spirituality is nurtured further by the tenants, who seem...
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • My American
    Stella Gibbons's gift is very special – Daily Express As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime Amy, a neglected motherless child in 1920s London, meets Robert, a wealthy American boy. It's an encounter she will never forget. My American follows the lives and loves of Amy Lee and Robert Vorst – from a chance childhood meeting to the...
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Cold Comfort Farm
    Cold Comfort Farm
    By Stella Gibbons
    Paperback
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks

More from General Fiction

View all
  • Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE β€” Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE β€” Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE β€” Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS β€” Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale β€” Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    By Caro Claire Burke
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A Court of Splintered Harmony
    Romance, danger, and intrigue await you in the breathtaking sixth book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series.What was broken will be remade.Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he's been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories,...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Threshing Day
    The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing DayΒ contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-color illustrations by artist Joe Requeza.Β  Β  Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing and In the...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Hardback
    $6999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses Paperback Box Set (5 books)
    All five of the Court of Thorns and Roses paperbacks packaged together in a gorgeous box set. "Passionate, violent, sexy and daring." β€”USA TODAY on A Court of Thorns and Roses Feyre is a huntress. The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $9999
    Elsewhere:
    $12495
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Assassin’s Apprentice
    Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb marks the beginning of an extraordinary adventure in the rich and immersive world of the Six Duchies. Set against the backdrop of a kingdom teetering on the brink of civil war, this gripping tale introduces readers to FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard whose existence threatens the stability of the crown. When the crown prince's secret...
    By Robin Hobb
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Shirl's Pick Shirl's Pick
    The Things We Never Say
    Internationally bestselling and prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout's new novel tells the story of a chance incident in a man's lifeβ€”a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, and free will in a capsizing world. Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a...
    By Elizabeth Strout
    Hardback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Chain Reaction
    Jack Reacher, \"the coolest continuing series character\" (Stephen King), returns in a brand new, pulse-pounding read from Lee and Andrew Child. The world’s bestselling hero is back in a brand new, high-octane adventure! β€˜She knew that finding Reacher would not be easy . . .’ Washington DC. General Susan Turner needs help from the only guy she knows will get...
    By Lee Child and Andrew Child
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Court of Wings and Ruin
    The third instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. In A Court of Wings and Ruin, the gripping third book of the ACOTAR series, Feyre Archeron faces the ultimate battle for her world. Having returned to the Spring Court, she is determined to gather...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Court of Mist and Fury
    A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas continues Feyre Archeron's epic journey in the world of the High Fae. Having survived the brutal trials under the Mountain, Feyre returns to the Spring Court. Though she now possesses the immortal powers of the High Fae, the traumatic experiences have left scars on her human heart. Haunted by the...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 160,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all