BEHIND THE SCENES PUBLISHING

Putting the final touches to Holland Park Behind The Scenes!

2010-04-12T09:51:00.000+01:00

Kensington Palace Behind the Scenes

2010-03-29T17:12:00.000+01:00

If you get a chance, see The Enchanted Palace animated exhibition at Kensington Palace, London W8. I saw it last week and totally fell in love with it. My review appears on Wednesday 31st March in the travel section of The Epoch Times, the international weekly newspaper.

Thank you to Peter D Strelen

2010-02-09T16:11:00.000Z

Peter D Strelen wrote: "I am also interested in this family. I wonder if there is a connection between Lily LOUIS and Louisa S B von Arnswaldt who died Camberwell march qtr,1934 age 58 = 1876!!"

This is great extra info.

Lily is a bit of a mystery to me now. She may have just slightly altered her identity.

In 1902 she was writing to Winifred White who I think may have been the daughter of Field-Marshal Sir George Stuart White (born 6 July 1835, died 24 June 1912).

Can anyone confirm whether he had a daughter Winifred?

tbc

2010-01-07T16:01:00.006Z

NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES

2009-08-21T20:04:00.012+01:00

From the Publisher
Hermione Cameron's commentary accompanies a unique collection of photographs and postcards and takes a sideways look at this popular London district, unearthing the notable, the quizzical and the amusing in Notting Hill's history.

Product Description

Discover London's Notting Hill as it was a hundred years ago.
Take a step back in time to the elegant Edwardian era and see the first photographs of Notting Hill tube station. Then follow the now famous routes to the bustling market stalls of Portobello Road and see where residents with some wonderful surnames lived. Find out where the only Jealous man in London was a pub landlord, the Madders sisters had a dancing school, where you could have found Mrs Memory's hat shop or hoped that spinster Miss Perfect eventually found Mr Right, all those years ago. With more than 200 images from photographs and vintage postcards.

ROBERT ELMS - BBC LONDON

"If you want to know what Notting Hill was like all those years ago, this is a very good place to start. It's 'Notting Hill Behind the Scenes,' and it's been compiled and lovingly annotated by Hermione Cameron."

Lucy Davies, Louise T Blouin Institute Talks

"Cameron's book of photographs and postcards (the first in a Behind the Scenes series) surveys images of Notting Hill from a century ago; evidently, back then the area was populated by characters like the superbly monikered Mrs Memory and Miss Perfect, rather than celebrities and trustafarians."

TIME OUT LONDON
"Meet Walter Carter, west London fishmonger, here photographed with his wife, four of his six children and several hundred bloaters, kippers and oysters - a collection that must have made this a particularly pongy part of Portobello Road market. The market sprang up in the 1870s from a horse-trading fair, and was a regular fruit-and-veg market until antiques stalls started appearing after World War II. Carter is just one of Notting Hill's former residents and shopkeepers to appear in a new book of historic photographs of the area. We also liked the picture of a cramped corner shop that went by the name of Marks & Spencer. Whatever happened to them?"

Picture Postcard Monthly
"A Stand-out Book in the Genre. Notting Hill Behind the Scenes follows the familiar format of showing us what a particular place was like a century ago. The postcard illustrations have the starring role, and the introduction and captions serve as footnotes, a touch of extra detail for the observer. Yet Hermione Cameron's gone in search of the people who populated the streets all those years ago, and she makes us look at them, too, by the trick of giving us some of the pictures twice, the second time with part of the detail magnified. It's a double-take that has you flitting from the general to the particular and back again, and above all makes the characters come alive. The author's in your face treatment of Notting Hill's Edwardian residents is a thought-provoking master stroke. The introduction instantly focuses on the inhabitants rather than the buildings and their history. She gives us Miss Perfect, William Jealous and the Madders sisters, along with many other residents: 'Seeing a familiar street all those years ago made me wonder about the past overlapping with the present: how we may walk in someone else's footsteps, turn the same street corner, pass the same shop and cross the same road, and do all this a century apart.' So, before Marc Bolan lived at 57 Blenheim Crescent, Emily Needham was a dressmaker there. The captions investigate the human side of Notting Hill, probing the people who ran the shops, lived in houses and worked in businesses. Even if you begin by not knowing Notting Hill, you're soon inside it, an inquisitive voyeur. "

The Hill Magazine

"We discover that the occupiers of 41 Pembridge Road offered the 'best prices for old artificial teeth' and that a Mr Simon Green lived in the current Travel Bookshop. If you're lucky you might even discover who used to call your house their own. Apart from the lack of cars and much smaller trees every road is charmingly, instantly identifiable."

Kensington and Chelsea News

"brings history to life.. discover the hidden stories which lie on every corner of our streets."

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1872–1945)

2009-03-24T17:43:00.003Z

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale lived at 23 Elsham Road from 1903 to 1943 and I just wondered if there was a relative of hers that might have a photograph of her at this address?

Thank you to Peter and Gabi Arnswald!

2009-03-19T10:33:00.009Z

Brilliant! Thank you to the wonderfully helpful Peter and Gabi Arnswald http://www.arnswald.de/ for their family info:
"Levin Carl Bodo Anton Hubert von Arnswaldt, born 10 of June 1870 in Wiedenhausen/Germany, married in his first marriage 22 of April 1898 in Bournmouth/England Lily Louis, born 1876 in Bournmouth. This marriage was divorced in the year 1899." They also tell me that they are organising a huge family reunion which is due to take place in 2010. Now I just have to discover who Lily Louis was ..... a visit to the see the records of births, marriages and deaths in the National Archives at Kew beckons!

Lily von Arnseraldt or Amseraldt in HOLLAND PARK

2009-03-13T11:16:00.008Z

Another mystery may be solved today! A postcard of two young women arm in arm in 1902 shows Lily von Arnseraldt or Amseraldt and a friend and mentions Lady White in Roland Gardens, South Kensington. Does anyone out there have any idea who Lily was?

HOLLAND PARK BEHIND THE SCENES - Temptation!

2009-03-11T12:57:00.013Z

March already! With deadlines approaching for the printing and pre-launch publicity for the new book, I'm still finding more images to include and characters who cannot be left out. The remit of the book is 200 images of Holland Park around a century ago but I have given in to temptation! The newest additions include Eugen Sandow, the celebrity bodybuilder, who lived at 161 Holland Park Avenue. He poses with rippling muscles and a fig leaf to protect his modesty! Is this too much for Holland Park residents?!

The Punch illustrator Phil May (1864 – 1903) lived at two addresses in Holland Park. There's a blue plaque to commemorate him at 20 HollandPark Road. He seems to have been very much loved. I am just reading Phil May, The Artist and His Wit by David Cuppleditch. Yesterday, a Phil May sketch arrived in the post. I bought it because it was fun and animated. Little did I know that May's drawings of the rather fetching young woman in the middle and the barmaid to one side are actually of the comedian and female impersonator Arthur Roberts (1852-1933), when he starred with H. O. Clarey in Claude Duval at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1894. Roberts was famous for singing 'Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow-wow.' He's also credited with inventing the word ‘spoof’, the name he originally gave to a card game in the 1880s which involved a lot of nonsense and trickery and which has now come to mean a light parody or satirical immitation.

If anyone asks me, I say I write about dead people. But I adore those in the land of the living as well! Yesterday I spotted the incredibly tall Dan Cruikshank in Notting Hill Gate and found myself beaming at him - far too shy to mention how much I enjoy his BBC programmes: especially the ones on cinema photography 'The Lost World of Friese-Greene' and 'The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon.' Must send him both NOTTING HILL and HOLLAND PARK BEHIND THE SCENES to say thank you.

NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES Author Hermione Cameron Nominated for GLE RISING STAR AWARD

2009-03-03T17:25:00.003Z

This is the first book to show readers more than 200 photographs of Notting Hill as it was a century ago, and it mentions local people with wonderful names such as Jealous, Perfect and Memory. This added twist to the history led to invitations to give talks at the Louise T Blouin Institute and on Robert Elms’ BBC RADIO LONDON show. Hermione is amazed to find that the book she designed on a PC at home is now selling in Waterstone’s, Daunt Books, Hatchards and The Travel Bookshop, as well as topping Amazon searches for books on Notting Hill. A second title HOLLAND PARK BEHIND THE SCENES is in production and came about as the result of a surprise phone call from Tony Benn who is a local resident. Hermione is very grateful for the start-up advice she received from the Portobello Business Centre and delighted to be nominated for the GLE Rising Star award.

2009-02-06T14:50:00.009Z

Discover London's Notting Hill as it was a hundred years ago, presented in a unique collection of more than 200 images from 'real photo' and printed postcards. Take a visual tour which leads you from the unveiling of the Tube station at Notting Hill to the bustling market stalls of Portobello Road in the Edwardian era. See where the only Jealous man in London was a pub landlord, the Madders sisters had a dancing school, where Napoleon's nephew experimented with poisons and how to find Mrs Memory and Miss Perfect. Follow in the footsteps of Notting Hill's residents all those years ago. Chapters guide you along Notting Hill High Street, Pembridge Road, Kensington Park Road, Ladbroke Grove, Lancaster Road and Westbourne Grove to Portobello Road. With a commentary including quirky facts and coincidences, a small dose of architecture and a sheer delight in the people who don't always make it into the history books, let Hermione Cameron, author and resident, show you Notting Hill Behind The Scenes.

Hermione Cameron's commentary accompanies a unique collection of photographs and postcards and takes a sideways look at this popular London district, unearthing the notable, the quizzical and the amusing in Notting Hill's history.

TIME OUT LONDON "Meet Walter Carter, west London fishmonger, here photographed with his wife, four of his six children and several hundred bloaters, kippers and oysters - a collection that must have made this a particularly pongy part of Portobello Road market. The market sprang up in the 1870s from a horse-trading fair, and was a regular fruit-and-veg market until antiques stalls started appearing after World War II. Carter is just one of Notting Hill's former residents and shopkeepers to appear in a new book of historic photographs of the area. We also liked the picture of a cramped corner shop that went by the name of Marks & Spencer. Whatever happened to them?"

PHOTOGRAPHS from NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES feature in tonight's Channel 4 programme THE PRICE OF PROPERTY which is a UK TV GUIDE PICK OF THE DAY

2008-09-08T13:02:00.013+01:00

Jon Henley presenter of 'The Price of Property" Channel 4

talks on the Guardian website

Photographs from NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES feature in the Channel 4 programme THE PRICE OF PROPERTY which is a UK TV GUIDE PICK OF THE DAY for today

September 8th, 2008

"The Price of Property
Britain has become a nation obsessed with the price of property: will prices spiral upwards again or is the market about to crash? In this four-part series, journalist Jon Henley embarks on a journey around the UK to discover how the pursuit of property ownership has changed the country. Combining archive material with aerial footage to show the impact of property on the landscape, the programme reveals the social history that has shaped the housing market and explores the profound effect this has had on the face of Britain. "

NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES will feature on TV in new series for Channel 4 'THE PRICE OF PROPERTY' this SEPTEMBER

2008-07-24T16:19:00.001+01:00

THE NEW BOOK! HOLLAND PARK BEHIND THE SCENES

2008-04-18T11:10:00.017+01:00

Continuing the success of Notting Hill Behind the Scenes our NEW BOOK on Holland Park, takes the reader back to the very elegant days of the Edwardian era with a feast of more than two hundred photographs and postcard images.

See views of the popular shopping area of Holland Park Avenue, the newly-built tube station designed with a revolving staircase, the glamorous villas of Holland Park, the schools of Addison Road, Norland Square and Royal Crescent, as well as the roller-skating rink which helped start a craze. Visit Holland House and Leighton House a hundred years ago and discover where many artists had their studios in Melbury Road and Holland Park Road. Return to the days when a tube journey cost 2 old pence and suffragettes on bicycles were pursued by police on foot!

Residents and shopkeepers once again play an enjoyable part in the commentary. There are mentions of Ezra Stilton, the Misses Stribling, John Hiss, William Smiles, Fred Foottet, Edgar Kettle, Mrs Whish, Mrs Pring and Miss Cheere. All of whom were living or working in Holland Park a century ago.

For the current residents of Holland Park and their friends, for family historians, new visitors and those nostalgic for days gone by.

Order now at all good bookshops, at Amazon.co.uk Order by telephone on 0207 221 4849 and by email from the author: hermionecameron@hotmail.com.

HOLLAND PARK BEHIND THE SCENES

(£12.99)

ISBN: 978 0 9556659 1 2

SEE YOU AT LONDON BOOK FAIR TODAY!

2008-04-14T09:30:00.004+01:00

2008-04-01T23:25:00.001+01:00

PRESS COVERAGE

2008-03-09T15:42:00.011Z

'Daunt Books' warm, oak-galleried interior has earned it a top spot on every poll of the capital's favourite bookshops. The store also organises a damn good lecture: tonight, Daunt brings local expert and author Hermione Cameron (who's also appeared as an extra on The Office) to the Louise T Blouin Institute for a journey through 100 years of west-London history. Cameron's book of photographs and postcards (the first in a Behind the Scenes series) surveys images of Notting Hill from a century ago; evidently, back then the area was populated by characters like the superbly monikered Mrs Memory and Miss Perfect, rather than celebrities and trustafarians.'
– Lucy Davies, Louise T Blouin Institute Talks on flavorpill

LONDON LITE 'Must ... Tonight' 26.Feb.2008

What a great way to start 2008!

in

TIME OUT LONDON

Click on image to read the feature.

visitlondon.com Competition Results

2008-01-17T11:28:00.000Z

Congratulations to Barbara from Catford, Nicola from Bolton, Emily from Portsmouth, Simone from Romford and Claire from Hertford, who all won copies of NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES in the competition on the Visit London website over Christmas and New Year! They were picked at random by Visit London from over 1,500 entries.

Author Event 26th February: Evening Talk at the LOUISE T BLOUIN INSTITUTE

2008-01-13T22:19:00.001Z

I am delighted to be giving a talk on NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES at the Louise T Blouin Institute on 26th February at 6.30pm. I will also be offering a preview of the next book, HOLLAND PARK BEHIND THE SCENES, due out in the Summer. LTBfoundation.org booking Line: 0207 985 9600

The Louise T Blouin Institute is housed in what must be one of the most fabulously light and tranquil buildings in London W11. There's a glossy grand piano in the triple-height lobby; flashes of colour from collages of drawings, watercolours, sketches, found objects and souvenirs; sculptures and architectural drawings; all part of Richard Meier's exhibition 'Art and Architecture' on show there until the end of March 2008.

KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA NEWS: INTERVIEW by Ellie Dyer

2007-12-08T17:41:00.000Z

To be featured In TIME OUT 2/01/08!

2007-12-04T12:11:00.000Z

NHBTS makes its debut in Time Out in the New Year!

Walter Carter, "The Kipper King" of 150, Portobello Road, with his family and two assistants a hundred years ago. Walter Carter really did have two assistants; the one on the left might be a little camera shy! They feature on page 88 of NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES. Look out for the mention in Peter Watts' column in Time Out: Big Smoke / London Through the Lens.

At the world famous Hatchards Bookshop

2007-12-03T14:51:00.001Z

HC writes: Many thanks to Michael Wood at the world famous Hatchards, Piccadilly for supporting Notting Hill Behind The Scenes during the Christmas Customer Evening 29th Nov.

To The Travel Bookshop, Notting Hill, with Nanny Musgrove and Father Christmas..

2007-11-29T17:14:00.001Z

Hermione Cameron and Ilona Rodgers signing copies of their books at The Travel Bookshop, Notting Hill, during the Portobello Christmas late-opening event, 28th November.

Ilona Rodgers, author of the very popular Nanny Musgrove books, with Christian Rutherford of The Travel Bookshop,

Notting Hill

HC writes: It was such a pleasure to meet Ilona Rodgers, artist and illustrator and creator of the hugely enjoyable Nanny Musgrove children's stories, at the Travel Bookshop this week. We had a great time meeting and greeting, and then signing copies of our books. Of course, I just had to indulge in the dangerously delicious mulled wine and mince pies! It proved to be a very Christmassy occasion. Many thanks to Christian and Sarah of the Travel Bookshop, for organising the book signing during Portobello's late opening for Christmas shopping. Father Christmas was last seen heading into Kensington Park Road, really quite late into in the evening...

2007-11-21T20:34:00.003Z

REVIEW for NOTTING HILL BEHIND THE SCENES
'A STAND-OUT BOOK IN THE GENRE'
Picture Postcard Monthly DECEMBER 2007 (p.56)

"Notting Hill Behind The Scenes (Hermione Cameron) follows the familiar format of showing us what a particular place was like a century ago. The format is a well-established and simple one: the postcard illustrations have the starring role, and the introduction and captions serve as footnotes, a touch of extra detail for the observer.

Yet Hermione Cameron's production has a couple of features which make this a stand-out book in the genre. She's gone in search of the people who populated the streets all those years ago, and she makes us look at them, too, by the trick of giving us some of the pictures twice, the second time with part of the detail magnified. It's a double-take that has you flitting from the general to the particular and back again, and above all makes the characters come alive. We all love those 'animated' street scenes. The author's in your face treatment of Notting Hill's Edwardian residents is a thought-provoking master stroke.

The introduction instantly focuses on the inhabitants rather than the buildings and their history. She gives us Miss Perfect, William Jealous and the Madders sisters, people we meet later, along with many other residents. 'Seeing a familiar street all those years ago made me wonder about the past overlapping with the present: how we may walk in someone else's footsteps, turn the the same street corner, pass the same shop and cross the same road, and do all this a century apart.'

So, half a century before Marc Bolan lived at 57 Blenheim Crescent, Emily Needham was a dressmaker there. Henry Armfield, a dyer and cleaner, is brought to life outside his shop by the magnification technique and assumes a stature that he can never do in the original picture.

The captions, too, investigate the human side of Notting Hill, probing the people who ran the shops, lived in houses and worked in businesses. Even if you begin by not knowing Notting Hill, you're soon inside it, an inquisitive voyeur. Beats Albert Square any day."

HC adds: I really am thrilled that the book is getting such a great response. For a first-timer it is an incredible feeling. Thank you to Mark at Waterstone's, Notting Hill Gate and Max at Daunt Books, Holland Park Avenue for showcasing Notting Hill Behind The Scenes.

2007-11-14T17:02:00.000Z

Albert and Elizabeth Smith sent such a great message from California after buying the book on Ebay at the beginning of November:

"Thank you so much for your book NOTTING HILL My wife and I just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary We were married at All Saints Church [pg124]My wife lived near the corner of Lancaster Road[pg128]by Lilley & Skinner.I was born Top of Lancaster road, St Lukes Road. Thanks for such a fantastic book of memories. Regards Albert and Elizabeth Smith"
12th November 2007

2007-11-14T16:09:00.001Z

Jacob Winner, mentioned on P.90 of NHBTS, has a connection with Michael Winner, film maker and author. I wrote (very nervously!) to let him know, enclosing a copy of the book and an advertisement that I had found for Jacob Winner's Portobello shop. I was so delighted to receive a reply by return!

"Thank you so much. Greatly appreciated."

Michael Winner 9th Nov 07

2007-11-14T14:42:00.003Z

First Edition Published 1st October 2007
ISBN 9780955665905 Price £12.99
Published by BehindTheScenesPublishing.Com
Email the Author Hermione Cameron
Now available at Waterstones, Daunt Books, The Portobello Hotel, The Abbey Court Hotel, Foyles, Blackwells, Amazon.co.uk, The Travel Bookshop, and more!

Discover London's Notting Hill as it was a hundred years ago, presented in a unique collection of more than 200 images from 'real photo' and printed postcards. Take a visual tour which leads you from the unveiling of the Tube station at Notting Hill to the bustling market stalls of Portobello Road in the Edwardian era. See where the only Jealous man in London was a pub landlord, the Madders sisters had a dancing school, where Napoleon's nephew experimented with poisons and how to find Mrs Memory and Miss Perfect. Follow in the footsteps of Notting Hill's residents all those years ago. Chapters guide you along Notting Hill High Street, Pembridge Road, Kensington Park Road, Ladbroke Grove, Lancaster Road and Westbourne Grove to Portobello Road. With a commentary including quirky facts and coincidences, a small dose of architecture and a sheer delight in the people who don't always make it into the history books, let Hermione Cameron, author and resident, show you Notting Hill Behind The Scenes.

Hermione Cameron was born a few minutes walk from Portobello Road and has been in love with West London all her life. She has been a feature writer for The Hill magazine in Notting Hill, a travel writer, a flying temp and an extra on 'The Office'