Several of our books have been signed / autographed by their author, illustrator or other contributor. Others have interesting histories and have been signed or inscribed by their original owners.
We hope the photographs attached to this page are of use to you in any research or in checking the signatures in books you own or are thinking of buying.
Click the links in the second column to view any signature / autograph or inscription you are interested in (to view the images in full size please remember to maximise the new window that will be opened by your browser).
Further biographical details are available for most entries from official web sites, Wikipedia or other internet sources as stated - please click the link in the third column to go to the relevant entry (however please remember that whilst Wikipedia and unofficial web sites are generally reliable some entries are unverified and may contain inaccuracies).
Please feel free to link to this page or to any of our individual signature photographs.
| A: | ||
| Adams, Henry (1838 - 1918) - American journalist, novelist, historian and academic. Grandson of American President John Quincy Adams and Great-Grandson of America's First President, John Adams | ||
| Akunin, Boris (b1956) - pen name of the Russian writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, writer of the Erast Fandorin series of detective novels | ||
| Alsop, Stewart (1914 - 1974) - American writer, columnist and political analyst | ||
| Amis, Martin (b1949) - British novelist, Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester (until 2011), son of Kingsley Amis | ||
| B: | ||
| Bail, Murray (b1941) - Australian author | ||
| Banks, Iain M. (b1954) - Scottish science fiction author and creator of the "Culture" series (also writes non-science fiction novels under the name Iain Banks) | ||
| Barnes, Julian (b1946) - British author, winner of the 2011 Man Booker Award (also an award winning writer of crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh) | ||
| Begin, Menachem (1913 - 1992) - Polish-born Israeli Prime Minister (1977 - 1983) and Nobel prize-winner | ||
| Bennett, Arnold (1867-1931) - British author and journalist | ||
| Berkoff, Steven (b1937) - British actor, writer and director | ||
| Bewick, Thomas (1753-1828) - English wood engraver and ornithologist | ||
| Bland, Colin (b1938) - South African Test cricketer | ||
| Botham, Ian (b1955) - Somerset, Worcestershire and England Test Match cricketer, cricket commentator | ||
| Bowdler Sharp, Richard (1847 - 1909) - British Zoologist | ||
| Boyd, William (b1952) - Scottish author and screenwriter | ||
| Broad, Chris (b1957) - Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire county cricketer, England Test cricketer and ICC Test Official | ||
| Broadribb, Edward Alfred (Ted) (1888 - ?) - British boxer, manager, referee and promoter | ||
| Bryson, Bill (b1951) - American travel, science and language / cutlure writer; Chacellor of Durham University; President of "The Campaign To Protect Rural England" | ||
| Byrd, Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn (1888 - 1957) - American polar explorer and aviator | ||
| C: | ||
| le Carre, John (b1931) - pen name of the British author David Cornwell (author of "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold") | ||
| Cartwright, Justin (b1945) - British author | ||
| Cleary, Jon (1917 - 2010) - Australian author (best known for "The Sundowners") | ||
| Cloete, Stuart (1897 - 1976) - South African author | ||
| Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur (1859 - 1930) - British author and physician, creator of Sherlock Holmes | ||
| Cooper, Sir Henry (b1934) - English Heavyweight Boxing Champion | ||
| Cornwell, Bernard (b1944) - British historical author, creator of "Richard Sharpe" | ||
| Cornwell, Patricia (b1956) - American crime writer | ||
| Curtis, Tony (1925 - 2010) - American actor | ||
| D: | ||
| Darling, William (1885 - 1962) - Scottish politician, Unionist Member of Parliament for the Edinburgh South constituency (1945-1957) | ||
| Dickens, Monica (1915 - 1992) - English novelist, non-fiction and children's author; great granddaughter of Charles Dickens | ||
| Dimbleby, Jonathan (b1944) - British writer, broadcaster and political commentator | ||
| Dobbs, Michael (b1948) - British author and Conservative Party Chief of Staff, Deputy Chairman and speech-writer | ||
| Drabble, Margaret (b1939) - English novelist and biographer | ||
| Dunnett, Dorothy (1923 - 2001) - Scottish historical author | ||
| Dyson, William [Will] Henry (1880 - 1938) - Australian cartoonist and illustrator | ||
| F: | ||
Fatty, Alta - Roycroft Press illuminator (wife of "Bert" Hubbard II with whom she jointly ran the Roycrofters after it's founder, Elbert Hubbard's, death on the Lusitania in 1915) |
||
| Faulks, Sebastian (b1953) - British author and journalist | ||
| Fenby, Jonathan (b1942) - British journalist, editor and writer | ||
| Fiennes, Ranulph (b1944) - British explorer, mountaineer and author | ||
| Finzi, Joy (1907 - 1991) - British portrait artist | ||
| Fleischer, Nat (1887 - 1972) - American boxing writer and founder of "The Ring" magazine | ||
| Fleming, Peter (1907 - 1971) - British adventurer and travel writer, older brother of Ian Fleming | ||
| Foot, Michael (1913 - 2010) - British Labour Party politician, journalist and author. Leader of the Labour Party (1980-1983) | ||
| Forbes, Colin (1923 - 2006) - popular British novelist who also wrote under the names of Richard Raine, Jay Bernard, Harold English and (for three novels only) under his real name of Raymond Sawkins. | ||
| Fowles, John (1926 - 2005) - British writer (author of "The Collector" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman") | ||
| Francis, Dick (b1920) - British author | ||
| Frost, Sir David (b1939) - British journalist, writer, interviewer and presenter (best known for "That Was The Week That Was" (TW3) and his 1977 interviews with Richard Nixon | ||
| G: | ||
| Guinness, Sir Alec (1914 - 2000) - Academy Award winning British actor | ||
| H: | ||
| Harris, Frank (1856 - 1931) - Irish author, editior, journalist and publisher | ||
| Harris, Robert (b1957) - British novelist, former journalist and television reporter | ||
| Haskell, Arnold Lionel (1903 - 1980) - British journalist and dance critic | ||
| Heath, Edward (1916 - 2005) - British Conservative Party politician, yachtsman and musician. Prime Minister (1970-1974), Leader of the Conservative Party (1965-1975) | ||
| Heston, Charlton (1923 - 2008) - American film, television and theatre actor; President of the National Rifle Association of America (1998 - 2003) | ||
| Higgins, Jack (psuedonym for Harry Patterson) (b1929) - British author | ||
| Hosking, Eric (1909 - 1991) - British ornithologist and photographer | ||
| Howard - Lady Rosalind (1845 - 1921) - Countess of Carlisle, President of the North of England Temperance League and President of the British Women's Temperance Association | ||
| Hubbard, Elbert (1856 - 1915) - American writer, publisher and artist, founder of the Roycroft Press (Roycrofters) | ||
| Hubert, Henri (1872 - 1927) - French archaeologist | ||
| Hunt, Cecil (1902 - 1954) - British author, anthologist and journalist | ||
| Huxley, Aldous (1894 - 1963) - British author, best known for "Brave New World" | ||
| I: | ||
| Inge, William (1913 - 1973) - Pulitzer Prize winning American playwright and novelist | ||
| J: | ||
Johnston, Paul (b1957) - Scottish crime novelist and poet |
||
| K: | ||
| Keenan, Brian (b1951) - Irish author | ||
| Kelly, Eric P. (1884 - 1960) - American author, journalist and academic | ||
| L: | ||
| Lawrence, Frieda (1879 - 1956) - wife of D. H. Lawrence | ||
| Leakey, Louis Seymour Bazett (1903 - 1972) - Kenyan-born British archaeologist and naturalist, pioneer of early human evolutionary development in Africa (most notably in the excavations at Olduvai Gorge) | ||
| Lively, Penelope (b1933) - British author | ||
| Lodge, David (b1935) - British author | ||
| Lutyens, Edith Mary (1908 - 1999) - British author and biographer | ||
| M: | ||
| McDonald, Sir Trevor (b1939) - Trinidad-born British newsreader, author and journalist | ||
| McNab, Andy (b1959) - pseudonym of former British SAS operative, now a full-time novelist | ||
| Markowitz, Arthur - South African author | ||
| Middleton, Earl (William St John Brodrick) (1846 - 1942) - British Conservative Party statesman, Under-Secretary of State for War (1895-1898) and Foreign Affairs (1898-1900), Secretary of State for War (1900-1903) and Secretary of State for India (1903-1905) | ||
| Millin, Sarah Gertrude (1889 - 1968) - South African writer, historian and biographer | ||
| Mitchell, David (b1969) - British author | ||
| Morris, Kenneth (1879 - 1937) - Welsh author and theosophist | ||
| N: | ||
| Ness, Patrick (b1971) - American author and journalist | ||
| O: | ||
| O'Brien, Edna (b1930) - Irish author | ||
| P: | ||
| Palin, Michael (b1943) - British Monty Python comedian, writer, television and film actor | ||
| Peake, Mervyn (1911 - 1968) - British writer, poet, artist and illustrator. Author of the Gormenghast books. | ||
| Powell, Michael (1905 - 1990) - British film director | ||
| Price, Edward Reynolds (b1933) - American author, poet and Professor of English at Duke University | ||
| Puttnam, David (b1941) - British film producer, became a Life Peer in the British House of Lords in 1997 as Baron Puttnam of Queensgate | ||
| R: | ||
| Rackham, Arthur (1867 - 1939) - British illustrator | ||
| Randall, Derek (b 1951) - Nottinghamshire county and England Test cricketer | ||
| Reichs, Kathy (b1950) - American crime writer and anthropologist | ||
| Rendell, Ruth (b1930) - English crime writer, creator of Inspector Wexford (also writes as Barbara Vine) | ||
| Rice, Sir Tim (b1944) - British lyricist and author (co-writer of "Evita", "Jesus Christ Superstar", etc) | ||
| Richards, Sir Vivian (Viv) (b1952) - former West Indian cricketer, | ||
| Rimington, Stella (b1935) - British author and former Director-General of MI5 | ||
Roberts, Cecil (1892 - 1976) - British author, poet and journalist |
||
| Rowntree, Benjamin Seebohm (1871 - 1954) - British industrialist and social reformer. | ||
| S: | ||
| Samuel, Viscount Herbert (1870 - 1963) - British Liberal Party politician and diplomat | ||
| Seitz, Raymond G. H. (b1940) - American diplomat, Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1991 - 1994) | ||
| Seth, Vikram (b1952) - Indian poet, novelist, travel writer and biographer | ||
| Sherman, Charles Taylor (1811 - 1869) - eldest brother of General William Tecumseh Sherman and District Judge for the US District Court, Northern Ohio | ||
| Sillitoe, Alan (1928 - 2010) - English writer (author of "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner" and "Saturday Night And Sunday Morning") | ||
| Siochain, Padraig Augustine O (1905 - 1995) - Irish language activist, author, journalist and lawyer | ||
| Sloane, Eric (1905 - 1985) - American landscape painter and author | ||
| Smith, Wilbur (b1933) - South African author (born Northern Rhodesia / Zambia) | ||
| Steel, David (b1938) - British and Scottish politician, Leader of the Liberal Party (1976 - 1988), first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament (1999 - 2003), author | ||
| Sullivan, Edmund J (1869 - 1933) - British illustrator | ||
| Swanton, Ernest William (Jim) (1907 - 2000) - British sports journalist, cricket writer and commentator | ||
| Swift, Graham (b1949) - British author, winner of the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1996 for "Last Orders" | ||
| T: | ||
| Thayer, William Roscoe (1859 - 1923) - American poet, author, editor and historian | ||
| Theroux, Paul (b1941) - American travel writer and novelist | ||
| Thesiger, Wilfred (1910 - 2003) - British explorer and travel writer | ||
| Thomas, Leslie (b1931) - Welsh writer (author of "The Virgin Soldiers") | ||
| Thorpe, Adam (b1956) - British poet, novelist and playwright | ||
| Tremain, Rose (b1943) - British author | ||
| Trollope, Joanna (b1943) - British author | ||
| Trueman, Frederick (Fred; Freddie) (1931 - 2006) - Yorkshire and England Test Match cricketer (best known for his fast bowling -"Fiery Fred"); television presenter | ||
| V: | ||
| Vine, Barbara - see Ruth Rendell | ||
| Vitry, Louise (c1818 - ?) - French artist | ||
| W: | ||
| Walker, Alice (b1944) - Pulitzer Prize winning author of "The Color Purple" | ||
| Warner, Jack (1895 - 1981) - British television and film actor | ||
| Waterhouse, Keith (1929 - 2009) - British author and screenwriter | ||
| Waugh, Auberon (1939 - 2001) - British author and journalist | ||
| Weldon, Fay (b1931) - British author | ||
| Welensky, Sir Roy (1907 - 1991) - Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesian Heavyweight Boxing Champion (1926 - 1928) | ||
| Wesley, Mary (1912 - 2002) - British author | ||
| Widdecombe, Ann (b1947) - former British Conservative Party politician (until 2010), now a novelist | ||
| Wilson, Harold (1916 - 1995) - British Labour Party politician and Prime Minister (1964-1970 and 1974-1976) | ||
| Winchester, Simon (b1944) - British author and journalist | ||
| Winton, Tim (b1960) - Australian novelist and short story writer |
Somer Books, Midsomer Norton, Bath, England