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Christmas Posting Dates 2021

It’s that time of year again where we must let you know when to get your orders in if you need to receive them in time for Christmas!

If you are an international customer (outside the UK), then to have the best chance possible of having your orders delivered in time for Christmas day, please be sure to select our “tracked” delivery option at checkout. This option is based on a 5 working day turnaround, but at this busy time (and in this unusual year!) it would be best to get your orders in as quickly as possible, and at the very latest, by 16th December.

For UK customers, non-tracked delivery orders (which are sent by Royal Mail First Class) should be placed by Tuesday 21st December at the latest, while tracked orders should be placed by the end of Wednesday 22nd December. We will ship orders a few times a week from now, and our final shipping day before Christmas will be Thursday 23rd December.

We would like to thank all of our wonderful customers for your ongoing support during 2021. Your valued custom means we can continue to trade into 2022 where we have ambitious plans to continue expanding our Classics Illustrated reprints line.

Stay safe all, and have a very Merry Christmas, and here’s to a Happy New Year!

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Classic Comics Issue #1 – The Three Musketeers Limited Anniversary Edition

CCS Books proudly presents this commemorative Limited Edition package of the Complete Classics Illustrated issue #1, Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers.

To celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Classics Illustrated comic book series, CCS Books have lovingly restored and remastered the original 62-page interior artwork by Malcolm Kildale, including its wonderful line-drawn front cover. We present this here in an 80-page hardback book, with a new history of the series by avid collector and publisher, Jeff Brooks, and an introduction by William B. Jones, Jr, author of Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History.

Coupled with a second hardback book featuring George Evans’s completely re-drawn second interior art from 1959 and the instantly recognisable and much-loved painted cover by John Parker, this set is presented in a gorgeous, sturdy slipcase, with gold foil lettering and Parker’s fabulous painting in full-view.

Exclusive to the CCS Books site, this set is the definitive Classics Illustrated collection of Dumas’s seminal work.

Limited to 500 copies worldwide. Shipping from October.

Featured in this set:

  • 80-page hardback reproduction of the October 1941 first edition of Classic Comics The Three Musketeers
  • 52-page hardback reproduction of the later George Evans adaptation, with recreated 1960s back cover
  • Attractive and sturdy slipcase, with gold foil lettering
  • Introduction to The Three Musketeers by William B. Jones, Jr.
  • New history of the Classics Illustrated series by Jeff Brooks
  • Essay comparing the two artworks
  • Note about the restoration process
  • 2 CI biographies of Alexandre Dumas
  • Numbered certificate
  • Back cover teaser for issue number 2…
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update (3rd June 2020)

To all our customers,

We would like to thank you for your ongoing custom during these challenging times. This is a difficult time for us all, and maybe no more so than for small independent businesses. We are a small, family-run business, and could not continue without you, our loyal customers, and we couldn’t be more grateful for your continuing orders. We appreciate your patience while orders might take a little longer than usual.

As the lockdown begins to ease here in the UK we are continuing to ship all orders once a week. There might still be delays within the postal service but things do seem to be returning to normal speeds there as well.

We are also still on the end of the phone or an email if you have any questions at all – click here to get in touch.

And don’t forget to recommend us to any home-schooling parents you feel might benefit from our comic books and abridged novels, both our Real Reads and Baker Street Readers, not forgetting there’s 15% off your first order – just use the code LAUNCH15.

Stay safe and keep well,

The CCS Books team

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Home Schooling with CCS Books

Reawakening Literature

We know that you are passionate about our books, but have you ever tried to ignite that same passion in the younger generations?

With last week’s closure of schools in the UK, many parents are now expected to be educating their children at home. We would  like to ask that you recommend us to parents of school-age children. Our Classics Illustrated modern replica series, and also our abridged re-tellings in the Real Reads and Baker Street Readers series could prove an invaluable resource to parents and children at this challenging time.

As a first time customer to our new website – CCS Books – they will also be able to claim a 15% discount off their first order by using the code LAUNCH15 at checkout.

We are still fully open for business online and are continuing to process and dispatch orders to our normal timetable. We have all been assured by the World Health Organization that mail order is safe, from experience with other coronaviruses, they know these types of viruses don’t survive long on objects, such as letters or parcels.

Please do feel free to forward this email to anyone you know to whom it might be of interest.

Baker Street Readers

Romeo and Juliet

If you haven’t already heard about our new series, Baker Street Readers, here is an introduction:

A collection of the world’s finest classic literary stories expertly retold in a lively and accessible way and brought to life with bright, bold and wonderfully witty illustrations. Children and adults alike will be charmed by these “miniature masterpieces”.

This range of books are bound in vibrantly coloured hardback covers. Inside you’ll find 64 pages featuring an introduction to the “cast” of characters, an enchanting but authentic retelling of a classic tale, including verbatim best-known quotes, interspersed with delightful colour illustrations. After you’ve finished the story, you will find questions and notes for consideration and exploration at the end.

These entertaining and habit-forming books are ideal for a wide age range and are superb library-building volumes, beautifully-produced to make a perfect gift.

We have been promoting these books in schools to great effect recently and you can read some wonderful reviews from children, parents and teachers on the Toppsta website here.

Real Reads

Oliver Twist

…and to our Real Reads series, which are paperback versions of the Baker Street Readers:

Real Reads are really at home in the classroom. They’re designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. They’re also perfectly suited for the teaching of English as an additional language.

Each 64 page book has a section called ‘Taking things further’ which provides historical, social and human context, suggests links to useful resources, and asks the reader challenging and insightful questions relating to the story.

For more ideas how to use Real Reads for home-schooling, visit www.realreads.co.uk where you can find resource links and other useful information to help you.

Our Reawakening Literature book is also a great tool to help you with using Real Reads and Baker Street Readers for home schooling, as it offers numerous lesson plans and activities as well as suggested titles to use with these, to engage kids with the classic works and to help develop their reading and comprehension skills.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update

To all our wonderful customers,

The world is facing an unprecedented challenge with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the uncertainty surrounding it. We at CCS Books wanted to get in touch to reassure all of you that we are taking every precaution to help limit the spread of the virus. We are a small team and we’ve been diligently practising “social distancing”, including working remotely from home and washing hands frequently to do our part, however we can assure you all that our websites – www.classiccomicstore.com and www.ccsbooks.co.uk are still fully open for business 24/7, and orders are continuing to be processed and dispatched to our normal timetable.

The World Health Organization have stated that mail order is safe, as even if the virus were to be in contact with an item or package, it will not be able to survive outside a living being for very long.

If you have any particular concerns about an order you’ve already placed, or would like any other assistance placing a new one, or if you would like us to try to track down specific items for you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of this email.

We wish the very best of health to all of our customers at this trying time, and trust that you will stay safe. Keep washing those hands!

With very best regards,

The CCS Books Team

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4 New Classics Illustrated Replica Paperbacks

4 new Classics Illustrated titles are in stock and shipping now. Numbers 54 – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and 55 – The Prisoner of Zenda, along with numbers 72 – The Aeneid and 73 – Through the Looking-Glass have now been published and are available to order at CCS Books here, or you can order them from your local bookshop.

As ever in the series, all artwork has been expertly refreshed and looks simply wonderful.

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Introducing Baker Street Readers

A collection of the world’s finest classic literary stories expertly retold in a lively and accessible way and brought to life with bright, bold and wonderfully witty illustrations. Children and adults alike will be charmed by these “miniature masterpieces”.

This range of books are bound in vibrantly coloured hardback covers. Inside you’ll find 64 pages featuring an introduction to the “cast” of characters, an enchanting but authentic retelling of a classic tale, including verbatim best-known quotes, interspersed with delightful colour illustrations. After you’ve finished the story, you will find questions and notes for consideration and exploration at the end.

These entertaining and habit-forming books are ideal for a wide age range and are superb library-building volumes, beautifully produced to make a perfect gift.

Find this lovely collection here

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Introducing Classics Illustrated Vintage Replicas in Hardback

We are thrilled to introduce our Vintage Replica Hardback series.

Using the classic vintage cover treatments, these beautiful books bear the same fully refreshed and revitalised artwork as our replica paperback line but are handsomely bound in sturdy hardback covers with a vivid yellow spine that makes this collection look fantastic on the shelf.

There are 52 full-colour pages within, including Classics Illustrated’s splendid comic-strip retellings of the great works of literature, followed by author biographies, theme discussions and study guides.

We have eight exciting titles to offer you so far, starting with H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

Find this new collection here

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CCS Books Launches Brand New Website

Welcome to our shiny new website. We hope you have arrived at CCSbooks.co.uk with a love of reading and if not, you have come to the right place to develop one!

Here at CCS Books we specialise in bringing the world’s finest literary classics to you in a way that is accessible for readers of all ages and reading abilities. We have been masterfully re-producing the world-famous ‘Classics Illustrated’ comic series for over ten years and now offer the series in three different formats: Replica Paperbacks, Modern Hardbacks and now Vintage Replica Hardbacks.

They are delighting young and old collectors around the world!

We hope you enjoy our new website, and if you would like to provide any feedback or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to let us know!

Best wishes,

The CCS Books team