Haul

Malvern is one of my favourite places, and Saturday was spent very happily on a day trip there. The reason for the trip was seeing Noel Coward’s Present Laughter at the theatre (which was excellent; very funny, good lines, beautiful set, and a winning turn from Sam West – makes me wish that more Coward plays were put on, as there is much more to him that Blithe Spirit, Private Lives, and Hay Fever, fab though those are) – but while we were there: books.

On my last trip, I was sad to discover that the Malvern Bookshop would be closing down if they weren’t able to find a buyer. Well, praise be, they found one! It would be such a shame to lose a gem like that. So half of these came from that bookshops (where I also picked up some cheap piano music), and half from the excellent Amnesty Bookshop. The friend I went with spent happy time with a box of old theatre programmes in the Malvern Bookshop, and came away with some beauties. Anyway – here are the books!

Young Adolf by Beryl Bainbridge
I have a few unread Beryls on my shelf, but don’t remember coming across this one in the wild before – so wanted to nab it. Who other than Beryl would attempt this novel? I can only assume she brings all her trademark quirks to the table.

The Clocks by Agatha Christie
I need to work out precisely which Christies I have and haven’t read, because it feels like they’re dwindling – but this is definitely one of them.

Misreadings by Umberto Eco
Apparently a book of parodies? I have ‘parody’ on my Book Bingo card, so this may well come in handy.

Kitty Foyle by Christopher Morley
Human Being by Christopher Morley
Two novels by Christopher Morley, author of Parnassus on Wheels – I keep buying books by him, and have only read three, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave these behind.

The Lighting of the Lamps by Susan Hill
I though I’d had quite a coup here, but it is actually available from 10p on Amazon – I just hadn’t heard of this book before. It’s a collection of Hill’s writing about literature – prefaces from books, and articles, I think. Something fun to dip into.

The Faces of Justice by Sybille Bedford
Another book I hadn’t heard of by a writer I like! This one sounds fascinating – Bedford travels around various countries looking at their justice systems, and how the same crime will be treated differently in many different places. I’m a little worried that it might be xenophobic, but her wine-soaked travel writing Pleasures and Landscapes wasn’t (as far as I can recall) so fingers crossed.

Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
I’ve yet to read any of her detective fiction, but I can’t resist a murder mystery set in a theatre.

Today has been a nice, lazy day so far. Sat in the sun with a book, got my hair cut, made some rock buns. There’s a very real chance that I may be Mrs Miniver without realising. BUT I also popped into some charity shops – donating a pile of books, and buying some (though, it should be noted in the interests of floor space, not the same number that I donated). I also bought in other charity shops earlier in the week.

But this week also saw the magic happen. Free books, y’all. FREE.

In one of the nicest streets in Oxford, St. John’s Street (on my way to work), somebody had set out a bookshelf with a note saying ‘free books’ – and the lady in the house kept coming out and replenishing the stock when it was getting depleted. Maybe she was moving; maybe she was sorting out the possessions of a recently-passed relative? Whatever the case, she was a blessing to the book-loving community of Oxford.

Daphne du Maurier: a daughter’s memoir by Flavia Leng
I have accidentally topped and tailed this pile with Daphne du Maurier biographies. This was a charity shop purchase – I have somehow never quite worked out how many children Daphne had, so I’d never heard of Flavia. But I love these sorts of intimate perspectives, alongside the more detached writings of professional biographers.

An Autobiography by Agatha Christie
Somehow I have never bought Christe’s autobiography before – despite having had it on my mental tbr pile for the best part of 20 years. This edition comes with a CD that apparently has Christie’s dictation of some of the autobiography on it.

My Dog Tulip by J.R. Ackerley
The first of my 3 charity purchases today. I keep buying books by Ackerley without yet having read any (though did recently read a book by his mystery half-sister, as you do). This one will also double up as a box crossed on my Book Bingo card – book with a flower in the title.

Several Perceptions by Angela Carter
I’ve still only read one novel by Carter, Wise Children, but I’ve been amassing them for years. This one looks pretty bizarre even for Carter – having looked through the blurb – so I might ease my way in via some of the others on my shelves.

What Hetty Did by J.L. Carr
Or James Carr, as this edition has curiously named him. The three books I’ve read by Carr have been extremely different, and two of them have been very good (A Month in the Country – which seems to be the only one that anybody reads now – and A Day in the Country, which is equally good in a very different way). So I wonder what this one will be like?

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
This one, and the rest, were from the free shelves. I enjoyed Miss Lonelyhearts when Daunt Books reprinted it. This one is apparently all about 1930s Hollywood, and has a ludicrously ugly cover. I suspect it could be fun.

This England
This is a collection of short notes from a column in some British newspaper. The Spectator, maybe? It’ll get shelved on my dip-in-for-fun-sometime shelf.

Later Days by W.H. Davies
I’ve not actually read his more famous volume of autobiography, The Autobiography of a Supertramp, but the sequel seemed more up my street – entirely based on the fact that it takes place in the interwar years.

The Witch-Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray
I was stoked to find this one – because I had to read it in the Bodleian when I wanted to use it in my DPhil. Sylvia Townsend Warner referred to it when she gave interviews about Lolly Willowes, and it makes for an interesting comparison with that novel. And it’s nice to be able to shelve it alongside my own thesis books.

Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster
From D du M to D du M – in fact, my friend and colleague Adam picked this one up for me when he brought me the good tidings of the free books. I remember when this came out, I think, and everybody was all “Oh, Daphne was NOT a nice lady.” But I’ve learned that myself, through her letters to Oriel Malet, so I’m ready for whatever Forster can throw at me in here. Come at me.

Loving the comments on the 50 Books competition post – do keep ’em coming! I think I’ll do the prize draw on Monday.

The long train journey is over, and I am back from a fun, rainy, book-filled week in Edinburgh. Said train journey was slightly spoiled by a group of people blasting out music from their speakers for a solid two hours. So loud, so rude. We were all too British to say anything, but complained to each other once they’d left.

I had a lovely time – a highlight being seeing Karen/Cornflower. And I went to eight or nine bookshops while in Edinburgh, and bought 15 books. Two of them, I realised afterwards, were books I already owned (oops) so I passed them onto a friend I was staying with – and here are the 13 I brought back with me. Incidentally, the best bookshop I went to was Armchair Books – a great selection of reasonably-priced books, though the hardbacks were all on shelves that were unreachable without stools or a stepladder. I perched precariously on a stepladder at one point. But if there are Rose Macaulay books on a shelf I can’t see properly, I’m gonna get a stepladder.

The Scrapbook of Katherine Mansfield ed. J. Middleton Murray
The Life of Katherine Mansfield by Ruth Mantz
I’ve seen these a few times, but never at a tempting price – so I was pleased to stumble across them in Till’s bookshop. Both are Constable hardbacks, and were part of JMM’s rather energetic series of Mansfield-related publications just after her death.

The Rain Girl by Herbert Jenkins
We all know that I loved Patricia Brent, Spinster, so it was great to find one of Jenkins’ other books in a lovely edition – this one was on a high-up shelf in Armchair Books.

The Spectre of Alexander Wolf by Gaito Gazdanov
I could feel Kaggsy watching me when I picked this one up – a Pushkin and a Russian! It sounds so intriguing – about a man who reads a short story which describes a murder he had himself committed. What comes next…?

Orphan Island by Rose Macaulay
Armchair Books had loads of Macaulay books, though this was the only one I didn’t already own – and one that I have kept an eye out for for a long time. Hurrah! (Must read some more Macaulays. Have so many unread.)

Friends and Relations by Elizabeth Bowen
I need to read more Bowen, and I think she’ll come up on ‘Tea or Books?’ at some point – but which? Maybe this one?

Paul Kelver by Jerome K. Jerome
I keep buying JKJ books, don’t I? Hadn’t heard of this one before, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it sometime.

A Cup of Tea for Mr Thorgill by Storm Jameson
Another one of those authors I’ve been meaning to read for such a long time, and have only read some non-fic articles by her. This one, I’ll admit, I bought chiefly because I really love that cover.

Letters of Siegfried Sassoon and Max Beerbohm
Who knew these gents wrote to each other? Well, probably loads of people. But not I! (My Max Beerbohm shelf is growing at a fast rate…)

Virginia Woolf: Her Art as a Novelist by Joan Bennett
I’m not the sort of guy who’ll leave behind a book about Virginia Woolf – particularly an early one.

All The Dogs of My Life by Elizabeth von Arnim
How did I not own this before? Being a cat person more than a dog person, I’m not sure this lens will work for me – but I’ll find out. (NB must enthuse more about Sheila Kaye-Smith’s All The Books of My Life, which is wonderful.)

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
More Cunningham for my Cunningham shelf – yes please.

A Sea-Grape Tree by Rosamond Lehmann
I think I might own all of Lehmann’s novels now, and have still only read one (Dusty Answer) – but now I have even more choice.

A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of days in Brighton for a conference – and, whilst I was there, managed to persuade my colleagues that what they really wanted was to visit a secondhand bookshop. To do them credit, they did seem to enjoy it, and even bought a book or two – though the armfuls I was carrying around rather dwarfed them.

The bookshop was called Colin Page, and it’s brilliant. Excellent stock, low prices, and a spiral staircase = bliss. Also, the name of the shop also turns out to be the name of an American painter whose work I really, really like, so that was a nice coincidence. But you want to know what I bought, don’t you?

It was quite a quirky and unusual stock, mostly older hardbacks, and I think that was reflected in the books I came away with… Do tell me which you’ve got/read/want/etc.

The Flower-Show Match by Siegfried Sassoon
I grew very fond of Sassoon while reading Anna Thomasson’s A Curious Friendship, and have bought quite a few non-fiction books by him since then – this is my first collection of his prose fiction. I think fiction?

The Author and the Public: Problems of Communication
This is an anthology of different people thinking about the unique relationship between author and public. I have the perfect shelf for this sort of book, of course…

The Writing on the Wall by Mary McCarthy
Literary essays by an author that I have yet to read anything by – but what got this off the shelf and into my hands was the fact that a couple of the essays are about Ivy Compton-Burnett. I will amass anything about Dame Ivy.

Adonis and the Alphabet by Aldous Huxley
SIMON. Read some of the Aldous Huxley books you already have. Yes, I know. BUT ALSO LOOK HOW PRETTY THIS ONE IS. (More book descriptions below the image, of course.)

The Art of Growing Old by John Cowper Powys
I’ve grown more interested in the Powys brothers now that I have father-is-vicar-of-Montacute in common with them; this looks unusual and intriguing.

Muriel Spark – John Masefield
I’ve read lots and lots of Muriel Spark’s novels, but I’ve never read any of her biographies – and have to confess that I’d forgotten she’d even written one of Masefield. It will be intriguing to see if her is similar here to her unmistakably Sparkian novels.

Max Beerbohm in Perspective
I can’t see who wrote this from the image, and the book is all the way across the room… but I keep piling up books by and about Beerbohm, based on having liked one novel and one collection of essays. Here’s hoping I continue to enjoy Max!

The Reading of Books by Holbrook Jackson
Try imagining a world in which I didn’t buy a book with this title. You couldn’t do it, could you?

Mainly on the Air by Max Beerbohm
And there he is…

Also in the bigger image are two books I bought in a charity – House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier (which I had thought I owned, but apparently didn’t) and The Condemned Playground by Cyril Connolly, to follow up my read of  Enemies of Promise.

I wouldn’t say I’ve gone on a spree, per se, but I have bought a few books since Lent ended and my book buying was permitted again. A few of those have been online, some were in Oxford, and some were on a trip to London yesterday. More on that trip soon, but – for today – the books…

The Reader Over Your Shoulder by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge
I’ve been meaning to read their book The Long Weekend for a long time; this one looks quite different but also interesting. It’s a handbook for writing, but the bit I’m looking forward to is where they quote their contemporaries (from Lytton Strachey to Cicely Hamilton) and point out where they’ve written badly.

An Irrelevant Woman by Mary Hocking
Mary Hocking Reading Week starts any minute, courtesy of Heavenali, and my book arrived just in time to kick off.

The Prose Factory by D.J. Taylor
I’ve bought a few new books recently – as in new-new, rather than secondhand – which isn’t very like me. This one is an overview of literature since 1918, recommended by Deborah Lawrenson on Instagram. I think I might take it on holiday at the end of April.

Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
Another new book, this one with birthday voucher from my friend Malie. I love Moran’s columns, and particularly her book Moranthology, so I’m excited that another one is out.

The Charleston Bulletin Supplements
I have a vague idea that I already own this… but it’s supplements to Virginia Woolf’s childhood newspaper. Classic me. There’s no such thing as too much Woolf.

Cat’s Company by Michael Joseph
A lovely looking book about cats. I can’t remember quite what angle about cats, but… cats.

All the Days and Nights by William Maxwell
I think I’ve got all of Maxwell’s novels, though I’ve not read all of them by any means – but I didn’t have Maxwell’s short stories. Reading his letters makes me think he’ll be brilliant at the short story, and Rachel assured me he was on our podcast.

The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
I have so many Fitzgerald novels that I’ve yet to read, but I can’t resist another one that matches the set I have… plus, I’ve loved two of the three I’ve read, which is pretty good odds.

The Hopeful Traveller by Mary Hocking
This is the first Hocking I ordered, but then Ali told me that it was a sequel to a different novel – one that seemed impossible to find. Well, no longer, I suppose, since Bello are reprinting it!

Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself by Radclyffe Hall
This is a collection of short stories; I’ve previously read the title story of the collection, as it makes for very interesting comparison to Lolly Willowes, but none of the others.

Limbo by Aldous Huxley
This is a sweet little copy of some Huxley stories. Or perhaps novellas. They all seem pretty long.

Evergreens by Jerome K Jerome
Some short stories from JKJ. Apparently I bought quite a few collections of short stories, particularly in relation to the number I actually read… but it’s been too long since I read Jerome.

What’s For Dinner? by James Schuyler
Waterstones Piccadilly has a lovely section of independent publishers’ books, and that includes a selection of NYRB Classics. I knew I wanted to buy one of them, and chose the Schuyler – having loved Alfred and Guinevere last year. And what a curious title.

Buried For Pleasure by Edmund Crispin
And another Crispin to enjoy, after having laughed my way through The Moving Toyshop.

And there we have it! There is another book or two on their way through the post, but I wanted to get the post up today. Plus, I don’t want you to know the depths of my post-Lent spree. Ok, yes, spree is what it was.

I’m back in Oxford now, and took the opportunity to go via the Bookbarn in North Somerset – where I have been many times before, and have written about here on several occasions. Every book is £1, though all the best books are siphoned off into the internet-only section of the barn complex (which wasn’t always the case – those halcyon days when all the books were browsable!) Truth be told, their fiction section is quite poor now, and I got very little there, but I got an awful lot of non-fiction. As you will see…

Lydia & Maynard: the letters of Lydia Lopokova and John Maynard Keynes
Ballerinas and economists aren’t top of my list of interests, but the Bloomsbury Group certainly are up there – and I love collections of letters, so here’s a corner of that group that I can add to my collection.

The Hare With the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal
So, LibraryThing tells me that I already have this. Oops. Lucky charity shop in Oxford!

Letters to Louise: Theodore Dreiser’s Letters to Louise Campbell
I haven’t read a word by Dresier, but couldn’t resist more letters – particularly since they promise to cover his writing process and drafts, which is fascinating to me. And I bought a novel by him over a decade ago, so maybe it will inspire me to read that.

Hassan by James Elroy Flecker
If you’re following those books in the photo above, this was a tiny Penguin slipped between two bigger hardbacks. I bought this entirely because he gets a bewildered mention by the Provincial Lady.

Unforgettable, Unforgotten by Anna Buchan (O Douglas)
I didn’t realise that Anna B had written an autobiography – this looks fab.

Brensham Village by John Moore
The sequel to a book I have yet to read… but do own. Fingers crossed I like it!

Woman Alive by Susan Ertz
I haven’t read Ertz yet, but she gets a glowing mention in Nicola Beauman’s A Very Great Profession, and this hardback is lovely.

Two Worlds by David Daiches
All I know about Daiches is some literary criticism I read years ago – which seemed a good enough reason to grab his autobiography about growing up Jewish in Edinburgh.

Evelyn Waugh by Frances Donaldson
If there’s something I love even more than biographies, it’s memoirs by people who knew famous people in a non-famous context. Niche, I know, but Waugh’s self-proclaimed ‘country neighbour’ should be fun.

Talking Heads 2 by Alan Bennett
Writing Home by Alan Bennett
National Treasure.

The Spirit of Tolerance by Katharine Moore
I’ve read a couple of things by Moore, and also read about her editing this collection in her letters with Joyce Grenfell.

Mild and Bitter by A.P. Herbert
I can’t remember if I’ve ever actually read anything by APH, but I read quite a lot about him – and anything collected from Punch in the 1930s is going to be fabs,

My Apprenticeships by Colette
This is the year I’ll read some Colette, promise, Peter.

The Best of Stephen Leacock 1
I suspect I’ve got all these selections in other books, but I’m not the sort of guy who leaves Stephen Leacock on the shelf.

Pomp & Circumstance by Noel Coward
This has been on my keep-an-eye-out-for list for so many years that I can no longer quite way – other than the fact that Noel Coward is a legend.

The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium by Gerald Durrell
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives by Gerald Durrell
The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell
The Drunken Forest by Gerald Durrell
There were SO many books by Gerald Durrell and Laurence Durrell there – I was particularly pleased to find the second and third books in the My Family and other Animals trilogy.

Selected Essays by Hilaire Belloc
Since I use the word belloc to mean ‘hilarious’ – yes, I know – so I should read some essays by him, right?

I’ve been away in lovely Shropshire for a weekend at a stunning Landmark Trust property. For those in the UK (and mainland Europe too, I think), the Landmark Trust have a range of quirky and unusual buildings that you can rent, from lighthouses and castles to martello towers and a cottage in Frenchman’s Creek. We stayed in The White House, which is less quirky than some, but entirely beautiful. It’s half-Tudor, half-Georgian, and my bedroom was the servant’s quarters. It’s the far right of the first floor, if you want to look at the floor plans by following the link above. And here are some photos…

Six of us went, from my quiz team, and we mostly read books, quizzed each other, went on the occasional walk, and generally had a lovely, lazy time. It’s been quite difficult to get back to real life – and has confirmed how much I like Shropshire.

After spending a nice weekend (reading part or all of four books – more anon!) we went into Ludlow, where I was going to catch up with a dear friend. With a few minutes to spare, I popped into a so-called Renaissance Market, which had not-very-Renaissance secondhand books. (That reminds me of the time in Washington D.C. where somebody pointed me in the direction of the ‘Italian Renaissance building’, built circa 1900.) There was a really excellent selection, including oodles of Persephones – my housemate Kirsty picked up the seven I already had.

 Foreigners by Theodora Benson, Betty Askwith, and Nicolas Bentley (illustrator, of course) – having read their book about London, I thought it would be fun to see what they have to say about the rest of the world. A note in the shop warned that it wasn’t PC!

The Country Housewife’s Book by Lucy H. Yates
Consider the Years by Virginia Graham
A couple of Persephones I didn’t have – although I do have the Graham in another edition and reviewed it a while ago.

Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs – I’ve been waiting to stumble across this graphic biography of Briggs’ parents ever since I watched a documentary about him. At last!

The Romance of Dr Dinah by Mary Essex – on the surface, this novel looks kinda trashy, but I’ve really enjoyed the other Mary Essex novels I’ve read. Fingers crossed that this is better than its presentation suggests!

Guess who’s bought some more books? Yes, you win, it’s me. These didn’t all come in the same shopping trip, though, if that helps you at all – not that many of you will frown upon the buying of books, I suspect. Here they are, and here’s why I got ’em!

Mr Darling Villain by Lynne Reid Banks

I hadn’t heard of this book by my much-loved author of The L-Shaped Room, but I suspect it is one of her teen books. The exciting thing for me is that it’s signed by her! To Tanya something, but… well, I can always change my name.

The Weald of Youth by Siegfried Sassoon

What fun this book looks – and ever since loving A Curious Friendship, I’ve wanted to read more by or about Sassoon.

First and Last by Victor L. Whitechurch
The Locum Tenens by Victor L. Whitechurch

I thought The Canon in Residence was fantastic, and curiously enough had been thinking about Whitechurch just before I came across these in a lovely little secondhand bookshop in Stratford-upon-Avon (Chaucer’s Head). Remind me to read these, please.

Mark Only by T.F. Powys

This came from the Oxfam bookshop that my friend Hannah runs (she being the reason I was visiting Stratford). They had lots of Powys novels, but I left the others behind. It was only later that I discovered that it is a perfect candidate for The 1924 Club!

A Writer’s Notebook by W. Somerset Maugham

I seem to have almost bought this dozens of times, and this time I was tipped over the edge.

The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath by Humphry Berkeley

The ‘e’s in the author’s name seem to be all out of place, but this caricature spoof looks like it should be fun. I’m using the words ‘caricature spoof’ because I don’t quite know how else to describe this. Maybe I will when I read it.

Various Voices by Harold Pinter

It’s been a while since I read any Pinter – about 10 years, probably – so it’ll be interesting to discover in an undergraduate fervour is required to appreciate him.

Caroline by Richmal Crompton
Portrait of a Family by Richmal Crompton

Thank you Bello for these reprints! I have the rest of the Cromptons they’re reprinting (this time around) already, though quite a few are unread, but these two have alluded me for years – I’m delighted to have them.

In consecutive weekends I’ve been to Cambridge and London and thought, on the whole, that I wouldn’t buy any books. Obviously that bit is a lie. I bought some books in both those places, and here they are – along with one which arrived in the post this week.

Virginia Woolf and the Raverats ed. William Pryor
I looked at this covetously when it came out, but it was super expensive – thankfully I stumbled across a heavily discounted copy. It’s such a beauty of a book, woodcuts inside and all, and I will never have enough books about Virginia Woolf.

Brief Candles by Aldous Huxley
I want to keep up my reading of non-sci-fi Huxley, and this was a lovely copy. Other than that, I know nothing about it. Oh, Wikipedia tells me that it’s short stories. What does it say about me that I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I’d known that?

Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmah
Remember what I said about Virginia Woolf back up there? Also, my book group is doing this next year. Because I suggested it.

About Time: an aspect of autobiography by Penelope Mortimer
This sounds fun – particularly as I want to know more about the background to The Pumpkin Eater.

H.G. Wells and His Family by M.M. Meyer
I have no idea who Meyer is, but apparently he/she knew H.G. Wells and his family. I’m always more interested in memoirs by people who knew the greats than I am in scholarly biographies (much though I also like those).

Confusion by Stefan Zweig
I have been meaning to read some Zweig for ages. Not this one particularly, but the Pushkin Press editions of his books that I found in the London Review of Books bookshop were so beautiful that I wanted to buy one. And I basically picked it at random from the few that were there.

A Monstrous Regiment by Richmal Crompton
This one came through the post. I get abebooks wants alerts for obscurer Richmal Cromptons, and this was the first time A Monstrous Regiment came up in over a decade. (Also: hurrah for Bello bringing lots of RCs back!)

Death Leaves A Diary by Harry Carmichael
I don’t know anything about this, but a Golden Age detective novel with a title that fab? Yes please.

By the way, which in London I also had a nice catch-up with Rachel – who now has the internet, finally, so ‘Tea or Books?’ will definitely be back soon. The hiatus has been so frustrating for us! (She didn’t buy any books, despite my tempting her. Wise woman.)

I’m on a little holiday in Somerset, spending time with Our Vicar and Our Vicar’s Wife some of the time, and spending other chunks of time looking after beautiful Sherpa with Colin. I haven’t seen Sherpa (my parents’ cat) since Christmas, and have missed her like crazy, so she’s been getting lots of hugs from me today.

But yesterday I went to Clevedon and Taunton, and bought myself some books. If you’re ever in the vicinity of Clevedon, Somerset, can I recommend that you check out Clevedon Community Bookshop? There is a good selection of books, very reasonably priced, and the staff are super friendly. I bought four books there, two in a bookshop in Taunton, and another couple in Clevedon charity shops. So, what were they?

The Last Tresilians – J.I.M. Stewart

Karyn loved this book back in 2011, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for it ever since – and was thrilled to see it in Clevedon Community Bookshop’s nice bookcase of Penguins (Karyn, you need to visit!)

How To Suppress Women’s Writing – Joanna Russ

I felt bad as this title was being read by one man to his colleague, to write down in their sales book – and I felt obliged to point out that it was ironic, and a feminist work. I saw it mentioned on Twitter recently, I think, and was chuffed to discover a copy so soon afterwards.

Circular Saws – Humbert Wolfe

I mostly know Wolfe as a book reviewer from the 1920s, and can’t quite work out if this is a selection of essays, stories, or arbitrary thoughts – but it certainly looks fun and 1920s-y.

Dear Austen – Nina Bawden

About Bawden losing her husband Austen in a railway accident.

Looking For Alaska – John Green

I liked The Fault in Our Stars, and Green is very engaging on YouTube, so I thought I’d try another of his books for teenagers (I totally refuse to use the term ‘young adult’ except when referring to young adults, rather than younger-than-adults).

The Gallery of Vanished Husbands – Natasha Solomons

I really liked Mr Rosenblum’s List, so grabbed this book. An intriguing title!

Tommy & Co. – Jerome K. Jerome

Did you know that JKJ had written this book? I didn’t. I would have done if I’d ever gotten around to reading the biography of JKJ that I have – which I WILL DO ONE DAY.

Still Missing – Beth Gutcheon

A Persephone novel that I don’t yet have, for £1.95?! Yes please!

Hope you’re having a lovely weekend, and reading lots. I’m knee-deep in Martin Edwards’ The Golden Age of Murder right now, and loving it.