Haul

I’ve got surprisingly little reading done down in Somerset so far – still on my first book, Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley, which seemed to get the most enthusiasm when I mentioned it the other day. And, indeed, I am really enjoying it. Here it is, in situ, on the beach at Lyme Regis.

More on that another time. Today I’m going to tell you about the various books I’ve bought down here in Somerset so far – I’ve been to two secondhand bookshop in Crewkerne, two in Bridport, and two in Lyme Regis. Alongside a few books I bought for other people, not pictured, I have bought eight for myself…

The Pursuit of Laughter – Diana Mosley
The Making of a Muckraker – Jessica Mitford
Two non-fic books to fuel my love of all things Mitford.

This Real Night – Rebecca West
The Gipsy’s Baby – Rosamond Lehmann
The Victorian Chaise-Longue – Marghanita Laski
And my love of Virago and Persephone! I have read the last, but didn’t have a Persephone copy.

The Foolish Immortals – Paul Gallico
The House That Wouldn’t Go Away – Paul Gallico
Bridport and Lyme Regis seem full of Gallico books! These seem like they’d be up my street – one about a conman who claims to sell immortality, ‘but [to quote the blurb] is he being conned by someone else?’ – cue Simon whipping it off the shelf and into his hot little hands. The second is about a previous house haunting the house built in its place. I love books about houses with bizarre powers (yes, what an odd taste to have, but… I do!)

The Book of Indoor Games – Hubert Phillips & B.C. Westall
I’d have bought this for the cover alone, but inside seems fun too. Lots on cards, chess etc. but – more to my liking – lots on parlour games! Interesting to see the precedents of games like Scrabble, Boggle, Scattergories etc. all included there. Will probably write more about this later…

A couple of photographs to finish with. This is one of the bookshops I went to in Bridport (the other, called Bridport Old Books, was being run by a woman reading A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor, so we had a nice little chat about that)

and here is the little lady who has brought me to Somerset, looking her adorable self:

I’ve spent the past couple of days visiting Ludlow and Hay-on-Wye (the latter with my friend from Ludlow). The visit was a little spoilt by a (non-dangerous) car-related thing which was my fault, and very annoying. I tried not to let me stupidity cast a cloud over a day of book-filled fun, and it certainly didn’t diminish my book-buying capabilities: I came back 19 books the richer, and it includes some choices which are endearing eccentric, even for me. (Yes, I tend to be called eccentric on this blog, but I thought I’d throw in ‘endearing’ too… let’s run with it.) This photo is in Richard Booth Books – I want to move into their shop, please.

Jenny Wren – E.H. Young
The Vicar’s Daughter – E.H. Young
I’ve been very fortunate with stumbling across Young novels, and must have nearly all of them by now… I even aided and abetted Young novel buying – my friend bought William and The Misses Mallett.

Through a Glass Darkly: the life of Patrick Hamilton – Nigel Jones
A biography of my favourite author du jour, for when I finally get around reading the other Hamilton novels I’ve been hoarding.

The Letters of Evelyn Waugh – ed. Mark Amory
Had my eye of this book for a while, and it was less than a third of the cover price – hurrah!

The Corner That Held Them – Sylvia Townsend Warner
I was hoping to find some STW short stories in Hay, and although I didn’t manage to, I did manage to get another of her novels.

Jill – Philip Larkin
My friend Clare loves this, so I’ve kept an eye out for a while. Plus it has a nice cover of someone on a bicycle.

The Second Mrs. Tanqueray – Arthur Wing Pinero
Pinero’s plays are bizarrely difficult to find in bookshops, given how influential he was, so I snapped up this one.

The Victorian Chaise-Longue – Marghanita Laski
Not the Persephone edition (which I read from the library a while ago) but an old Penguin – fancied having this on the shelf.

The Swan in the Evening – Rosamond Lehmann
Autobiographical fragment of an author I really *will* read one day…

Safety Pins – Christopher Morley
A hopefully amusing collection of essays by the author of Parnassus on Wheels – my housemate Debs has already stolen it from me, and read out excerpts which made me guffaw.

Shaving Through The Blitz – G.W. Stonier
Great title! This looks like it might be akin to ‘Mr. Miniver’, had that book existed.

The Ballad of Peckham Rye – Muriel Spark
I just keep buying those Spark books… this one has the advantage that my supervisor told me to read it, and fools me into thinking that the trip to Hay was essentially study.

A Reckoning – May Sarton
Blame Thomas.

Messages from My Father – Calvin Trillin
See above.

A Baker’s Dozen – Llewelyn Powys
I have read around the Powys family, and thought I’d read a little more – Llewelyn Powys’ father (and thus presumably Littelton’s, T.F.’s and John Cowper’s) was a vicar in Montacute – a beautiful village near our home in Somerset – and this little book is a collection of essay memories about his childhood.

The Shakespeare Wallah – Geoffrey Kendal
I didn’t realise Felicity Kendal’s father had written this book – I loved her autobiography/biography of him White Cargo, and this book will be a fantastic complementary read.

The Island of the Colorblind – Oliver Sacks
The other day I asked people on Facebook to recommend Oliver Sacks titles, since I found The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat fascinating. I don’t think anyone mentioned this, but it looks really interesting… does what it says on the tin.

…and now for my favourite two finds of the day…

Gin & Ginger – Lady Kitty Vincent
Lipstick – Lady Kitty Vincent
These books, from 1927 and 1925, are silly, comic sketches in the vein of Joyce Dennys’ lighter books – illustrated with fun pictures by ‘Fish’. I’d never heard of them before, but they’re irresistible. Exactly the sort of thing I lap up. Lipstick starts “No, my dear, I cannot say that I really know the Bishop of Runnymede”. I think these will go straight to the top of my pile… can’t wait.

Whilst at home (I am now back in Oxford) I had a day heading off to the Bookbarn, and then onto Bristol to see my brother. It left me with a deep distrust of Bristol’s road systems, especially those lanes which lead exclusively into multi-storey car parks. But the Bookbarn part, and the brother part, were great fun.

For those not in the know, the Bookbarn is a huge warehouse of books out in the middle of nowhere in Somerset. It used to be all open to the public – now they are increasingly shutting off stock for internet buying, which is a shame. You used to have to choose to only look at authors beginning with C, for example, because that would take the best part of an hour. Now they have a relatively small fiction section – but I say relatively, because the amount on view is still about five times the size of most bookshops. AND, for a bonus, the books are only £1 each. And there’s a huge unsorted section, which made for fun scouring…

I met up with two members of my online book group, Carol and Diney, who also live in the West Country, and they did not disappoint. Between us we bought 76 books. These are my kind of people…. anyway, 31 of those purchases were mine, and I’m not the sorta guy who buys books and keeps quiet about them. So… here goes with all the books I added to my shelves (and yes, the rearrange left plenty of room for them):

These aren’t going to be in the order of the photograph, I’m afraid, since I took the photo a day or so ago, and I am now at some distance from all the books! My eyes are hurting now, after typing everything out, and everytime I count the books in the list and in the picture they come to different totals. But I know I bought 31…

– Confessions of a Story-Teller: short stories by Paul Gallico
– The Small Miracle by Paul Gallico
– Ludmilla, and The Lonely by Paul Gallico
– The Adventures of Hirm Holliday by Paul Gallico
Paul Gallico certainly seems to have been prolific! I left some behind, but these were the ones which most appealed. Since he seems to have covered the spectrum from fey to very dark, I’m going to have to tread carefully, I think…

– A Village in a Valley by Beverley Nichols
I keep stockpiling Nichols books, and have still read none…

– Four Years at the Old Vic 1929-1933 by Harcourt Williams
– The Theatre Since 1900 by J.C. Trewin
One of my interests is theatrical history, especially in the first half of the 20th century. I was a bit overwhelmed by the three bookcases labelled ‘Theatre’, and plucked these more or less at random… but they do look fascinating.

– Nonsense Novels by Stephen Leacock
I haven’t mentioned Leacock much on my blog, but I adored his writings in 2002 (when I read eight or so) and must revisit. I picked this up intending to give it to someone, but delightfully (for me!) it seems to be one of the few Leacock books I didn’t already have.

– Countries of the Mind: Essays in Literary Criticism by J. Middleton Murry
Aka Mr. Katherine Mansfield. I loved his collection Pencillings a few years ago.

– Dreams in War Time: A Faithful Record by E.M. Martin
This pretty, deckled-edge little book was too peculiar to leave behind. It is what it says – someone has written down their dreams during WW2. I love bizarre little finds, and this could be really interesting.

– Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
I don’t know why I know about this novel, but I do… or, rather, I know about its existence. Anyone?

– Letters to a Sister by Rose Macaulay
You probably know my fondness for Macaulay, and I’ve previously enjoyed her letters to a priest who was a friend of hers – I hadn’t realised this collection existed, and it was definitely a bargain.

– After the Stroke: a journal by May Sarton
As it sounds, it’s an autobiographical book about life after a stroke.

– Summer in February by Jonathan Smith
Carol told me this was great, and I believe her :)

– The Dud Avacado by Elaine Dundy
Excellent condition Virago Modern Classic for £1? Yes please.

– The Love Child by Edith Olivier
This lovely first edition I bought to give to someone else

– Star Quality by Noel Coward
Coward short stories: why not?

– The New Immortality by J.W. Dunne
This one is for my research – Dunne wrote some strange metaphysical books which are quoted by one or two of my authors…

– Conversations in Ebury Street by George Moore
Back in 2004 I read a quotation from this about Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, with which I completely concurred (i.e. that it’s brilliantly formed) and I’ve been hoping to stumble across an affordable copy ever since. Looks to be one long conversational ramble – lovely!

– My American by Stella Gibbons
Still only read the delectable Cold Comfort Farm (and I’m excited about the Vintage reprints of her novels coming out soon!) but always worth having more in store…

– Her Book by Daisy Ashford
Basically everything she wrote except The Young Visiters [sic] – should be fun.

– The Unspeakable Skipton by Pamela Hansford Johnson
In my head, The Unbearable Bassington and The Unspeakable Skipton have always gone hand-in-hand. Somehow loving the former has made me want to try the latter – I have previously loved one PHJ novel and disliked another, so who knows with this one?

– The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg by Louis Bromfield
– Mrs. Parkington by Louis Bromfield
Rachel (Book Snob) and her enthusiasm for this author has made me intrigued…

– The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
I adored this novel last year, but had read a library copy – this was definitely one I wanted to have for myself.

– The Ginger Griffin by Ann Bridge
Just read Illyrian Spring (that Rachel again…) and loved it, will review soon, have more ready to read!

– Leave it to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse
You can never have too much Wodehouse: FACT.

– Wonderful Clouds by Francoise Sagan
After enjoying Bonjour Tristesse, I wanted to try more. So pleased to have found another author I enjoy who writes exclusively short books!

– A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble
Another author I’m stockpiling, despite having read nothing by her…

– The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark
Since I seem to have bought something by Spark everytime I post about recent purchases (she was apparently indefatiguable) it seems an appropriate book to finish with.

Phew! Quite a haul, and came in at only £31. As always, comments on books you’ve read, want to read, or have never heard of…

(p.s. HAPPY ROYAL WEDDING DAY! So exciting…)

Those of you who thought I’d buy myself more than 20 books in Edinburgh – well, sorry, but you lose. I did buy myself 19… and I did buy four for other people. That includes two copies of William by EH Young – one of which I gave to Karen (aka Cornflower – lovely to see her again!) and the other will be up for grabs when my review is posted. Enough about that… I’m sure you want to see the haul that (somehow) accompanied me home in the train.

Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell – Their Correspondence
This was perfect for my recent piqued interest in theatrical history and so forth – Mrs. Patrick Campbell seems such a fascinating character, and I can’t wait to dip into this one. In another shop I held a book signed by Mrs. PC – but it was £75. (Which reminds me; today at work I held a book signed by Vita Sackville-West!)

The Grasshoppers Come – David Garnett
You probably know that I love Lady Into Fox; this one was on my ‘should probably read’ list, although I don’t remember why I chose this title in particular for that list…

Moor Fires – E.H. Young
I hadn’t heard of this one, and have since found it is incredibly scarce (if you don’t want a nasty POD copy) – so my £2 purchase was a bit of a find! Critics do say her early novels aren’t as good as her later ones, though…

The Loved and Envied – Enid Bagnold
I do believe that Carol’s review of this was awarded Best Review of Virago Reading Week by Rachel – it certainly led to me picking up a copy when I spotted it.

Thunder on the Left – Christopher Morley
After loving Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop, I’m keen to try more Morley – and this one has an encouraging introduction from Hugh Walpole.

Designs for a Happy Home – Matthew Reynolds
I read about this on Karen’s blog ages ago, so it was appropriate that I finally snared myself a copy whilst on my way to visit her.

A Model Childhood – Christa Wolf
The first of several VMCs, I have a feeling I left this in the bookshop when I was last in Edinburgh, 16 months ago. This time I was tempted enough to pick up an account of a childhood under Nazi Germany.

A View of the Harbour – Elizabeth Taylor
LibraryThing tells me I already have this… but I certainly don’t have this beautiful edition. I’ve already promised to send my duplicate up to the friend with whom I was staying… once I find it. Also, when I bought it (in a charity bookshop) the sales assistant was a very friendly, knowledgeable man who’d read all Taylor’s novels and said this was his favourite!

Our Spoons Came From Woolworths – Barbara Comyns
Ok, I knew I already owned this, but not with this cover – I love Stanley Spencer’s paintings so much (and they’re so Comyns-appropriate) that I couldn’t leave this on the shelf.

Fraulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther – Elizabeth von Arnim
One day I will read another E von A, after loving The Enchanted April… here is more fodder, when that moment comes.

The Caravaners – Elizabeth von Arnim
And here’s a bit more…

Three Came Unarmed – E. Arnot Robertson
Do you ever find, even when you’ve not read a word an author’s written, that you’re so sure you’ll enjoy them that you fill your shelves with their novels? This is the fourth or fifth EAR novel to be waiting in the wings… (Picture is of McNaughtan’s Bookshop, from which this and several other books came.)

William: the Pirate – Richmal Crompton
One of my ambitions this year was to accumulate as many old William books as I could, if they were a reasonable price. One down, so far!

Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary – Ruby Ferguson
Yes, I have the Persephone edition of this pleasing tale, but I couldn’t resist this beautiful, interesting old edition. And the money from it went to charity… so, basically, I did good.

Maurice – E.M. Forster
Having loved Howards End (oops, still haven’t written about it) I thought I’d see which EMFs I loved and which I didn’t by adding more to my arsenal.

Apricots at Midnight – Adele Geras
I know little about this, but Clare (the friend whose flat I was staying in) bought it for me as she loves it and wanted me to have a copy – thanks Clare!

How Can You Bear to be Human? – Nicholas Bentley
Need I even say that I bought this entirely for the title?

Joy and Josephine – Monica Dickens
I have plenty Monica Dickens waiting to be read, but someone told me the other day that this novel is about twins – and you know how I can’t resist those.

Violet to Vita – the Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville-West
More Bloomsbury stuff to read one day…

I was going to list the books I bought a week or two ago in London, but that’ll have to wait for another day, as there’s more than enough to be going on with for now!

You know the drill – read any? Want any? Thoughts, please!

Yes, Project 24 has begun (as I intend to call it) – I’ll keep you updated throughout the year with the twenty-four books which find their way into my home, that’ll be something to look forward to, won’t it – but on the 29th December Our Vicar’s Wife and I took a trip to the wondrous Bookbarn. It’s the biggest secondhand bookshop (nay, barn) in the country, and happens to be a mere thirty-one miles from our house in Chiselborough. So, I went out on a high, buying a pile of books so tall and so unstable that it prompted comment from more than one bystander.

As with my recent Hay-on-Wye haul, I bought lots of Ivy Compton-Burnett novels:
– More Women Than Men
– The Last and the First
– Elders and Betters
– Men & Wives
I’ve stocked up on so many ICBs now that I doubt I’ll have finished them in a decade’s time… but still three or four more to look out for!

Most of the rest of these are novels which I’ve heard talked about in books like A Very Great Profession, or from people who like Persephone books, or Virago Modern Classics… the Yahoo Group dovegreybooks would simply describe them as ‘doveish’, but if you liked any of my Top Books of 2009, then you’ll probably be interested…

– A Wreath of Roses – Elizabeth Taylor (I came away from Nicola Beauman’s biography of ET very keen to read this one)
– An Autumn Sowing – EF Benson (a recommendation from Elaine at Random Jottings)
-The Match Maker – Stella Gibbons (of Cold Comfort Farm fame)
– A Child in the Theatre – Rachel Ferguson (of Brontes Went To Woolworths fame)
– Anne Severn and the Fieldings – May Sinclair
– Mary Olivier: A Life – May Sinclair (since I loved Life and Death of Harriett Frean, I’m intrigued to read more)
– Staying with Relations – Rose Macaulay
– Grand Hotel – Vicki Baum
– High Table – Joanna Cannan
– Guard Your Daughters – Diana Tutton (where have I heard of this? Hands up if you’re guilty!)
– Red Pottage – Mary Cholmondeley (I’ve heard this called one of the best Virago Modern Classics, if memory serves…)
– The Stone Angel – Margaret Laurence (read this in 2007, really enjoyed it, and finally stumbled across a cheap copy. I also bought the film a couple of months ago, and still haven’t watched it.)

– The Silent Traveller in Oxford – Chiang Yee (one of the men working in the Bookbarn somehow found out that I am at Oxford, and so recommended this – it’s a travel diary with beautiful Chinese illustrations. Usually I don’t like travel literature, because I don’t have a visual mind, but I know all the places he’s going already!)

That’s it! (Well, I also bought a book as a gift, which will be flying across the blogosphere soon) Phew. 17 books which, as Mum pointed out, is the equivalent of eight and half months-worth of my book-buying in 2010. That’s quite a sobering thought.

But let’s ignore that, eh, and I’ll just revel in that lovely pile of books. Comments, of course, both welcome and solicited. Green-eyed venom optional.

As you may remember, next year I’m starting Project 24. Not only am I 24 myself at the moment, but that is the number of books I’m intending to buy (for myself, anyway) in 2010. So, before privations set in, my friend Lorna, my brother Colin, and I all went off to Hay-on-Wye for a day’s book buying. It’s a three hour drive from here (if you’re still a fairly nervous driver in the dark, like I am) which left us with 4.5 hours book shopping in Hay – in which time we managed seven shops. Lorna, believe it or not, spends even longer in a bookshop than I do – which makes her the perfect person to take. Colin, wisely, abandoned us as soon as we got there. Not for him the hours looking at every book in the shop.

I realise that I’ve not explained what Hay-on-Wye is, for the uninitiated – it’s a town filled with secondhand bookshops. Yes, filled. We went to seven, but I believe there are over thirty. Some specialist, some general, some tiny, some huge – but something of Elysium for book-lovers. I came away with 15 books, but three of those are presents for other people, so I won’t include them in this list…

The Present and the Past – Ivy Compton-Burnett
A God & His Gifts – Ivy Compton-Burnett
Daughters and Sons – Ivy Compton-Burnett
Secrets of a Woman’s Heart: The Later Life of ICB – Hilary Spurling
As you can tell, the trip was quite a successful one, as regards ICB. And these books actually all came from different shops. Luckily I had my notecards with me, listing every book that I own, so I didn’t get any duplicate ICBs. As I’ve said before about her, I need to ration her novels out – now I have enough to keep my going for a few years at least.

The Love-Child – Edith Olivier
The Seraphim Room – Edith Olivier
Yes, I do have the Virago edition of The Love-Child. Two, in fact. But this was a lovely 1927 edition, and… well, I shan’t bother defending myself. People are in two firm categories when it comes to buying books you already own. Either they find the idea so ridiculous that no amount of rhetoric will persuade them otherwise, or it seems so natural a thing to do that no explanation is necessary.
And then, having seen The Love-Child, I came upon The Seraphim Room. I don’t know about you, but when I’m making special trips to book-towns or big bookshops, I wait for the moment which makes the journey special and memorable. The discovery of a book which will make the excursion worthwhile (above and beyond its intrinsic fun) – and this book was it. I’ve wanted to buy it before, and not been able to find a copy online for less than £70. But this one accompanied me home, having set me back… £4! Hurrah and huzzah!

The Curate’s Wife – EH Young
Though I’ve still not read anything by EH Young, I am now the proud owner of five of her novels.

Sing Me Who You Are – Elizabeth Berridge
I know her as the Persephone author of Tell It To A Stranger – this little novel looked intriguing.

The Debt to Pleasure – John Lanchester
Book Group is reading this later in the year, so I thought I’d pick it up whilst I saw it.

Rose Macaulay – Constance Babbington-Smith
A biography to accompany one of my ‘discoveries’ of 2009 (I am aware that everyone else discovered her before me, but still…)

Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper – Harriet Scott Chessman
Lynne (from dovegreyreader) lent this to me years ago, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for a cheapish copy ever since. In fact I saw half a dozen copies in Hay – like waiting for a bus, I suppose.

Prince – Ib Michael
I’m keen to read more Scandinavian literature, so I pored over the Scandinavian section of the Hay Cinema Bookshop (which is one of my favourites). This Danish novel, subtitled ‘a novel of icebergs and amber’, looks very atmospheric and perfect for a cold winter evening. And trust me, it’s pretty cold here in Somerset at the moment…

As always, I welcome and cherish comments on recent purchases – do feel free. I’m tentatively planning a visit to the Bookbarn before the end of the year, so these couple of weeks are the book equivalent of a huge feast before going on a diet.

I spent the weekend with my brother in Bristol – of course I wanted to see him, but I also wanted to go to the Books for Amnesty shop. It has its own website, which is quite impressive for a charity bookshop, and I documented my first visit to it about a year ago. It’s good quality, cheap, quick turnover, and for a good cause. Of the six books I bought there, all had been put on their shelves in the last month (they date them when they put them out) so the shop really does warrant frequent visits. And of course I also bought three books in another shop… these nine came, in total, to £8.40. A success, I think you’ll agree. Keen eyes will spot 12 books in the Recent Acquisitions pile below… two came from the Albion Beatnik Bookshop in Oxford, one through the post after being recommended by my friend Barbara-from-Ludlow.

Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury
This is the one Barbara-from-Ludlow recommended, as being in the same sort of area as my dissertation.

English Short Stories of Today – ed. E. J. O’Brien
Includes a story by David Garnett, Edward Sackville-West, Antonia White etc. The ‘Today’ in question is 1934.

The Sandcastle – Iris Murdoch
I keep piling up the Murdochs that I *will* read one day… Someone recommended this to me once, I think.

Summer at the Haven – Katharine Moore
A friend of Joyce Grenfell, wrote some non-fiction (e.g. this on maiden aunts) – this slim novel is about an old people’s home, and is apparently amusing and optimistic. Might make interesting reading alongside Elizabeth Taylor’s Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.

Howards End – EM Forster
Despite not having much luck with his novels so far, I thought I’d persevere. Mostly because of the beautifully inviting cover to this edition. I snapped this up before it even reached the shelves – the shop assistant was putting it out, and I took it from her very hands…

Family Money – Nina Bawden
Not read anything by her yet… but her name has always been on the peripheries of my reading. I’ve had Tortoise by Candlelight forever, though no idea from whence it came.

Family History – Vita Sackville-West
This rang a bell in my mind… I was reminded later that someone was going to send me their spare copy of this. Goops.

The Shutter of Snow – Emily Holmes Coleman
I know nothing about this author, would love to be enlightened. The 1930s novel is about madness, a theme I love reading about… will let you know.

Clash – Ellen Wilkinson
Another author about whom I know nothing, but a £1 Virago ought not be left.

Writing Lives: Conversations Between Women Writers
Newer Virago writers interview older Virago writers – what’s not to like? I can give a full list of authors later, if anybody’s interested?

Among You Taking Notes – The Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison
I thought I had other books by her… but apparently not. I always like to have letters or diaries on the go.

Behindlings – Nicola Barker
Sounds quirky and weird, and maybe my cup of tea… at 40p, I thought I could risk it.