RANDOM JOTTINGS

I have read some simply terrific books in the last week: Pomp and Circumstance by Noel Coward, sheer delight from start to finish; The  Spy Game by Georgina Harding, elusive and sad and intriguing at the same time; The Blue Hour by  Lillian Pizzichini, a biography of Jean Rhys which had me swinging wildly between feeling sorry for Jean and then wanting to wring her neck and, finally, as an antidote to the excesses and misery of the aforementioned Ms Rhys, I re-read The Wedding Season by Katie Fforde which has made me feel much better.  Lots to write about all of them and will do so in due course, but not today as I am feeling lazy.

It is lovely at the moment, the sun is shining and all is peaceful and quiet in my little corner of Colchester. I have turned off Classic FM, the ads which seem to have increased in frequency of late, were annoying me as I was getting impatient by the interruptions of a silly voice telling me I should eat more yogurt, go to Waitrose and buy more Premium Bonds, and Radio 3 is also silent as I decided I just wanted peace.  And here I sit at my trusty laptop looking out of the window – to my left the bushes and shrubs of the small gardens surrounding this block of flats and to my right, the car park….enough said.

The reason I am mentioning the Haunted Bookshop is that I am going to Cambridge tomorrow and every time I go there I visit this particular bookshop which I love.  The owner, Sarah Key, used to (well probably still does), come to the book fairs at Long Melford, a glorious village in Suffolk and it was there I first discovered her and her wonderful collection of children's books (she also has adult books in her bookshop but it was the junior stuff I was then interested in), and it was from one of these visits that I got hold of a first edition of The Valley of Song by Elizabeth Goudge and also Linnets and Valerians by the same author. 

On a visit to the Haunted Bookshop back in 2004, when I and assorted book lovers were attending a Persephone weekend at Newnham College, we made a raid, luckily just before closing time (the door was just going to be shut and locked for the day when I grabbed the handle and said, to my own utter astonishment 'Oh stay' and the shop duly stayed and we all went in and between us spent about £150).

The bookshop is tiny with books crammed in from floor to ceiling, upstairs is even worse/better (choose which you think describes this best) with books double and treble stacked, all over the floor, piled in heaps against the wall (heaven help you if the one you want is at the bottom) and you have to kneel, rummage and grovel to see all the treasures that are there.  I was rummaging in great style one day when an American woman arrived and nearly passed out when she saw all the books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Angela Brazil and others and was obviously in seventh heaven.

It was during the earlier 2004 foray that I discovered, among the William books of Richmal Crompton, a good selection of her adult works of which I am a huge fan.  Bought some, those I could afford, but left others but last year I bit on the bullet, took a very expensive RC downstairs and negotiated its purchase.  It had been there for at least four years (I know because I checked it each time) and decided that it really should come home with me.  Sarah was at a book fair that day so she was called on her mobile and a bidding war started.  Well, not as grand as that but after a bit of toing and froing I persuaded her to give me a pretty good discount and duly came home with me.

Sarah very kindly sent me tickets for the last Cambridge book fair and I met up with my friend Jan Jones (we meet for lunch in Cambridge every six weeks or so and we always join up outside the Haunted Bookshop) and we had a lovely day trolling amongst the booksellers there and I came home with some out of print Josephine Tey which has started me off on a re-read of this author. 

So if ever you are in Cambridge, do take time to drop in and check out this link here which will tell you where it is located.

So will be calling by tomorrow to have another rummage, though now I am a Retired Lady, I shall need to hone up my negotiating skills even more now that I am also living on a Limited Income and need to save money.

Sarah has told me she looks at my website so thought I might just drop a hint or two……