The Sack of Hay

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.