This little book was amongst a shelf of poetry books which I picked up at an auction earlier this week. The author, William Noel Hodgson, was an Oxford graduate who had volunteered in 1914 and had risen through the ranks to become a Lieutenant. I flicked through it and read a few of the poems […]
I am an intern at Edinburgh Books. People in my course of studies have to spend at least three months in an English speaking country. As if that wouldn’t be enough you have to spend a certain time of these three months with something relevant for your studies. This might be a job as a […]
Once in a while we all need some escapism. Some reach for a Terry Pratchett, others pick up an Agatha Christie to get their minds off the cares of the day. My escapist reading is, well, it’s literally escapism. Ever since I was given a copy of Donald Caskie’s ‘The Tartan Pimpernel’ when I was […]
Apologies for the lack of recent blogging activity. I have been out to pasture for over a year but I’m fed up with grazing(pun intended) and intend to blog much more frequently…at least one entry every six months. I was just pricing a wee book of poems by the late Neil R. MacCallum, Scottish nationalist […]
I bought a wee book at the auction today called Malice in Kulturland by Horace Wyatt, published by The Car Illustrated in 1915. It’s a satire on the political situation in Europe at the start of the Great War in the style of Alice in Wonderland complete with Tenniel-like illustrations by ‘W. Tell’. By page […]
It has gone out of fashion in these post-modern times, but stories used to begin with a beginning, progress to a middle and conclude with an ending. Open-minded as I am, I have never minded a slight twist in the last chapter, but there my liberalism ends. So, my story will begin with the iconic […]
You find all sorts of inscriptions in books, usually on the front endpaper, from the plain name and address to pledges of undying love. I came across one today at the front of a copy of ‘Grammont’s memoirs of the Court of Charles the Second’ by Anthony Hamilton.The inscription to the front pastedown reads thus […]
You find all sorts of interesting things stuck inside books: letters, tickets, obituaries, even money.Today I found a Carol – a Scotch (or Scots) Carol in fact which I will now commit to cyberspace. It was typed on a small piece of paper and “From Popular Antiquities Pub. 1810” was scribbled in pencil underneath. I […]
Some customers are just funny. Funny peculiar I mean, not Funny ha-ha, though we have our fair share of those too.One peculiar thing that these funny customers do is to go straight to a section where somebody else is already standing and do everything but peer between the first customer’s legs in order to see […]
I don’t think we have a huge problem with theft but then again, I just don’t know. There are eight fairly sizeable rooms in the shop with thousands of books in each of them and although I try, it’s impossible to keep an eye on every book we sell. Sometimes I go to look for […]