I went to Hay-on-Wye at the beginning of the month, but it’s taken me a good while to get around to listing all my spoils. And, goodness, I bought a lot of books. I was actually really encouraged by my trip this time. Usually, there are slightly fewer bookshops and over the past 20 years, there has been a creeping sense that Hay’s identity is slipping away. But not this time! A couple of new bookshops have arrived since I last went (including the excellently named Christie and Doyle), and I’m pleased to report that Richard Booths had a lot more fiction on the shelves than the last couple of times I’ve been there – the sad, half-empty shelves are no more.
Anyway, I certainly didn’t come away empty-handed. Here’s what I came home with…
Sunwise Turn by Madge Jenison
Subtitled ‘a human comedy of bookselling’, I couldn’t resist this one – seems in the same style as Shaun Bythell’s books, but 100 years earlier.
Autobiopsy by Bernice Rubens
I Sent A Letter to My Love by Bernice Rubens
The Ponsonby Post by Bernice Rubens
One day I’ll stop adding Rubens books to my shelves, but today is not that day (though I did leave two behind – one because it was enormously long, and the other because it had the most unsettling TV tie-in cover image.)
The Unforgiving Minute by Beverley Nichols
Always time to grab a Bev.
Two and Two Made Twenty-Two by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning
Loved their The Invisible Host, so was pleased to come across a lovely edition of another of their murder mysteries.
Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
The theme of this one put me off a bit – cattle ranching, maybe? – but I thought Stoner was excellent, so why not.
Crescendo by Phyllis Bentley
One of those interwar women novelists whose name I see, but have yet to read…
Common Sense About Drama by L.A.G. Strong
I love any book about the theatre, but perhaps particularly this sort of mid-century ‘everyman’s’ guide.
The Evening of the Holiday by Shirley Hazzard
Hazzard seems like one of the biggest omissions from my reading life. This isn’t one I hear talked about the most, but I decided it’s the one I’ll be giving a go.
The Whiskered Footman by Edgar Jepson
I don’t know anything about Jepson, but flicking through this one it reminded me of Wodehouse, perhaps via Herbert Jenkins, so decided to give it a go.
I Knew A Phoenix by May Sarton
At Seventy by May Sarton
Adding another couple of Sarton’s autobiographies to my heaving bookcases, so I can continue to read them all out of order.
Vice Versa by F. Anstey
This body-swap comedy is probably more talked about than read, but I should really give it a go.
Our Town; The Skin of Our Teeth; The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder
As I mentioned in May, I started reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett and it assumed knowledge of Our Town, so I grabbed a copy.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Speaking of Patchett – having loved this novel when I took it out of the library, I knew it had to be on my shelves at some point.
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
My copy is falling apart, and I know it might fall apart completely on another read or two. So when I stumbled across a first edition in Hay’s charity shop, I had to have it – I don’t really care about first editions, but I love this one on its own merits.
Explorers of the New Century by Magnus Mills
This is one of the few Mills novels I didn’t have, so I was really pleased to stumble across it.
Travels With Alice by Calvin Trillin
Whenever I find a Trillin in the UK, I grab it.
Teresa of Watling Street by Arnold Bennett
I haven’t read an Arnold Bennett for a while, and need to rectify – this one looked good fun, and I have my policy of assuming books with character names in the title are probably up my street.
The Dancing Bear by Frances Faviell
I’ll pick up any Furrowed Middlebrow books in the wild, even if I haven’t yet read the Faviell I already had.
The Triple Echo by H.E. Bates
Truth be told, this is because Addyman Annexe has a £2 card limit, so I picked up a £1 book that could be interesting.
Harpole & Foxberrow by J.L. Carr
Ending with my most exciting find – a signed copy of a Carr book I didn’t have. Not only signed, but dedicated to the person who organised the book signing!
Ooh, you’re the third person I know who has picked up this volume to read Our Town as well as the other two. Mine had a different publisher and I think introduction (Penguin Modern Classics, 2017, noticed in the library and it followed me home, legitimately borrowed, and eventually reviewed on LT, for others picking it up after reading Tom Lake. I liked the intro more than the plays.
Not sure that I needed to read this play afterwards to understand the novel, though it did help remind me of things. I would like to see a film version of Our Town, but Susan on LT said she watched one which changed the ending,.
Fab pile of books, you did very well. Love Rubens, sometimes slightly disturbing, but always very readable.