Haul

I’ve just been away for a week to a lovely cottage on the Dinefwr National Trust estate with some friends. It’s in Wales, and only just over an hour away from Hay-on-Wye… so naturally we took the trek to the UK’s foremost book town.

It was nice to see, this time, that one or two bookshops had opened since we were last there – and I don’t think any had closed. That’s against the trend of Hay visits – and it will probably never reach the highs of 20+ years ago, but while the Cinema Bookshop is still there, it’ll always be worth a visit. I went to eight bookshops, and bought something in all but one of them. Most excitingly, I held a copy of Two People signed by A.A. Milne! I didn’t buy it, because it was £350, but it was very exciting to hold a book that AAM had held. (Speaking of Milne, I’m on the latest episode of the brilliant podcast Lost Ladies of Lit talking about One Year’s Time by Angela Milne – check it out wherever you get podcasts.)

Ok, without further ado, here is the exciting haul of books that I brought back with me from Hay-on-Wye…

Strangers May Kiss by Ursula Parrott
After really enjoying Ex-Wife (reprinted by McNally) I was so pleased to come across another of Parrott’s novels. There aren’t any cheap editions on abebooks, so this was a bit of a coup for a few pounds.

No Peace for the Wicked by Ursula Torday
To be honest, I picked this up because Ursula Parrott had put ‘Ursula’ in my mind – turns out Ms Torday wrote a lot of books, and No peace for the Wicked includes scenes in a boarding house: yes please! It’s also very scarce, so another good spend of £3.

The House of Defence by E.F. Benson
Limitations by E.F. Benson
The Princess Sophia by E.F. Benson
The Weaker Vessel by E.F. Benson
Benson was so very prolific that I haven’t even heard of these books, despite having been a fan for years. I’ll always snap up an EFB, and he is at that perfect level of scarcity – where his books probably will turn up at some point, but it’s a delightful surprise when they do. A couple of these are little Everyman-style editions, and I’ve long learned the wisdom of checking those shelves of small hardbacks – it’s often just endless sets of Forsyte Sagas, but sometimes something more unexpected shows up.

The Artless Flat-Hunter by Joanna Jones
Since one of my favourite things in fiction is house-hunting, I was never going to ignore this satirical non-fiction about the chaos of flat hunting. So up my street that I can barely believe it exists.

A Late Beginner by Priscilla Napier
Anytime I find a Slightly Foxed edition I don’t own, you know it’s coming home with me.

The Professor’s Legacy by Mrs Alfred Sidgwick
I seem to have quite good luck finding Mrs Alfred Sidgwick in the wild. I’ve read a handful now, and Cynthia’s Way remains the most fun – but I’ll keep getting more.

John Dene of Toronto by Herbert Jenkins
You might know I adore his frothy novel Patricia Brent, Spinster, so I couldn’t resist another of us – especially one with a Canadian connection.

The Handyman by Penelope Mortimer
For an author who is so renowned and respected, there are a lot of her novels I know nothing about. The Handyman was her final novel, from 1983.

Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh
I enjoy Ngaio Marsh’s books, but anybody at all could have written a novel called Spinsters in Jeopardy and I’ve have snapped it up.

My Arnold Bennett by Marguerite, his wife
What a decorous way of putting your name on a book! I’ll always go for a personal memoir over a scholarly biography, so this is right up my street.

Those United States by Arnold Bennett
Speaking of Bennett, I couldn’t resist a little volume of essays with his take on the US. Having read some of his other essays, I suspect it won’t be the most balanced or complimentary.

Testaments Betrayed by Milan Kundera
I love Kundera and have almost all his books – I hadn’t come across this non-fiction book before, so have added it to my teetering pile of unread Kunderas.

The Holiday Friend by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Important to Me by Pamela Hansford Johnson
I have mixed success with Pamela Hansford Johnson but am certainly happy to try another. I don’t remember hearing much about The Holiday Friend – do any PHJ fans know if it’s a good’un? Important to Me, meanwhile, is non-fiction about things PHJ likes, and that can only be charming.

Family by Susan Hill
Susan Hill’s non-fiction is always engaging. I’ve heard a lot about Family, about losing her very young daughter, and will be keen to read when I can steel myself for it.

Return Journey by Beatrice Kean Seymour
Ending with one I know nothing about – but the Cinema Bookshop had a handful of Beatrice Kean Seymour novels inscribed to a friend, and I thought I could take a gamble on one.

I’m delighted with my haul – one of the most exciting Hay hauls I’ve had for a while. Where would you start? Anything you are particularly interested in, or recommend?

It was a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I’d share the books I got for my birthday – some from my wishlist, and others surprises. I might be missing some, but these are the ones in a pile… (not pictured: a great recipe book from some colleagues, following recipes through time)

Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson
From my friend Clare – this was on my wishlist, though I don’t remember why I added it. It’s non-fiction about Tesson spending six months alone in Siberia. I have a feeling I googled ‘books like…’ – but what could it have been like? May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude, perhaps? I suspect it’s not especially Sartonesque, but it does look great.

Death and Mary Dazill by Mary Fitt
Another from Clare, and I probably put this on my wishlist from the title alone. This 1941 novella looks like it’s a murder mystery of sorts, with various other ingredients that make it exactly my cup of tea.

The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks
From my friend Malie, and no mystery why this is on my wishlist – the Backlisted crew and their enthusiasm for it made it a must.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
As one of the few readers who hasn’t read this, I’m glad my friend Mel got me a copy.

The Forward Book of Poetry 2024
Mel is rightfully sceptical of me reading the books that people buy me, so thought (wisely) that a collection of poetry might get to the top of my tbr more easily. I’m not very familiar with poetry from any era, but it’ll be fun to read some new verse and see what’s going on in contemporary poetry.

The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard
Colin got me this, from my wishlist – someone wrote something glowing on a blog or social media, and I’m sorry that I can’t remember who. I thought Beard was an essayist, but maybe she’s an essayist and a short story writer and something in between? Col admitted to knowing nothing at all about her, but I will soon…

Reach For The Stars by Michael Cragg
From my parents: I’ve started this one and I was SO excited about getting it. I don’t expect all that many blog readers to get giddy about a book subtitled ‘1996-2006: Fame Fallout and Pop’s Final Party’ but this is very much my jam. I always complain about music being considered in decades, because my musical taste was formed from the mid-90s to the mid-00s. This book couldn’t fit me more perfectly.

Twinkind by William Viney
And finally, one from my friend Lorna – which would have been on my wishlist if I’d known it existed. Subtitled ‘the singular significance of twins’, it’s a beautifully designed book with essays and pictures looking through the cultural and historical notability of twins. Made for me!

What a lovely selection – any you’ve read?

I am now back from two jam-packed, sunny, lovely weeks in Canada. Naturally I did not see all of Canada in that time, but my brother and I spent a week in Vancouver and a week in Toronto – both of which have plenty of bookshops that were eager to send a British man back over the Atlantic with luggage full to the brim of Canadian literature.

I didn’t buy entirely Canadian authors, but I did focus on books that aren’t as easy to find here in the UK – and I think I bought entirely North American authors. One of the things I did discover is how loose and broad the definition of ‘Canadian’ is to literary circles. Born in Canada and spent most of your life somewhere else? Canadian. Born somewhere else and then moved to Canada? Canadian. Passed through Canada among many other countries? Canadian. Authors I’d always considered other nationalities – who turn out to be Canadian – included Brian Moore, Michael Ondaatje, and Ned Beauman, though I think the last of those must have simply been mis-shelving?

My wishlist wasn’t extensive, but I had two books I was particularly intending to buy: A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence and Road Ends by Mary Lawson, both of which I found on the first day! As you’ll see, there was no limit to the amount of Margaret Laurence I was willing to buy.

Anyway, here is a break down of what I got – I’d love to know your thoughts on any and all of them:

A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence
This Side Jordan by Margaret Laurence
The Tomorrow-Tamer by Margaret Laurence
The Prophet’s Camel Bell by Margaret Laurence
Heart of a Stranger by Margaret Laurence
The Manawaka World of Margaret Laurence by Clara Thomas
Margaret Laurence: A Spiritual Biography by Noelle Boughton
And would you believe there are still some Laurence books I didn’t find? I do have all her fiction now – I went looking for A Bird in the House, the only one of the Manawaka Sequence that I didn’t have, but was pleased to scoop up any number of other ones. I somehow don’t seem to have included Heart of a Stranger in the picture – her essays, which I was reading on the plane.

My Financial Career and other follies by Stephen Leacock
Model Memoirs by Stephen Leacock
Leacock is one of my other most-loved Canadian authors – I’m not entirely sure if these are new collections to me, or if they are simply gathered from other existing collections, but I took a risk.

Road Ends by Mary Lawson
The only Mary Lawson novel I didn’t already have – she has only written four, sadly – and it’s not that hard to find in the UK, but it felt right to get it in Canada. And it was there, for two dollars, in a sale at the Vancouver Public Library! If you’re ever in Vancouver, head up to their rooftop garden – it’s lovely. I read Road Ends on the four-hour flight from Vancouver to Toronto and definitely recommend something this captivating and wonderful for a plane journey.

Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill
One evening, I had the fun of meeting up with Debra – a listener to the Tea or Books? podcast who got in touch when she saw I was coming to her hometown. She recommended lots of Canadian authors as we browsed a BMV Books – by this point in the holiday I had bought SO many books that I was trying to restrict myself a bit, but I couldn’t resist her recommendation of this novel about discovering a doppelganger. Debra said she read it three times! And the cover is beautiful.

Brother by David Chariandy
This was the other book I bought on Debra’s recommendation – I forget exactly why now, but she must have sold it well!

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
And this book was a kind gift from Debra – one of those authors I have long intended to read, and now I have one of her books on my shelf ready to go.

Show Boat by Edna Ferber
When Claire/Captive Reader made a guest appearance on a recent podcast episode, she mentioned how much she was enjoyed Edna Ferber – and this lovely edition of Show Boat had to come home with me.

Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan
Stories from the Vinyl Café by Stuart McLean
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
Speaking of Claire, while in Vancouver I had a lovely evening going book shopping with her, then having some dinner. What fun to hang out on her home turf! These three books are ones I bought because she mentioned they were good’uns.

Love and Salt Water by Ethel Wilson
Having enjoyed a couple of Wilsons, I was pleased to find her final novel – and it’s one of the books I read while I was there.

One of Ours by Willa Cather
I hadn’t heard of this Cather – and, no, I probably didn’t need more unread Cather books on my shelves, but it is a lovely edition. I’m such a sucker for the floop of a North American paperback.

Killing Yourself To Live by Chuck Klosterman
Chuck Klosterman IV
I hadn’t particularly thought to look out for Klosterman, but turns out his books are much easier to find in Canada than here in the UK. He’s an American author I’ve mentioned a few times – I haven’t tried his fiction, but his non-fiction is brilliant at bringing together links and connections between pop cultural moments that many commentators would consider too trivial.

Good-bye and Amen by Beth Gutcheon
I only know Gutcheon her Persephone title Still Missing, but this one looked really interesting.

Frequently Asked White Questions by Ajay Parasram and Alex Khasnabish
This one was just among some books on someone’s lawn in Toronto. The Annex neighbourhood is a lovely leafy suburb with lots of independent shops, and the sort of place where people might have ‘little free libraries’ and the like. Indeed, I left one of my holiday reads – Tin Man by Sarah Winman – in one of those little libraries. (I enjoyed it, but the absence of speech marks meant it wasn’t going to be a keeper.)

May Sinclair by H.D. Zegger
This American series of critical works seems to have largely been about lesser-discussed British writers – I have the books on E.M. Delafield and A.A. Milne from the series, and was pleased to find the May Sinclair one.

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
I haven’t actually read the Irby essay collection I was given a few years ago, but that’s not the sort of thing that need impede me buying another.

Nocturne by Helen Humphreys
Humphreys was one of the Canadian authors I’d seen recommended by a few people. I did come across some of her fiction, but almost all of it was set in the UK – and I wanted to have the proper Canadian experience of reading Canadian authors writing about Canada. So I bought her memoir about her brother dying – and read it on the plane. Beautifully written and, of course, very sad.

Something I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You by Alice Munro
Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro
Well, you can’t go book shopping in Canada and come back without any Alice Munro, can you?

I’m up at the Keswick Convention this week, in the Lake District, and one of the things on my list was to visit Michael Moon’s bookshop in Whitehaven. It’s perhaps not as well known as nearby Bookcase in Carlisle, but it’s almost as wonderful a treasure trove. A warren of rooms, very reasonable prices, and a huge amount of older books – many of which seem to be the sort of books that were read by the masses (piles of Warwick Deeping, Ethel M. Dell etc.).

I went last year but was doing Project 24 – this year, I could be a lot less restrained. I bought one to give away (a compilation of Cornelia Otis Skinner’s best sketches in That’s Me All Over), and this lot for myself… I leant towards authors I’ve heard of but not read, and would be particularly interested in any recommendations from this haul.

Cleo by Mary Lutyens
A very 1970s cover for this (signed!) novel about a 15-year-old and her first romantic experience – and how her understanding of it changes in the years that follow. I don’t know if this will be insensitive or ahead of its time – time will tell.

The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice by Stephen Leacock
Only the other day I was wondering which Leacock books I was still missing – and then I stumbled across this one, which looks like it is Leacock in serious rather than comic mode. The opening line, ‘These are troubled times’, reminds me that every period feels more or less like that.

The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis
One of my favourite tropes is a group of strangers gathering together – And Then There Were None and The Enchanted April being two excellent examples. This novella by Alice Thomas Ellis seems to do the same thing – five people at a remote Scottish island at Christmas.

Young Claudia by Rose Franken
I don’t know why I know the name Rose Franken, but it hovers on the peripheries of my knowledge. This one caught my eye, and I was sold by the opening line – ‘Half-way through the job, Claudia knew she was a fool to have begun with the hedge in the first place.’ I now see from Scott/Furrowed Middlebrow that she wrote a lot of novels about Claudia, so I’m not sure where this falls in that series.

The City of Pleasure by Arnold Bennett
There’s always room for another Arnold Bennett on the shelves.

So Many Loves by Leo Walmsley
Having loved Walmsley’s autobiographical trilogy of moving to Cornwall (or at least the first two, as I have yet to read the third), I was happy to pick up a book that I don’t know anything about. It turns out that this is straight autobiography, particularly about his childhood.

A Porch At My Door by Rex Matthews
The bookshop had quite a lot of books from The Country Book Club (which, rather thrillingly, say they must not be sold to the general public – what a maverick I am!). I bought a couple – I don’t know anything about Rex Matthews, but the lure of a book about house-hunting was enough for me.

Village in the Sun by Dane Chandos
This was the one Country Book Club choice, and an author I have read – only one book, Abbie, but I enjoyed it a lot. If memory serves, Dane Chandos is the pseudonym of a pair writing together. I rather expected this book to be about England, but it turns out it’s set in Ajijic, Mexico.

Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts
I get Norah Hoult and Norah Lofts confused. The latter is predominantly a historical novelist, but she wrote four suspense novels under the pseudonym Peter Curtis – at least one of them, Lady Living Alone, was reprinted under Lofts own name in the 1980s. I’m intrigued by the story of a historical novelist with a phobia for being alone, and how she gets involved with a man who may or may not help…

A Cat in the Window by Derek Tangye
The bookshop had quite a few books by Tangye, all apparently about moving to Cornwall and life there – I toyed with buying the lot, but chose instead just to get the small volume dedicated to a cat.

No Lady With A Pen by Ursula Bloom
Bloom was the incredibly prolific writer (500+ books) among whose output was the British Library title Tea Is So Intoxicating, under the name Mary Essex. I’ve bought a few of her non-fiction titles, and this book about her early career on Fleet Street looks interesting.

Quorum by Phyllis Bentley
Another name I’ve seen around a lot, I certainly had plenty of Bentley books to choose from in the bookshop. In the end I chose Quorum because it looks like an interesting structure – it’s about a committee, and the chapters are dedicated to different committee members and then different matters (minutes, finance, analysis of project etc.) It could be successful or not, but it looks like an innovative and unusual approach,

And all that for £30! I’m excited to see what gems are among them – I think the Norah Lofts will be my first port of call. Any recommendations – and where would you start with this haul?

I’ve been buying some books online and in-person over the past few weeks – quelle surprise – and I thought I’d talk you through the recent arrivals Chez StuckinaBook. Here we go, from the top of the pile…

Things I Didn’t Throw Out by Marcin Wicha
I saw someone mention Things I Didn’t Throw Out on social media, I now forget who, and ordered a copy – it sounds so up my street. It’s non-fiction, about the books and other things that are left over after Marcin grieves his mother, and uses objects as a way of looking through the past. And it’s published by Daunt Books, which is a guarantee of something good.

Virginia Fly is Drowning by Angela Huth
The first of a couple books I bought on a trip to beautiful Canons Ashby National Trust – I haven’t been before, at least not since I was a child, and I absolutely loved it. I don’t know this author, but the title caught my eye.

Choose by M. de Momet
This novel was advertised on the back of a 1940s novel I was reading the other day, and it looked very intriguing – about a woman whose husband is missing presumed dead. She marries again, and then the first husband turns up. I can’t find any information about the author, so I don’t know if it’s short for Monsieur or a name beginning with M.

A Deputy Was King by G.B. Stern
We popped into a lovely bookshop in Brackley – new and secondhand books – and I bought a couple of G.B. Sterns, including this novel which is a sequel to The Matriarch. Which I’ve owned for many years but haven’t read, but now I can read both in a row.

The Judge’s Story by Charles Morgan
I’ve read a few Morgans over the years, and I’ve bought and given away others over the years, but here’s another. Does anyone else read Charles Morgan nowadays?

Trumpet Major by G.B. Stern
And here’s the other Stern – one of the 10 autobiographical/essay/pondering/meandering books she wrote – I’ve read Benefits Forgot and A Name To Conjure With, and have a few others. They’re odd and really enjoyable.

Elephant by Raymond Carver
I’ve never read any Raymond Carver, and this slim little volume seems a good place to start – another one from The Old Hall Bookshop in Brackley.

Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar
This Marathi novel was turned into a film that I enjoyed, so doing things the wrong way round, I thought it would be good to read the book too.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Like a lot of us, I loved Anne Fadiman’s Ex Libris, one of the first books-about-books that did really well. This is something quite different – a non-fiction book about a Hmong refugee family in California, and their interactions with the health care system when their son is diagnosed with epilepsy.

A Slanting Light by Gerda Charles
The winners of the James Tait Black Memorial prize are always worth a shot – I bought this one partly because of that, but also because there are so few mentions of its content online, and the three reviews of it I found are all completely contradictory about the plot. Like, they talk about different casts of characters. Very confusing, so I guess I’ll find out.

Plant Dreaming Deep by May Sarton
I’ve loved a few May Sarton journals this year, and a few people recommended this one as being one of the best – so naturally I had to have it.

Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson
And, finally, one I haven’t bought – this is a copy from the author. I tend to say no to review books most of the time, but this is the description that sold it to me:

Sheena Wilkinson’s Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau is a riotously funny novel with hints of Noel Coward and PG Wodehouse. It’s 1934 and Northern Irish April McVey is the new manager in the marriage bureau of the title. She’s intent on updating this failing business, much to the initial consternation of its owner. But Mrs Hart takes to April, just as April takes to Yorkshire and her newfound freedom. April’s landlady has a widowed brother, Fabian, a solicitor with a nightmare teenage daughter. Fabian lives in the shadow of his wife, now dead three years; April, for all her no-nonsense disposition and persistent sunshine, has a ghost or two of her own.

Have you read any of these books? Which would you start with?

When I was on holiday recently I took a trip to Treasure Chest Books in Felixstowe, Suffolk – one of my all-time favourite bookshops, though I’ve only been there three times, each time about ten years apart. It initially looks like one little room, and then it just goes on and on in a warren of increasingly exciting rooms. There’s a great range of stock, very reasonably priced – and even two shelves of Persephone Books! I had almost all of them already, of course, but came away with a couple. The first photo is the pile I bought there – the second photo is a smaller pile that came from various places.

Defy the Wilderness by Lynne Reid Banks
I do have a couple of unread books by Lynne Reid Banks on my shelves, but my abiding love for The L-Shaped Room trilogy means I will always pick up more by her. The books she set abroad haven’t dated brilliantly, but I’m happy to keep trying.

A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi
I should have mentioned this one during the recent Tea or Books? discussion of novels set in bookshops – because I bought this one entirely on the strength of the word ‘bookshop’ in the title.

The Fell by Sarah Moss
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
So many podcasters and bloggers and others have mentioned Sarah Moss as someone I should be reading. It was great to find these two cheaply, and maybe I can finally start disentangling the various literary Sarahs in my head.

Dance and Skylark by John Moore
I’ve read one or two of Moore’s autobiographies set around Bredon Hill (where I grew up), but haven’t read any of his fiction yet. I did mostly buy this one because of its beautiful dustjacket, but I’m also intrigued by the contents.

Paper Lives by Compton Mackenzie
I keep telling myself that I have to read more of the unread Mackenzies on my shelves before I buy more, and thus I keep lying to myself.

Moonraker by F. Tennyson Jesse
Unrelated to the Bond movie, this is a little story of pirates? I’m not sure if it’s for children or not, but always happy to stumble across more by the brilliant FTJ. I believe it was a Virago Modern Classic at some point, but not one I’ve ever seen in the wild.

A Lady and Her Husband by Amber Reeves
Emmeline by Judith Rossner
The two Persephones I didn’t have are both quite recently published ones, I think, though published initially about a hundred years apart. They’re also not Persephones that I’ve seen many people mention… anybody read these?

Next To Nature, Art by Penelope Lively
I probably don’t need more Livelys since I have several unread, but I couldn’t leave this one behind because it is signed by the author. When I got home, I also spotted that it is from the library of Jill Paton-Walsh, so maybe given to her by Lively?

And these books came online, from a charity shop, and from a remainder shop.

The Castle on the Hill by Elizabeth Goudge
After loving The Bird in the Tree, I’m keen to read more Goudge. She turns up in charity shops a lot, and that’s where I found this delightful edition. I’m told it’s a bit more grim than some of her other works…

Humiliation by Wayne Koestenbaum
Found and Lost by Alison Leslie Gold
A remainder shop in Bristol had quite a few Notting Hill Editions, and these were the two that really drew me in.

Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
I’m very excited by this reprint – the first McNally Editions book that I’ve bought from their eclectic list. Ursula Parrott is someone I’ve wanted to try for a long time but she’s not been easy to find – so thank goodness this one is now available. I’ll let their description tell you more.

When in French by Lauren Collins
As soon as I read Beth’s Instagram post about When in French, I had to have a copy – it sounds so very up my street. Click the link and you’ll see why!

I haven’t started any of these books yet, though would happily dive into any of them. Have you read any, and where would you start?

I went to Draycott Books in Chipping Campden today – a bookshop I first visited last year. That was during Project 24, so I had to be very restrained. And it was just the sort of bookshop where I didn’t want to be restrained at all. Not a massive stock, but a large amount of interesting and unusual titles in their 20th-century hardback fiction section – which, naturally, is the first place I head in any bookshop.

And, yes, I came away with quite a pile.

Arundel by E.F. Benson
Climber by E.F. Benson
Always great to find more EFBs in the wild. I don’t remember anybody ever mentioning these books, which are both from the middle of his long and prolific writing career. Even at his worst, Benson is enjoyable – and at his best he is sublime, so I’ll have to wait and see where these fall on the Benson spectrum.

Colonel Blessington by Pamela Frankau
Frankau’s final novel, and apparently a thriller? Again, I don’t remember seeing anybody writing about this one – and, again, Frankau can be quite a variable author in my experience. But certainly happy to add to my shelf of unread Frankaus.

Best Stories of Theodora Benson
This is the book I reluctantly left behind last time, so I was pleased (though not entirely surprised) to find it was still waiting for me in Draycott Books. Of course, I love Which Way?, the title that British Library Women Writers reprinted, and have had mixed success with her other books. It will be interesting to discover what she is like as a short story writer.

Little Innocents by various
I bought this collection of childhood memories on the strength of E.M. Delafield being included in it – though she is far from the only name I recognised. Others include Vita Sackville-West, Ethel Smyth, Harold Nicolson… I couldn’t work out whether the contributions had been written specially for this book, but it does look rather like they were.

When My Girl Comes Home by V.S. Pritchett
I’ve only read Pritchett’s autobiography, but now have a couple of his novels to try. This was one of many titles from ‘Contemporary Fiction’ – a series I didn’t recognise, but which had a lot of intriguing and lesser-known mid-century books in it. Anybody know this imprint?

The Expensive Miss du Cane by Miss Macnaughtan
I don’t know anything about this book or author, but that’s the sort of title I certainly can’t resist. I flicked to the opening paragraph, and found myself even less able to resist:

As a country-house visitor Miss Du Cane was altogether desirable. She had her place, and that a high one, in the world of house-parties. And many people wondered at this, for not only was she very little known in London society, but there was about her an absence of that self-assertiveness which is generally supposed to militate against the acquirement of small privileges. There was nothing of the expert guest whose remarks may be said in their entire aptness and suitability to border upon professionalism. Nor was she even one of the useful guests who can be depended upon by tired hostesses to take a good deal of trouble off their hands, and to play games good-temperedly, and to become enthusiastic about taking some rural walk, or to laugh a great deal over small country-house jokes.

Indeed, even though it’s the book I know least about, I think The Expensive Miss du Cane might be the first book I read from this haul.

Where would you start?

I took a trip to the excellent bookshop in Wantage this morning and, as ever, came away with a lovely little haul. Here’s what I bought…

Aftermath by Rachel Cusk
I have to admit that I didn’t love the only Cusk novel I read, which had beautiful writing but seemed almost determinedly aimless – but I was more drawn to this memoir about the end of her marriage.

Long Distance by Penelope Mortimer
This is one of Mortimer’s novels that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody talk about – having discovered how brilliant The Home was last year (coming out very soon from British Library Women Writers!) I am intrigued. It does sound very experimental – a woman who is ‘without a past, or without any clear memory of her past’ who is ‘taken into a strange community living in the mansion of a huge estate. Are these people part of her forgotten life? Is she part of theirs? Or are they meeting for the first time, as strangers?’ Colour me interested!

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
I’ve been meaning to get hold of this for years, and really enjoyed Heartburn last year – this is the one I hear people talk about most when they celebrate Ephron.

The Fly on the Wheel by Katherine Cecil Thurston
I hadn’t heard of this until I heard that Manderley Press were reprinting it in a beautiful new edition. I may well end up with one of their editions, but this Virago Modern Classic can be testing ground if I want to spend a bit more on something lovely!

Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
As I just wrote earlier this week, I really loved The House by the Sea – and had gone to my shelves intending to read Journal of a Solitude. Turns out I didn’t own it, but I was pretty confident that I would stumble across a copy soon. And hey presto, I did!

London Street Games by Norman Douglas
I collect the Dolphin editions – by which I mean I buy them when I stumble across them, rather than anything more purposeful – so I was pleased to find this one. My first dustjacket in the collection, in fact!

Not a huge haul, but really pleased with everything I found. Have you been buying anything recently? And which of these books would you go to first?

I’m back from my holiday – staying on the Menabilly estate, which is where Manderley from Rebecca is based on! We weren’t in the old house, so no need to worry about unhinged housekeepers – we were in the rather lovely gardener’s cottage. It was a relaxed, fun week. And then I stayed with some friends while my bathroom were redone, so it’s like coming home to a different home. Well, one different room in the same home.

It was my birthday while I was away and, unsurprisingly, I got quite a few books. Hurrah! Some of these were from my wishlist, while others are lovely surprises. From left to right…

Remainders of the Day by Shaun Bythell
If it weren’t for Project 24, I’d have bought this as soon as it was published – as it was, I was delighted to get a copy of it from my parents. And, indeed, I’ve already read it. More soon! It’s the third of Shaun Bythell’s hilarious diaries about running a secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. It’s just as brilliant as the others, and I hope he keeps writing them forever.

You Don’t Look Like Anybody I Know by Heather Sellers
The first of two books my friend Malie selected from my wishlist – I don’t remember where I originally heard about this memoir of prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, but it’s a topic I find fascinating.

The English Library Journey by John Bevis
I hadn’t heard of this memoir – of a man trying to get a library card for every library in the UK. But gosh it sounds exactly up my street. A bookish, quirky tour of the country? Yes please. Thank you to my friend Lorna for spotting this and knowing it would be perfect for me.

How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis
The other one from Malie – a delightful-looking book about learning from literary heroines that has been on my wishlist for such a long time. Really pleased to have the opportunity now to read this one.

A Natural History of Ghosts by Roger Clarke
I added this to my wishlist after Rachel mentioned she was reading it on an episode of ‘Tea or Books?’ – it sounded so weird and interesting. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I am very intrigued by the history of people believing in ghosts, and the lengths they’ll go to to find out more. My friend Clare bought it, having also read and loved it, and I think it’s next on my non-fiction reading list.

The Seven Good Years by Etgar Keret
This is the other book from Clare – I added it to my wishlist earlier this year after reading Keret’s brilliant collection of short stories Suddenly, A Knock on the Door.

The Trouble With Sunbathers by Magnus Mills
Sunbathers in a Bottle by Magnus Mills
These were from Colin – I love Magnus Mills, as long-time readers of Stuck in a Book will know, and he got quite prolific in the past few years. I’m going to line these up for Novella A Day In May next year, I think,

The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills
And another Mills! Fittingly, this one was from my friend Mel, who introduced me to Mills in the first place. I actually gave this one as a birthday present to another friend a couple of years ago and had to resist reading it myself first, so now I have the chance.

What Writers Read edited by Pandora Sykes
A lovely book about books from my friend Phoebe (aka Esther Rutter, author of This Golden Fleece). Everyone knows how much I love these!

The final ‘book’ on the pile is actually a book of postcards – Tom Gauld’s wonderful bookish cartoons, collected as The Snooty Bookshop, which were a gift from my friend Emily.

Very pleased with my birthday haul – anything you’d enjoy or recommend?

It’s time for another haul post. But this teetering pile isn’t all from one trip – it’s from various different bookshops I’ve been to over the past month or two. That makes it ok, right??

Let’s go from the top, including a tour of the bookshops I’ve been to.

1. Regents Bookshop in Wantage, Oxfordshire

This is my nearest secondhand bookshop, about half an hour from my house, and I love it deeply. It is rammed full of stock, very affordably priced and with pretty good turnover. I’ve never come away empty-handed. Lockdown gave them a chance to neaten it out a bit, and I have my fingers crossed that it bucks the trend and manages to stay open for many years to come. And in it I bought…

The Rising Tide by Margaret Deland
I didn’t know anything about this book, but apparently it’s about New Women at the turn of the century, first published in 1916.

Women’s Weird ed. Melissa Edmundson
A collection of ‘weird’ stories by women, whatever weird means – I guess I’ll find out! I think there’s an E. Nesbit story in there, which intrigued me.

Up and Down by E.F. Benson
This was shelved in the letters section, but it is a novel in letter-form – and who doesn’t love that? Particularly from a favourite like EFB. I hadn’t heard of this one before, but always glad to add a Benson to the shelf.

The Girl from the Candle-Lit Bath by Dodie Smith
We all remember the scene of Cassandra hiding in her bath in I Capture the Castle – this is Smith’s last novel, and I wonder if it is tonally at all the same? Finding it did remind me that I have a few of her novels yet to read, and really must get onto them.

2. The Last Bookshop in Oxford

This bookshop began as The £2 Bookshop, then The £3 Bookshop, and is now The Last Bookshop – where most of the books are £3.99, but you can get 3 for a tenner. And there’s a secondhand department downstairs. As remainder bookshops go, it has really good quality stock.

The Heavenly Ladder by Compton Mackenzie
I got this from their secondhand stock. I’ve said a few times that I won’t buy more Mackenzie novels until I’ve cleared the decks a bit, but I’m a liar.

An Impossible Marriage by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Apparently this was reprinted four or five years ago – which surprised me, as I’m usually pretty up to speed with mid-century women writers getting reprinted. I’ve read three PHJ novels to varying success, but presumably whoever chose this one for reprinting was picking from her best?

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The reason I went to the bookshop – because my book group is reading this next year. I guess it’s a glaring omission to have read no Faulkner. But I’m not terribly excited about rectifying it.

Hidden Symptoms by Deirdre Madden
Time Present and Time Past by Deirdre Madden
I was very pleased they had these in stock. Madden has been one of my favourite discoveries in the past couple of years, and certainly keen to read more.

3. The R&R Bookshop in Stroud

I had a day trip to Stroud to meet up with some friends, and obviously did some research first to see if there were any secondhand bookshops. There were TWO. This one is very cheaply priced with some interesting stuff, and I came away with so many books that I had to pop straight back to the car and leave them there.

The Bookshop that Floated Away by Sarah Henshaw
Everyone was talking about this non-fic about a bookshop on a barge when it came out, but I (wait for it) missed the boat then.

Jenny Villiers by J.B. Priestley
One day I’ll read some of the Priestley novels I’ve been stockpiling. There’s just something so pleasing about these editions.

Stars of the Screen 1932
I really love popular culture books from this period – this is basically a series of photos of actors and short bios of them. It’s all info I could find on Wikipedia, I’m sure, but I love having a snapshot of how these people were considered in 1932.

The Cat Jumps by Elizabeth Bowen
My previous attempt at Bowen’s short stories was a bit mixed, but I’m keen to try more AND this one has ‘cat’ in the title.

A Pound of Paper by John Baxter
A book about books? Yes please.

A Smell of Burning by Margaret Lane
I think Lane is best remembered for her biography of Beatrix Potter, but she’s one of those once-popular novelists I’ve been meaning to try for a while.

4. Fireside Bookshop in Stroud

Stroud has TWO bookshops! This one is rather more expensive and had less stock that appealed to me, but looked like it would have a lot for specialists and antiquarian hunters. I came away with one book.

Beyond The Lighthouse by Margaret Crosland
The subtitle is ‘English women novelists of the 20th century’. I spent some time flicking through the book, trying to work out how academic it is. I really don’t need to read any more Eng Lit academia anymore, and this book would be much more fun as a reader’s journey – I’m not sure it’s quite that, but hopefully won’t be too dry.

5. Dean Street Press

These aren’t actually from a bookshop, but they’re in the pile and I wanted to mention that they’ve sent me review copies of Green Money and Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson.

6. Oxfam, Witney

It’s always tempting to pop into the Oxfam bookshop in Witney, the town where I work. And it’s pretty seldom I come out without at least one book in my hand.

Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
Hmm. I don’t remember why I bought this one, except that NYRB Classics are beautiful.

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
I heard about this one somewhere recently – a blog? a podcast? a book? – and wanted to try it. It’s about a baron who decides to move into a tree. The surreal nature of that story really appeals to me.

7. The Madhatter Bookshop, Wantage

This is cheating a little, as I didn’t buy these in this little independent bookshop in Wantage (a ‘new books’ bookshop), but did order it via them over email. These are some books that were on my birthday list – and so, when I got different books, I was entitled to buy a few for myself, yes? Yes?

Iphigenia in Forest Hills by Janet Malcolm
Nobody’s Looking at You by Janet Malcolm
My unread Malcolm pile was getting dangerously – yes, dangerously – low, so I had to top it up a bit.

Keeper’s of the Flame by Ian Hamilton
And I think this one was mentioned in a Janet Malcolm book. She certainly has a devastating eye for the idiosyncrasies of literary estates, and I’m hoping this non-fic book about them will be as gossipy and scandalous as some of the things Malcolm writes about in her books.

Ok, that’s it! As usual, would love to know your thoughts about any of these…