Gerry Wolstenholme's Blog - Posts Tagged "book-collecting"
A Delightful Trip up the Coast
An absorbing couple of hours in the
Fleetwood Museum Bookshop
I am not a great traveller these days but one trip I do enjoy making is the seven-mile journey up the Fylde Coast to Fleetwood. My great friend Laura, with whom I spend many happy hours hunting around charity shops and junk shops for bargains, and I go there approximately once a month to browse in the fabulous Fleetwood Museum Bookshop.
The thing is it is not just browsing for we both come away having purchased any number of books, which is the object of the exercise in supporting the Museum. My excuse – that is if I need one – is that I am subscribing to Sigmund Freud’s view that collecting is compensation for grief. I can say that with some truth because my book collection has grown massively since I lost my dearly beloved wife, Linda, 17 years ago. Laura, a good deal younger than me, does not need an excuse, she just loves books!
The trip to the bookshop has become a regular outing on a given Tuesday and we have made friends with a charming lady who helps to run the shop and it is always a pleasure to meet up with her when we visit. I am afraid that at the time of writing this, having just come home after fish and chips from Pisces, the best fish and chip shop on the Fylde Coast, I have not asked her name. This is very remiss of me and I will rectify the matter on our next visit. Incidentally that is already scheduled for two weeks today, Tuesday 14 September.
On our visits I am never sure what I am going to buy because my tastes are very eclectic and anything I see that I take a fancy to could well go home with me! If I had to be specific, I would say that my two main interests are literature and art, with a strong liking for London, cricket …, should I go on? No, so you will get the idea, anything can find its way to the Wolstenholme library!
So the specifics of this last visit, the purchases from which I have just spent a most enjoyable hour or so looking through, reading the odd introduction or foreword and generally enjoying my purchases over a cup of coffee in the back garden. As I said to the lady in charge as we left, I might not have the time to read them all – I would have to live, say, 839 more years to get through all my books (even if I did not add any more, which is MOST unlikely) but just to enjoy having them in my collection is worth every penny spent. I know they are there amongst the hundreds, nay, thousands, which I own; Laura always teases me about how many that is and her estimate is around 12,000. Of course, she exaggerates as I would estimate it to be perhaps 4 to 5,000. However, be that as it may, there are plenty!
And after this latest visit there are a further 30 volumes. And I thought it would be fun to list them. I should add that they are not all for me for I do buy for my daughter, who, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for her, has my bibliomaniac genes in her make-up. I also make purchases as presents for her husband.
The titles this time around and what attracted me to them are:
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens. This is the Penguin Classics edition with an introduction by Michael Slater. I am a massive Dickens collector and any different editions, particularly with new introductions, are likely to end up at home. Incidentally, I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in a symposium with Michael Slater, who I have always admired, last year and an essay of mine accompanied his and a couple of other academics’ writing on the Blackburn Museum website.
Lord Hornblower by CS Forester. I have never read a Hornblower novel but I saw this American edition that had an eye-catching illustrative cover by Douglas Smith and it appealed to me. It will be my first Hornblower read; fancy beginning with the final title in a 10-novel sequence.
Period Piece by Gwen Raverat. I was a secondhand and antiquarian bookseller for many years and this book of reminiscences by Charles Darwin’s granddaughter was a perennial good seller but I never read it so I thought it was about time I did.
Jack Kerouac by Warren French. This title fulfils my literary interest. I have read the informative introduction already, over my coffee, and in the main body of the text the author introduces much of Kerouac’s fiction that does not get the coverage that On the Road gets.
Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith by Valerie Grove. Another literary title, which I never had in my bookselling days so I thought it was time I owned a copy to read.
Pursuit of Pleasure: High Society in the 1900s by K Middlemas. This tickled my history fancy as it concerns the society and social habits of the Edwardian years.
Tramway Memories by J Joyce. Not the famous J Joyce (I’m pleased to say for his wife said to him on one classic occasion, ‘James, why don’t you write something that people want to read?’) My Dad was a huge tram fan and I always bought him such books as presents so this one was in homage to him as he did pass on those interests, although not quite as strong.
London United Tramways: A History 1894-1933 by Geoffrey Wilson. As well as the tram interest (see above), this combines another main interest of mine London and it also has historical context.
Loving Mr Darcy by Sharon Lathan. I have a number of sequels to Jane Austen’s novels and here is another. At school we read Northanger Abbey for GCE and I was not keen on it, thinking it a girls’ novel but I am now quite a Janeite and I do enjoy how other authors continue famous works.
It’s About Time: the dave brubeck story by Fred M Hall. Jazz is another of my interests and I well remember as a youngster Dave Brubeck’s Take Five entering the charts. It was, to me anyway at the time, a surprise hit as I was a rock ‘n’ roller with a passion for Chuck Berry. But Take Five took the music world by storm and became the first million-selling jazz record, I grew to like it and so I thought I ought to learn something about Dave and his record.
The British Tram by Frank E Wilson. Another for the small tram collection, it is a more ephemeral offering which, for me, adds to the charm.
Wicked Women’s Wit and Humour from Elizabeth I to Ruby Wax edited by Fidelis Morgan. I rather like such books for browsing and when I saw not unsurprisingly Dorothy Parker was oft quoted I couldn’t resist it.
The London Transport Golden Jubilee Book 1933-1983 by Oliver Green and John Reed. This combines my London interest with my interest in the metropolis transport systems so I just had to have it; perhaps this could be my next read!
A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages by Martyn Whittock. I was not the greatest history scholar at school but as I have got older I find it fascinating to read about how people lived and acted in days of yore.
Churchill’s Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940-57 by John Charmley. My Dad was a Churchill fan although he was a strict Labour voter and we had books on the shelves about him so I was aware of him from a young age. I thought this would be interesting because it looks at a specific aspect of his career.
The Booker Quiz by Christopher Booker. At first I thought this might by a quiz about the Booker Prize and as that is rather modern for my tastes I avoided it. However, I decided to have a closer look at it to discover that it is the author’s name rather than the award and that the quizzes are all literary. I thought it would be fun to have a go, that is until I looked at the first three and answered one question, Who wrote The Prime Minister? Yes, I knew that was Anthony Trollope but other questions left me blank! I will get better, I feel sure as I progress through the book!
The Decline of the Castle by MW Thompson. Architecture and castles in particular have always had a fascination for me so I thought it would be good to appreciate how the latter went into decline. The very minor disappointment is that Pendennis Castle in Falmouth is not mentioned for when we visited when Deborah was young I persuaded her to pretend that we were storming the castle as we made our way up the grassy slopes and once on the battlements that we were firing the cannons at the French! Well, it was fun at the time.
Birds in Your Garden: A month-by-month guide by Tony Soper and Roger Lovegrove. I bought this for Deborah for she has a haven of wildlife, particularly birds, where she lives in Somerset. It has lovely watercolour illustrations by Tony Busby.
Oasis Among the Chimney Pots: The story of a town bird sanctuary by Gwen Haines. Similarly I bought this for Deborah because she will appreciate the author’s efforts in setting up an urban sanctuary.
The Ship: The life and death of the Merchant Sailing Ship 1815-1965 by Basil Greenhill. I have always had an interest in olden day sailing ships ever since my Dad took me to see the Cutty Sark as a nine-year-old. And then, a couple of years ago we visited SS Great Britain and both these feature in this volume. An additional incentive to purchase it came when I opened the cover to discover the pricing of a great friend and former bookselling colleague Bob Dobson’s pricing inside.
LaRousse Encyclopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art edited by René Huyghe.
The Complete Paintings of Piero della Francesca by Peter Murray and Pierluigi de Veecht.
Degas by Antoine Terrasse.
Klee by Douglas Hall.
An Introduction to The Humanities Illustration Book.
The World of Turner 1775-1851 by Diana Hirsh.
Manet and the Modern Tradition by Anne Coffin Hanson.
Holbein by Radu Boureanu.
The Drawings of Watteau by Malcolm Cormack.
History & Techniques of the great Masters: Toulouse-Lautrec by Christopher Ackroyd.
These art books cover a wide variety of styles and periods which reflect my interests from the Middle Ages and 15th century Italian della Francesca through Turner, a real favourite, the Impressionists, all of whom I enjoy, to the more modern Paul Klee. There are plenty of great images to enjoy even if I don’t get round to reading all of them!
Oh, I almost forgot, I did acquire two children’s books to go along with these purchases.
Noddy and the Roller Skates and The Wars of the Roses. The former reflects my interest in Noddy as he was my very first collectible; I had the whole series and my Dad built a special bookcase to house them into the wall in my bedroom. I don’t have those books now (sadly) but I have reacquired them and still have a sneak read of them when no-one is looking! As for the latter, it also dates back to my youth for it is a Pitkin Pictorial and we used to buy those at various places that we visited so I built up quite a collection. They, too, are gone but I am rebuilding the collection!
So there we have it, a resumé of today’s purchases. I do so hope it has some appeal to the reader(s)!
Fleetwood Museum Bookshop
I am not a great traveller these days but one trip I do enjoy making is the seven-mile journey up the Fylde Coast to Fleetwood. My great friend Laura, with whom I spend many happy hours hunting around charity shops and junk shops for bargains, and I go there approximately once a month to browse in the fabulous Fleetwood Museum Bookshop.
The thing is it is not just browsing for we both come away having purchased any number of books, which is the object of the exercise in supporting the Museum. My excuse – that is if I need one – is that I am subscribing to Sigmund Freud’s view that collecting is compensation for grief. I can say that with some truth because my book collection has grown massively since I lost my dearly beloved wife, Linda, 17 years ago. Laura, a good deal younger than me, does not need an excuse, she just loves books!
The trip to the bookshop has become a regular outing on a given Tuesday and we have made friends with a charming lady who helps to run the shop and it is always a pleasure to meet up with her when we visit. I am afraid that at the time of writing this, having just come home after fish and chips from Pisces, the best fish and chip shop on the Fylde Coast, I have not asked her name. This is very remiss of me and I will rectify the matter on our next visit. Incidentally that is already scheduled for two weeks today, Tuesday 14 September.
On our visits I am never sure what I am going to buy because my tastes are very eclectic and anything I see that I take a fancy to could well go home with me! If I had to be specific, I would say that my two main interests are literature and art, with a strong liking for London, cricket …, should I go on? No, so you will get the idea, anything can find its way to the Wolstenholme library!
So the specifics of this last visit, the purchases from which I have just spent a most enjoyable hour or so looking through, reading the odd introduction or foreword and generally enjoying my purchases over a cup of coffee in the back garden. As I said to the lady in charge as we left, I might not have the time to read them all – I would have to live, say, 839 more years to get through all my books (even if I did not add any more, which is MOST unlikely) but just to enjoy having them in my collection is worth every penny spent. I know they are there amongst the hundreds, nay, thousands, which I own; Laura always teases me about how many that is and her estimate is around 12,000. Of course, she exaggerates as I would estimate it to be perhaps 4 to 5,000. However, be that as it may, there are plenty!
And after this latest visit there are a further 30 volumes. And I thought it would be fun to list them. I should add that they are not all for me for I do buy for my daughter, who, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for her, has my bibliomaniac genes in her make-up. I also make purchases as presents for her husband.
The titles this time around and what attracted me to them are:
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens. This is the Penguin Classics edition with an introduction by Michael Slater. I am a massive Dickens collector and any different editions, particularly with new introductions, are likely to end up at home. Incidentally, I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in a symposium with Michael Slater, who I have always admired, last year and an essay of mine accompanied his and a couple of other academics’ writing on the Blackburn Museum website.
Lord Hornblower by CS Forester. I have never read a Hornblower novel but I saw this American edition that had an eye-catching illustrative cover by Douglas Smith and it appealed to me. It will be my first Hornblower read; fancy beginning with the final title in a 10-novel sequence.
Period Piece by Gwen Raverat. I was a secondhand and antiquarian bookseller for many years and this book of reminiscences by Charles Darwin’s granddaughter was a perennial good seller but I never read it so I thought it was about time I did.
Jack Kerouac by Warren French. This title fulfils my literary interest. I have read the informative introduction already, over my coffee, and in the main body of the text the author introduces much of Kerouac’s fiction that does not get the coverage that On the Road gets.
Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith by Valerie Grove. Another literary title, which I never had in my bookselling days so I thought it was time I owned a copy to read.
Pursuit of Pleasure: High Society in the 1900s by K Middlemas. This tickled my history fancy as it concerns the society and social habits of the Edwardian years.
Tramway Memories by J Joyce. Not the famous J Joyce (I’m pleased to say for his wife said to him on one classic occasion, ‘James, why don’t you write something that people want to read?’) My Dad was a huge tram fan and I always bought him such books as presents so this one was in homage to him as he did pass on those interests, although not quite as strong.
London United Tramways: A History 1894-1933 by Geoffrey Wilson. As well as the tram interest (see above), this combines another main interest of mine London and it also has historical context.
Loving Mr Darcy by Sharon Lathan. I have a number of sequels to Jane Austen’s novels and here is another. At school we read Northanger Abbey for GCE and I was not keen on it, thinking it a girls’ novel but I am now quite a Janeite and I do enjoy how other authors continue famous works.
It’s About Time: the dave brubeck story by Fred M Hall. Jazz is another of my interests and I well remember as a youngster Dave Brubeck’s Take Five entering the charts. It was, to me anyway at the time, a surprise hit as I was a rock ‘n’ roller with a passion for Chuck Berry. But Take Five took the music world by storm and became the first million-selling jazz record, I grew to like it and so I thought I ought to learn something about Dave and his record.
The British Tram by Frank E Wilson. Another for the small tram collection, it is a more ephemeral offering which, for me, adds to the charm.
Wicked Women’s Wit and Humour from Elizabeth I to Ruby Wax edited by Fidelis Morgan. I rather like such books for browsing and when I saw not unsurprisingly Dorothy Parker was oft quoted I couldn’t resist it.
The London Transport Golden Jubilee Book 1933-1983 by Oliver Green and John Reed. This combines my London interest with my interest in the metropolis transport systems so I just had to have it; perhaps this could be my next read!
A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages by Martyn Whittock. I was not the greatest history scholar at school but as I have got older I find it fascinating to read about how people lived and acted in days of yore.
Churchill’s Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940-57 by John Charmley. My Dad was a Churchill fan although he was a strict Labour voter and we had books on the shelves about him so I was aware of him from a young age. I thought this would be interesting because it looks at a specific aspect of his career.
The Booker Quiz by Christopher Booker. At first I thought this might by a quiz about the Booker Prize and as that is rather modern for my tastes I avoided it. However, I decided to have a closer look at it to discover that it is the author’s name rather than the award and that the quizzes are all literary. I thought it would be fun to have a go, that is until I looked at the first three and answered one question, Who wrote The Prime Minister? Yes, I knew that was Anthony Trollope but other questions left me blank! I will get better, I feel sure as I progress through the book!
The Decline of the Castle by MW Thompson. Architecture and castles in particular have always had a fascination for me so I thought it would be good to appreciate how the latter went into decline. The very minor disappointment is that Pendennis Castle in Falmouth is not mentioned for when we visited when Deborah was young I persuaded her to pretend that we were storming the castle as we made our way up the grassy slopes and once on the battlements that we were firing the cannons at the French! Well, it was fun at the time.
Birds in Your Garden: A month-by-month guide by Tony Soper and Roger Lovegrove. I bought this for Deborah for she has a haven of wildlife, particularly birds, where she lives in Somerset. It has lovely watercolour illustrations by Tony Busby.
Oasis Among the Chimney Pots: The story of a town bird sanctuary by Gwen Haines. Similarly I bought this for Deborah because she will appreciate the author’s efforts in setting up an urban sanctuary.
The Ship: The life and death of the Merchant Sailing Ship 1815-1965 by Basil Greenhill. I have always had an interest in olden day sailing ships ever since my Dad took me to see the Cutty Sark as a nine-year-old. And then, a couple of years ago we visited SS Great Britain and both these feature in this volume. An additional incentive to purchase it came when I opened the cover to discover the pricing of a great friend and former bookselling colleague Bob Dobson’s pricing inside.
LaRousse Encyclopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art edited by René Huyghe.
The Complete Paintings of Piero della Francesca by Peter Murray and Pierluigi de Veecht.
Degas by Antoine Terrasse.
Klee by Douglas Hall.
An Introduction to The Humanities Illustration Book.
The World of Turner 1775-1851 by Diana Hirsh.
Manet and the Modern Tradition by Anne Coffin Hanson.
Holbein by Radu Boureanu.
The Drawings of Watteau by Malcolm Cormack.
History & Techniques of the great Masters: Toulouse-Lautrec by Christopher Ackroyd.
These art books cover a wide variety of styles and periods which reflect my interests from the Middle Ages and 15th century Italian della Francesca through Turner, a real favourite, the Impressionists, all of whom I enjoy, to the more modern Paul Klee. There are plenty of great images to enjoy even if I don’t get round to reading all of them!
Oh, I almost forgot, I did acquire two children’s books to go along with these purchases.
Noddy and the Roller Skates and The Wars of the Roses. The former reflects my interest in Noddy as he was my very first collectible; I had the whole series and my Dad built a special bookcase to house them into the wall in my bedroom. I don’t have those books now (sadly) but I have reacquired them and still have a sneak read of them when no-one is looking! As for the latter, it also dates back to my youth for it is a Pitkin Pictorial and we used to buy those at various places that we visited so I built up quite a collection. They, too, are gone but I am rebuilding the collection!
So there we have it, a resumé of today’s purchases. I do so hope it has some appeal to the reader(s)!
