I haven’t done a proper trip to a secondhand bookshop for such a long time. I did pop into Barter Books in Alnwick last August, but my trip to Regents in Wantage this morning really felt like a step back to normality. It’s less than half an hour away from me, and it’s comfortably the best secondhand bookshop in Oxfordshire. There aren’t many, but this would be a great bookshop anywhere – and, what’s more, has a good turnover. So I came away with an impressive little haul…
The Card by Arnold Bennett
I am slowly adding to my stockpile of Bennett novels, and always enjoying them when I get to them – The Card has been on my horizons ever since Kate reviewed it for Vulpes Libris (which led to me defending Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room passionately in response).
The Cheerful Day by Nan Fairbrother
This is apparently the sequel to a memoir about raising a family in the countryside. In The Cheerful Day, they’ve all moved to London – my heart breaks for them at the thought, but the title and the cover make it sound much happier than I’m imagining!
None-Go-By by Mrs Alfred Sidgwick
I enjoyed Cynthia’s Way by Mrs Sidgwick, so was pleased and a bit surprised to find another book by her. This one is one of her best, according to the doubtless honest description inside – about a couple who move to a small cottage to escape their friends and relations.
The Field of Roses by Phyllis Hastings
I’ve always got an eye out for obscure women writers for the British Library series, and so I’m picking up more or less any early- or mid-century women writer I’ve not heard of. It’s a numbers game!
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
Of the books I found, this was the only one I was expressly looking for – though when I found it, I almost left it on the shelf. I didn’t realise it was quite so very, very long. But I’ve heard good things about it – a novel about Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice – so maybe one day I’ll be in the mood for 650 pages.
The Tale of an Empty House and other stories by E.F. Benson
I’ve never read E.F. Benson’s ghost stories, though have heard them mentioned a lot. To be honest, I seldom read ghost stories cos I’m a huge coward – and I don’t even believe in ghosts, so I’m not sure what I’m scared about – but now I have the opportunity, at least.
The Doctor’s Wife by Brian Moore
This sounds a bit closer to The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne than the most recent Moore I read – and it is his centenary year, after all.
Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer
Since I’m the latest convert to the altar of Ms Heyer, I was pretty confident I’d find something in the shop to keep going. I can’t remember if this is one of the books that people recommended here or on Twitter, but I didn’t recognise any of the other titles in the pile on their ‘women’s writing’ shelves. Not quite sure what qualifies books to get onto that single bookcase, but curiously the first book on it was Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe…