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?