London book confessions

I went down to London yesterday with booky friend Ali to meet up with some other ladies from the LibraryThing Virago Group, one of whom is also a book blogger. After having trips to Cornwall and Buxton where I was ‘allowed’ to buy books and didn’t really buy an awful lot, now it’s Christmas and (for me, at least) birthday season and I’m supposed to NOT buy books, I went a bit over the top and came home with … um … ELEVEN BOOKS.

Here I am looking a bit startled, with Claire, Lucy, Ali and Karen, outside the Persephone Bookshop. But you want to know about the books, right?

First of all, Luci is known for the very generous bags of books which she drags up to meetups and then lays gently on the table in front of us. I’ve done very well from this habit of hers before, and yesterday was no exception.

Barbara Taylor – “Eve and the New Jerusalem” – a history of 19th century feminism and socialism which is interesting in its own right and might give me some background to my reading about New Women and even the Dorothy Richardsons.

Jane Gardam – “Old Filth” – Gardam is one of my favourite authors ever and I love her books set on the East Coast and her quirky way of writing. I’ve never read these ones, though, put off a bit by the male main character. But there it was, so …

Natasha Solomons – “The Gallery of Vanished Husbands”  – I’ve apparently never read anything by her but this seemed intriguing – a novel about a woman regaining confidence in herself and breaking free in the 1960s.

Diana Wynne Jones – “Dark Lord of Derkholm” – I adore Wynne Jones and rate her novels above the Harry Potter ones, in fact press them upon people. This is both a satire on high fantasy and a highly readable work of high fantasy, apparently, and I bet it is!

We then popped up the Charing Cross Road (from Gaby’s, somewhere I’d inexplicably never been and which is now a firm favourite) to Any Amount of Books, which is perhaps my favourite of the (dwindling number of) bookshops on that road. It has “£1 each, 5 for £4” trays outside (and a bookcase just outside the front door) where I’m pretty well guaranteed to find something. And indeed I did. Sorry this picture is blurry – I’ve put them all away now!

Joan Aiken – “Black Hearts in Battersea” – well, I didn’t put this away because I started it on the bus home from the train station. I loved these in my youth and they still stand up. I can’t wait to get her short stories soon.

Francis Brett Young – “The Black Diamond” – a book in the same Shropshire Pear edition as the one I bought in Penzance, although not signed. This is set in Africa, not a favourite setting of mine (sorry, entire continent south of the Sahara) but it’s bound to be a good read.

John-Paul Flintoff – “Sew Your Own” – a quest book in which he looks into life, the universe and everything via learning to make his own clothes.

Veronica Stallwood – “Oxford Mourning” – I enjoyed her “Oxford Exit” and have been looking out for others by her – this is the only book that was remotely on my wishlist and is quite a battered copy so I don’t mind if another turns up at some stage! “A crime novel!” cried Mr Liz, but a literary, Oxford-based one!

Eric Newby – “Something Wholesale” – I adore Newby’s books but I didn’t have this one about his early life in the rag trade.

Those were all from outside, and then I spotted these two final lovelies on the New Books shelf inside.

Richard King – “Original Rockers” – the story of a small independent record shop in Bristol. I worked on transcriptions for this book a while back, so it was exciting to see it in print, although I have sort of read it before.

Jon Kalman Stefansson – “The Heart of Man” – a novel set in the north of Iceland, by an Icelandic author, about loving two women at the same time (rather than chopping people up, etc.). Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that this is the last in a trilogy. But never mind, it’s gone on the Pile (which includes Books Where I Have To Wait To Read Earlier Books In The Series First) and I’ve put the earlier two on my wishlist.

I did at least read a whole book on the journey to and from London – “The Year of Reading Dangerously”, which was excellent, so that’s one off the pile.

We did also go to the Persephone Shop. Some of the books bought there will end up on my TBR in December and January, but the only ones I bought there myself were two for Ali for Christmas.

So there we go – what a lovely day and, I think, a good haul that hasn’t damaged any possible buying by other people.

Have you read any of these? Which would YOU fancy reading?