An Important Announcement From The Ministry Of Truth

"Too often the News is all about whose not happy, whose got ripped-off, who feels hard done by, what's not fair, what's not right, whose protesting, whose complaining, whose bitching, whose been forgotten about..and this survey shows that that aspect of life, well it's the plight of very very very few, while most of us see life for what it is; it's a joy, it's a opportunity, it's a blessing. 

We know who we are, we know what we're about and we like it.  That's the news I want to see and hear more of - because that's the story, as the results show, of the vast majority of us."

The legendary and long lost paragraph of George Orwell's '1984',   as channelled from beyond the grave to our very own Mike Hosking on Seven Sharp, first week of May sometime.

The Master of Forward Motion..Louis L'Amour.

Very occasionally someone will wander around the shop a few times, then approach the counter to tell me they just want 'a reading book'. Well, have no fear, we do in fact stock a small and selective range of the very best in 'reading books'..otherwise known as Genre Fiction.

One of our favourites is the master of Westerns, Louis L'Amour. If Cowboys, indians , gunslingers, outlaws, Texas Rangers and frontier marshals are the stuff of your dreams then you will no doubt be very familiar with Mr L'Amour.  If not, well, you can surely take the time to read at least one.  Think of it as a quick, rip-roaring read for your next holiday, or an exciting standby as you sit in the doctors waiting room.

An interesting piece of background to be found Here

 These books are strictly old school 'Cowboys and Indian' fodder, there are certainly no 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' overtones. So keep that in mind. There is a reason most of the L'Amour movies are 'Made for T.V.', or, as in the case of 'Hondo', staring John Wayne, L'Amours short story inspired the movie, with the actual "Hondo' book coming last, as a 'novelisation' of the movie!.

And, while quoting from Wikipedia is really, well, appalling, I couldn't ignore this gem.. "At his best, L'Amour was a master of spectacular action and stories with a vivid, propulsive forward motion."  critic Jon Tuska, surveying Western literature (My italics). I don't think he meant it as a compliment. But I very much doubt L'Amour fans care, there is, after all, something to be said for the old familiar plots, the books that, once you enter their World, can be read time after time, much like listening to an old remembered song. In fact 90% of our L'Amour books sell to 'The Fans', who have usually owned all of L'Amours books, at least once in their lives. Time passes, and they sell them, or pass them on to family, only to end up buying the whole collection all over again.  To be sure, L'Amour fans must be among the most loyal and dedicated group of readers you will ever meet.

Mythic Fiction by Robert Holdstock

“you were both hunter and hunted; the shadow of your thoughts was the beast which killed you.” - Robert Holdstock 'Lavondyss'- Second novel of the Mythago Wood series


Well, I'm really looking forward to home time today. I have just discovered, somewhat belatedly, the Mythago Wood Cycle by Robert Holdstock. When I say belatedly I mean by a good 35 years, but whose counting, and to be honest at my age any new/old literary discovery that gets the synapses buzzing is welcome. 

I've long been a fan of Science Fiction, both the 'old school' Ray Bradbury et al, and the not so new kids on the block, like China Melville* and Iain M. Banks. But Fantasy, well I'm picky.  Too many Dragons, too many ancient Kings and my attention wanders. Though Brian Aldisses  Helliconia Trilogy keeps me quiet in the depths of winter, so I guess I'm not totally opposed to the basic tenets of the Fantasy Genre.

Anyway, back to Mythago Wood. The general setting is 1940's England, and a long forgotten tract of ancient forest.  However this forest functions rather like The Tardis, once you enter time is distorted, and the forest itself becomes far larger. It is populated, at different moments, and in different ways, by the spirits of the ancient English/Celtic/Roman 'heroes', as they appeared, in all their various manifestations, throughout time.  The basic premise being that figures such as Queen Boudicca or Robin Hood are part of our unconscious collective memory, that they have always existed, and always will.

The story revolves around the interaction of one family, namely a father and his two adult sons, who each in turn become embroiled in the 'vortex'. Of course at the heart of this is an inter-generational sexual jealously, revolving around the flame headed young maiden, which is a little sad, but then it is 'Fantasy' and Holdstock was writing in the late 70's.  And to be fair, that is a timeless theme, fitting for a story that revolves around figures from legend and mythology.

Mythago Wood won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1985, and it was well deserved.  It really is a brilliant example of mythic fiction, and is recommended to any reader willing to enter a complete new world with an open mind. I would also recommend Mythago Wood to non Fantasy readers who love Celtic history and Mythology in general, as it offers a valid interpretation of the role of mythology in human affairs.


* Yes, yes, I know, he's a Fantasy writer, but it's of the 'New Weird' school, and I suspect is read by people who would never dream of working their way through a David Eddings collection.

** The illustration for this post is, unfortunately, not from the actual book, the 'real' cover being bog standard Fantasy cover art circa 1985.  It is actually
a 1930s illustration to a story by John Buchan, of half-humans inhabiting a remote part of the Scottish Highlands, I suspect Buchan's The Watcher By The Threshold And Other Tales.

 To my mind it is a perfect reflection of the Mythago Wood story, which inhabits both the fantasy realm, and the real world of 1930-40's England. I have borrowed the image via Uncanny UK

           

"Leaked from the secretive Ryhope Archive, this fragment of 8mm film from April 1935 apparently shows several anomalous structures (geistzones) in the heart of Ryhope Wood. The cameraman and the provenance of the film are not known."

- youtube

                     

John Cowper Powys

I have just boldly recommended 'A Glastonbury Romance' by John Cowper Powys, to one of our regular readers of Classic English and Russian Literature. I look forward to his review...will it be "an epic novel of terrific cumulative force and lyrical intensity," or "ridiculous tedious rubbish"?. Possibly I should have prepared him for the somewhat epic journey he was about to undertake. Henry Miller, on reading  A Glastonbury Romance, wrote to Lawrence Durrell: "my head began bursting as I read. No, I said to myself, it is impossible that any man can put all this - so much - down on paper. It is super-human.".

Unfortunately the only copy I had was Picadors 1975 (?) edition with the horrid cover. Add a dragon or two, a half dressed albino Amazonian, and it could take pride of place in our early Fantasy section.

 "Every day that we allow ourselves to take things for granted, every day that we allow some little physical infirmity or worldly worry to come between us and our obstinate, indignant, defiant exultation, we are weakening our genius for life." John Cowper Powys.

The actual Abbey

See here for an Extract, but take a deep breath.

Pushkins The Tale of Tsar Saltan

We have a nice copy of "The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Glorious and Mighty Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Fair Swan-Princess" Tale of Tsar Saltan for short. For those that care about such things, and I must confess I do, it is classified as Aarne-Thompson  type 707, the dancing water, the singing apple, and the speaking bird.

However, for me, the real appeal of this edition of Pushkins poem is the Art Deco illustrations by Ivan Bilibin. The colouring is perfect. When you look at many of these illustrations on-line, the colour is too 'clean', the whites too white, the Reds too Red, whereas in real life the colours, as printed by Progress Publishers (Moscow) have a real earthy quality,  more in common with William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement than say the comic style of Herge.

If you wish to read a copy of the poem it can be found in all its glory here thanks to our friends at the Marxists Internet Archive.

The Cover

"Then they all sat down to feast."

A detail from the Cover

And to all those fellow bibliophiles who have contacted us requesting these, and other long lost treasures, they are for sale, unless already sold, and unless I am overcome with regret and decide to keep them myself. Please feel free to contact us to enquire, as this is a Blog rather than a sales catalogue, and as such too hard to update.

Lady Filmy Fern or, The Voyage of the Window Box

Every now and then, when we are out book hunting, I come across a treasure that just makes my day. In this case we were in Palmerston North, and when I found 'Lady Filmy Fern' we had to go grab a coffee (and a rather horrid lump of cheesecake) and sit in the park for half an hour while I read the rather unique and quirky fantasy, the thrill being that it is a book I had never come across before. You could describe it as a surreal adult fairy tale, written around Bawden's watercolours, but there is no reason for it not to be read to an imaginative child who likes whimsical adventures. It reminded me very much of Roald Dahl, with a touch of Edward Lear. I'm guessing Tim Burton has a very nice copy hidden away in his bookcase somewhere!

According to the Edward Bawden site the original drawings were stored down a well in Great Bardfield for safe-keeping during the war, but were in too poor a state for publication, and so were re-painted in 1980. Though in the  books Introduction it explains that the original pictures were restored by Miss Lewisohn of the Fitzwilliam Museum Conservation department, with Mr Bawden repainting some so as to complete the story.

A good friend to Thomas Hennell, the artist Edward Bawden

An interesting piece on War Artists, including the elusive and sensitive Hennell who was captured by Indonesian nationalist fighters in Batvia in November 1945 and was presumed to have been killed shortly thereafter - here

Doreen Lewisohn

Thomas Hennell- The Tree circa 1938-40

Slightly Foxed - But Still Desirable

We have just come across a copy of Ronald Searle's 'Slightly Foxed - But Still Desirable', a rather amusing take on booksellers terminology and the book collector eccentrics...many of whom can be seen in all their glory at our local book fairs.

An Impressive Tome or Two

Here are some pictures of our recently acquired copy of 'Vitalogy", put together and edited by the rather ellusive advocate of Homoeopathy, Edward Harris Ruddock. This is the 1938 edition, which is all 19 books by an assortment of authors, and includes a separate booklet entitled "Private Words to Men and Women - Sex Pamphlet and Beautiful Story of LIFE".

A beautiful, purple velvet covered edition of 'Lives of the saints;: Enriched with fifty-one full-page miniatures, in gold and colours, the text within engraved borders, from ancient books of devotion" by Henri-Leon Camusat de Riancey. Chromolithography at its best..

Like Christmas, but better.

Paul Gustave Dore by Felix Nadar.

We have just acquired a rather large collection of older books, everything from a 1908 edition of Eliza Actons 'The People's Book of Modern Cookery' - to a rather wonderful 'Don Quixote', illustrated in a suitably Gothic manner by Gustave Dore, the man who created the image we still have today of the knight and his squire. Also a rare set of 'The Works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte' in twelve volumes from 1896 (J.M. Dent).

The Bronte Sisters- possibly.