Frank and Startling.

 Every once in a while we receive a phone call asking if we sell "Adult Magazines". The answer is usually a very po-faced "No, we do not", because we tend to think of ourselves as not being "that sort of shop".

Currently however, we are "that sort of a shop" with a newly purchased collection late 60's early 70's books, which I would call porn novels, for want of a better term, and also a few 'How To' books featuring the usual pale and pimply students who would pose for these things back in the day..

The collection also included a carefully curated scrap book of the gentlemans favorite pictures, cut out of various magazines. Unfortunately that is not for sale as it has found a permanent home in our "Little Red Bookshop Museum of Found Curiosities".


Anyway, if titles like Mark Kirbys 'College for Sex' (-A girl can learn all kinds of things in college) and Ronald Kirkbrides 'Katrina' ( Kirkbride is to be rated above Ian Fleming-  Alistair MacLean) are your thing then just come and ask at the counter.

We promise not to judge you, and we have a large number of plain brown paper bags.

Little Red Gift Vouchers

So, it's Christmas again. And you are probably still trying to figure out what to give all your best and coolest friends and family.

Something they don't already have. Something even more fantastic than last years trinket.

Something that will make you look like the tasteful and discerning bearer of gifts that you undoubtedly are.

Well, look no further.  We have back in stock a new supply, fresh from the printers, of our very handy, tastefully designed, life time guaranteed Gift Vouchers. Available for a variety of Dollar amounts that can be spent at the lucky recipients leisure on T shirts, Board-games and, of course, books.

The perfect gift for the Carlo Mollino in your life.

From the Back of the Shop...

Martin Poppelwell Poster for The Arts Ensemble.

"nights where the nue cry are dreadful"

Things that happen out the back of the shop...and why there is the very occasional, very faint, whiff of spray paint through the shop....

10 Blade Stencil (and that's just for the black), 'Miyamoto Musashi Killing a Giant Nue' by Adrian Thornton, after Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
Photo Credit: Mr Brian Culy.

Welcome to the new shop bike!

The Little Red Bookshops Playlist

One thing you will very rarely be subjected to at The Little Red Bookshop is unwarranted noise pollution. No 'Classic Hits', no inane DJ blather, and only very, very rarely the pearls of wisdom that issue forth from the National Programs Afternoon show.

Instead we prefer to play wee gems from our ever expanding Classical Collection, with the occasional talking book thrown in for variety.
                                                                   

At present the CD causing the most comment has been 'Tennis Whites and Teacakes' by John Betjeman, read by Charles Collingwood.

The compilation of Betjeman's poetry, letters and prose spans over half a century, from 1927 to 1979, and is very much a celebration of a certain type of Englishness that is probably all but gone.
Though I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the main attractions here is the voice of Mr C. Collingwood, who's voice could well be bottled up and sold as a sleep tonic to English insomniacs the world over.
Cillingwood is probably best known for portraying farmer Brian Aldridge on the long-running radio soap opera The Archers. However he will be better known to the modern 'voice spotter' as SkekShod, the Skekis treasurer, in The Dark Crystal.

Currently coming in at number two for comment is Bachs violin Concertos BWV 1041 and 1042, and Double Concertos BWV 1060 and 1042. This is the Arthur Grumiaux Philips recording, with Heinz Hollinger and Herman Krebbers.
There is no getting around the fact that this recording is Sublime, not a word to be thrown around casually, and I do use it advisedly. 


 It can be tricky picking Classical music suited to the shop. Too atmospheric and it can fade into the back ground.  Too demanding, too violent, and it just makes people nervous. To my mind Bachs Concertos get it just right, the only down side being the tendency to make me stare off into space when I should be organizing shelves.  But that is something I can live with. Quite happily.

Greeting Card of the famous London maker Phillips Hill.

A big Welcome to the New Cash Register!!

After a little trial and error we now have a Cash Register to be proud of..a Regina Cash Register, designed by Jorgen Sigurd Sr.,co-founder and director of Jorgen S. Lien AS one of the pioneer companies in Norway producing cash registers and safes....well, at least that's what I believe it to be, after a little Google snooping.

It seems Cash Registers don't attract the same level of 'rivet counters' that you find in the world of vintage typewriters. I guess they just don't have the same romantic connotations. Which is rather unfair, as they are marvels of engineering, and fairly impressive design wise. This is the early 'Crank Handle' type, and without wanting to sound too Shylock (a Shakespeare reference, no offence intended) about the whole thing, it really does make a marvellous noise when used, a smooth action, with an oh so discrete bell.

 In the (not) unlikely event that anyone reading this has an interest in Regna Cash Registers I found this site for the photographs, and this to be helpful, though Google Translate has it's limitations!.

 

Strange Happenings in the back of the Shop....

Revolutionary Arts Ensemble play Akira Ifukube/ Godzilla

Our Open Sign Returns.

Thanks to Lee at Black Robyn Clothing .  The old sign has been around since we had Thorntons Screen Printing in Hastings.  It is now having a well deserved retirement in The Shop. Where better!

....and on an altogether different note, a ˈfeɪv(ə)rɪt/ picture from my younger years:

Photo by Gavin Watson

As if I don't have enough Ephemera...here are some of the Booksellers Labels, or book trade labels, we collect. Of course we do not physically remove them from books, they are all scanned, and the book is left to continue its journey, either on our home shelf or if I'm feeling restrained, back in the shop.

South's Book Depot.

The BTI Bookroom.

Progressive Books.

G. H. Bennett and Co.