- I was asked to read and produce a Review for the Richard III Society's Journal, The Ricardian Bulletin, on the latest Scott Mariani novel. Since the Review will not be published until June, I daren't use it as a Blog until then.
- I must admit I struggled with this Biography of Sir Garnet Wolseley. The first nine chapters, detailing his early life onwards, until the fiasco relating to the failure to rescue Gordon from Khartoum, were interesting and plain sailing. This took me up to page 176 out of 275; however, the last hundred or so pages were very heavy-going and I kept putting the book down. Well, I have finished just before the end of March. But to Blog on just two books must be one of my lowest monthly totals ever.
Kenneth Hillier's Literary Abstracts
Monday, 31 March 2025
Halik Kochanski's 'Sir Garnet Wolseley. Victorian Hero'
Friday, 7 March 2025
Glenda Youde's 'Beyond Ophelia. The True Legend of Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti' 2025
Friday, 28 February 2025
David Kertzer's 'The Pope at War' 2022
Friday, 21 February 2025
Frances Pitt's 'Tommy White-Tag' 1912
Thursday, 20 February 2025
William Kuhn's 'The Politics of Pleasure. A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli 2006
Saturday, 15 February 2025
A Collector's Cornucopia Part III
I read Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time in the Sixth Form, in the Penguin paperback edition. Like many others who join the Richard III Society, it was the book that started my interest in the monarch who only reigned for two years. Tey's real name was Elizabeth MacKintosh, but she wrote under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot for her first books and her plays, changing to Tey for her later novels. Perhaps her most famous work was The Franchise Affair (made into a film), but her 1933 Richard of Bordeaux play - starring John Gielgud - was also very successful. I have all her books in first editions, with nearly all in dust wrappers, and three of them signed by 'Gordon Daviot' - her signature, apparently, is rare.
Apart from the very early, and very expensive!, works (The Loving Spirit, I'll Never Be Young Again, The Progress of Julius, Jamaica Inn and Rebecca), I have all of Daphne du Maurier's novels, her short stories, her few biographies, some biographies of her - around 50 books, all in first edition with dust wrappers. I read The King's General, then Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica Inn at school and never looked back!
I read Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. As a result, I have purchased six of his novels in first edition Penguins as well as The Journals and Literary Taste. They remain on my books to read list!
Other Interests and Collections
I am a sucker for Series! I have several sets of Histories of England:
Methuen (1904-1913); Oxford (1936-1986); Pelican (1950-1955); Longman's (1953-1980); Nelson's (1960-1969); Paladin (1976-1986); Arnold's (1977-1986); Longman Foundations (1983-1993); and The New Oxford (1995-2010 so far). In addition to the above, I have the six volumes of Peter Ackroyd's History of England and several volumes of the much-maligned Arthur Bryant's Histories, all first editions in pristine condition. in their dust wrappers
The Yale English Monarchs series, supplemented by other publishers (Yale has not featured Elizabeth I, Charles I, Charles II, William & Mary, and any monarchs after George IV) take up two full bottom row shelves - some 51 substantial books, all first editions and with dust wrappers.
Since 2015, Penguin have been issuing small hardbacks with semi-dust wrappers on the Monarchs. They are very difficult to track down in secondhand condition (I dislike the newer paperback versions), but I have so far managed to acquire 23 in the series and shall keep looking out for the others.
Two more 'sets':
The Kingfisher Library series published by Arnold. There were only 16, starting with 5 in 1931, continuing with 7 in 1932, a further three in 1933 and, in 1946, John Meade Falkner's Moonfleet. The latter is why I started to collect them. My 13 books are all in their flimsy dust wrappers and are first editions.
I don't normally collect paperbacks, apart from the thrillers of Scott Mariani and the Historical sleuths of Edward Marston, Sarah Hawkswood and Susanna Gregory. However, I was much attracted to the inter-war Jarrolds Jackdaws - 22 books in the general series (1936-1938) and 16 in the Crime series (1939-1940). I have 18 and 12 of them respectively. Fish hook like, this has made me turn this year to the similar Hutchinson Crime-Book Society paperbacks. I have only purchased the first ten, but anything could happen!
Finally, and most recently, I have begun collecting and reading novels on foxes. They are nearly all novels, dating from 1893 to 1984 - all, inevitably!, in first edition and with dust wrappers if they had them. Although there is only so much you can describe of a fox's life, I still find each tale very interesting - often due to the obvious love for and knowledge of the animal by the author. Moreover, there are usually superb illustrations to complement the text.
I have covered nearly all my Collections; I have left out a few areas - my books on the West Indies; Ludlow, Shropshire; Local History books; more esoteric subjects such as the Knights Templar, the Green Man etc. What is apparent - there are no Science books (a very few Naturalist books) and no 21st century novelists (bar a few thriller/Historical writers such as Ken Follett, Robyn Young. Nicola Upson) I have a few G.A. Henty and Charlotte Yonge novels in first edition, as well as a larger collection of Emily Holt and Evelyn Everett-Green's - all 19th century history novels.
Friday, 14 February 2025
A Collector's Corncopia Part II
Secondly, there is Mary Webb, who did for Shropshire what Holme did for Westmorland. I read, possibly her most famous work, Gone to Earth whilst still a teenager, but it is only this century that I started to collect her books. I now have all her six novels, and The Chinese Lion, in both UK and USA first editions. I also have a dozen books about the author. Nearly all of my collection are in dust wrappers if so issued. I have yet to compile a Bibliographical booklet on her.
Finally, in this Blog, Alfred Duggan - another novelist who was much admired by authors such as Evelyn Waugh, but who seems to have fallen out of favour these days. I recall reading his first novel, Knight with Armour, at school and much enjoying it. I had a burst of collecting him some 20 years' ago and now have all his works in first edition and in dust wrappers. I haven't read them all and hope to one day! There are 25 books, 17 of them are novels.
The Collector's Cornucopia III will deal with two or three more Novelists and the 'sets'/series which I collect.