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

Prince Rupert

Marquis of Montrose

I have always been drawn to the 17th century Civil Wars, particularly after listening to C.V. Wedgwood describing its main battles on the BBC radio. I was given her The King's War for a Christmas present whilst in the Sixth Form. She wrote the kind of History I prefer - strong narrative, a concentration on characters and scenes; not the boring charts and graphs that bedevil so many earnest History books of the last 40 years. My two heroes are Prince Rupert of the Rhine (7 non fiction first editions and a few novels) and the first Marquis of Montrose (8 non fiction first editions and several novels).

Nunney Castle                                          Cleeve Abbey

 

I have been fascinated with both Castles and Monasteries ever since returning from the West Indies to go to an English school aged ten. Even before that, aged six, I had played around the battered Nunney Castle in Somerset. One never forgets! Holidays were spent meandering around Britain, visiting mainly Ministry of Works (now English Heritage) sites and purchasing the skimpy leaflets on abbeys such as Cleeve, also in Somerset. I have amassed nearly 50 books and scores of leaflets on castles and a similar amount on monasteries (including nunneries). 

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.