Recent blog entries

  • Beware the Ulsterman my son...

    I bought a wee book at the auction today called Malice in Kulturland by Horace Wyatt, published by The Car Illustrated in 1915. It’s a satire on the political situation in Europe at the start of the Great War in the style…

  • In the beginning...

    It has gone out of fashion in these post-modern times, but stories used to begin with a beginning, progress to a middle and conclude with an ending. Open-minded as I am, I have never minded a slight twist in the…

  • Book Inscriptions # 1

    You find all sorts of inscriptions in books, usually on the front endpaper, from the plain name and address to pledges of undying love. I came across one today at the front of a copy of ‘Grammont’s memoirs of the…

  • A Scotch Carol

    You find all sorts of interesting things stuck inside books: letters, tickets, obituaries, even money.
    Today I found a Carol – a Scotch (or Scots) Carol in fact which I will now commit to cyberspace. It was typed on a small…

  • Move over skinny dog

    Some customers are just funny. Funny peculiar I mean, not Funny ha-ha, though we have our fair share of those too.
    One peculiar thing that these funny customers do is to go straight to a section where somebody else is already…