Confessions of a book collector

I dare not tell you exactly how many copies of BB's 1950 classic "Confessions of a Carp Fisher" I have in my angling library, but it is quite a number - these photo's are just the tip of the ice berg!

Each copy has a particular story attached to it - the one I take fishing with me, one that belonged to my good friend the Norfolk carp angler and lovely gentleman Dick Kingsley Kefford, one from BB given to me, various reprints and favourite copies and so the list goes on. In a moment of poorness I did part with my prized copy of BB's proof for the second edition, but when you are young and a house renovation needs to be paid for such things do happen.  

I know exactly what it is that grips me with this particular book - a book I am dipping into again on these cold and dark evenings fireside. That is the mark of a good book isn't it? One you return to and one that still stands the test of time after all these years. This book has been a minor obsession of mine since I first read it in the school library in the early 1980's. That was a reprinted copy (1970 edition to be exact) with a contribution by Dick Walker on his record carp capture. That particular book, the very book I read at school is now on my shelf and the copy I always re-read. It formed part of a school library sale a few years later - and so its journey continues. A constant in my life. I thanked BB many times for being that spark at thirteen and I often wonder how many other poor souls have similar stories to my own.

The evocative and descriptive way that BB takes you down long winding lanes to tree girt pools shrouded in mist at dawn struck a chord with me at thirteen and it still does now. The hopes and expectations of a carp that you may be lucky enough to land after it takes your simple bait that you fish for with a float. The shaking hands as a shadow beneath the surface film of the lake comes into view and starts to feed over your bait. You dare not move, you cannot move until the bait is taken and the line stirs - you worry that the fish can feel and hear your beating, thumping heart. The day that stops is day the magic is lost and is the day I stop fishing.

Market Finds No 18

A run on reading matter over the last few weeks - as per usual, the most expensive for the cost of a pint (and not your inflated London pints at that!). The norm is around a pound or two, sometimes less.

All of these were found in the book town of Hay on Wye in the cheaper less frequented back passages and nooks on our recent holiday jaunt. I was particularly pleased with Going Fishing (letters to a brother angler - 1925 Arrowsmith). I cannot speak highly enough of this book and to find two copies in one day is quite something. I was only recently recommended the book after leafing through friend Ferney's copy and took an instant liking to it. Some things are meant to be. Such lovely chapters as: A Norfolk Mill Pool, My Favourite Spot, Winter Roach, Catching and Cooking, Two Chubs and Another, The Verb to Stret-Peg, A Hint and some Animadversions, The Sixteenth, Sultry Days. The list of enticing chapters goes on and it is a superb read.

I have no intention of ever going trout fishing in the streams of Natal (signed presentation copy from the author Neville Nuttall), but who could resist a book with such a splendid jacket for £2? Not I.

England Parish Churches by Edwin Smith and Olive Cook just continues to fuel my passion for the country church and a superb guide to Canterbury Cathedral by Rena Gardiner for 50p. You can do no wrong with a Puffin Picture Book, especially if SR Badmin is involved and I need not tell you what a delight Follies, Grottos and Garden Buildings is.........splendid!    

Way on High

What is there not to like about Terri's Takeaway in the delightful market town of Hay on Wye? I don't know what it was before it served treats to the masses on a Friday night with a full on attack of the beer munchies but what a delightful looking shop front. The flowers which adorn it look like fried eggs ready to be burst by the toast. The corbels are just as lovely.

The furniture below, which was spotted just by chance, is fitted to a wonderful azure blue door surround. Not sure what Jones the Mercer did though - cloth merchant perhaps?

Hay is full of architectural treats. The glazed animalier tiles that adorn the facade on Booth's bookshop are a wonder to behold. Far too much to take in as so much time has been spent browsing and looking for treats of the bookish kind. The bargains that could be found in Hay in years gone by are few and far between these days. The dealers are fully tuned in to the Internet - unlike my first visits in the late 1980's. I did find some gems this time around though and right under the noses of the hardened dealers.........more of this in a later post.  

A delightful sign to finish - well it made me chuckle anyway and one to add to my long list of corkers that make me laugh, the Captain blush and the nippers wonder what an earth is going on!

Landscape, Sea, Fields, Rivers and Bees

The darkest west of Dorset doesn't appear to be too much of an obstacle for some of our nicest authors and speakers and for that I am most grateful -  we have been treated of late in Bridport by James Russell talking about the great Eric Ravilious.

Eric Ravilious - Cerne Abbas Giant 1939

I had come across James before, only through his excellent published works on Ravilious by The Mainstone Press and the packed Arts Centre were enthralled. I was not surprised to hear that there were ER obsessives who collected and researched every snippet of his life and it was fascinating to hear how a draft pencil drawn proof for a Puffin booklet on chalk hill horses had been found - lovely story. I was delighted to hear James mention he is working on a book of Ravilious wood engravings which is perhaps the area of his art I find the most interesting. This is to be published by Mainstone in October.

Eric Ravilious - Puffin Picture Book Proof 1942

What I wanted to hear was something about Ravilious the man, what he was really like - I had always imagined ER to be a moody sort of a chap, so it was with some relief James told the audience he was a happy whistler and quite the life and soul at parties. It was Edward Bawden who was the shy retiring type - even too shy to take public transport. 

What never ceases to amaze me about all my favourite artists is the way that many of them are all linked. I didn't know a great deal of this until recently - Ravilious, Bawden, Nash, Piper, Peggy Angus, Edwin Smith, Olive Cook and Tirzah Garwood. They all knew each other really well and the links run deep.

Tirzah Garwood - The Dog Show 1929

A few days later I came across James's excellent blog and was amazed to read he had also visited Chichester recently for a day which almost mirrored my own as reported here a while back! 

The following week we were treated to George Monbiot, Philip Hoare and Callum Roberts for an evening at the Electric Palace - Our Sea Needs Our Say, a debate on marine conservation and Lyme Bay.

I have a soft spot for George Monbiot - quite the noticer and chivvy upper for the environmental cause. His weekly writings, which I subscribe to, are eagerly awaited and enjoyed.

Sixty square miles of Lyme Bay became the first Marine Protected Area of significant size in English waters in 2008. At the time it was hailed as a turning-point in our collective relationship with the sea.
Five years on the above speakers debated how that relationship is going.

The present government is trying to withdraw support from much of what was envisaged five years ago. Of the 127 reserves proposed by the Wildlife Trusts, it selected just 31. A ‘Marine Protected Area’ in Lyme Bay is quite compatible, apparently, with removing 600 tonnes of whelks per year, mainly for sale to the Far East. No Take Zones, tried and tested in New Zealand, Scotland and the Isle of Man, have been systematically kept out of the discussion in England.

Finally, the programme for the ninth Bridport Literary Festival (November 10th - 17th) dropped through the letter box.

The highlight last year was the Kenneth Allsop memorial evening where we were treated to the delightful Richard Mabey. You can watch that talk here.

Friday 15th November sees the KA memorial evening take place at the Electric Palace - Fields, Rivers and Bees. Hosted by Nick Fisher with Tim Dee, Charles Rangely-Wilson and Dave Goulson. Sponsored by Little Toller Books with proceeds donated to Common Ground.

The evening will be introduced by David Wilkinson who has written Keeping The Barbarians at Bay (Signal Books 2013). I had no idea this book had been published until now - The last years of Kenneth Allsop, green pioneer. Using unpublished papers and diaries and with a foreword by Richard Mabey is a book I am very much looking forward to reading. 

Also, as part of the Literary Festival, we have Neil Ansell (Deer Island - two journeys of survival) again in conversation with Nick Fisher on Sunday November 10th.  The venue is the excellent Hayloft Bar at The Bull Hotel. I am just about to start Deep Country: Five Years in the Welsh Hills (Penguin 2011), which was critically acclaimed and very much enjoyed by those I know who have read it.
                    

Reading Matter

My ever expanding pile of books to be read has just got bigger - a visit to two of my favourite Wessex bookshops yielded a volume from each by the most excellent Little Toller Books of Wimborne Minster. 

The Cross Keys Bookshop in Salisbury never ceases to amaze me. It hasn't failed me yet. I find books on the shelves of this orgasmic shop that I didn't even know had been published - new Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious titles that I hope and pray may reach my Christmas stocking. I came away with A Shepherd's Life by WH Hudson (originally published in 1910) - I am ashamed to say I have never read Hudson, he is now firmly in my reading pile. I know of him through the writings of "BB" and that is as far as it ever got with me. I do have an interest in shepherds though - the Gabriel Oak and Barclay Wills sort and this was my reason for purchasing this lovely Little Toller edition.  

The other book I have read and will do so again. I originally came across Kenneth Allsop when I first read In The Country back in the 1980's when bunking off from college studies. I found a 1970's edition and I couldn't put it down - it's strange looking back now as I sit only a couple of miles away from his Mill at West Milton, West Dorset that our paths would cross in some sort of way. Such an interesting chap (known to millions in the 1960's through the Tonight programme on the BBC which was the first early evening news programme).

I have him to thank, for if it were not for him I wouldn't spend so much time enjoying the delights of Powerstock Common with my children. He fought bitterly with the Forestry Commission to stop them clear-felling Powerstock Common (now a most lovely Dorset Wildlife Trust nature reserve) which follows the old Bridport to Maiden Newton railway line and it is now enjoyed by many thanks to him.

I came across the new edition quite by chance in Bridports delightful bookshop (one of the top 50 bookshops in the UK - The Guardian and The Independent). I also found out that the recently cancelled Kenneth Allsop memorial talk, as part of the Bridport Literary Festival, will take place in the new year with Ronald Blythe. Certainly something to look forward to in the dull days of new year!

Look after your local bookshops, support them and love them. Support the Indie Bound Get Local campaign and keep books on the high street - keep money in the local economy, embrace what makes them unique, help the environment, create more choice, benefit from their expertise, make them a destination and importantly keep the high street healthy!