Fabulous Finds XXI

Thread XX topped 400 posts -- time for a new one! I haven't found much of anything recently but I love reading about what others have picked up in the charity shops, etc.

Oops, duplicate post!

Good idea! The other thread was getting a bit long! I've had some nice charity shop finds recently (all blogged about) but not a lot in the way of Viragos, alas....

Cough, cough, ....Caspar said "Let's just go for an hour...(to the Lifeline Book Fair)"

We emerged three hours later - me in proud possession of some Viragoes - of which I think I might have found one, maybe???, and Caspar found the rest. How well I have trained him :)

I don't know who gets more excited at finding them now - him or me!

Their eyes were watching God Nora Neale Hurston
South Riding Winifred Holtby - I've been looking for this for a long time - so a big thank you for this one
Illyrian Spring Ann Bridge
Luminous isle Eliot Bliss
A Little love, a little learning Nina Bawden
Up the Junction Nell Dunn
The Reef Edith Wharton
A Lost Lady Willa Cather
Cassandra at the Wedding Dorothy Baker
The Golden Arrow Mary Webb
Spinster Sylvia Ashton-Warner

I'm a lucky woman indeed.

Fab finds indeed, Alex and well done Caspar!

Some fab finds their Alex - and uncommon titles too! Well done both of you! :)

Thank you Soupdragon and kaggsy. It's been the biggest haul in a while and as you say, some rare ones...we left quite a lot there for any other Virago afficianadoes in Brisvegas, Queensland xxx

Illyrian Spring! Let me say that again... Illyrian Spring!!!!!! How much did you pay for it Alex?????? OMG!!!!!!

Upgraded my copy of Jennifer Dawson The Ha-Ha today - pic here, and offering the other one on the dupe thread:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/the-weeding-continues/

>4 alexdaw:
Great scores, Alex!~! And I am thinking that perhaps most of us could use a Caspar. Well done! Enjoy.

And I ditto >8 romain: Mine is an old orange Penguin edition, which I have misplaced. Oh, woe is me.

I think I paid £2.50 for Illyrian Spring (just under $4 US) - that was in 2011 but prices for those books in Oxfam Books and Music in Crouch End haven't changed.

Hi everyone

We went back today. We are officially hopeless.

I think I paid $1 or $2.50 for Illyrian Spring Barbara - certainly not more than $2.50.

And the 6 I scored today are as follows:

Four Frightened People E. Arnot Roberston - in beautiful nick - as new really
A Virtuous Woman Kaye Gibbons
The Diary of a Provincial Lady E.M. Delafield - you always feel you've got such a bargain when it's a nice big fat book don't you?
A Sea-Grape Tree Rosamond Lehmann - the only one I paid $1.00 for - the rest were $2.50
The Getting of Wisdom Henry Handel Richardson - I didn't realise VMCs did this - it's such a nice edition

and

Jenny Wren by E.H. Young

now I'll have to sort my shelves out again! Really - I just need Robbie to build a ginormous bookcase around the matrimonial bed so I can fill it to my heart's content.

>12 alexdaw: How could you not? What a fabulous collection!

Amazing, Alex. Well done!

Fabulous Alex - a lovely haul!

Great job Alex!

I wanted to go to the Oxfam shop in Twickenham today, but they were closed, darn! But across the street there was a British Heart Foundation shop and I picked up a newer VMC, I Capture the Castle - a movie tie-in VMC.

I also picked up two other Viragos - The Birth of Venus and The Bolter and also We Need to Talk About Kevin which I've heard lots of LTers talk about.

I'm here all week so I'll have to see if the Oxfam shop is open in the evening. I head to Aberdeen on Friday and I'll have to see what I can find there this weekend.

>16 LisaMorr:
Nice scores there Lisa. We Need to Talk About Kevin won the Orange Prize in 2005 and is a great read.

>12 alexdaw:
Again Alex, wonderful finds. You must be beside yourself with glee! Well done.

>12 alexdaw: Glad all those lovely Viragoes are going to such a good home!

By an amazing coincidence I read the item on Grace Paley on the Facebook VMC group page on Sunday and then found her book, The Little Disturbances of Man, in a National Trust shop later that day. It was an original green in unread condition on sale for 50p!

>20 kaggsy: Excellent find Kerry! I read this a long, long time ago and can recall nothing about it.... :(

Some nice Virago arrivals recently - one I procured for myself, and some from Middle Child - piccies here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/larkin-about-plus-the-b...

As the last of them come straggling in I am so happy to have my Mary Hocking collection nearly complete. The 2015 arrivals are:
Family Circle; (read),
March House,
Meeting Place; (read),
Look, Stranger,
The Climbing Frame,
The Bright Day,
The Hopeful Traveler,
The Mind Has Mountains,
Daniel Come to Judgement,
He Who Plays the King,
Time of War,
The Sparrow; (read),
Safari West,
Ask No Question,
Checkmate, &
The Young Spaniard.
To my mind all fabulous finds! I have one more to find. Perhaps when we are in Arizona this winter I will find it in some obscure little bookshop.

Wow! That's an impressive amount of Hocking, Belva. - well done!

:)))

Fantastic hauls, Virago sisters!

Karen, Mr Dragon and I inherited a load of Larkin and Larkin related books last year and now have a row on our bookshelf that looks very like your pile.

Lovely, Dee! Definitely books worth inheriting!

Nice hauls everyone! Kaggsy - not read Lucky Jim? Lucky Kaggsy! One of the funniest books I have ever read! I've re-read it several times.

>28 romain: That's good to know - I could do with a laugh! :)

Some more incoming, mainly thanks to Middle Child! Lovely green piccies here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/leicester-comes-up-trum...

>30 kaggsy: Lovely finds! I do love early Penguins. Constant Lambert was music director of the Sadler's Wells Ballet, and had an affair with Margot Fonteyn for some years. He composed Rio Grande among other works, and was secretary (I think) of the Kensington Cats and Kittens Club!

>31 Sakerfalcon: thanks! Sounds interesting!

He was also the father of Kit Lambert who managed the Who.

Ah - thanks Luci! :)

Comes the postman...........with:
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 1: 1915-1919. I am thrilled with this find. I can't wait to read it and then look for Vol. 2!

>35 rainpebble: Ooh, lovely Belva! You are in for a treat! 😀

Not a Virago, but a book by a Virago author that's very scarce:

Fanfare for Tin Trumpets by Margery Sharp.

I was so thrilled that it's had a whole blog post to itself.

Wonderful Jane! What a find! :)

That's a very special find, Jane. Fingers crossed for the elusive Rhododendron Pie!

I knew there was a reason I didn't check this thread often. I confess that it's pure green envy. Congratulations, one and all especially Luvvie and Belva. I'm happy for you both. Really I am.

I hit the Virago motherlode on Saturday - two whole shelves of original greens (about 80-100 books in total) at the Brighton Amnesty bookshop. I restrained myself to five from my wishlist:

Rhapsody by Dorothy Edwards
Winter sonata by Dorothy Edwards
The crowded street by Winifred Holtby
Winged seeds by Katherine Susannah Pritchard
The gift by H.D.

Any Viragoites living or travelling in South East England should get themselves to this wonderful shop asap!

>41 Sakerfalcon: Wow Claire, how wonderful - and well done on the restraint! I think the Edwards titles are quite hard to come by!

80-100 books! Gulp! You really did hit the motherlode. Don't suppose there was an Illyrian Spring was there? :)

>41 Sakerfalcon: That's amazing, Claire.

I lived in Brighton for a while as a student and am kind of wishing I was still there now!

>44 Soupdragon: I love Brighton and because my sister lives there I visit quite often. It really does have a lot of good bookshops.

>43 romain: I didn't spot Illyrian spring, although there were quite a few of the harder-to-find titles. It seemed to be one woman's collection, as four of the five that I bought had her name and the date she'd bought the book written inside.

>46 Sakerfalcon: That's sobering - it could be my collection one day.... :(

Ooh I'm a lucky girl - the lovely Verity has passed me a beautiful batch of Whartons, a Grand, a Cather and a Broughton. Photo here on my blog https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/book-reviews-three-visits-to-debb...

Lovely books Liz! Lucky you! :)

Well, I'm starting 2016 in my usual vein, as Youngest Child stumbled upon a few Viragos while out with her friends yesterday!



More pix here!

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/starting-the-year-as-we...

>50 kaggsy: Fab, and how new and shiny they look in the photos! I've never seen that Miles Franklin either.

Ooh lovely! I have that Miles Franklin and I have Crossriggs coming up on the TBR, so let me know when you start it and I'll do the same!

>51 Soupdragon: The Atwood and the Franklin are in particularly great condition, and I'd never seen the Franklin (or to be honest, noticed it on the Virago list!) so it was quite a find by Youngest Child!

>52 LyzzyBee: Love to, Liz, although I can't promise I'll be starting it any time soon! :)

I wish I could find Illyrian Spring!!! I did find a barbara pym at a bookstore last week.

It looks like we haven't been finding Viragos for a while, to judge from the date of the last post. But I was in the Oxfam bookshop in Marylebone on Friday and found the following:
Joanna Godden by Sheila Kaye-Smith
The hours before dawn by Celia Fremlin and
The vicar's daughter by E. H. Young. At first I thought I already had this one, but realised I was confusing it with The curate's wife!

>55 Sakerfalcon: Nice finds Claire - well done! I read The Hours before Dawn a while back and thought it was great!

Great scores, Clair!

Already from Mrstipeypants, as she offered them on the duplicates thread, I have a lovely copy of Willa Cather: A Life Saved Up. Many, many thanks and much joy!
>41 Sakerfalcon: I just can't imagine! Congratulations, Claire! (Go back again. And again.)

And the copy of Sheep's Clothing arrived soon after with a lovely card. It turns out to be quite a wicked little book. Thank you, MrsSP!
And because of somebody's stack of new acquisitions (whose? One of the English sisters, I think), I found a relatively cheap copy of The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff, which showed up in my mailbox today. Yay! I wanted it for the cover, having never heard of MB, but looking at it, I think I'll be interested in reading it or at least reading in it!

We've been on holiday for a week and I found a lovely Oxfam book shop in Lymington and cleared them out of nearly all their Viragos, all original greens!

The Quest for Christa T.
Yonnondio
The Swan in the Evening
Never no more
The Song of the Lark
Persuasion

plus one duplicate, which I knew was a duplicate but I bought it because I think someone here might like it - A Pin to see the Peepshow. I'll mention it in the duplicates thread too.

Very nice finds - well done! :)

I have been to two of the U of T booksales and have picked up two VMC's that I did not have
Gone to Earth - Mary Webb (Later Green)
How Many Years: A Memoir - Marguerite Yourcenar (Later Green)

Plus, I got 3 original greens that I already have that I will use for gifting. I will save them until I see what I can give to my Secret Santee and then offer the others up for grabs

I stumbled across a copy of The Perpetual Curate in beautiful condition at the weekend - picture here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/the-joys-of-chance-find...

Beautiful copy, and I like the Ambler as well. Are those stickers on the front? Be very careful how you remove those. I've actually ripped the front of the book removing them in the past.

They are! *Why* do people insist on putting stickers on the front of books like that??? I was very nervous about removing them but luckily they came off without leaving a mark!

GRRRR to all booksellers who insist on putting permanent stickers on the fronts of lovely books!
I haven't gotten new VMCs, but my friend is closing her parents' house, and after she and her siblings went through all the books, I was given an opportunity to browse. I know that fellow Viragoites will rejoice with me in my acquisition of 2 hardbacks from her mother's collection: The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden and The Light Heart by Elswyth Thane. YAY!

>66 LizzieD: Lovely finds, Peggy. It's great that they now have a new guardian to cherish them.

I have just posted a short blog post about two amazing looking books I splurged out on. They could be amazingly brilliant or amazingly disappointing - we shall have to see.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/two-new-old-books/

I bought three very nice children's books by L. M. Montgomery in near new condition for about $10. Only when they arrived did I find that they were also VMCs. It had somehow escaped me that children's books were now being included in this series too. They are a trilogy called Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest and they look lovely!

>69 europhile:
And they are lovely books, Grant. Enjoy. :-)

I had a lovely post-Christmas meet up with my BFF at the weekend and picked up some lovely books, including a Virago Delafield (Thank Heaven Fasting) and a Thea Astley (I'm interested in reading her, Trish!)

Info and piccies here if anyone wants to take a look!

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/so-much-for-good-intent...

>71 kaggsy: It sounds as though you had a delightful day!

>72 Sakerfalcon: It was fun, Claire - all my favourite haunts (and of course a wonderful lunch at Gaby's!)

Just checked my outrageously long Kindle wishlist and found a current freebie - Evenfield by Rachel Ferguson, whose The Brontes Went to Woolworths was published by Virago (and more recently reissued by Bloomsbury. Another of her books was published by Persephone, Alas, Poor Lady

Thanks for the heads up Luci! 😀

>74 elkiedee: Don't you love it when you find a freebie on your wishlist?! Thanks for sharing that, Luci. I had problems with Ferguson's A Harp in Lowndes Square recently but loved The Brontes Went to Woolworths and was planning to try another.

>74 elkiedee:
Thanks Luci. I too, loved The Brontes Went to Woolworths & it is beyond time that I read another of Ferguson's so good timing on both Amazon's & your part. Kudos!

When I skipped right over to Amazon.com to order my Kindle edition of Evenfield, I saw this at the bottom of the description of the story between the covers:

‘It is only (now) that I realise how much … my work owes to the delicacy and variety of Rachel Ferguson’s exploration of the real and the dreamed of, or the made up, or desired.’
~ A.S. Byatt

Byatt wrote The Children's Book, which is an amazing book and quite possibly has the most beautiful cover art of any book over time.

I've ordered Evenfield, too. I have so many review books to read but it's published by Furrowed Middlebrow, who I like very much, and I have a time for very quiet and gentle reading coming up, and it looks ideal for that.

That's such a great name for an imprint!

Another Furrowed Middlebrow freebie by a Persephone author, Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck (author of House-Bound. The main character is a vicar's wife.

>80 elkiedee: Thanks Luci. I started Bewildering Cares when I took advantage of Amazon's kindle unlimited free trial month but my month was up before I'd finished it. I wasn't that enamoured with the book but I'd like to give it a bit more of a chance.

*sigh* Our Kindle freebies today are Serve No Master: How to Escape the 9-5, If a Pirate I Must Be, Ghost Gifts, and The Far Time Incident, and that's a better than usual offering.
I came to announce the acquisition of 2 books of interest to you. Pleasure in Ruins, a Rose Macaulay in lovely hardback and an original green Millenium Hall, which arrived from England yesterday. Yay! The Scott is a bit smelly, but I have it resting in bicarb and trust that it will come out faultless.

>82 LizzieD: Peggy, I had a smelly book recently (!) and I found that if I put it in a plastic bag with one of those silica gel pouches you get when you buy a bag or a purse, the smell just went. I was really pleased!

>83 kaggsy: That's great to know, Karen! Thanks!

Received in the mail today (all green VMC's):

The King of a Rainy Country
Hackenfeller's Ape
A Touch of Mistletoe
The Ha-Ha
That's How it Was
Love in Winter
None Turn Back
Music Upstairs
The Perpetual Curate
Ordinary Families
Mary Olivier

A mountain of reading there!

Oh, I read Hackenfeller's Ape a few months ago - really enjoyed it.

I haven't posted to this group for ages but have just returned from a week in Northumberland which included visits to Barter Books in Alnwick, assorted charity shops and a second hand bookshop in Berwick on Tweed. I have returned with:

George Beneath a Paper Moon by Nina Bawden
The Mighty and their Fall by Ivy Compton-Burnett
The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
Julius by Daphne du Maurier
The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier
The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy
Emily of New Moon by L M Montgomery
Pilgrimage 3 by Dorothy Richardson
Armour Wherein He Trusted by Mary Webb
The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
and
Strangers by Antonia White

This holiday was also notable for discussions of how we need to declutter - this circle remains unsquared.

->87 vestafan: I love Northumberland and Barter Books. Sounds a perfect week to me!

We had a lovely time - almost every day the weather was bright but cold, but how comforting to know you could retreat to Barter Books and linger over a coffee before ambling round the shelves 'just for ten more minutes'.

Not VMCs but I have just received very nice copies of the reprint editions of Merry marches on and Merry Again by Clare Mallory. The price was fairly reasonable too, considering how hard they seem to be to find. I'm still looking out for Merry Begins, the first in the series. I wasn't aware of these until Claire (Sakerfalcon) mentioned them earlier in the the year and I've been looking out for them ever since. So thank you, Claire!

>90 europhile: Ooh, very exciting! I hope you enjoy them (and manage to find the first book too). I recently read another of Mallory's books, Anna Charlotte which, to me, had a more distinctly not-British feel to it. It was also very good.

Wow, was I really the last person to post here in 2017? Have we not been finding Viragoes, or are we posting them elsewhere?

I found a Virago which I had not even heard of at the weekend, The golden spur by Dawn Powell. It seems to be a humorous novel about life in Manhattan in the 50s. Of course it has joined my collection!

That’s a bit scary isn’t it? I did discover Clash by Ellen Wilkinson, one of my favourite Viragos, a year ago but I obviously didn’t mention it here.

Having said that I haven’t come across many Viragos at all recently in my travels. Your find sounds interesting!

Geez, I started this thread in 2015 and have reported absolutely *zero* "fabulous finds."

I slowed down my hunting and collecting a while back. It was becoming harder to find Viragoes I didn't already have, and then the reality of trying to read them all set in. I know, I should banish such thoughts.

I have picked up a bunch since I last posted, just haven't been posting them here, so shame on me.

>94 lauralkeet: And completely agree Laura!

I picked up this one for $5 recently. I am not sure if I really like the omnibus editions or not as I would like to shelve all my green Viragos alphabetically and this messes it up! But couldn't pass it up as it is in as new condition and it is becoming hard to find the green Viragos at all secondhand.

>96 JayneCM: Anthologies just never play well with the other books! But what a score—looks like it is in beautiful condition.

I agree - beautiful condition!

>97 NinieB: Agreed! They are the wrong size and make my brain hurt to shelve! Maybe I need to let it go and be a bit less particular.

>98 romain: It is in near perfect condition, which is why I had to buy it. I only have Frost In May in a separate edition.

>99 JayneCM: Finding the right balance between organizing and reading is an art!

Happy!
Picked up four Daphe du Maurier VMCs from the op shop for $1 each. The Flight of the Falcon, The Loving Spirit, Julius and Castle Dor. I have not read any of these.

Picked up my eBay parcel - five green Viragos!

Spinster by Sylvia Ashton-Warner
Tell Me A Riddle & Yonnondio by Tillie Olsen
Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall
Cullum by E. Arnot Robertson
Susan Spray by Sheila Kaye-Smith

I suppose with the shops closed for so much of the last year+ we haven't had many opportunities for fabulous finds. But I scored a couple recently.

Mandoa, Mandoa! by Winifred Holtby
The thinking reed by Rebecca West
All the dogs of my life by Elizabeth von Arnim.

>103 Sakerfalcon: Well done! Not much new in our charity shops yet and certainly no Virago etc finds!

Not a VMC or even a non VMC Virago in this case - I have seen a number of Viragos and Persephones in charity shops but they're ones I own. I think I did buy a VMC edition of Five Children and It a few weeks ago, which might well be the 4th copy in the house, oops! But today, in Oxfam Books in Kentish Town, I found a book I'd wishlisted but without any expectation that I'd find it at an affordable price (£2.75).

Alison Light, Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars. This is a Routledge publication and looks to be written for the academic market, and I don't have access to a proper academic library. I don't know Alison Light but her late husband previously lived with my aunt Anna and they founded a project of research into socialist and feminist history together. I have read her book Common People and have had Mrs Woolf and The Servants on my shelves and not yet read for ages - perhaps a book to finally read in 2022. Authors discussed include Mrs Miniver author Jan Struther, Ivy Compton-Burnett and Agatha Christie.

Oh, and earlier this month I found a copy of a bio of E Nesbit (who now counts as a VMC author, of course) in Crouch End.

I recently found a copy of Blue skies and Jack and Jill by Helen Hodgman, a contemporary Virago which I wasn't aware of before. It's two novellas, and they look interesting.

>106 Sakerfalcon: I think I either own that or have owned it... She's Australian I believe?

>107 kaggsy: Yes!

>106 Sakerfalcon: I have that, am yet to read it.

Last week I went to Kentish Town, mainly to go to the branch of Camden Libraries there and get a few books reissued, also to collect a copy of Jackie Kay's recent book about Bessie Smith but I also popped into Oxfam Books and a British Heart Foundation shop there. In the BHF shop I found a copy of Death Goes on Skis, a newish VMC from 2020, in brand new condition, intro by Sandi Tosivig.

The Oxfam shop had quite a few VMCs and Persephones - and I moved about 6 books from the general fiction shelves (where I don't always look that hard as I try to resist things which I think have a reasonable chance of appearing as a Kindle Daily Deal and which aren't books I collect (or even ones I try to resist collecting) in dead tree copies.

I succumbed to temptation to two books in the "I shouldn't start any more collections but I can't resist category"

- Margery Sharp, The Stone of Chastity, my first Furrowed Middlebrow paperback, and actually a very similar price to its Kindle price (£2.75 compared to £2.84)

- Jacqueline Roy, The Fat Lady Sings - this is one of the British books by black writers (some are Caribbean born but (have) live(d) and work(ed) here for many years) - republished by Penguin with intros by Bernardine Evaristo.

#3 was the latest in a long running and favourite crime series. Dead Land by Sara Paretsky.

On Kindle I found an NYRB edition of Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood, shortlisted for the Booker in the 1970s, Anglo Irish family in a big house.... how could I resist. That one's still available for just £1.33 if anyone else in the UK is tempted, don't know if it's on offer more widely

>110 elkiedee: Those are some great finds Luci! I haven't yet seen a used Furrowed Middlebrow book.

Thanks for the tip on Great Granny Webster!

A comment, not about my fabulous finds, but the possibility of causing a fabulous find for someone else:

My husband is retiring soon and, as we live in tied accommodation, we shall be moving to a much smaller house, which means that some of my books must go. So far I have resisted weeding my Virago collection but yesterday I bit the bullet. I have a box of about fifty to sixty books ready to go to my local charity shop (probably Oxfam). I decided that some of the modern editions can go and I don't need another set of Jane Austen. Other than that I had a large collection of duplicates that I used to advertise on this site until postage became so expensive. I don't know exactly what Oxfam's policy is but I don't expect that all these will appear in my local non-bookshop so they may be spread around locally (I live in Cheshire), or even nationwide. I would love to think that some of them may end up in your LT catalogues.

Oh I’m in Cornwall.
Wondering which Virago’s you are parting with as looking to fill gaps in my collection?
Sadly our local Oxfam closed long before the pandemic, found a few Virago’s there.

I totally get the issue about postage. If I get to go and meet people in person I always try to put together a few duplicates etc to take with me as I can't afford to post books, and although I'm not necessarily giving the books to the same people who've been incredibly generous t stop me at various points in the last 20 years (including friends in the US and Australia in the past, and including an American friend (not through LT) who died a few years ago who sent books that were then impossible to find here.

It might just be worth checking whether anything you have to part with has any particular rarity value and deciding whether you want to sell it for yourself or for a more targeted good cause, or to see whether anyone you are in contact with online etc would be interested in paying shipping and market value. I think that most of my Viragos are the books that pop up and very frequently and I don't see so many copies of ones with a value, but I have seen copies of books in charity shops for prices which are more than a snip but way less than abebooks or Amazon Marketplace.

One VMC example was Clash by Ellen Wilkinson - there is a 2018 reprint from a publisher I've not heard of at about £9, and secondhand copies of the 1989 VMC for around £12 inc postage, but I've seen it advertised for sale online for over £40 and in charity shops several times for less than £3.

If you have books written/published for children to dispose of, some of those seem to be very hard to find and on sale at quite astonishing prices for books that are "only" from my 70s childhood or 80s teen years, including ex-library copies and others that aren't what I would expect to be collectors' items. I know my aunt sold some of her collection. I have no intention of clearing out my collection in the near future but if/when I do I will start with the children's books.

>113 Cornishgirl: If there are any you particularly want send me a list and I'll have a look. The box won't be going this week!

>114 elkiedee: Yes, I have sold quite a lot of books using Ebay or Amazon but I don't think any of these would sell for very much - not enough to make the effort of listing, packing and posting worth it. I think most of them will have come from charity shops in the first place so I am happy to put them back in the system. I do like to give books to my friends and acquaintances if I can (and if they want them!) but I'm not seeing many people at the moment, and time is not on my side. I have one or two books on my shelves that you gave me at Virago meet-ups in Oxford and London, many years ago, now.

>116 CDVicarage: I get that and I hope Oxfam is able to get them to a suitable retail outlet, whether it's a larger general shop with a books section or an Oxfam Books. For example, the Oxfam branch I grew up with in Leeds, and where most of my first books probably came from, courtesy of my dad, and rather more recently, my mum's local shop branch in Ilkley, both had far more space for books and were much more organised with different sections, alphabetical order etc, than most non specialist charity shops. On the other hand, colour coding seems to have caught on in Crouch End, though thankfully not in Oxfam. Superficially it's eye catching but actually it makes it quite hard to make out the titles! And I didn't see a big section of dark green VMCs either.

I was alerted to a display in the Oxfam Bookshop, Moseley, and picked up these lovelies (picture here on my blog tomorrow (Friday))

Flora Tristan – “Peregrinations of a Pariah” – French writer visits Peru in 1833 to claim her inheritance – she’s a pariah because of her divorce.

Gertrude Bell – “The Desert and the Sown” – The famous traveller’s journey through Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, first published 1907.

Alexandra David-Neel – “My Journey to Lhasa” – In 1923, she was the first European woman to visit the city of Lhasa. She was adept in Tibetan ascetic practices to keep warm.

Flora Tristan – “The London Journey of Flora Tristan” – More of the French traveller, exploring London in 1826-39.

Edith Durham – “High Albania” – Seven years of travel in the Balkans in – yes, a “waterproof Burberry skirt”.

I did leave some behind - the Isabella Bird Japan and two-volume Persia books and Mary Kingsley's West Africa. If any other Viragoites would like any of these or would like me to go and pick up the others for them, I'll happily send within the UK - the ones I haven't bought I'd need book price and postage if poss as I wasn't intending to buy them.

>118 LyzzyBee: Ooh, what lovely finds! I would love the Japan book, but don't make a special trip.

I will be in Birmingham in May, so was going to get in touch to suggest a meetup. I will message you, Ali and Genny when I have a plan.

>119 Sakerfalcon: Ooh, would be lovely to meet up again! I can easily pop and pick up the Japan book for you if they still have it (I did recommend it to the staff so ...).

>118 LyzzyBee: What wonderful finds! It has taken me years to build up my nearly complete collection of Virago Travellers.

... and I got it, will save it for you!

>121 BeyondEdenRock: There were a few more but they did seem like common ones. If you're looking for anything specific still I might remember if they were there!

>122 LyzzyBee: Wonderful! Thank you so much! I hope I'll have time for a visit to the shop myself while I'm in Brum. Would you like me to transfer payment to you or wait until we meet?

>119 Sakerfalcon: Oh no, I was just checking if I'd read it and I tried to and DNFd it as it was so racist!! I wonder who I sent it on to (with a warning). Completely understand if you don't want it, though you may be able to skip those bits https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/isabella-bird-unbeaten-tracks-in-...

Lyzzy - I used to live on Mayfield Road in Moseley. Where do you live?

>125 LyzzyBee: Ah, thanks for the warning! I will give it a try anyway and see if I can avoid those bits.

>126 lippincote: How funny - I live on Addison Road in Kings Heath, about 1.5 miles from Mayfield Road!

Ah yes! As soon as you said Kings Heath I remembered I'd asked you before! Sorry about that. I lived in Birmingham for 3 years in a lovely garden flat. A very happy time for me in a lovely city.

Some gorgeous finds Liz - well done!! I was tempted to express interest in the two-volume Persia books as I don't think I have these, but I am trying to be strong and not buy books I'm not likely to read any time soon. It's very difficult. I'm off to check out the pictures on your blog!!

>130 kaggsy: Oh no, I can go and get them for you if you want!

>131 LyzzyBee: Well, please don’t make a special trip, but if they’re still there when you next pass,I *would* like them. I’ve no come across them in the wild and I have most of the Travellers now. Happy to pay for the cost and postage of course!!

>132 kaggsy: Got them!! I'll get them to you asap!

>133 LyzzyBee: Oh, how wonderful! Thank you sooooo much!!!

Wonderful finds at the 5-floor used bookshop around the corner from my office. Most of the fiction is by *really* forgotten authors, but I managed to spot a few familiar names. I will probably go back for Storm Jameson! There's also a full collection of Barbara Pym’s novels, with those brightly colored, floral-patterned jackets. I may ask for them for my birthday if they're still there.

Oooh, sounds marvellous, but I can't see your picture and would love to. I have several Storm Jamesons lurking!

>136 kaggsy: Oops, not sure what I did wrong. The books are The Forgotten Smile by Margaret Kennedy (they had a bunch of hers but the dustiness was overpowering), The Road to the City by Natalia Ginzburg, The Village by Marghanita Laski, and a Virago (not VMC) book I'd never heard of, The Last Room by Elean Thomas.

Oh, lovely finds! Well done!

>137 surtsey: It's such a treat to stumble upon a trove of Our Kind of Books!

Not a Virago but a Virago author - Margaret Kennedy's novel The Feast is available in a UK Kindle edition (Faber) for 99p, with an introduction by Cathy Rentzenbrink.

On holiday at the beginning of this month I went to the Oxfam Bookshop in Deal, and some of the other charity shops on the little high street (there were 3 or 4 shops I never even made it to as some close very early and/or are struggling to find volunteers, I think). I ended up buying about 40 books from Oxfam and a few from other places. They didn't have many VMCs that I didn't already have, but I found a copy of a recent paperback historical novel from Virago, In the Clear Light of the Sun by Clare Clark. Some children's books, crime novels and about 8 collections of the Best American Mystery Stories plus a few other anthologies. And these were for the most part things I've not seen very often. In another shop I found hardback copies of books published in March and July 2022, by Patrick Gale and Louise Welsh respectively - I'd just picked up a hardback reservation of one in London before we went away.