Online orders: 6
Books found: 5
Nicky was in today. Her plan to turn her van into a mobile shop has been temporarily put on hold because the back door won’t open. She has decided instead that she is going to buy an old mobile library from the council and convert that.
In the morning I started going through Hamish Grierson’s books, which he had dropped off when I was in Dunkeld. Hamish is a retired antique dealer and a book collector, so a regular customer. The books were mainly about prehistory and in good condition. When I was checking the prices of some of the more interesting books from his collection on AbeBooks to see what other people are selling them for so that I could work out a fair price for him, I told Nicky that I was going to offer him £100 for them, to which she replied, as she always does, that I ought to halve the figure.
Anna insisted that, since it was a clear, sunny day, we climb Cairnsmore, the granite lump of a hill on the far side of Wigtown Bay. We left at 3 p.m. and reached the summit at 4.30 p.m. and were back home by 6.30 p.m. It is always entertaining doing this sort of thing with Anna: it is always she who suggests it, then very soon into the adventure she will start complaining bitterly about it, becoming increasingly vocal and miserable. Then, once it is done, she will announce, ‘Wow, that was awesome.’ On one occasion we decided to cycle forty miles around forestry tracks in the Galloway Hills. After about twenty miles of steadily escalating complaints, she dismounted, lay on a rock and said, ‘Leave me here. Save yourself.’
Till total £155.44
23 customers
FRIDAY, 20 JUNE
Online orders: 5
Books found: 5
Laurie was in the shop today, so I drove Anna to Dumfries in the morning to catch the train to London. I am not sure when she will be back in Wigtown again. It depends, I suppose, on how she gets on with her various projects, which now include the Rockets script, as well as a NASA documentary, a young adult novel and a romantic comedy script on which she has been working with her friend Romiley.
After lunch I telephoned Hamish Grierson to offer him £100 for his books. He was not very happy about it at all and complained that there were some valuable books in there. This is bad news, as Nicky has already priced most of them up and put them out on the shelves. He told me he will call back on Monday with more information.
At closing time a man telephoned to ask if I could look at his book collection at the Schoolhouse in Port Logan, a pretty fishing village south of Stranraer. I have arranged to go there tomorrow afternoon.
Till total £164.50
15 customers
SATURDAY, 21 JUNE
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Nicky in.
Just before 1.30 p.m. I remembered that I had arranged to look at the books in Port Logan and headed over there. I overshot and ended up at the neighbouring, almost identically named, Old Schoolhouse. I knocked on the door and was met by an elderly couple, who explained that I had driven past ‘Bob and Barbara’s house’ and pointed me in the right direction. As I was leaving, the old man said, ‘Give my regards to your parents. Your father and I used to do the commentary at the Lochinch Game Fair.’ I have no idea who he was, but, following their instructions, I drove the short distance to the correct house and was greeted by Barbara and her two dogs.
The house was a beautifully converted Victorian school with stunning views across the Irish Sea. There was a ruined pier here in days gone by, but that was replaced by a quay and a bell tower designed by Thomas Telford in 1818. What is left is what Seamus Heaney might have described as ‘the hammered shod of a bay’. Bob and Barbara – a retired couple – showed me through the house to their library. Both Bob and I had to drop our heads because of the low door into the room. They left me to go through the books, which were mostly paperbacks in near new condition.
We chatted about living in so far-flung a village for a while, and I was surprised how well we got on: most book deals involve the minimum of conversation. I picked out five boxes’ worth, gave them £65 and drove back. The books included some excellent, very saleable materiaclass="underline" sets of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Chandler, Buchan, all in uniform editions, and a good number of Penguin Modern Classics. Their taste in books was remarkably similar to mine, and I wonder not only whether that was why I found them so agreeable but also whether I would have enjoyed their company as much had I not been aware that our reading tastes were so compatible.
Alastair and Leslie Reid came over for supper. Alastair’s response to the question of what he would like to drink is invariably ‘Whisky’. This time I was prepared and had a bottle of Laphroaig handy. It is unfortunate that Anna has gone back to London, because it turns out that Alastair used to share a lift to Sarah Lawrence College with her hero, Joseph Campbell. She would have been ridiculously excited. Alastair has rubbed shoulders with many of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, once famously incurring the wrath of Robert Graves in Spain by eloping with his muse, Margot Callas.
Till total £196.90
25 customers
MONDAY, 23 JUNE
Online orders: 8
Books found: 5
Laurie was in today. Her cat had kittens last night and she was up for most of the night looking after them, so she was barely functional today.
Hamish Grierson called again about his books. He had a list of the more valuable titles that he was cross about. Laurie checked and found that they had already been listed online. She had mistaken them as coming from the Glasgow deal from the first week of the month, which she had been working on. So at least we’ve found them and I can work out a fair price for him.
Till total £385.98
26 customers
TUESDAY, 24 JUNE
Online orders: 5
Books found: 5
Laurie was in today, so I brought the June random books over from the store in the garden for her to pack up. The number of subscribers is about 150.
After lunch I went to look at the book collection of the woman who telephoned last week with the weeping sore on her leg. The house was in Creetown, about ten miles away, and I bought about twenty Folio Society titles, including some good John Buchans as well as a few others. She is a very elderly woman, and is house-bound. In the driveway to her house – a modern bungalow with a sea view – there was a rusting old Ford Capri, up on blocks with the wheels removed. A middle-aged man, who seemed to know even less about car mechanics than I do, was tinkering nervously with bits of the engine. The transaction was straightforward, and we had a chat about the reason she is selling the books. She retired here from Yorkshire, and her granddaughter has just been offered a place at Oxford, so she’s trying to help her out financially by selling the books to raise some cash. I gave her £70 for a box and a half of books.
The Intimate Thoughts of John Baxter, Bookseller is turning out to be almost as entertaining as William Y. Darling’s The Bankrupt Bookseller. In the editorial notes Augustus Muir (with reference to Jimmie Scriving) describes him as ‘a young ruffian, with no thoughts higher than his stomach’.
Hamish Grierson called and we agreed a price of £225 for his books.
Till total £123
14 customers
WEDNESDAY, 25 JUNE
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Laurie in. One of the orders was for a book called A Guide to the Orthodox Jewish Way of Life for Healthcare Professionals.
Kate, the postie, arrived in with the mail at exactly the same time as Mr Deacon appeared. Among the post was a parcel containing his copy of In Patagonia. He paid for it and left, offering not the slightest clue as to what he had been doing in Patagonia, and not affording me the opportunity to ask. Not that I would have asked. It is none of my business, although the fishing there is among the best in the world and I admit that I am curious that he may have been over there in pursuit of trout.