I
am truly delighted to be doing this post and when I say delighted I mean the skippy
smiley kind and not the kind that I have to pretend to be when I open a present
from my Auntie Joyce.
I love the idea of showcasing my books,
but little things seem to keep me from inviting people in to have a look.
There’s my writing schedule, the untidiness of the house, the fact that no one
wants to visit since that misunderstanding at Halloween – how was I supposed to
know that when it comes to fake corpses you can go too realistic?
Despite the fact that there is matter
reproducing in my kitchen sink, you’ll notice that my bookshelves are pretty
tidy. This is because I think arranging books into height order is much more
important than scrubbing stuff.
I reckon there are enough YA and MG
books in my house to build a temple to Philip Pullman (but I’ve totally never
woken the children up in the middle of the night to help me prove that theory)
however, because I don’t want anyone’s eyes to bleed (despite what last year’s
trick-or-treaters might say) I have decided to offer up an edited selection of
my bookshelves.
This
is one of two Adult shelves. Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, lots of Dickens
and a separate Fantasy section.
UK
and US editions of The Princess Bride. When I worked at Waterstones, The
Princess Bride was only published in America. I was desperate for a copy so I
rang an American wholesaler to order one. The only problem was that they had a
minimum order of 100 books. Well . . . I did really want that book, so I
ordered them. (I should mention at this point that I was not the fiction buyer;
I was the Saturday girl.) When they arrived I was a bit worried that someone
important might notice 100 books they weren’t expecting, but fortunately they
sold quickly. Or I should say: I sold
them quickly. Nothing like fear of
discovery to motivate a seller. Every time someone bought a different book I
said, ‘Do you want a Princess Bride with that?’
Amazingly, once the first lot sold out
someone ordered more. And more. It became one of our bestsellers. Shortly after
that Bloomsbury brought out a UK edition of The Princess Bride and in my head
I’m completely responsible for that. (Bear in mind that in my head I’m also the
obvious choice to replace Darcy Bussell on Strictly and a future roller disco
champion. I’m not the most reliable of sources.)
And if you think that sounds unlikely
you should hear the story of how I introduced America to Harry Potter.
I
love books and I love vintage things. If you want to make me melt into a
puddle; show me a vintage book.
Our
Vintage Puffins mantelpiece is in the bedroom. Where’s yours?
These
are my favourites.
This
collection is mostly school stories. They’ve got really topping titles like
‘The Queer New Girl.’
Vintage
Ladybird books.
I
know that there were some disappointing parts of the 70s: the fashion, the
sexism in the workplace, the fact that I wasn’t born, but they did produce
these beauties. I love the painted illustrations.
These
are from the 50s.
Being
a gay ice-cream van in the 1950s wasn’t as difficult as you might imagine.
This
is my recent YA and MG shelf.
Some
proof copies. My favourites are Stardust and The White Darkness.
So
that’s the beginning. I’ll save the 80s kids’ books, the picture books, the comics,
the Christmas shelf (yep, really) and further stories of international book
relations for another time. You’ll love the one about how I got the Hunger
Games film off the ground.
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