The Victorian Undertaker and The Victorian Cemetery

These two books came from Highgate Cemetery. I was intrigued to find books on such subjects. Then again at some point I wanted to be a mortician when I grew up. The books are insightful and make you wonder what life was like back then. In the Victoria era death... or funerals were such rituals and sometimes pageantry was not reserved for the wealth of kings or queens. There was protocol which lent to the meticulous details and  the method of mourning. Interesting! - JW 

Anna Karenina

A few years back I watched the movie The Last Station and it rekindled my interest in Tolstoy. After seeing the movie Anna Karenina I wanted to read the book. However I do recall in grade school reading a Tolstoy novel and perhaps it was Anna Karenina... for some reason I can't remember. This book looks rather textbook like with it's 870 pages. It's a first printing, 1978 and is translated by Contance Garnett. - JW  

Brit Bits

Brit Bits is a limited edition book. That has been handwritten and drawn by Chris Price and Delisia Howard. It's signed by Chris Price and is number 50/400. It was purchased at the Victoria and Albert Museum Bookshop in London. From it's triangle shape to the artwork, the stories, the gold and mylar pages and to the hand-painted covers. It's opinionated and witty about all things British! 

flowers and poetry

While traveling throughout England I would stop at a few quaint villages. I can't remember the name of the village or town... it may have been Faversham. Spotted a small used bookshop down a side street. Took a browse and found this palm size book. Tell The Wish Of Thy Heart In Flowers: Language and Poetry of Flowers; Milner and Sowerby 1860; top, side and bottom edge gold gilt. It's filled with interesting references of flowers and how they can be used in poetry and the poems inside are a treat. Not bad for £1! -JW  

Jean Rhys

another writer i have been reading is Jean Rhys. This pocket sized book, La Grosse Fifi has four short stories; La Grosse Fifi, Vienne, Tea with an Artist and Mixing Cocktails. Due to the fact that all eight-five pages had caught my attention, i found this...

Tigers Are Better Looking; first edition, 1968, Andre Deutsch Limited. Not only does it have the four short stories from La Grosse Fifi, which were a selection of stories from The Left Bank. It has fourteen other short stories.


During World War One Jean Rhys volunteered in a soldiers canteen. While her third husband was in jail she went to go live with English writer Ford Maddox Ford, whom she met in Paris, and his long time partner, Stella Brown.   Soon after an affair ensued. By 1940 she seemed to have disappeared from the public eye until she published her novel, Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966. For which she won the W.H. Smith Literary Award for in 1967. 

Street Songs

after reading about Edith Sitwell i was determined to find some of her work. and i did just that. i found this 1943, second edition of Street Songs. not handwritten, it is dedicated to her brother, British writer Osbert Sitwell and contains the poem Still Falls The Rain, about the London blitz. the book only has 34 pages but the collection of poems are beautifully crafted. interesting note about Sitwell, she would knit clothes for her friends who served in the army. one of her friends was actor Alec Guinness for whom she knit a pair of sea boot stockings.  - jw    

this non-descript book i found is a poetry book by Welsh poet and writer W.H. Davies. this copy of Nature Poems and Others is a fourth impression printed in 1922. the 62 pages are filled with lovely prose on nature and life. Davies was a part of the Georgian poetry movement and lived most of his life as a tramp or hobo. he was related to the famous British actor Sir Henry Irving. his most notable work is The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp. Davies also lived in the United States and made a brief appearance in Canada, which cost him his leg from the knee down. 

the world is round

in my travels i also found this book by Gertrude Stein. it's the first Camelot printing, 1972 and if you can believe the spine hasn't even been cracked. which made taking photos of the illustrations hard. i wonder if someone bought it with the intention to read it, never got around to it and realised they had the book when doing some cleaning and decided to give it away. a shame really. books always have stories of their own. another reason why i bought this book was because of who illustrated it, Clement Hurd. he illustrated many children's books. Goodnight Moon and the Runaway Bunny are the two he is most famously known for.

just a sample of Clement Hurd's lovely illustrations that round out this tale about a girl named Rose.

Robert Burns

Last week i decided to go to one of my favourite secondhand bookstores, The Bookseller and browse the poetry section. I found these little gems. A three volume set of Robert Burns by Morris, all leather bound and in great condition. Lots of poems and songs to read. At the back of volume three there is a Glossary of Scotticisms. Which seems to me to be like a glossary of terms, of Scottish words from A-Z. Just in case you need brushing up on.