Stories About Not Being Afraid of Ghosts
Foreign Language Press Peking 2nd edn 1979
pb 92pp, small split to cvr at btm of sp o/w VG+ 135 gms
(Order reference 5405).

This book includes thirty-five stories about not being afraid of ghosts, which are taken from ancient Chinese collections of tales and anecdotes. They show the adroitness and courage of Chinese people in ancient times who dared to defy ghosts. Today, everyone knows there are no such things as ghosts. But while there are no demons like those described in these tales, there are many things which resemble them -- imperialism, reactionaries, difficulties and obstacles in work, for example. These stories, therefore, may be considered in the nature of allegories and satires.

Orkney Stories - a specially commissioned collection
Highland Park/Matthew Gloag & Sons 1st 1995
8vo, no d/w (as published?), bmp to btm edge of fr bd VG++ 345 gms
(Order reference 11469).

Contents include contributions by "Edwin Muir, Tom Morton, D R Sutherland, Eric Linklater, Magnus Linklater, David Ross, Harry Matheson, George Mackay Brown, Tom Patey, Sir Walter Scott, Will Self, John Watson, David Horne, Libby Purves, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies"

"By the author of 'Waverley'": Redgauntlet - a tale of the eighteenth century Vol II
Archibold Constable and Co. 1st 1824
8vo, half-bound in red cloth + red stained calf with gold titling + decoration to spine, wear to leather areas, dulling + staining to cloth. Prev owner's bookplate to fr pastedown - "Michael Hughes, Sherdley Hall". 405 gms
(Order reference 13690).

Redgauntlet (1824) is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, set in Dumfries, Scotland in 1765, and described by Magnus Magnusson (a point first made by Andrew Lang) as "in a sense, the most autobiographical of Scott's novels." It describes the beginnings of a fictional third Jacobite Rebellion, and includes "Wandering Willie's Tale", a famous short story which frequently appears in anthologies.

'An Old Boy' Illustrations by J Macfarlane: Tom Brown's Schooldays
Macmillan and Co. 1904
8vo, red cloth cvred bds with titling + illustration to fr bd, v v min wr overall o/w a v tight + clean copy. Prize plate dated 1906 + small name to fep VG++ 625 gms
(Order reference 13683).

An 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842. The novel has been the source for several film and television adaptations.

The novel was originally published as being "by an Old Boy of Rugby", and much of it is based on the author's experiences. Tom Brown is largely based on the author's brother, George Hughes and the fictional Tom's life also resembles the author's in that the culminating event of his school career was a cricket match.

Tom Brown's School Days was tremendously influential on the genre of British school novels, which began in the 19th century, and led to Billy Bunter's Greyfriars School, Mr Chips' Brookfield, St. Trinian's, and Hogwarts. It is one of the few still in print from its time. A sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford, was published in 1861 but is not as well known.

Tom's principal enemy at Rugby is the bully Flashman. The 20th-century writer George MacDonald Fraser featured the grown-up Flashman in a series of successful historical novels.

Ackroyd, Peter: Hawksmoor
Hamish Hamilton 1st 1985
8vo, slight tanning to page edges, v sl sunning to d/w spine o/w VG++/VG++ 480 gms
(Order reference 13230).

There is no Light without Darknesse and no Substance without Shaddowe - so proclaims Nicholas Dyer, assistant to Sir Christopher Wren and man with a commission to build seven London churches to stand as beacons of the enlightenment. But Dyer plans to conceal a dark secret at the heart of each church - to create a forbidding architecture that will survive for eternity. Two hundred and fifty years later, London detective Nicholas Hawksmoor is investigating a series of gruesome murders on the sites of certain eighteenth-century churches - crimes that make no sense to the modern mind. "Chillingly brilliant, sinister and stunningly well executed." (Independent on Sunday).

Ackworth, John: Beckside Lights
Charles H Kelly 1897
8vo, green cloth cvred bevel edged bds, sl wr to bds with gold titling to spine, dulling to eps + pastedowns VG+ 580 gms
(Order reference 13340).

Adams, Douglas: Mostly Harmless
Heinemann 1st 1992
8vo, v sl staining to bds, tiny area of staining to inside of d/w, two tiny holes to fr of d/w at hinge o/w VG++/VG+ 455 gms
(Order reference 8977).

The story focuses on three characters: Arthur Dent, the perenially confused Briton; Ford Prefect, the manic Betelgeusian; and Tricia McMillan, a BBC television reporter who, had she decided not to go back to get her purse when she met "Phil" at a party, would have become Trillian. Adams presents Dent as a wonderfully tragic picture, and mirrors the beginning of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" quite well. Dent is presented as a lost soul, desperately in search of a home and a place to belong. Of course, when he actually finds a place where he belongs and becomes comfortable, outside events tear his world apart. This is a theme that was present in three of the four previous HHGTTG books, but the presentation is probably the best in "Mostly Harmless" (and particularly intriguing is that Arthur's world is torn asunder by a person searching for the exact same thing as Arthur had: a place to belong). The story of Tricia McMillan offers an interesting counterpoint to Arthur's troubles. Although she is a successful television personality, she is obsessed with the consequences of one of her past choices. Unlike Arthur, who is preoccupied with the process of finding a place to belong, Tricia is preoccupied with thoughts of what might have been. Unlike his previous books, Adams allows the tragedy to come to a fitting end. The tone is certainly darker than the previous HHGTTG books, and the humour is perhaps less prevalent. Even so, it is a fitting end to a fine series.

Adams, Jane: The Greenway
Macmillan 1st 1995
F+/F+ 375 gms
(Order reference 3863).

This is the first novel from writer Jane Adams, who is a folk singer and martial arts enthusiast from Leicester and features her characters John Tynan and Detective Inspector Mike Croft."A haunting debut." Nominated for the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Award for Best First Crime Novel and the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. The disappearance of two young girls in the same Greenway 20 years apart has people questioning police methods and haunts a retired detective who investigated the first case.

The still, nihilistic tone of this novel is vintage Bowles.

`There is about Paul's writing, at its best, a palpable darkness, like underexposed film, that fills the narrow North African streets, always darker and darkening. His writing is equally distinguished and special' - William S. Burroughs

`Bowles is the real article: a man who translates deadly nightshade into sweet, nourishing literature. He is subversive and dangerous, a true fictioneer' - Geoffrey Wolff, Life

`His stories are among the best ever written by an American' - Gore Vidal

"Pages From Cold Point", a seduction of a father by a son, is one of the best stories ever written by anyone' - Norman Mailer

`Paul Bowles engages the reader with prose of flat honesty, while leading him into dark alleys where he may not want to go. This scene is a truthful and unflattering as is fate and death' - Patricia Highsmith

`Extraordinary, highly literary, evocative, romantic' - Kathy Acker, The Guardian

Joe has lived in this town before and some of his old friends and memories return to haunt him. He is torn between the freedom of his earlier life and his new responsibilities towards his young wife, who is soon to give birth. Her life is absorbed by that mystery.
Melvyn Bragg evokes both a sense of place and a timelessness in this story which echoes events two thousand years ago and still moves us today.

Froud, Brian: The World of the Dark Crystal
Mitchell/Beazley 1st UK 1983
square folio, v v min bmps to bds, v v sl tanning to page edges, v sl wr + v tiny chps to d/w o/w VG++/VG++ 1360 gms
(Order reference 12177).

From the blurb:

“Here is the visual magic of the spectacular new movie The Dark Crystal, in which Jim Henson and Frank Oz of Muppet fame, and their associates, collaborate with the celebrated illustrator Brian Froud (Faeries and The Land of Froud), to create a fantastic ancient civilization – bringing life its people, geography, laws, language and mythology.

With over 200 pictures by Brian Froud (most in full colour) and its story of Tolkien-like fascination, this book is both a lavish introduction to the world of The Dark Crystal and a work of fantasy and artistry that stands completely on its own.

By means of dramatic illustration and imaginative text, Brian Froud and Professor J J Llewellyn have created – through the “writings” of the wise and ancient woman Aughra – the complex and absorbing world of the film so perfectly that it could almost have existed.”

The mystery surrounding this unexpected inheritance is nothing compared with the mystery of Whisperland itself. David Brock knows all about living with the ghosts of the past, but he could never imagine how they might come to haunt him.
Ingenious, provocative, sinister, Christopher Hyde's new thriller probes into secrets that have lain hidden for more than half a century.

“And what could be a more delightful celebration than Miss Read's illustrated selection of Christmas verse and prose? Poems and extracts from novels and diaries - linked by Miss Read's commentary - are spiced by delicious recipes for plum pudding and mulled wine, and blended with joyful Christmas carols and scenes from Miss Read's own novels. All capture the merriment, time-honoured traditions and spirit of the season, from the first preparations, to the festive day itself and through to Twelfth Night.

Here are Thomas Hardy's carol-singers; Ernest Shepard waking as a child to a Christmas stocking; an icy Christmas morning for Francis Kilvert; A.A. Milne's helpful suggestion for having to give unexpected presents; Charles Dickens's famous Christmas dinner; Dylan Thomas’s family visitors; Parson Woodforde’s New Year reflections - and other writings besides.
Rich with the characteristic love of people and nature, rural life and domestic pleasures that Miss Read's devotees treasure, this enchanting anthology is enhanced by Tracey Williamson's beautiful watercolours.”