A Trip to Hay on Wye, via Shropshire - and a Few Small Brags

So, I have just returned from a 9 day holiday to the North Wales/English
border and Hay on Wye immediately after getting my GCSE results - 5 A stars
and 6 As.

As usual managed to buy copious quantities of books, and related matter
after seeking out each bookshop that was within striking distance. I have
returned home with 2 collapsible crates full of books, 80% for my own
collection, the rest to sell on eBay for (hopefully) significantly more than
I paid.

The first shop I happened upon was 'Bookworld' in Oswestry. To say it was
messy would be an understatement - however it did have a few nice items. I
managed to find an jacketed early impression of Wilson's 'The Outsider'
aswell as a mint condition copy of a Bryson omnibus - both a fiver each. I
had a stayed for a good hour, listened to the 4th Test in the background and
had a nice chat with the gent running the shop - as an aside I find that
booksellers almost always like cricket. He explained to me how he has to
offer both new and second-hand/antiquarian books, aswell as offering an
exhaustive book search service to earn a living. In small English towns this
seems to be the norm these days.

Shrewsbury was my port of call the following day - and what a treasure
trove for bibliophiles. Roundwood books was nice, very well organised, with
pleasant service and a clean and relatively cheap stock. Managed to get
Greene's 'British Dramatists' in jacket for £4, part of the Britain in
Pictures series and Richard's memoir of T.E. Lawrence. After this I sought
out Candle Lane books - and I was amazed. The double fronted shop is
actually on 4 floors, each with 2 or 3 rooms. After a good two hours I
emerged with only two books - but this is onyl a reflection on my
unwillingness to spend money, not on their prices which were very reasonable
and I am currently kicking myself for not snapping up Eliot's 'To Criticize
the Critic' in a fine wrapper 1st for £12.50. I was bemused by a rebound
book on the 1832 Reform bill that I purchased for £4.50 - surely the
rebinding would cost £20??! A nice touch was that the books were wrapped in
the booksellers brown paper, forming a tight package to carry away.

I am now going to rant about Oxfam:

I wasn't in a great mood to start with, as it took me 20 minutes to find the
Oxfam Charity Bookshop in Shrewsbury. I went in and was pleasantly surprised
with the tidiness of the place, however when one begins to notice that many
of the prices are around the same or higher than antiquarian bookshops, who
pay 4/5ths more council rates than Oxfam, and pay for their stock, one
begins to sympathise with the bookseller mentioned above. I am always
annoyed when some member of staff has obviously heard the words 'First
Edition' (Or 'First eddition', 'First Addition') and then begins to apply it
to every book. One such was Bridges 'Testament of Beauty' priced at £25, in
a glass case with a label stating 'First Edition'. So I asked to view this
'1st Edition' which was priced cheaply, only to discover that it was
actually the 21st impression of the first edition. Another item in the glass
case was Wodehouse's 'Money in the Bank' - again £25 - wrappered. The
enterprising volunteer had, in this case, correctly assumed it were a first
edition (It stated First Printing). Unfortunately the book literally
appeared to have been found in a gutter; it was warped, damp stained and
slightly frayed, with a similar state wrapper. I assumed at the time that
the wrapper was not the first issue, I was wrong, it was, but in this
condition it would hardly have been worth more than £40. It isn't that I
like to 'diddle' charities by making great finds in the shop, it is just
that I take exception to being quoted such amounts for such damaged books. I
much prefer to pay £3.50 for a fine copy of Dodd's excellent work on The
Boat Race.

End of Rant

Anyway, my final day in the (relative) North involved a trip to Llangollen
(thlan-goth-thlen) where I visited an establishment named 'Books and Cafe'.
I don't recall the Cafe having an acute accent on the e. Anyway, I digress -
Above this relative small 'caff' was an absolutely cavernous bookshop. I
began to smirk when I saw a somewhat recent '50% off all books' sign -
surely the good books had been either removed or already sold. On the whole
I was correct, however I managed to find 'The Diaries of Parker Pasha' for
£3.50, and a copy of Pevsner's Buildings of London, first edition PB in
jacket for £3 - along with some rather cheap criticisms of Orwell, and a
lovely book entitled ' My Oxford'. I am somewhat partial to books schoolday
reminisces and so snapped it up at £3.

The next morning we made our way down to Herefordshire - more specifically
to Hay on Wye. I had 3 hours on Thursday afternoon, and spent this in the
castle, the honesty bookshop and a small department selling 'high brow'
remainders. I found, among others for 50p: 'The Early Life of Thomas Hardy',
by Florence Emily Hardy, for 50p, a Lytton Strachey 1st 'Books and
Characters' and a compact little tome named 'The Compleat Oxford Man' by
Hamilton Gibbs. I really doubt the solitary $350 listing on ABE - can anyone
give me a realistic estimate of the value of this book?

The next morning we overslept and so I didn't arrive until 10.40. Still, I
had a look around the Addyman shop - which is a real gem with realistic
prices throughout. However, I found 'The Addyman Annexe' to have better
books. From there I purchased the '34 cheap edition of The Cambridge History
of Eng Lit in 15 vols, 9 jacketed, for £50 and David Garnett's first volume
of autobiography. The Hay Cinema Bookshop was a tad overwhelming with its
400 000 books - however I purchased two Greene criticisms/biographies for
less than £15. Francis Edwards was illustrative of how a bookshop ought to
be run, with knowledgeable booksellers, specialist departments, and
immaculate books, albeit a bit pricey.

The afternoon was spent at Booth Books - which contains some 200 000 books
on three floors. A tad messy, the shop was well organised, reasonably priced
and offered a unique service. On entering, Mr Booth enquired of my interests
and we were soon chatting about T.E. Lawrence, Jeremy Wilson and some other
booksellers. I was also ushered into his office where I managed to find
Auden's last book, 1st in Fine condition. That with some ex library reading
copies (from the shop stock) of Orwell's Essays and Hughes' Poems, Elliot's
Essays and an Evelyn Waugh 1st/2nd, some volumes of 'Book Collector', a
Brooke volume and a OS map came to a total of £20.

Doubtless to say I will return to Hay on Wye soon, Mr Booth was so kind and
generous to an impoverished student and the other shops didn't do too badly
by me either. I do, though, have a few objections. I wasn't keen on seeing
the high prices of Observer books, Modern Firsts etc in the Broad Street
book gallery - I will also echo the lack of a large, purely antiquarian
bookshop in Hay.

Anyway, if anyone gets to the end of this waffle, well done!

Cheers,

Tom L-M

 >Anyway, if anyone gets to the end of this waffle, well done!
 >

regret I gave up after the GCSE results. Hope you can do better with the A
levels.

ASD<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->