PBOTD 15th June: Judith M Berrisford - Jackie's Pony Patrol

-
PBOTD for 15th June is Judith M Berrisford's Jackie's Pony Patrol. One question I was often asked in my bookselling days was where I found books to sell. The vast majority of the books I sold I bought from collectors who'd either decided to sell off their collections, or sell their duplicates and books they'd decided they didn't want to keep. I liked buying large numbers of books at a time. It saved time, for one thing, as the alternative was to traipse round charity shops and boot sales endlessly and as anyone who has done that will know, you don't find enough books to stock a shop that way if you're a specialist.
Brockhampton, 1961, illus Geoffrey Whittam
The very first collection I bought was from someone living at the other end of the county, and came about because I'd been featured in Country Living as someone who sold pony books. The telephone rang a few days afterwards. Would I, the voice asked, be interested in buying her collection of old books? Her children weren't interested (as I was to learn, a very common reason for selling a collection) and she wanted the books to go to people who'd enjoy them.

Armada, pb, 1960s
So, I turned up to find out she'd decided to go hunting that morning, but had left her husband in charge. There were two boxes of Jill hardbacks, Pat Smythe paperbacks and plenty of other stuff too. I paid, and then attempted to drive off. In my nervousness at this first major essay into the bookselling world (I must be a real bookseller if I was buying actual collections) I'd broken my golden rule and not reversed into the very awkward parking space. I couldn't get out. Fortunately Mr Seller came and rescued me. 

 The collection included some lovely early Jackies with dustjackets. They were very pretty. Oh good, I thought. They'll sell. Only they didn't. In the end, despite several price cuts they st there for years and they're now on my shelves. That was another thing I learned. There are fashions in books, and it took a while before it swung back in Jackie's favour. It took ten years before I finally found Jackie books selling.
Armada pb, 1980s

More on Judith M Berrisford.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more