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March 2017

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When you really regret selling something.

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Steve and I sell lots of stuff. Thankfully.  Mostly books but as we go to auctions we also pick up lots of other stuff.  We also buy and list separately which can mean that when we come to pack and post something that has just sold, it can be the first time that we see it. Many is the time that I look at something wonderful, or funny or downright bizarre only to have to instantly post it to its buyer.  Most times if we find something that we think the other may like we wave it in their direction and it gets added to the horde pile we have at home. Smaug has nothing on us. But occasionally, now and then, heartbreakingly something slips through the net. I remember them all. The most recent heartbreaker was this incredibly haunting etching of Ophelia.  It wasn’t an image I had seen before and I thought it really caught how young and vulnerable Ophelia was. However, someone had just bought it and spitting tacks I contemplated ways to “lose” the package.  Lost in the mail, shop burnt down, raided by pirates. Ultimately I took it on the chin, put it in the post and went off and had a hot chocolate and sulked for a bit. Oh and had a  whine at Steve for not realising that I needed that etching.

Anyway, the buyer received it and got in touch to say how lovely it was. Yep, just more salt in the wound.  Months, many many months passed and then they got in touch again, to show me what they had done with it. And this is where the story comes good.

Just look at what she did with it!  It is exquisite.  To read more about the details have a read of her post

A fine Victorian steel engraving will never look good on your computer; the lines in the engraving fight with the…

Posted by Moose Disco on Tuesday, 7 February 2017

And the best bit is that you can buy it as a huge decal for your own home.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201843147467?ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

It has to be said that this is the first time that I have ever felt good about letting something go because now eveyone gets to share it.

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One Silver Summer – Perfect in every sense.

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17103367_10155182475349455_6116945601149451693_nThere are lots of perks to running a bookshop, obviously, the main one is running a bookshop, but close behind that is receiving free books. Sometimes they are excellent, often they are not, not because they are no good but because they are just not my cup of tea, and given that I don’t like tea this suggests just how picky I am.  Books arrive in bright red padded envelopes, sparkly metallic boxes, with jigsaw puzzles, bookmarks, music tracks, booze and yesterday, chocolate.

The gifts generally tie into the book, Under a Pole Star, a tale of polar exploration, came with brandy and mintcake, A Year of Marvellous Ways, set in the Cornish countryside came with Slow Gin. Are these gifts shameless bribes from the publishers to make sure their book gets noticed? Absolutely. Is that a problem? Not in the slightest. I am quite capable of receiving gifts without feeling beholden. Personally, I think publishers know when they have a winner on their hands and get a little generous or maybe it does just give them the edge. If I receive five books and two have gifts I generally look at those first, if the book is good which it invariably is, my time is taken up and those other books, unless their blurb hits my sweetspot, get put in a pile and invariably forgotten about. So the gifts aren’t a bribe but they are a way of getting the book noticed.

All this leads me to a very pretty package that I received this week and the first thing I noticed was the bar of chocolate because although it was a specially commissioned bar, I recognised the packaging folds.  This was a bar of chocolate made by Kernow Chocolate, a brand I am very familiar with as we have stocked them for years, wandered around their factory when they were operating out of farm barns and are a truly wonderful local brand. The book was set in Cornwall and the publishers / PR had chosen a local Cornish company. A very good start, it also helped that it was sea salt chocolate, our best seller!

I then gave the book a quick glance, teenage romance set in Cornwall, drifted past it, not my thing, and read the covering letter. Publisher and author both had great pedigrees, Puffin Club, Chicken House Publishing, Harper Collins, lots of very good names which again told me that the book was probably half way decent.

Anyway, I took some photos, ate the chocolate and promised to say nice things after a quick browse and maybe even stock it. Evening came and I didn’t fancy starting Guernica, it looked a bit gruelling so I figured teen romance would be the ticket. Oh boy, what a treat that I had nearly missed.

One Silver Summer by Rachel Hickman is the tale of an orphan and a prince, of ponies and a perfect Cornish summer.  It really is the most gorgeously, warm romantic tale and I was hopelessly drawn in and hooked. I don’t want to say too much about it without spoiling some of the storylines but it really is worth getting, I can just see this book being passed all around the classroom. It made me think of Jilly Cooper and Daphne du Maurier whilst being wonderfully innocent. Despite making me cry it does have a happy ending and we will, of course, be stocking it!

Reading Age 11+ Available May 25th.