The London Book Trade Exhibition

Mike Tsang's exhibition The London Book Trade, a series of photographs of London book dealers and their books, is now showing at Biblion. "The environments the book dealers inhabit... often have distinct characters of their own," says Mr Tsang. Whilst I aspire to the beautiful shelves of Bernard Shapero, my reality is rather more that of Maggs Brothers' basement.

Sitting rather more elegantly somewhere in between, is Ibooknet's Stephen Foster, who is the subject of one of the portraits.

Local History in the East Riding of Yorkshire

The annual Local History Book Fair will be held on Saturday, 17 October, at Beverley Minster while an autumn programme of local history lectures and garden tours will start on Monday, 19 October.

The Local History Book Fair, which has been running for the past 23 years, provides a focal point in an historic setting for people who have an interest in local and family history.

Around 30 organisations will be participating in the event, including the archives and local studies service, museums and library services, local history societies, family history societies, other special interest organisations relating to the locality and region, as well as publishers and booksellers. Combined, they encompass the full range of local studies and family history resources available in the East Riding of Yorkshire area.

The event provides a unique opportunity to buy a wide range of books both old and new, pamphlets, maps and other ephemera produced by these organisations – as well as the chance to meet and mingle with the experts of the region.

The Local History Book Fair is open from 10am until 4pm, admission is free, homemade refreshments are available in the Minster Parish Rooms and guided roof tours of the Minster will be organised at set times throughout the day.

News supplied by East Riding Books whose Yorshire books can be viewed here.

And Another Thing ...: Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three

Today sees the publication of the latest installment in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series. And Another Thing ...: Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three by Eoin Colfer is published on the thirtieth anniversary of the first book and eight years after the series creator, Douglas Adams, died. Eoin Colfer is best known for his Artemis Fowl series and was approved as the new writer by Jane Belson, Adam's widow.

Eastward Ho! - Dornford Yates' lost play

There has always seemed to be some mystery about the existence of a musical play by the novelist Dornford Yates (real name Cecil William Mercer) amongst his enthusiastic readers. It remained so until 1982 when his biographer, A. J. Smithers, included it in his list of the works of Dornford Yates. There it is shown as the author's second work, published in 1919 and titled 'Eastward Ho!', a musical comedy, written in conjunction with Oscar Asche.

Some reference sources refer to this play as a revival of the play of the same name by Ben Jonson, George Chapman and John Marston, a Jacobean drama set in 17th Century London that upset King James I. It isn't. This 'Eastward Ho!' is an entirely different and original work.

I think it almost certain that the Yates/Asche play was never published in book form and that it only existed, as do many plays, as working copies for the duration of the theatre production. My hunt for a copy of this allegedly published book has been unsuccessful. The British Library does not have a copy (which they should of every published work) although they do have some of the music, and in every other archive of printed works that I have checked it is similarly absent. I have, however, come across several ephemeral items about the production which have shed some light on the work. In isolation each does not mean a great deal but presented together they help to describe the circumstances of the writing and production.

Continue reading here.

copyright ABfaR and G. A. Michael Sims, August 2009

Thaw Blogsplash

Fiona Robyn is going to blog her next novel, Thaw, starting on the 1st of March next year. The novel follows 32 year old Ruth’s diary over three months as she decides whether or not to carry on living.

To help spread the word she’s organising a Blogsplash, where blogs will publish the first page of Ruth’s diary simultaneously (and a link to the Thaw blog).

She’s aiming to get 1000 blogs involved – if you’d be interested in joining the splash, email her at fiona@fionarobyn.com or find out more information here.

Shortlist for the first ever Roald Dahl Funnny Prize

The shortlist for the first ever Roald Dahl Funny Prize has been announced by the reading charity Booktrust.

The judging panel, chaired by the Children's Laureate Michael Rosen, included Sophie Dahl, Dara O'Briain, Kaye Umansky and Chris Riddell.

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under:

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson, Illus. Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)

Elephant Wellyphant by Nick Sharratt (Alison Green Books)

The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children's Books)

The Witch's Children Go to School by Ursula Jones, Illus. Russell Ayto (Orchard Books)

There's an Ouch in My Pouch! by Jeanne Willis, Illus. Garry Parsons (Puffin Books)

Manfred the Baddie by John Fardell (Quercus Books)

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen:

Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton, Illus. David Tazzyman (Egmont Press)

Paddington Here and Now by Michael Bond, Illus. R.W. Alley (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Stop in the Name of Pants! by Louise Rennison (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan Children's Books)

Aliens Don't Eat Dog Food by Dinah Capparucci (Scholastic Children's Books)

Urgum and the Goo Goo Bah! By Kjartan Poskitt, Illus. Philip Reeve (Scholastic Children's Books)

Brat Farrar by Josphine Tey

Reading Angel with Two Faces by Nicola Upson recently, which of course features crime writer Josephine Tey, I was reminded of Tey's Brat Farrar. I have read and enjoyed this book several times but I decided it was time for another re-read.

Orphan Brat Farrar returns to England after a number of years absence. He is seen on the streets of London by Alec Loding and mistaken for Simon Ashby, a young man from Loding's home village. When Loding realises Brat is not Simon he immediately forms plans for a scam. Simon Ashby is about to celebrate his 21st and inherit his dead father's estate. This event would not be happening except for the mysterious disappearance of Simon's elder twin brother Patrick some years earlier when they were still boys. Loding persuades Brat to impersonate the missing Patrick, take his place and inherit instead of Simon. Brat should then send Loding a regular income for his help in coaching Brat on Patrick's life. Loding had been well placed to observe the Ashbys over the years as the families were very close.

Despite the scamming premise of the book the reader's sympathies are immediately with orphan Brat. He is not a man without morals (unlike Loding who is defrauding people he knows well) and takes some persuading to join in the scam. His descent into joining Loding's plan is slow and believable. We see Brat's inner self wrestle with his lack of belonging, his need for a family and for a place in the world. His only emotional anchor is his love for horses, with whom he worked in the USA after he left the orphnage, and it is this that is his undoing. Loding reveals the Ashbys are horse breeders and Brat is won over. He can't resist any more.

The playing out of family loyalties and personalities when the bombshell of Patrick's reappearance in their lives explodes is masterly. Beatrice Ashby, the aunt who brought up the Ashby children after the death of her brother and his wife, and who has spent years being haunted by images of what may have happened to Patrick, is one of my favourite literary characters. Her world is torn apart by Brat's arrival but even on the day she meets him, still unsure that he is not an impostor she is compassion through and through:

She turned at the door to say goodbye. he was standing in th middle of the room watching her go, leaving Mr Sandal to shepherd her out. he looked remote and lonely. And she thought; "If this is patrick, Patrick come home again, and I am leaving him like this, as if her were a casual acquaintance -". It was more than she could bear, the thought of the boy's loneliness.

She went back to him, took his face lightly in her gloved hand, and kissed his cheek. "Welcome back my dear, " she said.

And this in the end, a family, is all Brat craves. But he is now committed to being an impostor but from the inside he is the first person to really be in a position to solve the mystery of what really happened to the missing Patrick Ashby. How Tey resolves the difficulties Brat has got himself into, and manages the new emotional ties he forms, is a delight to watch.

A lovely book combining the same warmth, insight and intrigue as The Franchise Affair.

The first image of Brat Farrar above is from the modern paperback. I re-read my own copy a Pan paperback which you can see here:

This copy was purchased a few years ago from the lovely Mike and Ann Sims from A Book for All Reasons whose site is an excellent resource for early twentieth century fiction, especially Georgette Heyer. I love the stylised cover art here: the young man shadowy at the back has taken a petulant stance that looks more like he is in trouble for not eating his greens than he looks angry at the return of a usurper to his inheritance!

On a related note: does anyone remember seeing the BBC adaptation of this, modernised I think, in the 1980s. It stared Mark Greenstreet who was brilliant as both Brat and Simon Ashby. Why oh why have the Beeb never put this out on video or DVD. With the mini Tey revival going on at the moment I can't think of a better time for them to let us watch it again.