Spy Stories for Boys:

I so remember getting this hardback one Christmas in the late 1960's or early 70's: Supernatural Stories for Boys. 

A wonderful gift from my parents with a fabulous cover! Alas, I don't recall reading it but I hope I did. I ought to now, I have a copy on the shelf!

A while back I posted a similar book for girls I saw online: Mystery Stories for Girls.

Well, the other day I saw yet another in the range in a charity shop: Spy Stories for Boys.

Did you have anything like this readers? 

BOOK SHELF NEIGHBOURS

 

Googling for vintage plastic novelty toys, I was really chuffed to see my 2019 book Toy Bunnies on Plastic Scooters next to Jean Rossi's Plastic Novelties and Toys of the 40's 50's and 60's.

Coincidentally, I've got Jean's fabulous American Schiffer book from 2002 next to my own own on the bookshelf!

Jean's was very much the inspiration for my own, although hers focuses on American plastic, whereas as my own is concerned with Hong Kong and specifically JR21 toys [many photographs by our very own Wotan Bill I might add!]

Alas, my self-published hardbacked effort is prohibitively priced on Blurb - you have to wait for their special offers before any mortal can afford a copy, unlike Jean's softback which is modestly priced on Amazon [click on the links above].

Despite Blurb's shortcomings I'm planning a second volume to the 2019 book, which itself took 10 years to research. I've already put 5 years into the second one, so it's not too far off I hope! Wotan Bill has already taken a lot of the photo's.

Watch this space.

LOPING ROUND LEEDS

 An impromptu trip to the bright lights of Leeds our nearest big city was a fun and festive experience yesterday, an unusual thing for us to do these days especially on a Sunday.

Evidence of the coming Yuletide was all around like this gorgeous Christmas tree in the Corn Exchange, the erstwhile grand circular Victorian grain market, now a haven for indie shop browsers.

Little shops where you can find ... Devil Man, not a Japanese character I know. You?

and customised Godzilla figures! Is that the King's original box below them? £75 is a king size price tag too! Would you pay that?

Some cute baby Gojiras and lots of new Japanese Manga characters in this cabinet, which are not my cup of cha but I'm sure they'll fly this December.

and this pugnacious fellow's name eludes me. You?

In a small bookstore I clocked new glossy editions of The Killing Joke and Death of Superman graphic novels, neither of which I have and either of which would be welcome under the baubled tree!

Were there graphic novels before the Killing Joke?

Onwards through the Victorian Quarter and its glass-bedecked wings of finery and festive glister ...

.... we arrived at Waterstones the bookstore in search of novels for our Grandson. Armed with a list from his Mum we quickly found them in the 9-12 section and then we began wandering.

I liked the film-related big books.

and the new copies of Dracula, a paperback I used to collect.

So many Star Wars novels these days. I remember when it was just Splinter of the Mind's Eye and Alan Dean Foster's other tomes available. Remember them?

In the Forever Young section It was nice to see Michael Ende's Neverending Story, a flick that will no doubt grace the Christmas schedules this year. I remember how it caught the public imagination. Getting Kajagoogoo and Limahl to sing the opening was a winner. Michael Ende, a Bavarian, died aged just 65, in 1995. I recall seeing his book MOMO in a German bookstore back in the 1980's for the first time - it had parts that read from either end I recall, like the palindromic name.

 Another novel on my bucket bookcase!

Richard Adams' Watership Down, along with The Plague Dogs, was part of my teenage rebellion against animal cruelty, as I'm sure it was for many kids back then. The film adaptation became a Christmas staple, although some scenes were too violent for very small children. Art Garfunkel's Bright Eyes was a melodious bonus. Like The Snowman and Father Christmas, it feels like another time, another world, when I see it at Christmastime on the telly.

Ah, fuzzy felt! What a blast from the soft play past. I loved FF as a nipper and used to gingerly place oddments of felt lovingly on those backgrounds. Was there a farmyard? This is the Jungle and is a modern re-release, part of a 'classic series'.

As a teenager in the late Seventies I began to soak up all and everything between covers that today we might call quirky or geeky. Some were children's' books and Moomin troll was one of them. I still have my Seventies Moomin paperback and was thrilled to see an entire section devoted to the Finnish stars.

Always of interest since I read Lord of the Rings in the office drawer of my first paid job in 1978 [don't tell them!] the Tolkein shelves draw me in. My own interest lies in 1970's editions but I always enjoy looking at modern fayre.

When did you first read Lord of the Rings?

Shirley Jackson modern editions have their own section. Last year I read the Lottery, a quite devastating short story. I've loved her work since finding out she wrote the original story which the film The Haunting was based on, a book called The Haunting of Hill House. I adored the Haunting and the movie scared the Bejeezus out of me, an amazing feat given that it relies largely on sound for its scares, a real aural shocker. I've one more book on the shelf at home, which I've yet to read; We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Jackson died aged just 48 in Vermont.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince was a novella  that my wife gave me as a young man when we first got together in 1979, a copy I still have with her inscription when we first began giving each other books, a tradition we've kept going for 45 years.

Do you give your partner books?

I've not read Joan Aiken's 1962 kids' book The Wolves of Willoughby Chase but I remember seeing the film vividly. Starring the late great Mel Smith, it was that quintessential chilly winter Sunday movie to watch with the kids like the Secret Garden, Uncle Buck and Curly Sue. I imagine it'll be on this Christmas season. Have you seen it?

Last but not least, theHound of the Baskervilles is one of my favourite books all round and I adore a couple of the movie versions too. At one time I collected different editions of the Hound and have quite a few loping in the attic. This is a modern edition with a rather nice cover ......

but I prefer the original cover and binding of the 1902 first edition lavished with golden lettering and a simple silhouette of the hell hound, a tome which would set you back upwards of a thousand pounds! I wish!

Have you read it readers? Do you like the film versions? Which one?

So that was our rare wander round Leeds. Do you visit your nearest big city at all?

My I've Gotta Have that Klett Cotta Sauron Moment

Visiting my  girlfriend back in 1979, (now my Wife) in her home country of West Germany, I was fascinated, among other things, by her admirable bookcase.

An avid reader of hippyish paperbacks myself, I I was amazed to see these foreign versions of novels I knew and the many I didn't too. 

There was Mister God This is Anna, the Dharma Bums, Siddhartha, Solaris and Fata Morgana among the tomes.

But most alluring of all were the three books of Der Herr Der Ringe, Tolkien's incredible Lord of the Rings trilogy.

This 1977 German version comprised of three paperbacks published by the unusually - named Klett Cotta publishing house. The three books were green and nestling in a green card slipcase. Not only was the green colour striking, the cover art was to my eye, wunderbar. 

Simple and dark with an inexplicable slug-like mass writhing on two of them, all three brandishing Sauron's eye, I loved them.

Now long since gone, I've often thought about these memorable books many times since.

Coming right up to date, amazingly I recently saw a set in a German charity shop at a very reasonable price. 

Knowing that our car would already reel from everything we were taking home to Blighty I decided, sehr sehr foolishly, to pass up the chance of owning them again.

I couldn't think about anything else. Like a wasp buzzing in my head I eventually returned to the shop a week later and as is decreed by Sods Law, they were gone.

Next time I see them I shall heed the great Wizard Gandalf's words ' thou shalt not pass! '

Have you got any Lord of the Rings books?

STEADY HANDS REQUIRED!

 

I adored this isotope image as a kid. Its from a thick book of facts from the Sixties called What do You Know.

There was just something about it - the inherent danger of messing with something dreadful -  that made me recreate it years later on a poster. One of my mates' Mums said 'I'm worried about you Woodsy' after seeing it! ha ha!

Did you make posters as a kid or fiddle with chemicals?

Dean's Pop-Up Book of Motor Cars

New Zealand charity shops are not the wonderful palaces of rare and wonderful things that they are in Britain. However, there is one that is worth a look every time I am in the area, and my most recent visit turned up an old Pop-up book.

Dean's Pop-Up Book of Motor Cars was one of several transport-related Pop-ups produced by Dean & Son Ltd. The copyright date inside is 1961, but no author or artist is credited, although the cover painting is signed Gordon.

It is a small hardback book, 234 mm by 168 mm. There are three pop-up scenes.

The first shows a B.R.M. racing car on the track, with an empty oil drum marker. The next two pages show a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and a Super Porsche 90.

The next scene has a fire engine on its way to a fire, with a Police car racing ahead to clear the way - 'just in case any cars, lorries or carts are taking up too much room on the road'. So, carts were still a traffic hazard in 1961.

Then a Formula Junior Lotus, an Aston Martin DB4, and the new Jaguar type 'E'. The final pop-up scene shows a Daimler double-decker bus over-taking the M.G saloon.

A nice little piece of history, and only $3 NZ (about £1.44).

I do not have a full list of these pop-up books by Dean & Son, but the transport series included books on ships, trains, trucks and tractors. But it seems there were none on aircraft ?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Cabinet Reshuffle

 It maybe a while before our new PM has a cabinet reshuffle but mine was accelerated by the arrival of three men of action.

A few hours sorting, shifting and stacking later, here's my two cabinets now containing my pandemic scratchbuilt SpaceX and Thunderbirds models, my Transformers and now complete with the new Action Man arrivals.

My die-cast case is choc full. Only redlines are allowed space from now on and they're thankfully rare! 

John Marshall's book Action Figures of the 1960's is special to me. I bought it at the massive Strand bookstore in New York City in January 2001. My Missus took me to the Big Apple as a surprise for my 40th. In September that year 9/11 happened and the Strand really isn't that far from Ground Zero I don't think. Leafing John's book always makes me feel grateful to be alive.

Have you had a cabinet reshuffle? Have you any John Marshall books? Have you been to the Strand book shop?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

 Some images from one of my favourite childhood encyclopedias, What do you Know. I managed to find it again at a boot sale.

Heaven in pages!

Did you have this one?

More Rolf Ulrici Monitor Book Covers

I'm seeing lots of influences here. Seems to depend on the year these books were reissued. There's even this pair of LPs from 1974.

What do you think?