I’ve often seen copies of King Albert’s Book but as they’re over 100 years old they’re quite often in bad shape with torn pages, missing illustrations (they’re sort of tipped in) or drawn on. The book was sold in aid of the Belgian refugees at the beginning of World War 1 and published by The Daily Telegraph in conjunction with The Daily Sketch and The Glasgow Herald so there are quite a lot of them about. Basically it contains words of support for the Belgian people from many of the great and good of the day. There are illustrations by Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham to name a couple, pieces of music written by Elgar and Debussy and others. I bought it for all of £3. Beside it was a copy of Queen Alexandra’s Christmas Gift Book which I’ve never seen before. Again, this was sold for charity, but was published in 1908. She was apparently a keen photographer so it’s full of paper copies of many of her photos, tipped in as if they were in a photo album. There are a lot of family groups – the Empress of Russia appears a lot, but there are also photos of fjords and other places she visited and ships, including The Nimrod which was Captain Shackleton on his way to the South Pole in 1907. Another three quid – what a snip!
also:
The Glory of the Garden – snippets from Country Life magazine over the years.
The Strongest Weapon by Notburga Tilt (an Austrian Resistance member in WW2 – signed.)
Dunbar’s Cove by Borden Deal. I’ve never even heard of this book but it seems to be well liked on Goodreads. I’m shocked to see that a copy with the dust jacket just like mine is on sale on Amazon for over £220. Mine cost £1.
Now comes a clutch of crime fiction.
The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Penhallow by Georgette Heyer (I’ve already read this one but I didn’t have a copy)
The Doomed Five by Carolyn Wells
Lastly some children’s books.
The House in Cornwall by Noel Streatfeild
The Spanish Letters by Mollie Hunter
The Sprig of Broom by Barbara Willard
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Three of those are Puffin books and I have a feeling that I might just have inadvertently started a bit of a collection as I think I bought a couple a few weeks ago.
I re-read Peril At End House recently and very much enjoy the 1990 “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” tv dramatisation also.
One of my daughters has just about everything by Noel Streatfeild, I must ask her if she has The House in Cornwall.
The Queen Alexandra’s Christmas Gift Book is a real find – I’ve not seen anything like that here.
Valerie,
I had never seen that Christmas Gift book before either. I used to have lots of Christie paperbacks but I gave them away and of course now wish I hadn’t. I just finished the Streatfeild book today and it was quite enjoyable.
Well, Laura Ingalls Wilder just makes me happy so I thoroughly approve of your book purchases.
Jennifer,
I passed my Laura Ingalls Wilder books on to a wee girl I know some years ago which I’m happy about because she loves them, but I’ll probably end up buying any I see again.
I’ve never heard of King Albert’s Book or Queen Alexandra’s Christmas Gift Book, they look amazing! And Dunbar’s Cove (another unknown book to me) looks a bargain at £1. I can’t believe the prices some books go for.
Margaret,
Most of the books I bought were so cheap it was actually a bit embarrassing but I think a lot of people just don’t value old books for some reason.
What a great stack of books! I think I have you beat though: yesterday I went to a library book sale and bought 28 paperbacks at $0.50 each! I wish I’d had a bigger bag! I plan to post about them on my blog, so you can take a look at what I bought there.
Joan,
You have definitely beaten me! What a pity you didn’t have your shopping trolley with you. If that was your new local library – it sounds like you’ve arrived in heaven!
Oh how nice to see someone else has Queen Alexandra’s Gift Book. We have one that my parents (keen photographers and photography historians) bought at an auction years ago. And yes, there are holiday snaps with the doomed Russian royal family.
Thanks for sharing.
Susan D,
Queen Alexandra’s Gift Book is so interesting. I suppose that lots of copies must have been published but I’ve never seen any before. I just about growled when I recognised the young Prince Edward of Wales!
Plenty to keep you busy in the coming days.
I need to catch up on reading some more Christie.
Jo,
Me too, there are so many to catch up with.
What a wonderful haul! Enjoy!
Sandra,
I intend to!