Last week the St Andrew’s and St George’s Church in Edinburgh held their Christian Aid book sale, it had been cancelled for the last few years due to the Covid pandemic, so we were quite keen to get there, something different to do for a change. Saturday was actually sunny and quite warm – for Edinburgh – and the sale was very busy, they have a lot of tables full of books outside the church, it felt quite safe but we still wore face masks. Inside the church was even busier, that’s where they have the more unusual or rare books, so they tend to be more expensive. Outside it was £3 for hardbacks and £1 or £2 for paperbacks. This was the 50th anniversary of their first book sale there, I spoke to the woman who was the convenor and had been at the first sale which had been teeny wee!
Anyway, my haul was:
1. The Diary of a Farmer’s Wife 1796-1797.
2. The Unjust Skies by R.F. Delderfield
3. The Small Army by Michael Marshall
4. Visitors from England by Elisabeth Kyle
5. Spiderweb by Penelope Lively
6. An Orkney Tapestry by George Mackay Brown
7. Life and Work of the People of England (The Eighteenth Century) I bought it because of the cover!
8. Scottish Painting 1837 to the present
9. To Lie with Lions by Dorothy Dunnett
Jack bought one book by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin. That’s about the normal book buying ratio for us.
I forgot to put An Orkney Tapestry in the photo since I’m reading it at the moment and it wasn’t in the pile.
Some interesting finds – well done!
kaggsysbookishramblings,
Thanks, I could have bought a lot more but I’m trying not to!
Not much makes me happier than finding a new stack of old books. I enjoy reading R.F. Delderfield, but I don’t have the one you found. More to be on the looking for:)
The cover of the Life and Work of the People of England is totally delightful…I definitely sometimes buy books because of their covers!
Paula,
I’ve enjoyed all of the Delderfield books that I’ve read so far and it seems to involve the resistance in France so I have high hopes!
That looks like a nice set of books. Older ones in nice condition. You and Jack have much more restraint than I do at a book sale.
tracybham,
That was as much as we could carry on what for us was a hot day with a long walk back to the car. We intended going back later in the week for a second bite but we didn’t get around to it.
Nice finds! How could Jack only have bought one book? He really needs to work on improving his book gluttony 😀
Stefanie,
Well, there didn’t seem to be a dedicated SF section, the books weren’t in any sort of order really. He gets books sent to him every month as he reviews for the SF magazine Interzone, so he does alright! Also he reads a lot of mine nowadays, trying to catch up with older books.
That looks like an interesting selection! I have read To Lie with Lions, which I thought was one of the best books in the Niccolo series. Otherwise, The Unjust Skies sounds the most appealing to me as I’ve loved everything I’ve read by RF Delderfield so far.
Helen,
I’m hoping to get around to the Delderfield book soon, I didn’t even realise it existed.
What an interesting selection! The Diary of a Farmer’s Wife sounds very appealing.
Jennifer,
As one of my ancestors was a farmer’s wife at exactly that time I thought it would be an interesting read.