Thursday, March 08, 2007

Paperback hoarder...

Ah, me dad. He loved to hoard lots of chunks of paper. "Why?" I used to ask him. So, today, I was in the loft (whenever we're at her house mother always thinks of some obscure item she'd like me to track down between the rafters and insulation, sending me up there on countless missions. Today I was in search of "the music stand") and, en route to what I was looking for I got waylaid by a couple of dusty lookin' boxes. And suddenly, it all became clear: Father had saved all these scraps for me so I had something to look at when ma sent me up the ladders. Spent some time poring over the plan he'd sketched of the RAF base in Iraq he was based at for a couple of years in the 1950s and the Arabic phrases he'd scrawled on a piece of paper so he could communicate and a stack of Ordnance Survey maps and some of his old diaries, with seldom anything other than a daily entry of the mileage on his Austin 1100. Then I found a small album of London that I think he must have bought when he and ma cycled the 200 and odd miles to the capital city from Hull just after they were married (what a strange start to married life). And what a lovely little paperback book it is:


It's only 24 pages thick but is tightly packed with terrific little sketches (and accompanying descriptions) of old London town, like this one:


What a smashing find. The clever all-knowing internet tells me that the sketches are probably by S.W.Lefaux. I've borrowed it off ma so I can scan it all in and then electronically hoard it myself. If anyone's in the least bit interested let me know and I'll post it all on here. Or, if you're publishers Charles F Kimble & Sons, feel free to ask me to remove all the images I've used from No. 103. I must spend more time in that loft.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always interesting to find that kind of ephemera. I have 'The Daily Mirror Atlas of the World' which belonged to my grandfather. The atlas was published sometime between the wars and shows maps of the armistice lines of 1918. There is also a map of the world with 'British Possessions' coloured red. The atlas cost 3 shillings and 9 pence. Sadly no precise date on the thing.

Bazza said...

I have a question.... On the Top 100 Hull Bloggers thingy what does the In/Out bit refer too? I know I'm going to feel really dim when you answer this.

Dave W said...

'British Possessions'! What a scary phrase.

Bazza - The in/out refers to mouse clicks and, although I might have this the wrong way round, an 'in' means a hit from your site to Hull Bloggers (after someone has clicked the button/link) while an 'out' is someone that's clicked on your link in the top 100 list to visit your site. Or vise versa.