1.) The link - Adam and Chloe got in touch, and told me about The Willoughby Book Club. It looks like a great idea - here's what they had to say:
A little about us… we offer our customers a personalised book club gift service for a range of ages and interests. In short, they choose from our range of book club packages (Babies, kids, adult fiction, non-fiction, cookery etc), tell us a little about the person they’re buying for, and we’ll then send out a brand new book once a month with a personalised message with their first delivery.Maybe drop hints with your nearest and dearest...
2.) The blog post - is Lisa May / TBR 313's take on Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men on the Bummel - partly because it's a book I've been intending to read for ages, and partly because I've neglected her wonderful blog up til now, and I'm discovering all the delights that are there!
3.) The books - came from lovely Slightly Foxed, as a delightful surprise in the post. Their beautiful Slightly Foxed Editions are gorgeous hardback reprints of memoirs. Some of the most popular ones, now sold out (as they only print 2000 of each title) are available now as paperbacks - and they have sent me Blue Remembered Hills by Rosemary Sutcliff and Adrian Bell's Corduroy, which Karyn was recommending only the other day. Can't wait to get onto these, as the other SF editions I've read have all been utterly wonderful! (And now the collector in me wants them aaallllll...)
You're too kind, Simon - thank you! (and my copy of Guard Your Daughters arrived earlier this week :)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome :) And hurrah for GYD - looking forward to hearing your thoughts! I feel like, in two months' time, blogs will suddenly be deluged by reviews of it... can't wait!
DeleteI am simmering with jealousy over the SF paperbacks. Both titles are ones I'm eager to read, especially Corduroy. I can't wait to hear what you think of them! I love my Slightly Foxed Editions but, like you, I now want to collect them all - not useful considering that I have officially run out of space on my bookshelves. (But there is good news: my parents are building new shelves. I sense an opportunity for more books in my future...)
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful, even if not *quite* as beautiful as the original editions.
DeleteNew shelves! A happy thought indeed!
Thanks for the mention Simon. I hope you read Corduroy (soon), not only to overcome your aversion to rural books, but because it is one of those books where you really regret the passage of time. Like you, I begin almost every book aware that the author is no longer alive. This was a case in which that fact troubled me; I found it difficult to accept that this humble man and the people he described no longer lived, and I look forward to reading if others feel the same.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it's going to be profoundly moving, Karyn. I must confess, I'm more likely to read Blue Remembered Hills first, because that's a gap on my Century of Books... but I'll make sure it's not too long before I meet Bell.
DeleteI have an old edition of Blue Remembered Hills (no idea who it was published by) which I pounced on because I loved her books when I was young, and I thought it was delightful.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely! I have to confess to not having read anything by her.
DeleteThanks for the very kind mention Simon! We'd love to send you one of our new Book Bags as a thank you - drop us an email with your details. And for everybody else, we'll be giving away some more via Twitter in the next few days (@willoughbybooks) so keep your eyes peeled.
ReplyDeleteGreat article again - really enjoy Lisa May's latest post (another blog added to the follow list!)
I'd be more impressed by the book club if I hadn't counted six spelling mistakes on one page of their website.
ReplyDeleteEek! Maybe you should tell them? I'm always happy when people tell me about typos I've made (although others don't seem to like it when I tell them!)
DeleteWhoops! Thanks for spotting the mistakes Mary - we'd love to hear which of our pages need a little work! Drop us an email at Hello@thewilloughbybookclub.co.uk if you get chance (we'll be reviewing in the meantime!...)
ReplyDelete