Hospice Books blog

A strong man carried a large box sealed with duct tape into the sorting room at the back of the shop. Dumped the box down, turned and disappeared. I couldn’t push the box along, let alone lift it!

You got the feeling that either something exciting was in the box, or else another set of encyclopedias. Had to pull the tape off and open the box straight away – safety hazard where it was.

Glinting inside were the gilt titles of many volumes of Thackeray. Criss-crossed underneath, many more. Lovely thick books that belong on a posh bookcase. Wonderful condition, the whole set of 24.

These books were originally purchased monthly by subscription not long after Thackeray died in 1863. You can’t often get the whole set – people didn’t carry on subscribing.

But now here is this fantastic set, the complete ‘Complete Works’, and Thackeray waiting to be read. Last year was the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth and next year the hundred and fiftieth since his death. Funny then and funny now.

View this set on our website

When Mr Beeton sold his publishing rights over his cookery books to Ward Lock the bulky ‘Household Management’ was considered rather out-of-date, too much information geared at the household with a multitude of servants. After all, today’s housewife managed with just a cook and a housemaid, and a few servants to wait at table when there was company. So the editors at Ward Lock came up with ‘Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cookery‘. A good copy has just been added to the hospicebooks website.

I love the recipes for food that we just don’t eat these days (for example, pig’s pettitoes or Leamington sauce) and I love the tips for doing things that I would never do (for example, cleaning my felt hats or whitening my arms).

However, there are hundreds of things that are still useful, as well as hundreds that are even quainter than arm-whitening or boiling bits of pig. No wonder this is a collector’s item and Ward Lock sold millions, it’s brilliant.

Mrs Beeton and her husband have been revealed by a recent TV programme not to have been quite the homely pair that we had all thought, but what a publishing coup.

There’s an interesting provenance to this particular copy: Catherine Price its original owner (born 1911) was cook to the aristocratic Cotterell family at Garnons, Bridge Sollers in Herefordshire. It’s nice to think of her doing all that catering and referring to this very book.

‘Radio’ by Rudolf Arnheim is a very rare and interesting book, a wonderful find and a treasure. There is a fascinating story behind its publication: it was published in 1936 by Faber and Faber, having been translated from its original German.

This was in fact the first edition of the book, since its author Rudolf Arnheim was prohibited from publishing in Germany at that time because of his Jewish ancestry. He had been cultural editor of a newspaper in Berlin but the newspaper was not allowed to continue publication with the Nazis in power.

Arnheim sought shelter from the Nazi regime by living in Rome, and it was from here that he sent the manuscript to Faber & Faber in London. It was translated as ‘Radio’ and published in 1936. Its author then escaped from Italy after Mussolini declared support of Nazi race laws and worked in England as a BBC translator for about two years before moving in 1940 to the US, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Rudolf Arnheim died at the age of 102 in Michigan in 2007.

‘Radio‘ is described in full on the hospicebooks.org.uk website where it has been added to the Reference section.

A Victorian annual, published in 1885 as a ‘literary magazine’ with dozens of articles, stories and poems.  The full title is The Berkshire Bell and Counties Review, An Illustrated Literary Magazine and it’s edited by Vandyke Brown. In his foreword he thanks all the people who went around on his behalf getting subscriptions to the magazine. This is what passed for entertainment at that time! Twelve sections, one for each month. A compact size and in excellent condition. It’s not just the sanctimonious stuff that Papa read aloud to the assembled family and servants on a boring Sunday, however – some of the articles are actually humorous. Stuck-in sepia photos of famous men (no women) of the day, including Charles Kingsley the Water Babies author. Nice to think of people sitting down with this volume to pass the time. A piece of social history, really. It’s a very unusual book, especially in this condition. The price from www.hospicebooks.org.uk  is £35 plus postage

A war economy issue of Pears Cyclopedia is an amazing piece of history, especially for collectors of World War 2 memorabilia.

During WW2 this household encyclopedia was published less often than usual, because of wartime economies. This copy is the 1942 edition and there are some fascinating references in it.

For example among the flags of foreign countries is the German swastika flag; the section on prominent people contains Adolf Hitler’s biography halfway through his career; on the maps Austria is shown as part of Germany; plus there are other references in the book that also highlight the situation current at the time of publication.

Among many other interesting inclusions are details of 1942 income tax (single person’s allowance £80 per annum); old road traffic signs; and the ministers of the National Government.

For lighter reading in the same volume turn to the sections on how to play croquet or keep ferrets. It’s all very much of its period and absolutely fascinating – it really gives you a look into life at that time.

Follow the link in my first paragraph to find out more.

W J Bassett-Lowke’s ‘Locomotives’ is my favourite from the recently added section. What does it is the back cover – it’s got a fantastic art deco style illustration of a train going over a bridge, a cloud of steam bellowing from the funnel. The book is just a pamphlet style Puffin Picture Book, only £2, and I’m not even a train enthusiast….

Lots of other pictures too, drawn by Paul Mann, who apparently also wrote ‘How to Draw Locomotives’. Well, he certainly knew how to draw them. Trains from France, Germany, Australia, and everywhere, published in about 1947 and looked after incredibly well by its original owner, especially considering it’s got a paper cover.

I know it’s sacrilege to even say it, but you could frame some of these pictures with the description  in the frame as well, if you didn’t mind taking the book apart.

Why not have a look now at this lovely old locomotives book on our website?