tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11429458841813551792011-12-29T23:23:34.999-08:00The occasional ramblings of a near senile booksellerG. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.comBlogger171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-50278013236203749302011-12-29T22:25:00.000-08:002011-12-29T23:23:35.003-08:00

It was with great sadness that I learned just before Christmas of the death of Henry, 3rd Earl Kitchener on 16th December 2011. As previously mentioned I have an interest as one of the trustees of the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre. Lord Kitchener had only been our patron for a relatively short time, after the death of our previous patron HRH Princess Alice, but he had been a

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-72449110701721413442011-10-14T08:05:00.000-07:002011-10-20T22:12:39.719-07:00

Self, Keith Ann, Doreen It's been a sad week for us with two funerals. The first, on Monday, was that of Penny Barley, much loved wife of Robin with whom I worked for several years in the late 1970's and who was taken after a very short illness. She was far too young to have been taken yet at all and the sense of loss and her popularity was marked by the standing room only at the celebration of

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-7581413287190716062011-09-22T00:37:00.000-07:002011-11-21T00:16:33.270-08:00

From left: Guest speaker Colonel Moss, Lady Fellowes, Lord Kitchener, Chairman: John Greenacre, Lord Fellowes, Trustee: Michael Sims Wearing one of my other hats I recently attended the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre for their Annual General Meeting. The LKMHC is a prime building facing the sea in the Suffolk coastal town of Lowestoft which provides serviced holiday accommodation to

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-43236154616781635842011-05-22T03:04:00.000-07:002011-05-27T12:41:55.357-07:00

With delight I have discovered the Lowestoft and Plaisir Twinning Association blog. Choisissez une langue de traduction: What seems like a lifetime ago in 1979, when I was still serving in the Suffolk Fire Service, my wife and I were the guests of the the Briand family when we attended the original twinning ceremony between our two towns in France. Lieutenant Briand was in command of the

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-13238563952985089042011-05-18T01:59:00.000-07:002011-05-31T10:28:55.268-07:00

You wouldn't think that selling books would involve the loss of much blood but unless you keep your concentration, it can! The steri-strips came off today but you can still see the angle at which the steel rule was being held to guide the Stanley knife through the cardboard of the book-pack, trimming it to size. Only a blade past the prime of sharpness prevented complete removal of the top right

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-68508504190709031562011-03-10T12:45:00.000-08:002011-03-10T14:22:43.047-08:00

What nice people they are at Rotary East, Lowestoft. They recently invited me to talk to them for 20-30 minutes about the history of the Royal Naval Patrol Service, a branch of the Royal Navy which had been based at Lowestoft during WW2. They gave me a very nice meal and were very patient when I was still talking 40 minutes later. I took a visual presentation with me, to help get the message

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-64559263152700469432010-10-22T09:01:00.000-07:002010-10-22T09:02:07.191-07:00

We are delighted to add our support to the Campaign for Real Books, an idea to help preserve the nature of the printed word. In recent years we have lost too many bookshops, both those selling new and secondhand books, and those left need all the help they can get just to survive. If the electronic reader takes any more out of the market for real paper books then more bookshops may not survive,

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-88670146371259461272010-09-20T02:13:00.000-07:002011-05-06T01:18:06.351-07:00

This is NOT a political point but despair at a further example of the misuse and confusion about our language. One of our up and coming politicians, in quite an important and powerful government position as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, does not seem to know the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Danny Alexander, addressing the Liberal Democrat Conference on Sunday 19th

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-62153622658271515452010-07-26T22:40:00.000-07:002011-09-22T02:31:44.479-07:00

In 1913 Mills and Boon published a book called ‘What I Know’, by C. W. Stamper, the memoirs of a chauffeur/motor engineer to King Edward VII from 1905-10, with an acknowledgement in the foreword to Dornford Yates 'but for whose tireless assistance these memories might never have been published'. Dornford Yates (real name Cecil William Mercer) was at this time still a practising barrister but he

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-13689902162942829042010-07-11T22:26:00.000-07:002011-05-06T01:15:51.505-07:00

John Greenacre, a currently serving officer (now retired, 6/5/11, ed.) and a colleague on the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre management team is the author of a recently published book on the development of Britain's airborne forces during WW2, covering both parachute and glider elements. The title is Churchill's Spearhead and is published by Pen and Sword at £15.99 plus post and packing.

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-37080909144620251122010-05-27T07:56:00.000-07:002010-05-27T07:56:10.741-07:00

To coincide with the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of Dunkirk we have nearly 60 items containing accounts of the progress of the withdrawal or the experiences of the soldiers, sailors and airmen involved.

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-58911995837845418862010-05-03T23:06:00.000-07:002010-07-28T22:22:03.747-07:00

I need to catalogue some stock that I have been passing over for some time and this morning I was flicking through an early edition of Byron’s ‘The Bride of Abydos’. I found that one of the leaves was marked with an oval ink stamp ‘ex libris vibira pinto’. Not being aware of ‘vibira pinto’ I Googled the whole phrase (as one does). Most of the links presented to me had matched with ‘ex libris’

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-53836063326000855052010-03-31T02:04:00.000-07:002010-03-31T07:11:10.190-07:00

Booksellers can sell via Amazon's 'Marketplace'. I don't but many of my booksellling colleagues do and Amazon are currently doing themselves no favours by their latest action.

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-82928206516596456822010-03-13T07:55:00.000-08:002010-03-13T07:55:11.138-08:00

To Olive Tout of Spain - hotmail tells me that the email address that you supplied with your query about 'The Ka of Gifford Hillary' is invalid. I have some details about the title you were asking about but now I have nowhere to send them. Please contact me again with a valid email address.

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-60270486863223095552009-10-29T15:19:00.000-07:002009-10-30T23:39:41.286-07:00

There has always seemed to be some mystery about the existence of a musical play by the novelist Dornford Yates (real name Cecil William Mercer) amongst his enthusiastic readers. It remained so until 1982 when his biographer, A. J. Smithers, included it in his list of the works of Dornford Yates. There it is shown as the author's second work, published in 1919 and titled 'Eastward Ho!', a

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-39629424052054173022009-10-18T05:16:00.000-07:002010-07-12T12:09:30.991-07:00

(...originally published in the ibooknet newsletter for October 2004) Nevil Shute Norway was born 17th January 1899 at Ealing, London, the youngest of two brothers and the son of a senior civil servant in the General Post Office. At an early stage it was obvious that his interests lay not in things academic but in things practical, having been caught playing truant from school only to spend his

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1142945884181355179.post-49830478631607402192009-10-18T02:12:00.000-07:002009-10-18T22:46:15.177-07:00

(...originally published in the ibooknet newsletter for November 2002) A brief history of the Royal Naval Patrol Service The Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) was a 'navy within a navy' during WW2. In 1939 much of Britain’s domestic freight distribution still relied on coastal shipping. The experience of WW1 had taught the Royal Navy that mines in our coastal waters could bring this

G. A. Michael Simshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16800368184766683589noreply@blogger.com0