Campaign for REAL Books

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, which will be a loss for us all.

We understand that it is due to launch in the very near future and when we have the information about how the scheme will work we will be happy to give a discount to those that have joined.

Political confusion

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 September, said:

"tax avoidance and evasion are unacceptable in the best of times but in today's circumstances they are morally indefensible"
AND
"the Chancellor and I have agreed to invest 900 million pounds extra on a package of new measures to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion"

One would have thought it might be surprising but perhaps excusable in a member of parliament with an artistic speciality. According to HM Treasury's website, however, Danny Alexander has previously spent a number of years as a specialist communicator and has been a shadow Secretary for Work and Pensions and so hopefully is aware of our tax system.

For his information and that of any other members of HM Government, my understanding of the difference is:

1. Tax avoidance is the legal way of reducing one's tax liability within the existing tax rule framework.
2. Tax evasion is the illegal concealment of tax liability.

For further information search Google for 'define:tax evasion' and for the speech extract (a brief 1 minute 30 second video) see the BBC News page: Government crackdown on tax...

Rant over. I feel better now. Thank you.

Dornford Yates and C. W. Stamper

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' (published in US as 'King Edward as I Knew Him' by Dodd Mead).

Dornford Yates (real name Cecil William Mercer) was at this time still a practising barrister but he was short of work and had been writing stories for the Windsor Magazine, a popular monthly, since 1911. His first book in his own name, however, a collection of these short stories, would not appear until 1914. After WW1 he went on to give up the bar, became a full-time writer and wrote a further thirty-three books.

Although no acknowledgement of ‘What I Know’ ever appeared in Dornford Yates’ other works it is presumed that he was the ghost-writer but there was never any certainty. To those familiar with his work the turn of phrase employed in ‘What I know’ is typical of Dornford Yates’ style and although not a work of fiction it was still his first book. All that was lacking was proof.

In 1982 A. J. Smithers biography of Dornford Yates failed to mention it at all although there was a note in the preface to the 2nd edition in 1985 that the existence of the book had since come to his notice. In the third edition in 1983 of Richard Usborne’s ‘Clubland Heroes’ he mentions the book, which he has ignored until this edition, commenting on the fact that Dornford Yates himself never refers to the book in his quasi-autobiographies as he may have been embarrassed to admit to having been ‘ghost writer to a mere (albeit
royal) servant’.

With no-one producing definitive proof of authorship there had always remained that nagging doubt but a short while ago I managed to find proof, that satisfied me anyway, that the book was ghost written by Dornford Yates.

In November 2006 I acquired a rather poor copy of Stamper's ‘What I Know’ on ebay. The seller had described it as ‘signed’ copy but it turned out only to be initialled. It was, however, inscribed to ‘B. Barnham, with best wishes from the writer, D.Y., March 1914’ and it was certainly consistent with examples I had seen of Yates’ handwriting.

I queried with the seller about the ‘B. Barnham’ or any information she might have as to the origin of the book but she was unable to help me. Then earlier this year I mentioned the inscription on a ‘Yahoo’ group of Dornford Yates enthusiasts and a member using the name ‘Gillian’ came up trumps.

She had checked the 1911 census which shows the Mercer family as living at 79 Victoria Road, Kensington and lists the occupants of that address as follows:

MERCER, Cecil John/Head/age 60/Married/Solicitor/born Great Mongeham Kent
MERCER, Helen/Wife/age 51/born Pembury Kent
MERCER, Cecil William/Son/Single/age 25/Barrister/born Walmer Kent
BARNHAM, Beatrice/Servant/Single/age 21/House Parlourmaid/born Ledbury Herefordshire

So it appears that the book had been a gift from the son of the household, Dornford Yates, to the family’s house-parlourmaid and that he had acknowledged being the writer in his own hand.

Proof at last!

Churchill's Spearhead

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. It is an in-depth study of the politics and policy concerning the development of the airborne forces; the methods and obstacles to providing bespoke equipment; the selection, recruitment and training of potential airborne personnel; how development was influenced by commanders both within and outside the new force; and how the force was employed in the Mediterranean and Western Europe theatres and the constraints encountered. Altogether a valuable contribution to the genre.

Dunkirk anniversary

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.

The sad shorthand in our evolving language

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’ and I followed several of them. I was sad to find that, on internet at least, ‘ex libris’ was defined in several as ‘a bookplate’ which seems rather like putting the cart before the horse.

I may be wrong (my latin instruction was over fifty years ago and I was never very attentive) but I have always understood ‘ex libris’ to mean ‘from the books of’ or ‘from the library of’, ex being the preposition ‘out of’ and libris being the ablative plural form of liber or book. Since bookplates began it has frequently appeared on them accompanied by the owners name as a reminder that the book has an owner and should be returned.

That ‘ex libris’ has come to mean a bookplate is a very lazy supposition. There is already a perfectly good word for that ownership label, it is 'bookplate'. Just because many different bookplates have the common phrase ‘ex libris’ written or printed on them does not mean that it can be translated as ‘bookplate’. It is like saying that ‘no waiting’ means a metal sign at the side of the road.

Such shortcuts don’t improve our language and many of them debase it. It strikes me that the above is an example or should I use another and say ‘a for instance’?

Amazon

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.

Olive Tout of Spain

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.