Yes I know I only did a Books Incoming post last Saturday. However, it all got a bit out of hand in Norfolk and so I’m back already. What we have here is the result of a trip to Carlisle (which should probably have been on last week’s post, but I forgot to put them on the pile so they got left out of the photo) and then two second-hand bookshops at the National Trusts in Norfolk…

Lets start with the Carlisle purchases, which are top left, the Shaun Levy Ratpack confidential and the Molly Keane. I’ve read Levy’s A Castle on Sunset and have been keeping an eye for his others as he writes in the Old Hollywood/movie adjacent part of my reading interests. The Molly Keane is because she keeps coming up in articles I’ve read and I did like Good Behaviour. Then we have the National Trust haul. And I’m going to start by saying that mobile phone signal in Norfolk was generally not good and was non-existent in the bookshops so some of this was done a little by guesswork. There’s actually one book I left out of the pile because when I had signal I realised I had read it, and there were a couple I didn’t buy because I wasn’t sure if I already had them on the pile (I had a 50 percent success rate on that front). Excluding the Abbey girls and the Dodie Smith, I was buying based on vibes and half remembered thoughts that I have read the author before.
So there is a fighting chance that some of these will be terrible and you will never hear of them again. There’s at least one book here when when I searched for the author on my goodreads page I discovered that I had read them before and not enjoyed it. So there’s a fighting chance some of these could end up victims of my 50 pages and out rule. But they were cheap and I was supporting the National Trust so it’s fine really. Totally fine.
Now lets see if I can control myself for the rest of the month. I don’t think I’ve got any more pre-orders due to arrive in the next few weeks, and so it’s going to be a case of can I keep myself from impulse purchasing in any bookshop I visit, and if I go on a series binge, can I restrain myself from acquiring more. Wish me luck.
Dodie Smith, verity, I’m sure you have remembered, wrote “I Capture the Castle”, beautifully filmed, and “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”, and many other books and plays. Her autobiography is good, too.
Happy reading!
I read I Capture the Castle years ago and loved it – she’s definitely on my list of authors I should read more of, so fingers crossed I like this one!
I look forward to your review on this Dodie Smith novel!