"Forever And A Day" Appears In Oz

Less than one month ago, on May 31st, the latest James Bond continuation novel "Forever And A Day" was released in the UK.   Published by Jonathan Cape it is the second Bond novel written by Anthony Horowitz following the success of his "Trigger Mortis" in 2015.

It always takes a little longer for UK titles to reach Australia and last week I noticed paperback copies of "Forever And A Day" starting to hit the shelves here.

Then on the weekend at my local Dymocks store I noticed a large display of the same books for sale so purchased one for myself.

Today a signed hardback copy of the same novel arrived in the post.  Purchased from Waterstones in the UK it has yellow edges and is signed by the author.

And finally here's the hardback and paperback editions together.  I've already scanned the cover of the paperback and added it to PizGloria.com here.  I think the cover looks great and very modern.

I'm hoping for further editions to arrive in the post, as well as some promotional material to display here on this blog, but only time will tell.

A Trip To Daylesford

Last Monday my wife and I spent a day in Daylesford.  The drive took just under two hours and we arrived at 10am, just as the Mill Markets were opening.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the building from the outside (it's basically a giant shed), but here's one I've borrowed from their website.

Inside the building there are seemingly hundreds of stalls, many selling books.  As you can see below I took a few pics however to avoid repetition I only included one photo of Sebastian Faulks' "Devil May Care".  It was very popular at many of the other stalls too.

About an hour and a half later we left the Mill Markets and drove into Daylesford proper.

Here we visited Paradise Bookshop.  I managed to find five Bond novels in the store including a Jonathan Cape first edition of Ian Fleming's "Live And Let Die".  It was a nice copy but my wife wouldn't let me buy it.  Only gagging... it was a little bit over my budget !

I also found this unusual copy of "Devil May Care"... which again I didn't purchase for different reasons (this version is obviously not a Bond novel).  What is it with Daylesford and "Devil May Care" ?  They're everywhere !

After lunch we visited the Book Barn just near Daylesford Lake.  Here I purchased my first book of the day, a Pan copy of Robert Markham's "Colonel Sun".  I already have several copies of this paperback however as it was in such good condition I thought one more wouldn't hurt.  They also had a copy of John Gardner's "Licence Renewed" and another "Devil May Care".

After visiting the Book Barn we returned home just managing to avoid peak hour.  Here's some more photos from the day...

The drive to Daylesford

Daylesford Lake

Lunch at Cafe Koukla.  I had a delicious beer battered fish and chips, and my wife roast chicken with sweet potato chips.

Visit To Read Heeler Bookshop, Echuca

My parents love visiting Echuca.  The historic town is located on the Murray River and is an easy three hour drive from Melbourne.

The town has a rich history and one major draw card are the many paddle steamers that take tourists along the Murray, cruising the border between Victoria and New South Wales.

The town has several antique stores that sell books, as well as the Read Heeler Bookshop.   Full credit to David, the owner of this bookshop, because his store seems to constantly turnover stock, including James Bond novels.

As usual my parents visited this store last week and sent me the following photos:

A book club edition of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with a really nice dust jacket

Two Triad Girls On Guns covers and a Pan White Series

A first edition Jonathan Cape "Octopussy" unfortunately minus it's dust jacket

And finally another book club edition, this time "Thunderball", again with a really nice dust jacket

The following photo is actually an enlargement of a section of the photo above showing some other books including a Popular Penguins Series of "Casino Royale".  I love looking at books in the background of photos to see what surprises might appear

After speaking to my folks on the phone I asked them to purchase the two book club editions as well as the Jonathan Cape.  David also very kindly threw in the Girls On Guns copy of "Dr No".

So my parents have since returned from their short break and I've added the books to my collection.  I even took a photo of all my book club editions.

And it was then that I realised I'm still missing "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Goldfinger".  I'm not sure how this has occurred.  I've seen so many copies of the book club edition of "Goldfinger" for sale during my travels but never thought to buy a copy because I was so sure I already had it.  Oh well, looks like I've got some more books to collect...

The Great Collectors Heaven Fair 2018

The Great Collectors Heaven Fair took place a couple of weeks ago.  So early that Sunday morning I lined up outside the Malvern Town Hall with tens of other people on the hunt for collectables... in my case James Bond books.

While scouring the stalls I noticed many Bond toys, swap cards and even daybill posters for sale. Fortunately there were three stalls selling Bond paperbacks.  Here's some photos of the books:

Yes, those books are on the floor in the last photo.  But fear not because the Still Life series version of "Moonraker" on the right was in such good condition that I purchased it anyway.  It was a slightly better version than the copy I already had in my collection.

James Bond Box Set Arrives

For some time now I've been searching for a Toby McFarlan Pond "Abstract Art Series" box set published by Penguin in 2004.  A few weeks ago I noticed an unopened set for sale on the internet for a great price.  So I purchased it and today it arrived in the mail.

The seller was located in the US, and despite the set having to travel half-way around the world it was really well packaged and arrived undamaged.  From a rough mental count this is my eighth box set of James Bond novels, but the hunt continues for more...