Three Capes To My Collection

Recently while my parents were travelling through rural Victoria they perchanced upon a small second-hand book store.  Inside they found several Jonathan Cape - Ian Fleming first edition hardbacks for sale.  They quickly rang me to discuss their finds and upon leaving several minutes later had in their possession a first edition "Octopussy And The Living Daylights" from 1966 and a reprint "From Russia With Love" from 1965.  Both have lovely original dust jackets.  

During the same week I also encountered a first edition "The Man With The Golden Gun" from 1965 going cheap at another second-hand book store

Three Jonathan Cape - James Bond novels in one week is highly unusual for me, especially in such good condition.  So it was certainly a great week for my James Bond literary collection.  The three Richard Chopping dust jackets still look fantastic too.

Annual Mornington Lions Book Fair

A year ago my wife and I attended the annual Lions Book Fair in Mornington.  And we really enjoyed the event; the books were well organised, they were great quality... and reasonably priced.  So a fortnight ago we attended the fair again along with my wife's brother.

I found several James Bond books, a couple of which I recognised from last year.

I also found this omnibus of spy novels including Ian Fleming's "The Man With The Golden Gun".  It included this still from the film featuring Christopher Lee as Scaramanga.

While looking through the "S" boxes I found this book club hardback copy of John Gardner's "Seafire".  Smaller in size than a normal hardback I wasn't even aware this copy existed and couldn't go past if for just $2.  This was my only Bond purchase for the day, however my wife and brother-in-law did find a few books for themselves.

All three of us left with some great purchases and are looking forward to attending again next year.

Granada Box Set Arrives

I recently purchased this four book box set/slip-case of Ian Fleming - James Bond paperbacks published by Granada.  The four paperbacks contained in the set are: "Goldfinger", "From Russia With Love", "The Man With The Golden Gun" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" which are all part of the Girls On Guns series.  This set has an ISBN of 0 586 06306 4. 

Back in 2017 I purchased a similar Ian Fleming box set published by Triad-Panther containing six paperbacks.  As far as I'm aware there is only one further box set of this series of books.  The hunt continues...

A Visit To Helena's Curiosity Shop

It's always exciting to find a new second-hand book store.  I've visited so many second-hand book stores here in Victoria I often imagine there are no new ones left to discover.  However a fortnight ago my wife was searching on her phone and found one I'd never heard of before.  So we got in our car and drove to Centre Road, Bentleigh where we visited Helena's Curiosity Shop.

The shop is chock-full of crystalware, vinyl, magazines, knick-knacks and collectables, but the majority of the space is taken up by books.

On entering the shop Helena introduced herself from behind the counter.  She explained she'd established the store in 1990 and over the years the theme has evolved; currently there's a concentration of books.

When I mentioned I was looking for James Bond novels she first pointed out the collection of 007 cars above our heads, and then walked around the shelves pulling out all the Bond novels she had for sale.  She also mentioned many names of continuation authors and how many of those books had graced the shelves over the years.

I ended up buying two of the books shown; a really nice paperback copy of "You Only Live Twice" published by Pan in the 1960's, and a Jonathan Cape first edition "The Man With The Golden Gun" from 1965.  Unfortunately the Cape was without its dust jacket but it's still a really nice copy.

If you get the chance be sure to visit Helena's Curiosity Shop.  Despite being a small store it's got lots of quality books for sale, they're well organised and Helena is very friendly and always ready to assist.  I will definitely return.  Here's a link with further details.

Annual Yarragon Book Fair 2018

Last Saturday morning we set off on our annual trip to Gippsland for the Yarragon Book Fair. My wife and I, her sister and parents endured a wet and wild two hour drive before we arrived at the little town.

Despite the interesting weather a large number of people also made the same journey to attend the book fair organised by the local fire brigade.

As usual the hall and adjoining rooms contained thousands of books. My father in law, an avid reader, filled his self-imposed one bag quota within five minutes while I searched for Bond books. I managed to find these five paperbacks, two of which I found in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.

I ended up purchasing the movie tie-in version of "The Man With The Golden Gun" shown above. It's not a perfect copy, but definitely hard to walk past for just $1 !

After finishing our hunt we then walked around the corner to the local cafe where we had a delicious lunch. I can't speak highly enough of the home made sausage rolls. They're fantastic.

Two hours later we were home and hosed, after another enjoyable afternoon in Yarragon. But we will return...

Here's a couple more photos I took while in Yarragon. The town has some great gift and art shops, cafes and bakery, and is well worth a visit.