My wife and I are currently at Heathrow Airport, about to depart the UK. We've spent seven days here, four of which were with family and friends. The other three were spent sightseeing, relaxing, and of course book hunting.
After visiting several London bookstores my biggest surprise was how many Jonathan Capes (especially first editions) and John Gardner proofs were available for purchase within just a short distance of our hotel in Covent Garden. We are certainly not this fortunate in Oz !
The first bookstore we found featuring Jonathan Cape hardbacks was Goldsboro Books on Cecil Court. The very friendly staff even let me hold their first edition of Ian Fleming's "Live And Let Die". Although it was my first visit to this store, I've purchased numerous modern first editions from them in the past. I definitely recommend a visit to this store and checking out their limited edition hardbacks online.
Next bookstore was Peter Harrington Rare Books, where again I found everyone to be extremely helpful. Despite immediately explaining I was only there to visit the store and check out what was available as I probably couldn't afford to buy anything, both my wife and I felt very welcome.
As you can see in the following photos, they had some lovely books for sale which also appear to be shown on their website.
Hatchards on Piccadilly was the third store. They also had several secondhand Jonathan Capes behind the front counter. I was fortunate to find a signed paperback edition of "A Spy Like Me" by Kim Sherwood on their shelves too. This copy was published by Hemlock Press.
We did visit a fourth bookshop who allowed me to take these photos within their store but didn't want any promotion explaining "We'll handle our own promotions thankyou !". As you can see they had plenty of Capes for sale as well as many vintage paperbacks. I won't mention the store's name or location though to respect their wishes.
Sadly my holiday budget didn't extend as far as purchasing any of the Jonathan Capes shown, but in the next blog post you'll note I did manage to purchase a recently published hardback while also in London.
And finally, here's some photos of London:
Tower Bridge
Inside the Tower of London including a resident raven
Piccadilly Circus
