Books

As a family it's rare for any of us to read a novel (maybe Alice). Nearly all our books are on art, photography, crafts, cooking (cook books without photographs what is that about?), manuals and maps. For a book to make it onto our book shelves it usually has to contain either illustrations, photographs or diagrams. I find It's the same with blogs if they are too wordy with no photographs they don't hold my attention. Over the Christmas break Alice had to write a dissertation for Uni. She had a book list so she looked on Amazon to buy some that were relevant to her chosen subject, Mods. While searching on Amazon she came across a paperback book called Mods!. I bought this book back in 1979. We were amazed to see it for sale as a rare book priced at £110, we won't be using that as a coaster anymore! We do have some books that are obviously rare (this is an excuse to put pretty pictures on my blog). One of my favourites is a 1905 edition of Rip Van Winkle illustrated by Arthur Rackham. It has over 50 colour plates. I also have an old children's book illustrated by Mable Lucie Attwell, the drawings are just charming. Last year I bought Alice a book called 'The way we wore' by Robert Elms. The book is a comprehensive summary of British youth-cult fashion for men over the last thirty years. Alice decided to email the author to find out if he knew what authentic Mod girls wore. Robert Elms has a radio programme on BBC radio London. He read out Alice's email and asked for help from old Mods. What a rich vein of information Alice was able to glean about this androgynous street style. People rang into the show to reminisce about their life style and cherished pieces of clothing from the early 60's. As an antidote I would like to recommend a blog that has an insatiable appetite for books Being Mrs C