Western Morning News (Saturday)
Quality books are appealing
ON offer at today’s Chagford Book and Bygones Fair there will be a wide-ranging selection of quality books for the collector. From fiction to useful art and antique reference works, visitors will be spoilt for choice as far as the books go.
Plymouth’s own Robert Lenkiewicz is well-represented with four sumptuous large format folios – A Portrait of Robert Lenkiewicz, Photographs by Dr. Philip Stokes, published in 2005, another featuring his Self-Portraits, published in 2008, and a limited edition paperback by JoJo titled Remembering Robert, is based on interviews with his many sitters.
A selection of Devon books – some rare – are available too, such as William Crossing’s One Hundred Years on Dartmoor, The Old Stone Crosses of the Dartmoor borders and Gems in a ranite Setting. Others include Dartmoor Pictorial Records (IV) by Robert Burnard and Devonshire Antiquities Illustrated by John Chudleigh, Fairfield Folk – The History of British Fairground and its People – by Frances Brown and Road Vehicles of the Great Western Railway by Philip J Kelley.
Among the First Editons you will find the eagerly-sought Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and River of Death by Alistair MacLean, all with their important dust jackets. And a good collection of the ever-popular “Swallows and Amazons” children’s books by Arthur Ransome.
The Bygones side of the fair will have some vintage storage solutions, vintage rugs and baskets and other quirky items. Baskets will be extremely useful to carry away all those great books you will have purchased. When you have finished at the fair, Chagford has an amazing selection of cafes and pubs from which to purchase refreshments and then you can visit Astor’s Book Shop in this lovely old stannary town.