The Great Fleming Sell Off
In which I face the fact that I didn’t really need 14 different editions of Casino Royale. While in the Brabazon book research, an anticipated source proves to be disappointing.
When you start to struggle to find a slot for a new book purchase because all the bookcases are full, and there’s no more available wall space for another bookcase, it’s time to start thinking of that dreaded activity for book hoarders (I mean ‘collectors’) like ourselves - a book cull.
Generally we keep our collection of books in the house at around the three-thousand mark, but inevitably it will creep over that figure, and a cull becomes necessary.
Over the last month or so we’ve taken the metaphorical literary scythe to the shelves in our library and family room resulting in several trips to Half-Price books to sell-on the now unwanted bibliographic orphans.
The thing is when you start such an exercise it becomes almost addictive and you start to look at every stack of books with a critical eye. So it was that I took a good look at the wall of bookcases in my office on which several recently acquired James Bond and Ian Fleming related volumes were fighting for space. I began to ask myself if I really need multiple editions of certain volumes when that space could be used to house newer acquisitions.
The top culprit was easily Casino Royale, with fourteen different versions occupying shelf space.
After a lot of soul-searching I came to the decision that I didn’t really need that many. So began the great Fleming sell-off - but rather than just sell them en masse to the local secondhand bookstore chain, I felt that fellow Fleming and Bond collectors deserved a chance to pick them up for a reasonable price.
We’ve been listing them on our FOREST COMICS eBay site, and they have been steady sellers for the last few weeks. As of writing there are still some paperbacks listed, and there is still more Bond stuff to come.
Of course I haven’t sold all my Flemings - I will be keeping the excellent Folio Society editions, my “working set” of Coronet edition Fleming paperbacks that I use for research, my collection of US first edition paperbacks, and the odd edition that has special memories - such as the UK Pan edition of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which was the first Bond paperback that I bought for myself as a teenager from a little secondhand bookstore in Manchester one rainy Saturday afternoon.
Little did I realize what holding that paperback in my hand would lead to.
There are some books you just can’t let go…
Other Stuff
Thanks to the new subscribers who have joined since last week. I really appreciate your interest and support. If you would like to join them you can subscribe below.
Brabazon Bits
On our last trip back to the UK I picked up a hefty volume (around 700 pages in paperback) entitled “Austerity Britain: 1945-51.” Part of the approach I want to take with the Brabazon book is to examine it not just as an aircraft project, but its impact and place in British post-war society to understand the context in which it was conceived, built, as well as the reaction to it, and why it was eventually scrapped. I thought this would be a perfect volume to help with that understanding.
Unfortunately that turned out not to be the case. The Brabazon project itself doesn’t get a mention - which was surprising as it was such a high-profile, high cost exercise. Nor are there more than passing mentions of the aviation industry in general.
While the book was a disappointing read from a research perspective it does a good job of detailing, as it puts it, ‘the overlaps and mismatches’ between the plans and expectations of the ‘activators’ - politicians, planners, etc. - and the ‘ordinary people.’ And from that perspective it’s an informative, if at times dense, read into the rebuilding of postwar Britain and the creation of the “welfare state” that lasted from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2023 - “Pulp“ by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips.
Brubaker and Phillips deliver another of their outstanding noir-crime stories with the tale of an aging pulp magazine writer whose past catches up with him.
Max, the writer in question, uses his checkered past as a Western outlaw as fuel for his stories, but when a former Pinkerton agent turns up with an unexpected proposal, Max is forced to reconsider his life choices and what it means to be the hero he writes about.
A solid, emotional tale that raises some powerful questions about the blurred lines around the definition of justice.
Podcast Procrastinations
The Before They Were Beatles podcast -A quick reminder that Episode 25 of The Before They Were Beatles podcast is now live and available on your podcast platform of choice.
Entitled “Beginnings and Endings” it covers the events of September through to December 1962 as we complete our journey as The Beatles return to the recording studio, make their TV debut, and say goodbye to Hamburg.
This week I also had a great time as a guest on an early-Beatles themed episode of Meagan Paese’s fun The History of Rock and Roll radio show. We covered a lot of territory from the skiffle craze, to John’s relationship with his mother, to early recordings, and more. .
And talking of Before They Were Beatles, just a reminder that if you’d like to keep up with the progress of the work on the 20th Anniversary edition of the Before They Were Beatles book you can sign up for a subscription to the dedicated Substack monthly newsletter HERE. -
The July issue is scheduled to go out next Wednesday and will introduce us to this young cheeky chap - so now is a great time to subscribe.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week as we move into March 1968 with editions published in Denmark, France, Germany, and Italy.
My pick this week is Superman und Batman #6 from Germany.
At first glance it’s just a straight reprint of the cover from Detective Comics #360 (Feb ‘67) but by removing the speech balloons and captions, rather than translating them, it comes across as way more mysterious and dramatic than the original.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else that might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general - please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter