The Aardvark Blog

LBF, New York Review of Books, Map Exhibition
17/04/2016

A flying trip to the London Bookfair last Thursday allowed me to catch up with some old friends and purchase a goodly haul of Art books. I am somewhat backed up in the goods-in department, so will try to get these into the shop as quickly as possible, but it is, I am afraid, likely to be a matter of a few weeks rather than a few days before the bulk of them are available.

Meanwhile I have called a temporary halt on processing dvds in order to make a start on processing a large library from mid-Wales which I purchased recently. There will be some really fantastic fiction, travel, history and Folio Society Titles in amongst these books and I am impatient that I am not able to work through them faster. All in all the library will be some 4,000+ books and will be well worth the wait.

Whilst at the London Bookfair I picked up a copy of the New York Review of Books and marvelled for the umpteenth time at what  a constantly fascinating publication this is. Amongst the longer reviews were a very interesting article on the rise of Donald Trump and a reflective piece on the career of Roger Scruton. Only the fact that I struggle to get through the New Yorker once a week, a daily newspaper and just occasionally the odd book, prevents me from getting a subscription forthwith.

I have now completed the line up for this year's map exhibition and it will be all hands to the pump to get everything ready for the start on the 30th of April. Some truly fascinating maps and other publications this time, and I have been surprised and delighted at the way that it has shaped up.

Finally the memorial for Jill Alford will be this coming Thursday at 2.15pm at Brampton Bryan Church. Everyone is expecting a large turnout so I would advise getting to the church early (needless to say the aardvarks will probably be running in at the last moment as is our general practice). Jill was a wonderful person and a huge loss to the Village. As I was taking another stall booking for the May Brocante yesterday (and boy, is this going to be a big one and well worth coming to), I was reflecting on how peculiar it will be not to see Jill setting up on the day. I also realised how much I welcomed her calm good nature, and how when one saw her somehow everything felt a little bit better. I do not expect there to be many dry eyes on Thursday, but I suppose that one should really reflect on how lucky we were to have had her living in the village, rather than focus on the loss of the days to come. After such an awful tragedy it is difficult to see anything positive, but a life such as hers leaves such a legacy of goodness that its effect is not quickly dissipated. If there is any comfort to be had, it is in that thought alone.