The Aardvark Blog

Musings for the Between Time 5
16/08/2020

I am writing this blog on Sunday morning as tomorrow, when I would normally be blog writing, I am looking forward to a day's inactivity after working 14 days straight. Hopefully normal standards will be maintained (I am setting the bar low). I have been musing again about the re-enactment we have done here for the last decade or more, and wondering what it will be like to run another one without the cheerful spirit of Roger Emmerson who passed away last weekend. Roger brought much of the positive mood to the event, and even last August when we were dealing with the effects of huge downpours of rain the day and night before, his good spirits were undampened. Strangely, perhaps as a result of the issues we had had, and notwithstanding the reduced number of re-enactors due to so many roads being flooded, it turned out to be one of the best events we have run. I don't know how the Civil War Society will go on without Roger as his expertise on the firearms and cannons was so important to them, but I very much hope that we are able to run the event in August 2021.

In the heat this week it has been difficult to run the bookshop wearing masks and visors and at times both we and our visitors have wilted somewhat. This was always going to be a different kind of summer and there is no doubt that visitor numbers for us are down by about half, but those adventurous souls who have come to us have been in surprisingly good spirits and I have had numerous interesting conversations with people. I feel that we may just have reached a bit of a pause in our country's culture wars with both sides looking to be a bit more conciliatory, and appreciative of the other's point of view. For a different take on this there was an excellent article by Rod Liddle in today's Sunday Times.

After a rush through of customers Sunday morning has become Sunday afternoon and R has spent much of the morning - after picking orders - rearranging the warehouse ahead of our opening of the sale next weekend. A lot of work, but I think everyone will appreciate it. Because of the huge number of books I have bought over the last couple of years, this year's sale is bigger than ever with tons of bargains. All books are £0.50 each and included are a tremendous range of topics including art, science and biography. Come and discover your next good read!