Fnurban #5 : Serendipity on a Rainy Day

Last week we enjoyed our first proper holiday of this topsy-turvy year. We were in the Peak District,  at a small cottage on a farm, in a tiny village on top of a hill - so  no problem maintaining social distancing, at least. 

Mostly the weather was good, but there was one disctinctly wet day. We elected to look at Cromford and  Arkwright's cotton mill - a World Heritage Site. That was interesting, but the rain defeated us eventually.  Fortunately we had already planned to look in at nearby Scarthin Books, described in our guide book as a 'world of books, curios and comfy armchairs'.

A warm welcome on a wet Wednesday

Well, it lived up to the description - a great example of what a good bookshop can be. Three floors, crammed with bookcases, including on the stairs; there's a cafe in there too, hidden behind a curved bookcase ( one shelf of which I noticed holds the 'English County Regiments' series ) which swings open and closed, like something out of a storybook itself. 

I can't vouch for the tea/coffee as I was spending too much time looking through the books, especially (of course) the military history section.  I came up with quite the little hoard, as you can see:   

   

Best of all for this blogger 'The Army of Frederick the Great' by Christopher Duffy - 1974 hardback edition ( bookshop's pencil note inside "not common - a bit stained" which might describe many things).  Having just been reading Duffy's book on von Browne, this is just what I wanted next -  it's as if this was just  waiting for me, and it will immediately go to the head of the reading pile! That made the whole day worthwhile on its own.

Not only, but also : 

'Military History for the Staff College Entrance Examination' by Major E.W. Sheppard - 'revised in accordance with Staff College Regulations 1937' .  It's a set of 'crammer notes' for student officers, with chapters on major campaigns from Napoleon in Italy 1796 to The Third Afghan War, 1919, and each with a fold-out sketch map. I think this is going to be very interesting - another pencilled note says 'from the collection of MJ Peter Cavendish'  - I suppose that 'MJ' is 'Major', so it looks like he passed!

[ update: the original owner would appear quite likely to be the late  Brigadier-General Peter Cavendish, who lived nearby and passed away in 2011. Being only a few miles from the Chatsworth estate, the surname Cavendish also indicates a certain social status, I suspect. I hope the book doesn't mind being now in the possession of  'salt of the earth' - my only military ancestor rose to the dizzy heights of Lance-Corporal ]   

'The Gun'  by C.S. Forester. As mentioned in an earlier post, I am working my way through Forester's war stories, and this one, it turns out, has relevance. The eponymous Gun is abandoned by Spanish troops of Blake's army retreating from the disaster at Espinosa. Having recently taken the part of 'Blakey'  under the auspices of M.S. Foy ( here ) , during which the Spanish artillery performed rather poorly, I feel a sort of  connection. I hope The Gun redeems itself here.  

'Ripeness is All'  by  Eric Linklater. Having started with the excellent 'Private Angelo' I have been picking up anything I see by Linklater, and quite a few have military themes. This is from 1935 and starts promisingly : 'Sergeant Pilcher was not one of those bull-mouthed swarthy red soldiers. common enough twenty years ago, who larded instruction with oaths and kept conversation bouyant on their flotsam of Hindustani and a flood of beer"..  Eric having served in the army of 'twenty years ago' i.e. 1914-1918, I think he speaks from experience here. Having said that, the first modern on-line review I looked at "found it tedious, slow-moving and far from fun".  I don't think our Eric would be seen as  very 'Woke', though the Sergeant is clearly no  'Gammon'.   We shall see..

Shire Books 'Discovering Model Soldiers' by Arthur Taylor , 1970. What can I say? It cost the princely sum of  40p, a bargain for a nice little piece of nostalgia.  One section is headed '20mm - The Wargamers Size' : so that's you 28mm people told, from the old school. 

All in all a thoroughly worthwhile visit - if you're ever in the area and like a good bookshop, I'd recommend Scarthin Books. Now I just need to magic up the time actually read all these, and the rest of my worryingly large books backlog. As ever,  'time and space, time and space'...

Keep well, everyone.