A Small Place in Italy by Eric Newby

A Small Place in Italy by Eric Newby lands on the shelves of my shop.

HarperCollins, 1994, Hardback in dust wrapper.

From the cover: In 1967, Eric Newby and his wife Wanda fulfilled a long-cherished ambition when they acquired I Castagni (otherwise The Chestnuts), a small and excessively ruined farmhouse in the foothills of the Apuan Alps on the borders of Liguria and northern Tuscany. They were the first foreigners to live in the area, and twenty-five years later they remained the only ones.

The house came with a tileless roof, a long-abandoned septic tank and a lavatory hidden in a dense plantation of canes in the open air. It also contained a wealth of indigenous wildlife: a large colony of cockroaches; a hornets nest; an adder which shed its skin every year on a beam in the owners bedroom; predatory mice the size of small cats who used red flannel from Eric Newbys favourite shirts to line their offsprings nests; and, not least, a sitting tenant, Attilio a minute, eccentric and very ancient man who had once built an aeroplane in which he had launched himself from a high place and crashed, hurting himself badly.

In this affectionate, humorous, often hilarious book, Eric Newby recounts how he and Wanda, who met in Italy in 1943 after he escaped from a POW camp, pulled I Castagni from the brink of collapse with the aid of the local esperti (skilled workmen). It describes their long-enduring friendship with the neighbouring contadini, who welcomed them whether eating, drinking, harvesting grapes and olives, or hunting for fungus and wild asparagus from the moment they arrived.

In Love and War in the Apennines, Eric Newby described the start of his love affair with Italy; in A Small Place in Italy, with his inimitable wry humour and eye for the quirks and oddities of human nature, he chronicles how it grew to maturity.

Good+ in Good+ Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper. Leans. Top edge of the text block spotted. Text complete, clean and tight but a little age-tanned.

Blue boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 211 pages. 9½” x 6¼”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

Adventurer’s Paradise by Alastair Scobie

Adventurer’s Paradise by Alastair Scobie lands on the shelves of my shop.

The Travel Book Club, 1955, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Maps [1];

From the cover: Alastair Scobie spends his time in the wilder parts of East Africa looking for trouble principally wild-animal trouble. With a film camera and gun he wanders over the long plains and steep passes of Northern Kenya, ankle deep in volcanic dust, or through gorilla and rhino tunnels, forced passages in the massed bamboo forests of the Mountains of the Moon on the edge of the Congo. Wherever he goes he seeks sensation for the entertainment of the millions who take their thrills vicariously through the medium of cinema or television.

His book is packed with stories of his adventures and of the fantastic characters, white and black, in whose company he has found a wild and esoteric pleasure. Some of them may be crazy, some utterly degenerate, some plain savage, but the hilarious tales of their primitive lives, packed helter-skelter between the thrills of his more frightening moments in putting on film the dangers of the wild, make a book which cannot fail to keep any armchair-traveller awake into the small hours.

There have been many books of big-game hunting, but your big-game hunter does not go on safari asking for trouble ; he would much rather shoot his lion or rhino from a safe distance than wait for it to come full tilt at him face to face. For the free-lance movie cameraman the goal is just that. He can only sell action close-up action and if the camera doesnt get out from under quickly enough that merely means another camera and perhaps another cameraman. Alastair Scobie has so far managed to get out from under in the nick of time.

Very Good in Good Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded with light fraying to the spine ends and corners. Tanning to the blanks. Text complete, clean and tight otherwise.

Blue boards with Black titling to the Spine. 249 pages. Index. 8½” x 5½”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

Le Weekend by Arthur Eperon

Le Weekend by Arthur Eperon lands on the shelves of my shop.

Book Club Associates (BCA B.C.A.), 1984, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Drawings; Maps [1];

From the cover: Theres no better way to take a refreshing bargain break abroad than to make a trip across the Channel for LE WEEKEND.

Within just fifty miles of the Channel ports youll find an enormous variety of scenery, dotted with village inns, old farmhouses, ancient churches and grand chateaux. You can choose to wander through small seaside resorts, large bustling ports, tiny hamlets or market towns. Or even take a few days in Paris or beautiful Bruges.

French cooking is still the best value in the world; French hotels are individual, charming, sometimes even pleasantly eccentric.

In LE WEEKEND Arthur Eperon shares all his own enthusiasm for northern France and Belgium, giving historical anecdotes, spotting cultural treasures, and of course picking out a wide choice of hotels and restaurants to suit every purse.

Whether youre a caravanner or a chateau hotel seeker; or you simply fancy a day away in a Channel port to enjoy a good meal and bring back some local specialities, read LE WEEKEND now and start planning your next jaunt.

Very Good in Good Dust Wrapper. Dust wrapper nicked at the top corner of the lower panel with a damp stain to the reverse of the foot of the upper panel. Text complete, clean and tight.

Green boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 204 pages. Index. 8″ x 5¼”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!