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5. A visit to Clara's



21 January 2017

My dog, Myrtle, and I drive to East Hoathly near Hailsham in Sussex.  Eventually we locate a small second-hand shop - Clara’s Books  - next to the pub and, buried away in the back is, I guess, Clara herself.

She’s surrounded by piles of dusty volumes and the one she retrieves for me is small and fat and green and very expensive.

Having read most of the Collier Letters published last year by Richard Saville, I realise I have to get hold of the two 1906 volumes edited by Charles Lane Sayer.  But they’re rare as Hen’s teeth - and twice as expensive.

Various libraries have them, but for reference only. No one will lend them out.  And I really need to have them at home to study at leisure and refer to again and again whenever I need to. The international second hand book site, Abe Books, has shown me both volumes for sale in California for an eye-watering £600 but, amazingly, volume 2 is available from a seller in East Hoathley for ‘just’  £50.

So I phone Clara and she says she ‘thinks’ she still has it, but she’s not sure where.  Shell call me back if and when she locates it.  I’m on tenterhooks.  Next day the phone rings.  It’s Clara.  Yes, it’s OK.  But I don't take cards, it has to be cash or cheque.  I’m not at all sure I still have a chequebook so I collect the cash and we head over. Clara is charming but can't remember when or how she acquired the volume, and is fairly certain she won’t be able to source volume one for me.  In fact she looks it up on Abe and sees that the pair are available in California.  I’m worried she’ll bump up her price, knowing how much they’re worth together.  But no, she takes my cash and writes me out a receipt in tiny handwriting.

I leave the shop delighted I have the volume, but keenly aware I’ve never spent so much on a book in my life before.

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