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Post by andydecker on Jun 13, 2021 19:38:11 GMT
A wonderful collection. Thanks for the photos.
Nice to see the books standing in one row only. I have two or three rows on one shelf, which tend to bury the collection and one forgets even faster what you have.
EDIT: I can't be sure I saw it right, but do you have the S.H.A.D.O. tank standing there? Is the third one the pink limo of Thunderbirds? I also still have those :-)
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Post by Swampirella on Jun 13, 2021 20:03:35 GMT
I mentioned before that I was building a second bookshelf and would put up pics of some of the attic finds once it was done. It is now, though the job of reboxing all the ones that didn't fit and then carrying 30 boxes of them back into a crowded and horribly hot attic continues. So the main bookshelf remains unchanged, but tidied up, while the smaller, new one holds attic finds.Below, if they work, are pics or links to pics of some of the ones that turned up during the exercise. Some of these have been boxed and stored since 1983, some since 1987, so there were some pleasant surprises (very tatty Dr Who books and TV21 annuals I bought down Portobello Road in the mid-80s and forgot etc), plus some, like the Ray Bradburys, that were far from forgotten. I have since discovered two more boxes in the attic, but they will have to stay there, I have run out of energy. I hope, though, that they contain the books bought as a boy in 1972-73 that started it all and which I had expected to find: Poe and others and a brace of Peter Saxons. Alongside the pictured books you will have to imagine more Peter Hainings than I could have guessed I owned, and a couple of hundred 60s and 70s sci-fi novels. imgur.com/a/nSyOyGHimgur.com/a/28o5Y0GCongrats on your latest bookshelf. Glad some of your books have escaped their attic prison. I like the Century/2nd Century of Creepy Stories books.
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Post by samdawson on Jun 13, 2021 20:39:48 GMT
Thank you, Andydecker. Yes, it is the Shado Mobile. About 25 years ago a colleague swapped it for a fancy Hermes tie that I had received on a press trip. We both felt that we had done well out of the deal. I think he was wrong. There is also a Maximum Security Vehicle from Captain Scarlet (£45 and my present from colleagues on leaving that job), plus a Spectrum Patrol Car, which I bought on Ebay. They should be joined by an SPV from Captain Scarlet and a 1969 Dinky lunar explorer, but these are suffering the curse of the attic, ie, they are in a box somewhere up there that I haven't yet found. Ditto a couple of antique phones for which there is now room on the top shelf
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Post by samdawson on Jun 13, 2021 20:42:03 GMT
I mentioned before that I was building a second bookshelf and would put up pics of some of the attic finds once it was done. It is now, though the job of reboxing all the ones that didn't fit and then carrying 30 boxes of them back into a crowded and horribly hot attic continues. So the main bookshelf remains unchanged, but tidied up, while the smaller, new one holds attic finds.Below, if they work, are pics or links to pics of some of the ones that turned up during the exercise. Some of these have been boxed and stored since 1983, some since 1987, so there were some pleasant surprises (very tatty Dr Who books and TV21 annuals I bought down Portobello Road in the mid-80s and forgot etc), plus some, like the Ray Bradburys, that were far from forgotten. I have since discovered two more boxes in the attic, but they will have to stay there, I have run out of energy. I hope, though, that they contain the books bought as a boy in 1972-73 that started it all and which I had expected to find: Poe and others and a brace of Peter Saxons. Alongside the pictured books you will have to imagine more Peter Hainings than I could have guessed I owned, and a couple of hundred 60s and 70s sci-fi novels. imgur.com/a/nSyOyGHimgur.com/a/28o5Y0GCongrats on your latest bookshelf. Glad some of your books have escaped their attic prison. I like the Century/2nd Century of Creepy Stories books. Thank you Swampirella. There are plenty more where they came from, there just aren't enough walls to put them all on
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Post by Swampirella on Jun 13, 2021 20:45:14 GMT
Congrats on your latest bookshelf. Glad some of your books have escaped their attic prison. I like the Century/2nd Century of Creepy Stories books. Thank you Swampirella. There are plenty more where they came from, there just aren't enough walls to put them all on You could always put a vault under your house...
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Post by samdawson on Jun 13, 2021 20:49:11 GMT
That's a sore point. I live in a town in which probably a third of all houses built before the 20th century have a cellar, and which boasts or boasted many tunnels (in which I'm a cave guide) and vaults (about which I've written a history book). I must be one of the few householders who doesn't have a cellar or well
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Post by Swampirella on Jun 13, 2021 20:51:09 GMT
That's a sore point. I live in a town in which probably a third of all houses built before the 20th century have a cellar, and which boasts or boasted many tunnels (in which I'm a cave guide) and vaults (about which I've written a history book). I must be one of the few householders who doesn't have a cellar or well It's probably just as well then you don't have one; aside from possible flooding (?) who knows what creature could crawl out of it one dark night....
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Post by samdawson on Jun 13, 2021 20:54:36 GMT
You're probably right. I'd only fill it with more boxes of stuff
On edit: no flooding risk as the water table has dropped, so all the old wells are dry. In the caves where I'm one of the volunteer guides we have a 17th century wellshaft in which there is incised graffitti dating back to 1672 and which I've had identified as an apotropaic hex mark to prevent anything unholy from ascending the shaft to the world above.
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Post by andydecker on Jun 14, 2021 8:21:34 GMT
Thank you, Andydecker. Yes, it is the Shado Mobile. About 25 years ago a colleague swapped it for a fancy Hermes tie that I had received on a press trip. We both felt that we had done well out of the deal. I think he was wrong. There is also a Maximum Security Vehicle from Captain Scarlet (£45 and my present from colleagues on leaving that job), plus a Spectrum Patrol Car, which I bought on Ebay. They should be joined by an SPV from Captain Scarlet and a 1969 Dinky lunar explorer, but these are suffering the curse of the attic, ie, they are in a box somewhere up there that I haven't yet found. Ditto a couple of antique phones for which there is now room on the top shelf Captain Scarlet never ran on German tv at its time, I guess it was deemed too violent for kids. It was first on tv in the 90s and I missed it then. But I seem to remember seeing the model kit of a fighter jet? Maybe Airfix? Never mind. As a kid I was very into model soldiers. Especially fascinated I was with the Airfix Waterloo sets. I had seen the movies Hornblower and Waterloo , (the one with Rod Steiger) on tv. Also I quite distinctly remember that I read a Reader's Digest version of a non-fiction book about the battle of Waterloo at the time which left quite an impression on my young mind. 73 or 74? Anyway, guess my love for Bernard Cornwell has its roots there. So I got most of the Airfix sets. I spent hours painting the tiny figures. Recently I found the kits in the cellar and dusted them off. Here are two fotos. [/a] I was pretty surprised that the paint basically did hold for nearly 50 years.
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Post by samdawson on Jun 14, 2021 10:36:51 GMT
How marvellous to re-find toys like that, especially ones that have survived so well. You really did a good job on painting them. At first I assumed they were the larger 1/32nd scale figures, rather than the HO-OO scale ones.
Captain Scarlet wasn't really particularly violent. The aircraft were those flown by Spectrum's (the earth defence organisation) air wing, the Angels, which, rather progressively for 1967 was mulit-racial and crewed entirely by women. The planes were pleasingly futuristic.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 24, 2021 10:50:38 GMT
Rain stopped play at Sunday's market, friend back-of-the-van man wisely opting to shift DVD's rather than watch tray-loads of books reduced to sodden pulp. Had some joy previous weekend with the The Alien World, Jackie annual and Penelope Lively novel. Top find since lockdown lifted, Discovering Scarfolk, £2 from Spitalfields Crypt Charity Shop in Aldgate. Richard Littler - Discovering Scarfolk: For Tourists & Other Trespassers (Ebury, 2014) Blurb: Imagine you and your family are held captive in a town that is forever locked in the 1970s. If you cannot imagine it, just think what it would be like*
*For more information please re-read.Ghost of Thomas Kempe illo: Anthony Kerins Penelope Lively - The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (Puffin, 1973) Blurb: Strange messages, fearful noises and all kinds of jiggery-pokery . . . It began to dawn on James that there was probably a ghost in the house!
But what kind of ghost was it that had come to plague the Harrison family in their lovely old cottage? Young James sets out to find the answer in Penelope Lively's delightfully funny story.Jackie Annual 1982 Fashion, fiction, foto-stories, features, fun, beauty, pop, astrology, quizzes; Are you a Wonderwoman?; Are you a New Romantic?; What Goes On In Your Mind? - all very jolly, but this one not really Vault material as it is so utterly bereft of Misty/ Spellbound appeal. A single page interpretation of Your Dotty Dreams and what they mean, what our star signs foretell for coming year, and that's it for vaguely 'supernatural'-interest content, but then Jackie never pretended to be The Unexplained.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 27, 2021 15:00:21 GMT
From Slater Street market this morning. Yet another spawn of The Unexplained compilation. Peter Brookesmith [ed.] - The Open Files: Impossible happenings which have never been explained (Black Cat, 1992: originally Orbis, 1986) Peter Brookesmith - Introduction
Graham Fuller & Ian Knight - Joan Norkot: With a nod or a wink Francis Hitching - Sirius B: Memories of a distant star? Francis Hitching - The Amphibians from outer space Melvin Harris - The mongoose that talked Melvin Harris - Lost for words Paul Begg - Spring-Heeled Jack: The terror of London Paul Begg - Andrew Crosse: The man who created life Graham Fuller & Ian Knight - Barbados Coffins: Turning in the grave Chris Hall - Stalking the Surrey Puma Melvin Harris - Dufferin: the fatal flaw Bob Rickard - Death Valley: Riddle of Racetrack Playa Marc Cramer - The rise and tall of the rope trick Edward Horton - Oak Island money pit: A hint of hidden treasure Edward Horton - Sinking into the quagmire Edward Horton - So near, yet so far Lynn Picknett - Return of the Tudors: The Canon and the King Simon Innes - Man in the Iron Mask: Prisoner without a face Simon Innes - Poisoner, priest or pretender? Hamish Howard & Toyne Newton - Clapham Wood: Under the greenwood treeThe Spring-heeled Jack feature is a peach. Was the Black magic cult operating in Clapham Wood thing eventually exposed as *ahem* .. a very strange interpretation of events, or have I got that confused with another episode? The Dufferin curse has similarities with E. F. Benson's 'The Bus Conductor' (in this case the catalyst for disaster is a lift attendant). Maybe we'll get around to an Unexplained thread
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 29, 2021 9:50:43 GMT
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Post by helrunar on Jun 29, 2021 13:13:51 GMT
Excellent gleanings, James! Mike Parry, Hitchcock, Aldiss... grand reliquiae all.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Jun 29, 2021 15:54:48 GMT
From the junk shop for between $1-3: I think this is a Pennington cover: And Aldiss' biography, which is terrific. He's a bit like le Carre - not only a great writer in his genre, but a great writer. I agree. I used to collect him for a few years in the dim past. As a writer he is like Ballard, while the topics may have aged badly in parts - I have come to the conclusion that this is a problem with most SF -, his work as a storyteller is still ahead of most of the competition.
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