Excluding biographies and single-composer studies/ catalogues, I'd be interested to learn which publications members possess and find most useful when trying to obtain information about unsung composers in areas of interest to them?
With the above exclusions applied, my reference library is fairly limited since the hinterland of British music has not, unfortunately, captured the imagination of many researchers, but the following are probably the most useful items on the shelf:
Brown, A. Peter: The Symphonic Repertoire IIIB - The European Symphony c. 1800 to c.1930 - Great Britain, Russia and France (Indiana, 2008)
Brown, James & Stratton, Stephen: British Musical Biography (Stratton, 1897)
Cox, David: The Henry Wood Proms (BBC, 1980)
Ehrlich, Cyril: First Philharmonic - A History of the Royal Philharmonic Society (OUP, 1995)
Foreman, Lewis: Music in England 1885-1920 (Thames, 1994)
Ganzl, Kurt: The British Musical Theatre I, 1865-1914 (MacMillan, 1986)
Grove (fifth edition on paper and New Grove online)
Lloyd, Stephen: Sir Dan Godfrey - Champion of British Composers (Thames, 1995)
Musgrave, Michael: The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace (CUP, 1995)
Scholes, Percy: The Mirror of Music 1844-1944 (Novello, 1947)
Smither, Howard: A History of the Oratorio IV - The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (North Carolina, 2000)
Temperley, Nicholas (ed): The Blackwell History of Music in Britain V - The Romantic Age 1800-1914 (Blackwell, 1988)
???
Is there not a book by Jurgen Schaarwachter which is often quoted?
Never seen it myself.
The book by Jürgen Schaarwächter, 'Die britische Sinfonie 1914-1945 ', dates from 1995. He quotes a lot of rare source material and offers some, albeit sparse analyses. However, is approach is often VERY idiosyncratic. E. g. he calls RVW 'Williams' instead of 'Vaughan Williams' and the like...
His Die britische Sinfonie 1914-1945 (Verlag Dohr, Köln, 1995) is a hefty tome (591 pp) and has been well reviewed but it is, of course, in German, a language which is not my strongest! If any music book should have an English edition, this is the one - but it probably won't happen.
:(
My two staples are-
Eric Gilder: "Dictionary of Composers and their Music"(Sphere, 1987)
Mark Morris: "The Pimlico Dictionary of Twentieth Century Composers"(Pimlico, 1999)
If we are just talking about reference books, then:
A Critical Dictionary of Composers & Their Music
American Composers 1912-1932 (1932)
American Composers of The Time (1963)
British Musical Biography (Brown & Stratton 1897) 8) 8)
Contemporary American Composers (1976)
Contemporary Composers (Mason, 1918)
Contemporary Russian Composers (1917)
Dictionary of Composers and Their Music (Gilder)
Famous American Composers (1900)
Grove Dictionary of Music (various eds. from 1900 onwards)
Modern Composers of Europe (1914)
Modern music, published by the League of Composers, 1924-1946, Vol.1
Modern music, published by the League of Composers, 1924-1946, Vol.2
Modern Russian Composers (1927)
Music under the Soviets - the agony of an art (1955) :(
Musical Portraits - interpretations of twenty modern composers (1920)
The American Symphony Orchestra - a social history of musical taste (1951)
The Standard Symphonies (Upton, 1899)
Women Composers (1902)
As you can see, it's mostly old, public domain stuff, and for modern composers and their music I tend to rely on the web.
I also have several reference works on copyright and the legal and moral rights of artists/authors, as well as works on the philosophy of music, musicology, ethnomusicology, and so on, but they tend to be just for general reading. ::)
Thanks, Colin and semloh for the responses to the opening question!
Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 08:17British Musical Biography (Brown & Stratton 1897) 8) 8)
Before the advent of the internet I drooled over (not literally you understand) and coveted this book in the John Rylands library. Then abebooks came along and ...
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kNSueiSt5O8/TVPZwegChBI/AAAAAAAAAM8/3dzUQrCNAsI/s1600/hallelujah%2521.jpg)
;D
Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 08:17I also have several reference works on copyright and the legal and moral rights of artists/authors
Every home should have one.
;)
Apart from scores of scores, my music reference library includes "The Oxford Companion to Music", Tovey's "Essays in Musical Analysis" (which includes a piece on Rontgen's Edinburgh Symphony), "The Symphonies of Robert Simpson" edited by Robert Matthew-Walker, Clive Brown on "Louis Spohr", Fitz Spiegl's book of "Musical Blunders"( this includes lots of little known facts about various composers and performers including Hans Rott), Berlioz's autobiography and "Treatise on Instrumentatation" with extra notes by Richard Strauss together with lots of books on music theory and composition including most of Ebenezer Prout's works.
Quote from: John H White on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 10:35
.......Fitz Spiegl's book of "Musical Blunders"( this includes lots of little known facts about various composers and performers including Hans Rott) ......
Your books are obvious testimony to good taste, John. :)
But, nice to see you've still got room for some fun in the form of Fritz Spiegl. I don't know
Musical Blunders, but I'm sure it's as equally weird and wonderful as the one I do have -
Music Through the Looking Glass. It was this that alerted me to the long-standing rumour - wholly without foundation, of course - that Sousa was actually a Japanese man by the name of 'So', who added 'usa' to his name following his naturalization as an American! ;D ;D ;D
It must have been a rumour spread by the Flat Earth Society! ;D ;D ;D
Maybe be a little less a reference book and more of a darned good read is Harold C Schonberg's "The Great Pianists - Mozart to the present". This book turned me on to the likes of Kalkbrenner, Moscheles, Hummel and many others for which I am eternally grateful to the late New York Times critic.....
Jerry
Quote from: Albion on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 08:29
Thanks, Colin and semloh for the responses to the opening question!
Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 08:17British Musical Biography (Brown & Stratton 1897) 8) 8)
Before the advent of the internet I drooled over (not literally you understand) and coveted this book in the John Rylands library. Then abebooks came along and ...
Lucky man, Albion! I think the Rylands is one of Manchester's greatest treasures. :)
I expect you know that Brown & Stratton is now out of copyright and can be legally downloaded for free from the web, along with most of the other books in my list. 8)
I know there's nothing like having the real book in your hands, but it does make it searchable - and you can instantly locate references to your search term. Which is a useful way of finding out what influence particular composers had on others.... I was able to identify Wingham's pupils that way. :)
By the way, your message initially confused me ;D ....
Quote from: Albion on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 08:29
Thanks, Colin and semloh for the responses to the opening question!
.... as I am both semloh and Colin!! ;D ;D
It gets tricky doesn't it when members are in private correspondence with each other and thereby learn each others christian names. They then start using these in posts....which can get confusing, I suppose ;D
Nice to see another 'Colin' on here though ;D ;D
Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 11:23there's nothing like having the real book in your hands
Quite so - I like tangible objects that have or will shortly have some history to them: books that can be read in a comfy chair (or in bed) win over eye-straining computer screens and whirring hard-drives; likewise downloads are no match for well-produced CDs with booklet-notes and pretty covers...
... unless, of course, the price is prohibitive or the repertoire is otherwise unavailable!
;)
Have collected books over some years in a haphazard fashion, but I value (I'm not actually sure how well these relate to the thread)
*my used copy of Meyer's "English Chamber Music: The History of a Great Art" (apologies for approximate title, will find and edit in. Fairly early edition, I think- also will check... bought during my first visit to London, maybe around 1993.)
*Schoenberg's Style and Idea
*Schoenberg's Structural Functions of Harmony
*The same's Theory of Harmony
*Forsyth's Orchestration (Dover reprint)
*Walker's Liszt: The Weimar Years
*Girdlestone's Mozart and his Piano Concertos (Dover repr.)
*Alfred Einstein's Mozart: His Character, His Work (much used and mistreated book now.)
*Oxford Concise (? Concise Oxford?) Dictionary of Classical Music (... ditto.)
*1991(ish?) Penguin Guide. (much ditto, poor thing.)
*Rapoport - The compositions of Vagn Holmboe : a catalog of works and recordings with indexes of persons and titles
*Rapoport, ed. - Sorabji: A Critical Celebration
*Frankel Society booklet with list of works, movies contributed to, etc.
*to be continued I suspect...
For chamber music I still find Cobbett's volumes useful, but even moreso Arthur Cohn's massive 4 volume "Literature of Chamber Music".
Quote from: eschiss1 on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 17:14
*1991(ish?) Penguin Guide. (much ditto, poor thing.)
Ah, very wise! :)
I disposed of whole shelves of Penguin record guides over the years, and finally discarded the last ones with the advent of the CD. :o :o What a mistake! :-[ :-[
But in those days, digital meant "relating to one's finger" ;D ...and we couldn't imagine that LPs would be of much interest in the years ahead! ::)
I read and re-read my copy of the Penguin Guide even though I mostly had cassettes and CDs- but it introduced me to names of composers, works, conductors (the opinions I could take or leave, but as a partial list of people to look into it was one of many starting points. Others, like Newman's Sonata Since Beethoven, Cobbett, etc. I borrowed from or read at local libraries... sometime I will see about getting used copies if I can, or reprints of Newman if they ever make them and I can afford them, esp. that volume 3... what of Viole's sonatas, after all?... I wonder if we shall find them, or have. )
I keep Groves 3rd edition handy. Many of its entries were gone by ed 5. Spending a lot of time in used book stores has provided a great deal of interesting material, and I suspect we'll never see books of this nature again - at least in any quantity. Fortunately, the hoarder in me has won out and I do have American Record Guide going back over 30 years, Penguin Guides and updates filling a large shelf and many Schwann catalogues, too. Now that Gramophone is online and searchable, I don't feel too bad about not keeping those for the last 40 years.
Rather a long list I'm afraid (AbeBooks and many, many second-hand book stores will be forever in my debt) :
GENERAL REFERENCE BOOKS:
Altmann: Orchester-Literatur-Katalog (1919)
Altmann: Kammermusik-Katalog (1931)
Bacharach: The Musical Companion (1941)
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1905*, 1919 & 1988)
Brown: British Musical Biography (1897*)
Brown: The Symphonic Repertoire (vols IIIa, IIIb & IV)
Cahn: Das Hoch'sche Konservatorium 1878-1978
Cobbet: Encyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (2 vols - 1928)
Elson: Modern Composers of Europe (1895)
Ewen: Composers of Yesterday (1937)
Fay: Music Study in Germany (1887)
Fétis: Biographie universelle des musiciens (8 vols & 2 suppl. 1878*)
Goepp: Symphonies & their Meaning (1902)
Grove / New Grove (1st edition,1980 & 2005)
Grove Dictionary of Opera
Hinson: Music for Piano & Orchestra
Mann: Deutschlands Österreich-Ungrans und der Schweitzb Musiker in Wort und Bild (1909*)
Mueller-Reuter: Lexikon der Deutschen Konzertliteratur (1909)
Newman: The Sonata since Beethoven
Niecks: Programme Music (1907)
Pratt: New Encyclopedia of Music & Musicians (1924)
Prosnitz: Handbuch der Klavier-Literatur 1830 bis 1904 (1907*)
Riemann: Dictionary of Music (tr. into English 1897)
Riemann: Geschichte der Musik seit Beethoven (1901)
Ritter: Encyklopädie der Musikgeschichte (vol.5 1901*)
Schumann: Music & Musicians (2 vols tr. into English 1878)
Shaw: Complete Musical Criticism (3 vols)
Slonimsky: Lexicon of Musical Invective
The New Oxford History of Music (Vol.IX: Romantiscism)
Toskey: Concertos for Violin & Viola
Upton: The Standard Operas (1914)
Upton: The Standard Symphonies (1889)
Upton: Standard Musical Biographies (1910*)
Warrack & West: Oxford Dictionary of Opera
Wiegandt: Vergessene Symphonik?
Willeby: Masters of English Music (1896*)
ed. Holden: Viking Opera Guide
ed. Layton: A Guide to the Concerto
ed. Layton: A Guide to the Symphony
ed. Paine: Famous Composers & their Works (1891)
COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES OR REFERENCE BOOKS:
Abert: Johann Joseph Abert (1916)
Analecta Lisztiana I - Liszt & his World
Anon: Jean Louis Nicodé (1910*)
Banister: George Alexander Macfarren (1892)
Becker: Giacomo Meyerbeer
Beckermann: New Worls of Dvorak
Bennett: Forty Years of Music 1865-1905 (autobiography 1908*)
Bowen: Free Artist (1939 biography of the Rubinstein brothers)
Brook: Six Great Russian Composers (1946)
Damrosch: My Musical Life (autobiography)
Dibble: C. Hubert H. Parry
Dibble: Charles Villiers Stanford
Fifield: Max Bruch
Gerlach: August Klughardt (1902)
Gilman: Edward Macdowell (1908)
Graves: Life of Sir George Groves
Greenwood: Correspondence of Wagner & Liszt
Hagan: Felicien David
Harding: Massenet
Hilmes: Cosima Wagner
Hofmann: Felix Draeseke
Irvine: Massenet
Jordan: Fromethal Halevy
Koehler: Wagner
Krueck: The Symphonies of Felix Draeseke
La Mara: Liszt und die Frauen (1919)
Moulin-Eckhartd: Letters of Hans von Bülow*)
Raff: Joachim Raff: Ein Lebensbild (1925)
Raff: Leaves from Life's Tree (Raff's daughter's autobiography)
Rees: Camille Saint-Saens
Rimsky-Korsakov: My Musical Life (autobiography)
Roemer: Joseph Joachim Raff (1982)
Russell: The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas (1927*)
Saint-Saëns: Musical Memories (autobiography)
Schaefer: Chronologish-Systematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Joachim Raff's (1888)
Scharwenka, Xaver: Sounds from my Life (autobiography)
Smidak: Moscheles
Swafford: Johannes Brams
Taylor: Anton Rubinstein
Thomas: A Catalogue of the Music of Joachim Raff
Tischendorf: Norbert Burgmueller Werkeverzeichnis (2011)
Todd: Mendelssohn
Wagner: My Life (autobiography)
Walker: Franz Liszt (3 vols)
Walker: Hans von Buelow
Williams: Franz Liszt selected Letters
von Bülow: The Early Correspondence of Hans von Bülow (Tr. into English 1896*)
* - Digital copy.
Thanks for all these latest additions - I find it fascinating to get an indication of other members' interests. As Mark has included biographies and other items in his list I might as well do the same. These come off the shelves somewhat less frequently than the ones detailed in the first post ....
-: Musical Britain 1951 - Compiled by the Music Critic of 'The Times' (OUP, 1951)
Ainger, Michael: Gilbert and Sullivan - A Dual Biography (OUP, 2002)
Allen, Reginald: The Life and Work of Sir Arthur Sullivan (Godine, 1975)
Anderson, Robert: Elgar (Dent, 1993)
Anderton, H. Orsmond: Granville Bantock (John Lane, 1915)
Barker, Duncan James: The Music of Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (1847-1935) - A Critical Study (PhD, Durham, 1999)
Benoliel, Bernard: Parry before Jerusalem (Ashgate, 1997)
Bliss, Arthur: As I remember (Faber, 1989 [rev])
Boyd, Malcolm: Grace Williams (University of Wales, 1980)
Carley, Lionel & Threlfall, Robert: Delius - A Life in Pictures (OUP, 1977)
Carpenter, Humphrey: Benjamin Britten - A Biography (Faber, 1992)
Crowther, Andrew: Gilbert of 'Gilbert and Sullivan' - His Life and Character (History Press, 2011)
Dibble, Jeremy: Charles Villiers Stanford - Man and Musician (OUP, 2002)
Dibble, Jeremy: C. Hubert H. Parry - His Life and Music (Clarendon, 1992)
Dickinson, A.E.F: Vaughan Williams (Faber, 1963)
Eden, David: Gilbert & Sullivan - The Creative Conflict (Associated University Press, 1986)
Evans, Peter: The Music of Benjamin Britten (Dent, 1979)
Foreman, Lewis: Bax - A Composer and his Times (Scolar, 1983)
Holden, Amanda (ed): The Viking Opera Guide (Viking, 1993)
Holst, Imogen: Gustav Holst - A Biography (OUP, 1969)
Holst, Imogen: A Scrap-book for the Holst Birthplace Museum (Holst Museum, 1978)
Holst, Imogen: A Thematic Catalogue of Gustav Holst's Music (Faber, 1974)
Howes, Frank: The English Musical Renaissance (Secker & Warburg, 1966)
Hughes, Gervase: The Music of Arthur Sullivan (St Martin's Press, 1960)
Hurd, Michael: Rutland Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals (Clarendon, 1993)
Jacobs, Arthur: Arthur Sullivan - A Victorian Musician (Scolar, 1992 [rev])
Kennedy, Michael: Britten (Dent, 1993 [rev])
Kennedy, Michael: Portrait of Walton (OUP, 1989)
Kennedy, Michael: The Works of Ralph Vaughan Wiliams (OUP, 1964)
Lunn, John E. & Vaughan Williams, Ursula: Ralph Vaughan Williams - A Pictorial Biography (OUP, 1971)
MacDonald, Malcolm (ed): Havergal Brian on Music I - British Music (Toccata,1986)
MacDonald, Malcolm: The Symphonies of Havergal Brian I-III (Kahn & Averill, 1983, 1991 [rev], 1983)
McVeagh, Diana: Gerald Finzi - His Life and Music (Boydell, 2005)
Meredith, Anthony & Harris, Paul: Malcolm Arnold - Rogue Genius (Thames/ Elkin, 2004)
Moore, Jerrold Northrop: Edward Elgar - A Creative Life (OUP, 1987)
Nettel, Reginald: Ordeal by Music - The Strange Case of Havergal Brian (OUP, 1945)
Nettel, Reginald: Havergal Brian - The Man and his Music (Dobson, 1976)
Palmer, Christopher (ed): The Britten Companion (Faber, 1984)
Parker, Christopher: The Music of Sir Frederic Cowen (1852-1935) - A Critical Study (PhD, Durham, 2007)
Porte, John F: Elgar and his Music (Pitman, 1933)
Porte, John F: Sir Edward Elgar (Kegan Paul, 1921)
Redwood, Christopher (ed): An Elgar Companion (Sequoia, 1982)
Rodmell, Paul: Charles Villers Stanford (Ashgate, 2002)
Scott-Sutherland: Arnold Bax (Dent, 1973)
Self, Geoffrey: The Hiawatha Man - The Life and Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (Scolar, 1995)
Seymour, Claire: The Operas of Benjamin Britten - Expression and Evasion (Boydell, 2004)
Short, Michael: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music (OUP, 1990)
Stedman: W.S. Gilbert - A Classic Victorian and his Theatre (OUP, 1996)
Tierney, Neil: William Walton - His Life and Music (Robert Hale, 1984)
Vaughan Williams, Ursula: R.V.W. - A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams (OUP, 1964)
Walker, Ernest: Music in England (Clarendon, 1952 [rev])
Watson, Monica: York Bowen - A Centenary Tribute (Thames, 1984)
Willeby, Charles: Masters of English Music (Osgood, 1893)
Wren, Gayden: A Most Ingenious Paradox - The Art of Gilbert and Sullivan (OUP, 2001)
Young, Percy M: A History of British Music (Ernest Benn, 1967)
Young, Percy M: Sir Arthur Sullivan (Dent, 1971)
... but they're certainly effective as wall-insulation.
:)
I suppose that all of us should also include the often-illuminating booklet-notes in the 100s or 1000s of CDs that we own.
;)
My more modern musical/ biographical studies of composers:
Black, Leo: Edmund Rubbra, Symphonist(The Boydell Press, 2008)
Dickinson, Peter: The Music of Lennox Berkeley(The Boydell Press, rev.ed. 2003)
MacDonald, Malcolm: Brahms(Schirmer Books, 1990)
MacDonald, Malcolm: The Symphonies of Havergal Brian I-III (Kahn & Averill, 1983, 1991 [rev], 1983)
MacDonald, Malcolm: Schoenberg(The Master Musicians Series: J.M. Dent, 1976)
Many more of an older vintage to follow.
Have read the MacDonald books on loan from the uni. library in the past and think very very well of them...
Albion- when not ultra-frustrating- agreed. (A recent-ish recording which I don't own of a Joachim concerto places its premiere date several decades after it actually, if Alan Walker has his (apparently?) researched facts right anyway, occurred. I can see that Joachim might want to erase his connection with Liszt (well- I assume, anyway, that it is from a biography or interview with him... Walker's source is basically schedules etc. of the concerthall in which the premiere took place, contemporary reviews, etc.) but not that we have to concur, but the false date has nevertheless spread since.)
Quote from: eschiss1 on Thursday 20 October 2011, 19:54
Have read the MacDonald books on loan from the uni. library in the past and think very very well of them...
I didn't buy them ;D The author very kindly sent them to me shortly after their publication :)
Ah, I have a few books like that (and should have mentioned them in my list actually- that I didn't wasn't because of such a connection, I managed to forget them and a few others still :( )
Also, the (English) Chamber Music in Meyer's title I should note only goes up to Purcell. Doesn't prevent it from being a very interesting (and excellent in my honest though amateur opinion) book on many, many levels. That was the author's area of study - manuscripts etc. of Renaissance to Baroque chamber music in Europe generally (and his book is interesting too, like Walker's, because of the not-so-"strictly musical" areas of study it connects- the social and economic life and roles of musicians during various periods, the varying doctrines affecting instruments in church, the effect of Cromwell's Revolution on musicians and music...
I should, of course, emphasise that I am delighted that he did because all are superb books which I have read and re-read many times :) :)
Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 19 October 2011, 21:39I disposed of whole shelves of Penguin record guides over the years, and finally discarded the last ones with the advent of the CD.
The decline of the Penguin Guide has been both steady and (I fear) regrettably inevitable given the explosion of new recordings. I just retain two copies (2002 and 2005/6). The internet is now a much better source for reliable reviews.
::)
Quote from: Albion on Thursday 20 October 2011, 18:06
Thanks for all these latest additions - I find it fascinating to get an indication of other members' interests. As Mark has included biographies and other items in his list I might as well do the same. These come off the shelves somewhat less frequently than the ones detailed in the first post ....
:)
Fantastic collection, Albion! If only there was more time to read..... :'( :'(
Which British composer, would you say, is the most interesting from a biographical point of view? I am always fascinated by Elgar; I love his slight eccentricity, his endearing love of children and games, and his delight in words. But maybe there's an 'unsung' who's interesting? ???
BTW, I just went to the charity shop in town and found an 'as new' hardback copy of
The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (1994) for $8 .... ;D ;D ;D
David Wright seems fascinated by Elgar as well......no, "fascinated" is not the right word at all.....repulsed, obsessed would be better.
Something about bloomers, if I recall ??? :o I just stop reading him at this point ;D
Quote from: semloh on Friday 21 October 2011, 13:23Which British composer, would you say, is the most interesting from a biographical point of view?
I'd be lying if I said Frederic Cowen or York Bowen (though it's tempting to - just for the hell of it).
;D
Definitely Malcolm Arnold, followed by Havergal Brian and Rutland Boughton.
:o
Quote from: semloh on Friday 21 October 2011, 13:23BTW, I just went to the charity shop in town and found an 'as new' hardback copy of The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (1994) for $8 .... ;D ;D ;D
Great find - moments like that make life worthwhile!
;)
Quote from: Dundonnell on Friday 21 October 2011, 13:30
David Wright seems fascinated by Elgar as well......no, "fascinated" is not the right word at all.....repulsed, obsessed would be better.
Something about bloomers, if I recall ??? :o I just stop reading him at this point ;D
I think Dr Wright must have 'seen something nasty in the woodshed'!
Quote from: Albion on Friday 21 October 2011, 15:26Quote from: semloh on Friday 21 October 2011, 13:23BTW, I just went to the charity shop in town and found an 'as new' hardback copy of The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (1994) for $8 .... ;D ;D ;D
Great find - moments like that make life worthwhile!
;)
Just been up in Yorkshire for the weekend, including a visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth - and obtained Arthur Jacobs'
Henry J. Wood - Maker of the Proms for £8 (RRP £20) at one of the second-hand bookshops which line the steep main street (in-between the innumerable 'themed' tea-shops)...
Quote from: Albion on Thursday 20 October 2011, 18:06... but they're certainly effective as wall-insulation.
:)
... well, they have forecast a severe winter.
;)