A happy New Year to all our readers around the world! We hope you’ve had a restful break, with plenty of reading time. The foxes certainly did, and are now back at their desks feeling relaxed and ready for another year of great literary adventures.
Thank you to all those who placed orders for books and goods or renewed subscriptions online over Christmas and New Year. It was most heartening to return to a postbox brimming with orders, festive cards and cheery greetings and, after a busy first fortnight packing up orders, we’re now up-to-date.
Whilst we’re most grateful for all your efforts, the office is still looking rather full and we could do with some help getting into shape before the spring issue and books arrive from Smith Settle. So, a plea! We urge you to stock up on books and back issues, invest in a new book bag, tea towel or wall calendar, or even a notebook or two . . .
As a record, a notebook is every bit as immediate as a diary – a patchwork of everyday life that, years later, can vividly bring back the essence of a particular moment. You may think that diary-keeping is best left to the Pepys, the Woolfs or the Queen Victorias of the day but, as Mr Pooter once said:
Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see – because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’ – why my diary should not be interesting. My only regret is that I did not commence it when I was a youth.
So don’t delay, snap up a notebook and resolve to start that diary, or invest in a handsome wall calendar on which to write impressive appointments. You’ll find a list of all our sale items further down the page, but first let us drop in at ‘The Laurels’, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway for a dose of New Year cheer.