The Diary of a Bookseller

SATURDAY, 12 JULY

Online orders: 2

Books found: 2

Nicky was in once again. The weather has turned and is now damp and dreich.

The online orders are becoming fewer and fewer: possibly another problem with Monsoon.

Today was the start of Wigtown Civic Week, and Tam Dingwall, the former landlord of The Galloway, the pub directly across the square from my shop, marked the occasion by singing ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ to a small group of drizzled youths in the town square. Civic Week is one of the highlights of Wigtown’s calendar. It involves all manner of curious activities and is squarely aimed at the local population, rather than tourists. There are quizzes, activities for children (such as a muddy nature walk on the salt-marsh), a raft race and all sorts of small town festivities, including the slightly anachronistic crowning of the Wigtown Princess. There are prizes for all manner of wonderful things, such as Best Decorated Toilet Roll. It feels very much like travelling back to the 1950s.

A customer asked one of his companions where the philosophy section was. He replied, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask the chappie.’ Chappie? I don’t think so.

An elderly man brought in a box of books that contained a Victorian family Bible. There is little demand for these nowadays, if there ever was. This one contained a handwritten letter dated 22 February 1879 and addressed from Carnwath:

Dear Mother we write

with the greatest delight

our promise to you to fulfill

so we’re here safe and sound

on the old honoured ground

and we cannot complain very ill.

I am happy to tell

that our friends are all well

and hope you are all still the same

When Marion’s away

Now mind what I say

Take care of yourself we shall blame

Janet means to go down

To that great big town

with Aleck on Monday forenoon

She’s all ready to go

so this lets you know

She’ll be back to Carluke very soon.

Yours affectionately,

Maggie.

Old letters are not unusual things to find in books, but one written in rhyme is rare. I once bought a copy of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom that contained over a hundred letters of condolence to a widow, many of which were from people who had never met her, but whose lives had been touched by her late husband. My curiosity is always piqued by such things, and it is hard not to speculate about who these people were, both the senders and the recipients.

Till total £367.91

33 customers