The Lure of the Signed Copy

When booksellers get together they talk about many things - how their shops are doing, bookish discoveries they have made, that sort of thing. But perhaps the best anecdotes - reserved for late evenings in the bar at conferences - involve author events, brushes with celebrities...and the pursuit of the signed copy.

We've had some great encounters over the years with authors (the knitted Alan Titchmarsh dolls presented to him by a huge fan being a particular highlight). From other booksellers, Bookseller Crow's profanity-laden Adrian Edmundson signed copy (warning: hugely offensive) is also a stand-out, and there's a fabulous tale of a big-name cricketer from the 80s doing a very grumpy (and hung-over) signing in Manchester - but the bookseller (and cricketer) must remain nameless...

But there's no mistaking the lure of the signed copy. Dedications are great, but where this isn't possible a signed copy makes a wonderful gift. Booksellers themselves are not immune - when last year we got a few signed copies of astronaut Chris Hadfield's book a few days before Christmas, one of them mysteriously ended up in my stocking, and boy was a I chuffed.

We've become aficionados of the author signature over the years. Some signatures are a work of art (Hilary Mantel's - above - springs to mind), some have obviously evolved after many years of signing thousands of books (Take a look at Derek Landy's signature - but as the Skulduggery Pleasant books are so awesome, we're not complaining!).

Chris Bradford's signature has morphed in the years we've been doing an event with him into something approaching a sword (very appropriate) and I particularly like the addition of a 'stamp' or two - our recent event with Megan Rix saw the odd paw print making its way across the page...

For insane amounts of effort for every single signature, it would be hard to beat Raymond Blanc. We watched him sit for nearly four hours signing hundreds of autographs until his kitchen-hardened hands almost went into spasm.

There are definitely health and safety issues. For some authors, repeated signing can definitely take it's toll (Jodi Picoult sported an elbow heat pack when she visited us a few years back).

Anyway, for today's 3 4 Friday #FridayReads here are three signed copies we're particularly pleased to have in the shop at the moment...

A new addition to CJ Sansom’s ‘Shardlake’ series is always a great event for fans, and the stories of the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake during the reign of Henry VIII have already become classics. ‘Lamentation’ sees Shardlake again plunged into the deadly mix of plots, persecution and momentous history, investigating another mystery, this time set against the backdrop of an ailing Henry. We have a few signed copies – so please let us know if we can reserve one for you.

For those well-loved characters who outlive their authors though, death is not necessarily the end. In recent years, it’s become increasingly common for a well-loved character – Bond, Jeeves and Wooster, Philip Marlowe – to be resurrected by a current author, and can be fraught with controversy and risk. Sophie Hannah has just performed the incredible feat of bringing back Agatha Christie’s ‘Poirot’ in ‘The Monogram Murders’. When the book was announced, fans of both authors held their breath – but everyone can relax. Christie ueber-fan Hannah is the perfect person to resurrect the well-loved Belgian, as he investigates a triple-murder at a plush London hotel in 1929. Infused with the things that make Christie and Hannah so appealing – skilful plotting, psychological depth and not a small amount of wicked humour – this is pure enjoyment. We have fond memories of when Sophie came to a literary dinner we held in Abingdon a few years ago, so we’re delighted that she has signed copies for us – and beautiful they are too!

Finally, a big favourite with both staff and customers is Susan Hill, and a lovingly-produced hardback ghost story from Susan has almost become a Christmas tradition. This year ‘Printer’s Devil Court’ sees a truly unsettling ghost story set in Edwardian London. With echoes of Frankenstein, this tale of dark experiments involving four medical students is quick enough to read in a single sitting, but stays with you long after you finish. Signed copies of a beautifully produced edition available from us now.

We've other authors in stock - Hilary Mantel, and Bone Clocks author David Mitchell - so pop in and take a look. We're also taking pre-orders for our sold-out event with comedian David Mitchell on Nov 13. And if you want something really rare and collectible - take a look here...

Susan Hill is in the Roysse Room

When we first opened Mostly Books we had a tremendous amount of support from the blogosphere - not just from casual readers, but other booksellers (both here and abroad), other Abingdonians...and authors. And none more supportive than the author Susan Hill. At the time we were slightly overwhelmed that an author of her stature would take an interest in two neophytes just starting out, but as, over the years, we have kept in touch, got to know her better - it shouldn't have come as a big surprise. Susan is simply madly passionate about books, in a way that has meant her involvement in just about every aspect of their existence. And thus anyone who goes into this crazy business with even a scintilla of the same passion must (in Susan's view) must be on the side of the angels. Well that's my theory anyway... So when we spotted earlier this year in the publishing schedules that Susan had a book out this Autumn, and when we subsequently understood that it was a book 'about books themselves' we invited Susan to Abingdon, kept our fingers crossed, and were delighted when she accepted and we were able to welcome her to Abingdon on Friday. It was well worth three years' wait. It is not hyperbole to say that Susan Hill is a literary giant, having won a clutch of our most distinguished awards, and having been at the very heart of cultural life in this country for decades. She knows, has known or interviewed a genuine who's-who of writers over the past 40 years. She reads, writes, edits, publishes, promotes and judges books. And she is at her most animated, passionate and uncompromising when it comes to their defence. Susan began Friday's event with a defence against what she sees as a descent into a digital 'dark age', where the traditional book slowly, quietly - a la the fax machine - disappears from our lives almost by accident, with the attendant disappearance of much of the publishing industry. Her plea was no luddite call to resist e-books - quite the contrary - but to renew our appreciation of everything that is wonderful about the printed word, and not sleepwalk into a situation where global economics makes the production of books non-viable - and thus obsolete. The plea to rediscover books was a perfect introduction to Susan's main talk of the evening, her book Howard's End is On The Landing. The book is in essence a memoir - a very personal one - of someone doing just that, going through her house, and using the books that she rediscovered as a structure on which to hang her thoughts, views and experiences in the realm of books and publishing. If it had been anyone else, a personal trip down memory lane might be diverting at best, but the sheer wealth of literary experience that Susan has means this book verges on nothing less than a biography of modern literature and the culture of literature. In it questions are asked as to why the popularity of certain authors thrive - and why others seem to disappear without trace. Along the way - and Susan read a few during the evening - we are entertained with illuminating anecdotes of authors such as Roald Dahl and Iris Murdoch. There have, apparently, been grumblings from some quarters of the publishing world that Susan advocates 'not buying books' (which she didn't do for a year whilst writing the book. She also, incidentally, used the experience to wean herself off the Internet, something that benefitted her concentration and sanity). If this is true, then it's a classic case of missing the point. What Susan has done in producing this book is to take a pause, marshal her thoughts, look back (probably with the tiniest nudges from thoughts of mortality and legacy) and consider what is worth reading and why. I think if more people did this, then book sales generally might indeed decline, but I'd love to see what the bestseller lists would look like. Accompanying her at the event was her daughter Jessica, and she was able to give her own version of what it was like growing up in the house described in the book. As usual, several other bloggers have covered our event faster and far better than we could, and I suggest you take a look at the impressions of Gaskella, The Poet Laura-eate, Stuck-in-a-Book and Books Please. I reckon if you read all of these reviews, you'll have a much better idea of the power of Susan's talk - and the impact it made. My sincere thanks to Susan and Jessica for making it a very memorable evening, and closing a circle for Nicki and I that began before we even opened. My thanks also to members of the Mostly Booklovers - Julia, Patricia and Annabel - who helped out on the evening with tickets, booksales and refreshments. We've had a lot of people coming into the shop to say how much they enjoyed the event, and I know there were others who wanted to come but couldn't get a ticket. Whilst I can't honestly in my heart of hearts urge you to do something as drastic as stop buying books, I can urge you to read through HEIOTL (even if you borrow a copy), and I can definitely recommend that you take a moment to consider what you read, why you read it - and consider what different books and authors you might choose to give you a few different answers in your life. Naturally, we can help with you that if you pop in to the shop...