London Bookshops

I still have dim memories of odd moments in and around London, things to do with books and bookshops. I remember walking down to the Forbidden Planet from somewhere north of Highbury (a long walk!) and finding a little F&SF second-hand bookshop with a red façade. On the way back, I never saw it again.

I also remember taking a wrong turn and finding myself face to face with a brass plate which said, "Dylan Thomas lived here." It was a powerful moment for me; the last bard of Wales was a towering influence on my early attempts at poetry.

Over the last few years, I have been a frequent browser at the Folio Society, with offices still at 44 Eagle Street. But only recently have I become a curious visitor at the London Review of Books. I have long been a subscriber with both. In fact, I am now looking longingly at the Folio edition of Newton's Principia Mathematica, with guide, and am only a little deterred by the discount price of GBP 75.00 — and the fact that the postage will be hefty too.

Some day, I will dig up my London diaries and do a more detailed travelogue. Perhaps I will have a Neil Gaiman or Christopher Fowler or China Miéville moment and write about the secret London that I discovered, the dark mirror-image of the living power. But I know I still have time; the ravens still haunt the Tower of London, and I may yet return to the Isles of the Blessed.