London with J was just over two weeks ago, so just over a week ago was London with N, and off to the Saatchi Galley for Firsts London, with thanks to Jon for a couple of exhibitor tickets enabling us to breeze in like we were VIPs. Lots of alarmingly expensive books and, for the second mention in a row, I think that Peter H won the prize for the most expensive book spotted at a cool £1 million (some old Shakespeare blah blah).
The most appealing thing as far as I was concerned was a copy of 'From Russia' on the Lucius Books stand, which I got to hold in my grubby hands for a few fleeting moments. Here it is (who knows how long that link is going to work) on their website and, as they say in their description, it certainly is "superb example in entirely original condition, scarce thus". In discussion, they even claimed to have acquired it from the 'original owner' which, had I stopped to think about it, did warrant a little gentle probing for a book that was published 68 years ago, but never mind. Irrespective of the chain of custody, it certainly was in delightful condition. I just couldn't quite bring myself to part with the £9,500 required.
Ho hum.
Nothing else really came up to the mark and so, unlike me at a book fair, we left empty-handed.
Still, the day was far from lost. N's advance research led us to Pavilion Road and a rather nice open-air bistro for lunch in the sunshine (lobster rolls all round), followed by a gentle stroll around Sloane Square and the King's Road. The Conran Shop was rubbish, but Peter Jones a bit better. The King's Road was entertaining for a little while, mostly for people and car spotting. By happy chance, a little way down, we noticed a bookshop on a side street (John Sandoe on Blacklands Terrace), a charming warren of a place and, on a table in an upstairs room, I found the just-out latest Carl Hiaasen, so one up to John Sandoe as Waterstones had failed me the previous Friday.
Enough of London, we made our way home, still early enough to be spotting a few fans cutting it fine for cup-final kick off at Wembley, but it meant that we were back home in plenty of time to be enjoying the afternoon sunshine and putting together a really rather lovely, and very special, garden bench.
