Downsizing!

We are soon to move away from our present house, while remaining on our unique island. The new place is somewhat smaller than the old, and the dreaded need to shed a huge number of books has finally come to pass.

We have already donated about a third of our collection of books to the amazing shop in Wemyss Bay Station, and I imagine should you venture there in the next few months our cast-offs will be bulking the shelves. The shop is anyway always worth a visit, with a wide-ranging stock of secondhand books on sale at reasonable prices. Wemyss Bay is admittedly not the easiest place to get to, although there is a car park adjacent to the shop and an hourly train service from Glasgow Central. The shop is in the station concourse, itself a listed building of astonishing architectural beauty.

But more than this. Like many writers we have built up a huge number of spare copies of our own books. The other day we delivered six heavy boxes of these copies to Thistle Books in Glasgow. The copies are both hardcover and paperback, all of them are new and unread, most are first editions or first printings, and we signed every copy. Included are several copies of the now rare first edition of The Glamour, as well as more recent titles. (We threw in a handful of surprise inclusions in some of the copies.) Nina also donated most of her own titles.

We were extremely grateful to Robert Dibble, proprietor of Thistle Books, who has helped us solve a problem of space in our new home. He seems confident he will sell all or most of the copies. Do support him. The bookshop is here, with contact details.