42 Comments

This story has everything. Loved the photos. The map was brilliant. Even though I'm a book reader, I haven't been into a bookstore in a long time. I have visited a couple of thrift stores with a huge haul of books. Didn't find anything to buy. I had been looking for something specific.

Liked the cardboard sign for the bookshop. A very unique way of announcing it.

Enjoyed reading this whole story.

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Thanks, Matthew! Glad you liked the (almost completely useless) map :-) I think it's best to go into thrift/charity stores with nothing specific in mind. Every time I am looking for something in particular I come away empty-handed, but when I don't I usually come across something I really like the look of, or come to like.

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Nov 3, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman

Ah, lovely Southwold. (I think...) my sister in law got married there. It was great. The whole wedding party stayed nearby in a giant mansion of a place.

The bookstore looks delightful. Reminds me of one I visited in Tasmania that had a similar air of eccentricity

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I love these sorts of connections, Nathan! Which bookshop/ They were both eccentric in their own way😂

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Nov 3, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman

store(s), hehe. Missed an s there. Barnabees Books was the one that visually reminded me.

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Easily done! 😁

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Enjoyed reading that. Thanks

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Thanks, Bert. A pleasure!😀

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A lovely visit. But please do visit the tea shop next time. I can’t believe you’ve never tried it. But then... Yeah, definitely more my scene I suspect, despite recent posts. I had a couple of glorious Devonshires with huge pots of tasty leaf tea on my recent travels. Real highlights of my trip. Thanks so much for sharing your bookshops with us though. Always a pleasure.

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It seemed a bit dark, and I wanted to be in the open air 😀

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Ah of course. Over here they serve us pots of tea with scones outdoors. We sat out the back in their glorious cottage garden looking out over the river. Australia works much better for that sort of break.

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There was a time last year when it would have been possible to have tea and scones outside but I was busy that afternoon.

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Do I laugh or cry? I’m so glad I live in Australia. 🤗🤗

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Both!😂

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I was born and brought up in Lowestoft, a few miles along the coast from Southwold. At the time I saw Lowestoft as a desperate shit hole and would dream of escape. Southwold was way to posh for the likes of us. In my older years I see things differently and have quite a fondness for the area. Heck, I might even move back there one day. I think Lowestoft has so much potential to be regenerated, such a lovely coastline, I used to imagine myself as a successful billionaire who would one day return to the area to inject some much needed investment, but sadly that dream has not been realised.

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Thanks for your comment, John. I've never been to Lowestoft. Southwold is very nice in terms of the light, landscape and location, but I think it's more over-priced than posh to be honest. Mind you, I suppose it's all relative. There is a huge pile going for £1m, which in central London might get you a two room apartment if you're lucky.

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Oct 31, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman

I quite enjoyed this one. The photos (and your writing) really brought the post to life.

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Thank you for your kind words, Reno. Glad you enjoyed it 😁

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Delightful, thank you Terry! So much to like here, but the standouts for me are your map "not drawn to scale" "open 2-4 or longer", and the offer of a towel to ensure "no drips!"

I'[d much rather an old bookshop too, I relax when holding second-hand books and love to discover the clues of their previous lives.

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Thanks, Mya. Yes, I was quite pleased with my map. 🤣 And those notices are great, aren't they?!

I agree about previous lives. The Jennings book I picked up has a birthday inscription dated 1958. Fascinating really.

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Love these book stores. I could practically smell the binder glue and dust from your photos.

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Thanks CK. It's good to know that I managed to capture the atmosphere😀

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I rather enjoy a bookshop like that. Rarely do I walk into a shop knowing exactly what I’d like to read, so having to dig about a bit would add to the idea of a treasure hunt for the perfect book.

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"Treasure hunt": yes, that's exactly what it felt like, Amanda, especially in Barnabees. (In fact, I don't think Ty SHOULD sort the books out any further!) There's a shop in London that sells new books, called Libreria, and they organise their books into themes, with fiction and nonfiction mixed up within each theme, in order to create the effect of serendipity. Thanks for the comment, Amanda.

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Oct 30, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman

I enjoyed this so much, Terry. Thank you for taking me along through the book shops. Spending time in used books stores always feels like a holiday for me. I get lost for hours in whole "other worlds." Some of my happiest memories are of three days spent in south Scotland in Wigtown (Book Town.) A separate plane of existence! Loved your photos of Barnabees. Delightful!

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Thanks, Sharron. Yes, I love second-hand bookshops too, they tend to have more personality than new book bookshops. You also never know what gems you might come across. Barnabees is great, and I hope my pics captured something of that.

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Oct 30, 2023·edited Oct 30, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman

Such a great start to the week, Terry - thank you for taking us along to Southwold with you in this post! What a great couple of bookshop visits - and I love the sound of your haul. I had the privilege of knowing Anthony Buckeridge - his wife Eileen taught me English Literature at school, and once she'd retired gave me one-to-one tuition for A-level. I loved his 'Jennings' books - Jennings and Darbishire and their exclamations of 'Fossilised fishhooks!' and the like always made me laugh. They dubbed their favourite teacher, Mr Carter, 'Retsim Retrac' during a phase of reversing everybody's names, and their nemesis, Mr Wilkins, was the less-pronounceable 'Retsim Snikliw'! My friend Jo and I went through a corresponding phase of referring to one of our teachers as 'Rotcod Pohsib' as soon as we'd read that! You've taken me back to such happy times, Terry - thank you!

Your photograph of Southwold beach is utterly gorgeous. 🌞

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PS Thanks re photo. 😊

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Thanks, Rebecca. What a great connection with the Buckeridges! I've not read them before, although I have a vague recollection of reading a short story once. I've only read a few pages of the book I bought, but already I've encountered some great mangling of words, which I love.

Regarding the reversal of names, when I wrote for the university paper as a student, my column was a satirical dig at academia, and I often put a short bibliography at the end of my column. One of the regular authors featured on a variety of subjects was Yerret Manfreed -- chortle!

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Yerret Manfreed! 🤣

I remember the character Lynda Snell in BBC Radio 4's 'The Archers' going undercover for local glossy mag 'Borsetshire Life' as restaurant critic Dylan Nells! I can't remember if she was ever rumbled. 🤣

You'll love Anthony's books. There's a gorgeous scene in one of them where Jennings is late in turning up for the annual school photograph, which was taken very slowly using a camera moving in an arc. In his efforts to get to his classmates at the far end of where the entire school had been arranged he ended up in the photograph three times, having to stop twice en route to where he eventually joined the rest of his class... 🤣

Okay, I'll leave it there with the plot spoilers. I'm so sorry - I've got reading envy, that's all!

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Yes, and I forgot to mention my other pseudonym, Fred Terryman😂

I'm enjoying "Anthony"'s books (syuch show-off familiarity; honestly!) Your description reminds me of an episode in one of the Professor Branestawm books!

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Fred Terryman - LOL! You're missing an 'e', though. I quite like Ferdy Trereman - which has the advantage of using all of the letters - and how about Freda Terrymen?

LOL re familiarity! #namedropper 🤣 It's interesting, though, that you take exception to my reference to a real-life acquaintance by the name I had always addressed him by, yet you have no qualms about calling our King and Queen Chas and Cam! 🤣

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My nickname at school was Fred, hence Fred gerrymandering

Re: name-dropping: you may have a point😂

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Oct 30, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman

Rotcod Pohsib! I wonder if he ever knew it? Rotcod. Hilarious! ( Did OJ ever call you Acceber?

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Chortle!

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LOL! Actually, Rotcod Pohsib was a she, and no, I don't think she did know! Jo and I had short-lived nicknames based on our initials, but they were too complicated to last. One schoolfriend called me 'Berecca', which I thought was quite inventive! 🤣

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I like Berecca, it sounds vaguely first century-ish, like Boudica. Berecca was probably a pretender to the Iceni throne. 👑

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It's probably better not to encourage me in that regard, Terry! 🔱

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😂

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LOL. Every so often I go to buy a book on Kindle only to discover that I already bought it X years ago. There's just too much to read!

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what a brilliant idea

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😁👏

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