Today

The company I work for has recently gone through a period of expansion. This always makes me nervous. I've worked for other businesses that have grown too quickly and they invariably end up being taken over by bastards who use words like upskill and robust. I hope it will be different this time.

One result of this sudden expansion is that I now around 30,000 books to deal with, so you can expect to see a lot more bookmarks and other ephemera. In the meantime, these are what caught my eye today:

There are times when an author photo isn't a good idea. The blurb beneath says that "W. H. Rowe comes from Cornish stock..." as if that explains everything.

This postcard fell out of a book on planes. The back reads "The plane was a Jumbo and stopped at Zurich and Nairobi. I didn't bother getting off. The plane went over the jungle - I didn't see Tavyan, but here are some Zulus."

A cheery note with a simple message: you only have yourself to blame. I'd have torn it up.

This colour illustration comes from the slightly misnamed Jolly Book, published around 100 years ago. Like most children's annuals of the time, it is bizarre mixture of crass sentimentality, casual racism and religious indoctrination. Interestingly, the annuals published after 1918 are far more restrained.

Finally, my new favourite book title:

This title conjures up a variety of wonderful images. It's an interesting concept, but I think I'll stick to packets for the time being.