A book-themed non-book rant

I am on my third rereading of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, it is a book I enjoy a great deal (I expect that the forthcoming BBC TV programme will be amazing).

When I first read it, and this morning when I sat in my usual coffee house reading it again, I am struck by the possibility that one of the main reasons I like it so is because characters from 'the North' feature strongly and favourably. In fact, one tenant of the book's narration develops because of someone from Newcastle, and the fact that two of the most deceitful characters are 'southerners' just adds to this.

Obviously, this is just one off-shoot of an afterthought while reading the book, but it does chime with something I have been mulling over for a week or two now.

In an unnamed education institution a member of staff expressed the view that 'students came first, teaching staff second and support staff last'. Essentially, students "wants" were the priority, then those of the teaching staff, and it was support staff members' role to deliver these expectations without question. Leaving aside the whole customer service argument between the words "wants" and "needs", this statement has left me a little staggered.

I must add that it was told to me by the person who received this wisdom first hand.

The implied extension of this statement was that the top two thirds could survive and blossom without the bottom third.

I know of far too many individuals in education who think this way. It is damaging to place too much emphasis on the perceived hierarchical nature of education, each of the three elements need the other two to function. Without students no teaching; without teaching staff no assessments; without support staff no marks entered. Like with the Golgafrinchans, forcibly removing a third of your structured workforce will not end well.

[Spoiler Alert - For One Paragraph]

Which brings me back to Jonathan Strange & the secretive Mr Norrell. Childermass is possibly one of my favourite characters. He knows the view his boss has of him and still continues to do what he wants. He knows too that he supports his boss and that this support is not mutual. Childermass is a lot more powerful that those people above him.

[Spoiler Ends]

I don't know when the BBC TV programme will be broadcast, I kind of hedged my bets by reading the book this early in the year. If I were to schedule it myself, probably aim for Spring or Winter - it's not a Christmas book but I think of it as being more about those seasons than Summer or Autumn.

Wailing in Whitby

Like a dud note played in a simple melody, there is something not quite right about returning to work on a grey and wet Monday morning having spent Sunday lunch time eating fish and chips in the sun overlooking Whitby bay. I almost took my jumper off yesterday; today I am wearing a running jacket and a hat that is trying to  keep the rain off my face.

It was a whistle stop tour of Scarborough and Whitby. The weather forecasts last week predicted rain and 'the end of the Autumnal warm weather'. They had been wrong, the rain when it came was early and not quite as heavy. We didn't arrive in Scarborough until afternoon because of a meeting in Leeds, so the visit was a bit rushed. First stop was Taylor's Cafe and Books for lunch and a copy of Jim Dodge's Stone Junction. Down in the Market Vaults there's Revolution Records and nearby Mrs Lofthouse's Book Emporium.

Revolution Records was rather nice, there's a good selection of music (I only looked at the vinyl though there's CDs and a couple of second hand books) and the prices were reasonable. I foolishly passed up purchasing 'Now That's What I Call Quite Good' by the Housemartins as well as '200 Motels' by Frank Zappa (though it might have been listed as The Mothers).

Heading back through the town centre towards the car we also popped into Revival Records, again, a short visit so that we could also visit the Mojo Music Café. I thoroughly recommend this place, the coffees were lovely, staff friendly, and the business seems to do a lot to promote the local music scene.

Saturday night was spent in the best youth hostel in the world*, Boggle Hole. Aside from spilling a pint and a glass of red wine I am sure the staff were glad to have us there. With the tide receding we went for a walk, south first towards Ravenscar then northwards towards Robin Hood's Bay; this place is one of the most beautiful and relaxing I've ever been to. 

Sunday was a trip to Whitby and the aforementioned fish and chips. As it is October and there's not nearly as many people around we bought them from one of the 'award winning' fish and chip shops and cafés along the quayside. I can't remember which, though Magpie seems to spring to mind (though that might just be the sight of one on the wreck of the roof on the Majestyk opposite my office window). 

During previous visits to Whitby one of the record shops there always seemed to be closed. Luckily Folk Devils was open and I picked up a copy of Siouxsie and the Banshees's singles collection, Once Upon A Time. The shop is lovely and worth the wait.

Jim Dodge, Stone Junction,
Taylor's Cafe and Books, 14 Bar Street
The Book Emporium, 2 Queen Street
Revolution Records, Market Hall
Revival Records, 6 Northway,
All Scarborough

Siouxsie and the Banshees, Once Upon A Time,
Folk Devils, 16 Sandgate, Whitby

Notes

*This come from a survey of two people in the age bracket 29 - 39.

Happy Hour Again

Like Wah Wah Records in Wakefield, Earworm Records is new. And they sell old records. It was initially hard to find (though that’s probably more to do with me not paying attention to signs), though once you do find it it is a treasure trove. I was a little short of time so only did a cursory flick through (which still took fifteen minutes, my wife tells me). There were so many records that were calling out that familiar refrain, “take me home”.

What I eventually came away with was the Housemartins’s The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death. I was rather chuffed with my purchase, and was quiet proud to show off to my wife, while doing so I noticed that the bench outside the shop offered wifi. Earworm Records was a good shop, there was a collection of hi-fi equipment to buy, a friendly staff and enthusiastic customers. Interestingly of all (to me) the payment method was a Paypal chip and pin reader, something a little different from Visa and Mastercard and their ‘service charges’ (independent coffee shops take note).

The Housemartins, The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death.

Earworm Records, 1 Powell’s Yard, off Goodramgate, York

This is radio freedom

As mentioned in my earlier post about York, I found some out-of-date information. Not all out-of-date information is useless, from one comment on a student guide to record shops in York (not the BBC one, I might add), I was put on the trail of the ‘Man on the Market’. The market is the area between Parliament Square and the Shambles, and is full of market type things (hats, t-shirts printed with (un)humourous slogans, sweets). It also has a record stall.

I had explained to my wife that it might be worth looking around the market on the off chance the record stall was there. There’s an art deco café where you can people watch from, and suitability refreshed with coffee, we followed the music. The stall was great, lots of different things in a vague order that rewards flicking through rather than looking for just one artist. On one side there’s cheaper lps, on the other more expensive ‘collectors’ lps.

Personally, the first record I picked up was collectors to me. KLF’s What Time Is Love? Live From Transcentral is something I’ve been looking for for ages. All of my KLF 12inches and lps were destroyed in a flood, so this was the first purchase to replace something lost. I paid £8 for three records, and would probably have paid more than £2.66 each for KLF, Elton John best of and Emmerson Lake and Palmer’s Tarkus. The Man on the Market explained that they rotate the stock regularly so it was more than worth it coming back.

Emmerson, Lake and Palmer, Tarkus, Elton John, Best of, KLF, What Time Is Love? Live From Transcentral

‘The Man On The Market’, Market Place, York

I have never been more ready to do this write now

One of the reasons I wanted to start writing about book and record shops was the difficulty I have found in finding up-to-date information on them. While researching this trip to York I found one BBC student guide to the record shops from 2004 (including a good write-up for Borders) and a list of booksellers in York the majority of which appeared to be private homes where one had to request a catalogue before arranging a visit. The list of booksellers turned out to be doubly useless when the first entry on it turned out to have closed.

Rather than going through the twenty odd shop names I pulled out, here is where we wandered and shopped. The first bookshop we visited was Fossgate Books, which had lots of books though nothing to tempt us. After that we found some books in an antique centre around the corner (I didn’t check the name, they had about 400 records at £2 each if you fancy finding it). Then it was our first crossing of the city centre, via the Shamble Market to Goodramgate.

On Goodramgate there are a number of decent charity shops with both books and records. There was also a man who checked every hardback copy he could find to see if it was a first edition. Uncharitably we thought he was trying to find something to sell on at profit. From Goodramgate, across the river to Micklegate, where there were a lot of race goers. There is also a very nice Oxfam with a little cubbyhole of records in the back. And then off towards the minster, for Minster Books.

We came away from York with about ten books. Unfortunately I didn’t make a note of which came from where, though all the prices seemed fairly reasonable. Particularly in Fossgate Books, staff were happy to offer advice and see if there was something we were looking for. What I did come away with was a reason to continue exploring the city for its literary treasure.

Fossgate Books, Fossgate

Books for Amnesty, PDSA, British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, Goodramgate

Oxfam, Micklegate

Blood-sucking buccaneers in Whitby

What kind of child grows up in Whitby? That’s right, Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Westenra. Maybe the question should be ‘what kind of literary child grows up in Whitby?’…

Anyway, our tour of North Yorkshire has brought us to the outer limits, the extremis to Leeds’s centralness, Whitby. I like Whitby a lot, it has a relaxed air of a town that does its own thing regardless. An example of this would be the seagull nest I found. In the middle of the station car park, the day after a motorcycle rally had met there. After all of those noisy motorbikes it squawked at me.

Whitby is at the end of the heritage railway line from Pickering and has a lot of attractions. One might be of the opinion that the Dracula aspect is played up an awful lot, though to be fair what is a lot more annoying about the place is the endless stag and hen parties. Yes, you’re wearing an L-plate, did you know that this is the town that a young Sherlock Holmes was sent to for holidays?, no, I didn't know that shot was £1.

There are a number of secondhand bookshops in Whitby (Endeavour Books being the one we shopped in, my wife picking up some detectives), a fair few charity shops, and at least one record shop. I don’t know what it was called, I found it in the Shambles Market, tucked way behind sweets and charm bracelets. I didn’t know what to expect, there was some very nice looking records (as in, if money was no object they would be coming home with me) though the pricing seemed a little hit and miss. For example, there was an Elton John lp that I’ve been umming and ahhing over for a while which was easily double the most expensive I had seen it previously.

In the end I found a Bread record. Again, I am not sure what to expect, my mother-in-law said that she rather liked it way back when, so for £2 I thought I’d give it a go (even if I would be fixing the sleeve myself).

Of the charity shops they proved yet again the random nature of the books you might find. In Mind, up near Sherlock’s Café (home of the best scones I’ve ever had), I found Vampirates. It’s a children’s book and book two in a series, so I put it to the back of my mind for another day. I mean, who can pass up the first book in a series called Vampirates? What I couldn't pass up any longer was the first book of Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. I remember the TV programme on C4 (well, the publicity for it) and have always wanted to read some of it so this was the perfect opportunity. The book itself is okay, for my liking it probably works better serialised, though there is something about the characters that have stuck around in my mind (except for Mary Ann Singleton, she better make a better impression in book two). The other charity shop I noted was the Oxfam overlooking the quay. It’s snook away behind pubs and fast food outlets, so it is worth remembering that it is there and worth a look.

Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City, Bread, The Sound of Bread,
Whitby

Note: Aside from the scones, which are lovely, we had fish and chips in Hadley's, which is equally lovely even when there is a group of stags from London who are quite proud to announce that they are from London loudly every minute or so. Oddly, the people of Whitby have encountered Londoners before, and commenting about how cheap beer prices are up north only really highlights how overpriced they are in London.

Adventures in Boggle Hole

There are many reasons to enjoy youth hostels. They are convenient, relatively cheap, offer lovely accommodation and the staff are lovely. I have not stayed in hostels outside of the UK, or independents yet, so far it has only been Youth Hostel Association and I've not been upset.

Boggle Hole has to be one of the best. This is our second stay, a hastily booked break after our original planned stay ended with our car breaking down inside the Leeds metropolitan borough (we had not got far), and it just feels right and comfortable. We even had the same room as before.

My favourite bit has to be the Cthulhu sign in the toilet informing children that he will be unhappy if they do not wash their hands. I always thought Cthulhu was a little indifferent to the hygiene of children though I am not a parent so this might be some part of the mythos I have previously missed.

When The Rain Comes

Stop two on our weekend tour of North Yorkshire is Pickering. Pickering is home to many lovely attractions including a castle and many cafés though when we arrived it was in the middle of a bucketload of rain. The rain fell hard enough for it to be running up hill (due to an optical illusion and a speed bump). Soaking ourselves to fetch cash, drying ourselves in a café near the entrance to the heritage railway, we were here for a reason: Yorkshire Quality Paperbacks.

How we came about this recommendation I do not know. Most likely during a news report about the town we saw the shop and thought we would like to test its quality. It might even have been on Countryfile. So, having found the shop it was with a little trepidation that we climbed the steps to the door.

The trepidation evaporated once we were inside. The shop is packed and there are so many rewards to be found if you have the time. For some reason I got stuck on the thought that I needed to find Neil Asher’s Parador Moon so it took me a while to actually notice what was available. There was Robert Graves, lots of Penguin Oranges and Greens, lots of contemporary and women’s fiction; a quantity of quality for when one fancies just browsing.

It took me a while to shake Neil Asher. I eventually came away with a Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Glamorous Ghost. I like detective fiction, I like Perry Mason, I like reading, though I mostly bought it for the cover.

Eric Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Galmorous Ghost
Yorkshire Quality Paperbacks, Park Street, Pickering

On the road to Tadcaster

Ages ago there was a Jasper Carrot joke where the comedian (and future TV quiz show producer) explained that touring to Hull was the worst because once one is in Hull there is only Goole left to visit. Even as a child I knew there was something wrong with this statement, though not yet having developed any means of separating good comedy from lazy generalisations based on geographical prejudice.

For a very long time I felt that Tadcaster was York’s 'Goole', you have to pass one to get to the other (assuming that you are travelling from the A1). For so many years I’ve passed the John Smith brewery from the outside wondering what Tadcaster was actually like, though not remembering enough to visit next time. That is until now…

There’s a secondhand bookshop in Tadcaster on Bridge Street. Also on Bridge Street is a a lovely café overlooking the brewery (which doesn’t look quite so modern from the inside), so after a cup of tea and a toasted tea cake we make our way to Tadcaster Book Shop.

The shop window proudly announced that the proprietor was interested in crime and detective fiction, as well as Westerns. There is order to the shop, two-floors worth of bookshelves in defined though not restrictive sections. What caught my eye from the start was the large section of science fiction and fantasy books and from there it was only two steps to find horror and the aforementioned Westerns.

I like Western fiction. I know next to nothing about it, and tend to buy only Louis L’Amour, though Tadcaster Bookshop had a lot of the authors and books I had seen elsewhere. What I like about the books are the potential of discovering new stories and authors, Louis L’Amour was one of my grandfathers favourite authors so I tend to stick with him though I know very soon I should branch out into some of the others.

There can be a pressure when trying new books, particularly if the book has received good publicity or someone strongly recommends it. It can be hard to shake it but the reward of knowing that one does not have to enjoy every single book they read (or finish it for that matter) makes reading more enjoyable.

The prices were very reasonable, and the three books I bought could have been supplemented with so many more, but we left Tadcaster thinking that it would not be long before we travel back to have another look.

Lindsey Davis, Shadows In Bronze, Louis L’Amour, Flint, Brian Lumley, Vampire Word 1: Blood Brothers
Tadcaster Book Shop, Tadcaster