First Edition

Today

I popped over to my neighbour's house this morning to collect my keys, following her doing a spot of cat-sitting. The inevitable tea was offered and, as we chatted, she showed me a book she's been asked to sell for someone else. "It's the most valuable book I've ever handled", she said and showed me the most beautifully bound book of Audubon plates. "I love Audubon", I enthused "and I have a book of his pictures, but nothing like this".

In My Day

When I was in the sixth form at Selhurst Grammar School for Girls, one of my subjects was English Literature. We were studying "Mansfield Park" and we were expected to do a little reading around it. We read Northanger Abbey" alongside it. One of the English Teachers, who had a flat in South Croydon, invited some of us over to her place one Saturday morning. Over coffee and biscuits she showed us her collection of first editions: "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole, "The Mysteries of Udolpho" by Ann Radcliffe and "Evelina" by Fanny Burney are among the ones I recall seeing. We tenderly touched the pages and marvelled at the beautiful binding and engravings. We feared they might turn to dust.

Imagine our amazement when she told us to take any that we fancied to borrow! What an honour! I remember taking home "Evelina" and enjoying the humour very much as well as the beautiful engravings. Later I read "The Castle of Otranto" about which I remember little. I think we went back again a couple of times to talk about what we had learned and also to return the books.

It was one of those moments that make education seem such a precious thing.