having had stumbled over the campion DVDs, i became interested in the campion books by margery allingham. unfortunately, only two are currently in print (mystery mile & sweet danger)! after i had read those, i got keen on more…i’ve never really been interested in second hand books or second hand bookshops, but the only way of keeping the supply of campions going, was to order them second hand via amazon UK — which i did…and it worked out fine: over the last couple of months i’ve kept ordering one margery allingham after the other from all over the UK, and a steady stream of old paperbacks has been finding its way to me.
at the beginning of the week i found another campion in my mailbox when i came home, coroner’s pidgin. it turned out to be a hardcover book published in 1945 in britain, directly after the war! labeled the “new campion story”, it was priced at 8s6d and “printed in great britain at the windmill press, kingswood, surrey”. the back inside of the cover contains what is called in the US a public service announcement for the newly developed BBC general overseas service!
handling and reading that book is really a bit like travelling through time! cool!
p.s.: the BBC general overseas service still exists today, and you can even listen to the old station ident! the wind mill press is mentioned on the recollections of lower kingswood page.
