I have to be careful what I say, because I do not want to get accused of ‘advertising’, but this is a big beef of mine. We find a lot of our own titles showing on assorted websites that we never have any dealings with at prices that are astronomic and frankly, stupid (or should that be greedy?). I have seen some of our books listed as being ‘rare – out of print’ when I have plenty left – to the point I have been selling them at a discount on e-bay… I have seen others listed as ‘author-signed’ when that particular book was not even completed until after the authors death! – I wonder what they tell the purchaser when they discover there is no signature?

It does occasionally work the other way – one of our more high-end titles was recently spotted on a national-to-the-UK bookshop chains online store as being ‘60% off’ which was kind of funny, because we had never accepted orders from them in the last eight years (this chain stopped ordering books from us when I refused to give them 60% discount, 120 days sale or return and THEN a 90 day invoice they were demanding from us!). I cannot believe they sold any, for they never placed orders with us!

Bear in mind though shipping costs – a US-produced title not printed in the UK is going to rack up costs when sold in the UK that have to be taken into account and often is reflected in the price – and vice-versa for books produced/printed in the UK and sold elsewhere in the world – and because we are operating in a global market, the fluctuating exchange rates also have to be taken into account.

If you do pay over-the-odds prices, well… that’s up to you – if you want the book that bad, then I guess that’s your right. I would say however ‘buyer beware’ at some of these silly prices spotted – and if you know it, contact the publisher first to see if they have any copies in stock!

I would also say query any long-delivery times you may get when you walk into a book department of some of the national chains – we turn around all orders within 2 working days, and we know also that some stores tell customers that ‘oh yes Sir/Madame… we can get you that title, but it will take 20 weeks’ – thats really great to hear in the run-up to Christmas and so you walk out the bookstore thinking bad of the publisher and they get away with not telling you that they cannot get it because they are too greedy. I know that sounds paranoid and crazy, but I walked into a store in Peterborough and asked about one of my own authored books – and got told EXACTLY that by a sales-person behind the desk who clicked way at her computer for some time. My reply is un-repeatable!

PLEASE pull them photos!
To leave them up right now is the ultimate of disrespect and bad taste

You mean something like this?

You mean the Souches?

I always take an interest when Ms Humble appears, but this programme was a cracker.

Top marks too go to whoever dug out the film. Though some of it was misplaced and not relevant to what was being discussed, much of it was footage I haven’t seen before certainly.

Moggy

A big ‘well done’ to the BBC not only for this programme, but also for this particular edition! On a personal level I find Kate Humble difficult to watch, she’s far too ‘jolly hockey-sticks’ and always looks like she’s been dragged through a hedge backwards for me, but there ya go, just call me Victor Meldrew! As has been said elsewhere, it does graphically demonstrate how so quickly family history – even as recent as this – can get lost!

As for ‘whoever dug out the film’ it was probably Ian Thirsk, RAF Museum Film Archivist (he also of Salisbury Hall fame) who, following in the footsteps of Jim Ashton has for years been conserving and cateloging the collection and has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of what it contains.