While I was going to post some work today, I've decided to leave it until tomorrow when hopefully my latest commission will be approved and I can post that too... Instead, I'm going to tell the tale of a book I found in a charity shop...
As part of my latest commission, I've been charity shopping like a madman this week looking for frames (you'll see why tomorrow) and in the hunt, ended up getting bored and looking for something to read. While in Oxfarm, I found a Pelican Book (i.e. the older / education division of penguin) and as a rule, old skool penguin books have a wicked design, so I pulled it off the shelf.
The cover wasn't the best, but as i'd enjoyed Naomi Klien's No Logo so much and it was on a similar subject (and i'm pretty damned sure it's on the reading list at the back of said book) I decided to buy it. After all, it was only 50p.
So I got it home, and flicked it open and as with most books you find in charity shops, the previous owner's names were written on the inside cover, while the first leaf of the book was ripped out. Judging by the state of the book, I'd say deliberately. Possibly because the previous owner's address was there?
So it belonged to who I'm guessing were Robert and Linda Pope. I thought nothing of it until I flicked further into the book and saw this on the title page.
What the hell! Someone's put social commentary on a book published in the 80s? During the height of Thatcher Britain, when job prospects were minimum and hope was all but lost, the state of our economy in tatters and the goverment's words leaving a bitter taste in our mouth. So I read on, and while most of these comments seem to go for the throat of those "accountable to nobody", it's also riddle with statistics and references. It also has notes of revisions at the front.
I'm so curious to know the story behind this book! Was Robert or Linda a victim of the recession? Were they a bank worker, a shop owner or tradespeople? Was one of them a business professor or book proof reader (the latter seems very unlikely, this books a reprint)? Or were they simply on a mission to spread this tool of social rebellion to the masses. Writing all they knew on the pages of this tome of anti-corporate propaganda and dropping it on a park bench or train in the hopes someone would read it?
A Google search didn't really return anything. I found a Rob Price working as a bookey somewhere in Swansea and a Linda Price who is manager of a Christian break center in Gower... So I'm currently at a loss as to where to go from here. Surely there's an online yellow pages where I can type in their initials and go all terminator and Google the list down until I find the original owner?
If you think I'm being strange, I guess I am. But I tend to get enthusiastic about silly things (as you know by now if you follow this blog) and want to pursue it. I also came across this blog and found I'm not alone in this strange bond of second-hand book ownership.
I'll let you know if I find anything. In the mean time, if anyone knows anyone with the surname Pope, ask them how Rob and Linda are...
M x
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