I bought this beautiful book in an Alfreton charity shop for £2. From internet searches it seems to date from the 1920's. It's in bad condition, so carefully holding the spine together I leafed through and observed an odd compression in some of the pages. Noticing a hole on the outer spine, I opened the book wider and a pellet fell out! This book was shot! What tales? What circumstance? Such an invitation for the imagination.
Notice the white mark to the right of the eagle, where a very sticky price tag was placed. That was the least damage I could do to prise it off. One of my bugbears in charity shops is how old books are priced - impossibly sticky tables, the price handwritten in pencil pressed so hard it indents several pages... I'm grateful to the volunteers and understand they will not have my sensibilities, but oh my!
