Friday, September 03, 2010

The return of Henry Bohn

After my earlier lament for the disappearance of this valuable Liverpool institution, I'm pleased to be able to report that the shop has reopened around the corner in London Road (next to the Empire Theatre box office). It has actually been open for a few months now but I've only just been inside again today. There are lots of books stacked in chaotic order; many of them still in cardboard boxes awaiting pricing, so a persistent explorer may turn up all sorts of surprises. I was very pleased to discover a wartime edition of  Lancashire Pride by the Lancashire dialect writer Tommy Thompson for £3.50. This contains many of the wonderful articles he wrote for the Manchester Guardian in the 1930's and 1940's. Apparently the book sold well to American soldiers stationed in the North of England, so there must be some bemused children and grandchildren of those veterans who are struggling to understand the earthy humour in these tales. I'll add one of these tales in a later blog.

Matthew Edwards

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