Category Archives: Book reviews

Cataloguing ‘The Time of My Life’

Posted on June 20, 2014 by G. A. Michael Sims

I didn’t set out to read this autobiography, subtitled ‘A Frontier Doctor in Alaska’, from cover to cover but in cataloguing it I just got hooked. First published in 1943 the author, Harry C.  de Vighne, presented a collection of … Continue reading →

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‘A Passage to Sword Beach’ by Brendan A. Maher

Posted on August 20, 2013 by G. A. Michael Sims

One of the joys of selling second-hand books is the opportunity to read your stock. When cataloguing I try to summarise the content of all our non-fiction but occasionally you come across one that you dip into and just can’t … Continue reading →

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P.A.D.? – help please!

Posted on August 19, 2013 by G. A. Michael Sims

‘WAR’ was a series of ‘restricted’ pamphlets issued fortnightly by the British Army Bureau of Current Affairs from September 1941 until just after the end of WW2 which provided information to officers of the army about progress of the war … Continue reading →

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Robert S. Arbib Jnr. – Here we are together

Posted on November 3, 2012 by G. A. Michael Sims

I have only recently discovered the recollections of an American serving with 820th Engineer Aviation Battalion, Staff Sergeant Robert S. Arbib, Jnr., called ‘Here we are together’. Robert Arbib relates his experiences in Great Britain during WW2 when he and … Continue reading →

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Dornford Yates and C. W. Stamper

Posted on July 27, 2010 by G. A. Michael Sims

In 1913 Mills and Boon published a book called ‘What I Know’, by C. W. Stamper, the memoirs of a chauffeur/motor engineer to King Edward VII from 1905-10, with an acknowledgement in the foreword to Dornford Yates ‘but for whose … Continue reading →

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Churchill’s Spearhead

Posted on July 12, 2010 by G. A. Michael Sims

John Greenacre, a currently serving officer (now retired, 6/5/11, ed.) and a colleague on the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre management team is the author of a recently published book on the development of Britain’s airborne forces during WW2, covering … Continue reading →

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Eastward Ho! – Dornford Yates’ lost play

Posted on October 29, 2009 by G. A. Michael Sims

There has always seemed to be some mystery about the existence of a musical play by the novelist Dornford Yates (real name Cecil William Mercer) amongst his enthusiastic readers. It remained so until 1982 when his biographer, A. J. Smithers, … Continue reading →

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Engineer and Novelist Nevil Shute (Norway) – A brief account

Posted on October 18, 2009 by G. A. Michael Sims

(…originally published in the ibooknet newsletter for October 2004) Nevil Shute Norway was born 17th January 1899 at Ealing, London, the youngest of two brothers and the son of a senior civil servant in the General Post Office. At an … Continue reading →

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Collecting Royal Naval Patrol Service books

Posted on October 18, 2009 by G. A. Michael Sims

(…originally published in the ibooknet newsletter for November 2002) A brief history of the Royal Naval Patrol Service The Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) was a ‘navy within a navy’ during WW2. In 1939 much of Britain’s domestic freight distribution … Continue reading →

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