The Twinkling of an Eye

Preparations were being finalised for celebrations to mark the shop's 21st anniversary and I was delighted to see that Sir John Mortimer was able to attend the cake-cutting ceremony at the shop on Saturday.

If I had been able to make it along, I would have got Sir John to sign copies of my favourite Rumpole of the Bailey stories.

After sorting through some education books, I finished my shift and climbed the wooden staircase into the bookshop on the first floor, where I bagged an entertaining looking travelogue by Paul Theroux.

I have been reading Theroux's the Old Patagonian Express and I spotted The Kingdom of the Sea, an account of the writer's 1982 journey around Britain's coast.

A few days later, a quick trip to Abingdon Library produced a couple of good finds. U2 by U2, a Harper Collins paperback, in which Bono and his crew speak for themselves, sheds an interesting light on the band's origins.

Sometimes I visit my own library and find a real cracker. Last night I re-discovered The Twinkling of an Eye, Brian Aldiss's autobiography. I'm sure I have read parts of it before, but there are certainly sections which until now have remained unread, and I was delighted by Aldiss's engaging, confessional writing style.

It turns out that he was pretty friendly with staff from the Oxford Mail staff in the 1960s, when his own life was going through a rather turbulent spell.

Before getting his life back on the rails, in the early 1960s he lived in a bedsit in Paradise Square, and was so unhappy that he spent most nights tramping the ring road.

One of the streets he strolled along was Gas Street, which no longer exists, because the Westgate car park has been built in its place.

I always find football books a relaxing read, and a year in the life of John Motson, the football commentator, which was written about 10 years ago, is proving quite entertaining, together with Mick Collins' "biography" of Roy of the Rovers.