[John Whitworth]

Second hand bookshops are the ones. The one in Whitstable I've already mentioned. There's another in Faversham presided over by a man with a splendid beard. I got De la Mare's 'Peacock Pie' there, the one with the illustrations by Heath Robinson. Didn't cost much, either. Amazon's all very well, but you have to know what you want and I never do. One thing I really liked about New York was that big bookshop with the second hand bit. London used to have lots in the Charing Cross Road but I don't live there any more and I don't know how many are left.

I came across second hand books in Amsterdam in one of those flea markets.

[Jerome Betts]

There are still some browsable ones in Devon, John, though fewer than not many years ago. In one, in a non-tourist town, you have to literally climb over heaps of books in a huge steel shed in a back garden to get at some of the shelves. (Those in the main shop are more accessible.) However, all on the computer and a touch pricey.

Found one still going in Dartmouth the other week with the proprietor listening to the Ashes on a small radio. Interesting verse section which had J.B. Morton's 'The Dancing Cabman'.

[John Whitworth]

Ah! That masterpiece. I have it in a selection of the divine Morton I picked up.... in Faversham.