One of the things I promised myself during long years of thinking about owning my own bookshop was that when I did, I would stock as many of the railway books published by Wild Swan as I could reasonably accomodate. During the long years of thinking about owning my own bookshop, I also cast envious glances at what Simon Castens was doing with his Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop, selling new and secondhand transport books from the splendid isolation of an old railway station at Limpley Stoke.
In all honesty you probably won’t have heard of Wild Swan. They publish books predominantly about railways (and often quite specialized aspects of railway history at that), and about railway modelling. A good summary of Wild Swan can be found here: Wild Swan . About a year ago, in an moment of serendipity applauded by all who appreciated both, Wild Swan was taken over by the aforementioned Mr Castens, by now running his Titfield Thunderbolt from a compact and bijou location just off the London Road in Bath.
Anyway, yesterday myself and my executive chaffeur ( Bridport Man & Van ) paid a visit to Simon Castens’ wonderful transport bookshop/Wild Swan operational hub, and came home with this fantastic selection of books.
They are, admittedly, of a narrow appeal in terms of content, but they are, as the bible says, fearfully and wonderfully made.
I’ll have more to say about Wild Swan and their wonderful books in due course (and short order), but for the moment I hope these pictures say at least a thousand appreciative words… (sorry, more pictures to follow: I’m posting this from the executive lounge at The George )
Jon
Wild & Homeless Books 