His Masters Voice. The End?

Sadly it does not really come as much of a surprise that HMV is the latest casualty of the British high street to fall, they missed a few tricks and succumbed to the might of i tunes, Amazon and Netflix and the rise and rise of the slightly out of town supermarkets.  The former giants of the British high street and town centres have failed or are flailing, I ask myself what is the future? A flagship store presence in the capitol city and the rest, well, internet. That is of course assuming they can find buyers and not go under completely.

Is there an opportunity here?

I would love to see a future of local, independent boutiques, places to discover, with internet savvy, so you can continue to buy from them no matter where you live,  florists, restaurants and cafes etc. Reclaiming Britain's town centres and high streets, a renaissance if you like but I doubt they could afford the exorbitant rates unless the local councils take a long term view and put substance over quick return in the way the South Devon town of Totnes has.  So what will we be left with? Big name bar chains, nightclubs, McDonalds and KFC a very gloomy outlook indeed for some of the wonderful town centres of Britain and indeed the world, alas they will all end up looking the same, as I write this I realise it's already happened.

Happiness Is.....Taking Delivery Of A Large Box Of Books

Isn't it wonderful, you have a large Amazon wish list, one day, feeling frivolous, you decide to convert some of that wish list into hard purchases. You flex your plastic friend and hey presto a few days later, the postman hands over a large box, full of lovely books. You rip open the box and luxuriate in the smell of new books, I swear this latest delivery smells of perfume. You caress, flick through and read the backs of the lovely hoard, and then you decide which one you are going to read first, then you carefully place the others lovingly on the bookshelves, feeling satisfied that you now have enough reading material to last a few months.

The book I have chosen to read first is East of Islington, a novel of metropolitan life, by Sam Taylor, I have it on very good authority that this is an excellent read and will make me laugh out loud, I am about to start chapter three and have only just managed to tear myself away from it long enough to write this post, I have been laughing since the first paragraph.

Go here for more info

I also purchased the Goddess Guide Books I and II, by Gisele Scanlon, Which are wonderful coffee table books, full of all sorts of girly information, I think I will place them in the loo, this is no insult to the books you understand, but I think it's highly important to have a well stocked library in the smallest room of the house.

Another lovely coffee table book which arrived is Taschen's London, Hotels, Restaurants and shops, there are two other books in this series the other two being New York and Paris, which are still languishing on my wish list, and will be purchased at a later date.

Other books include, the persephone classics, Little Boy Lost Maghanita Laski, Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day, Winifred Watson and Someone At A Distance, Dorothy Whipple.

For an injection of French history I bought  Dancing To The Precipice Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution, Caroline Moorehead.

Going through a slight Bloomsbury phase, Among the Bohemians, Virgina Nicholson. And Mrs Wolf and the Servants, Alison Light.

The rest are: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, One Day, David Nicholls, The Group, Mary McCarthy, Merry Hall, Beverley Nicholls And Finally, Excellent Women by the highly underrated author Barbara Pym.

Well, those should keep me going for a while.