Bookbuyer's
Bookend
If Bookbuyer were to claim the credit for getting the Post Office to modify its proposed increases on overseas book post, he would doubtless be charged with exaggeration. Nonetheless the Post Office has indeed had second thoughts and will now be raising its charges by 50 instead of IQ° per cent. Before anyone rushed to congratulate either the PO or the Government on their enlightened attitude towards the printed word, however, there is something that should be said.
Devoted readers of Hansard may have noted a small written exchange on January 20, between Mr George Gardiner, Conservative MP for Reigate and Mr Eric Deakins, Labour spokesman for Trade. Asked by Mr Gardiner whether= the Government would bring the export costs of British publishers into line with those of their overseas competitors, Mr Deakins replied: "It is not in the Government's power to harmonise costs." And that, so far as Mr Deakins was concerned, seemed to be that.
Bookbuyer has news for Mr Deakins. It may not be in the Government's power to harmonise costs, but it is absolutely within the Government's•power to see that British publishers' costs are not substantially higher than those of other hook exporting nations — which, as even Mr Deakins must have realised, was what Mr Gardiner was actually getting at.
Under Universal Postal Union resolutions, member countries are permitted to charge "printed paper reduced rates" at half the full rate — a recognition of the importance of the printed word in the spread of knowledge and ideas. Some countries operate that full reduction. Up until this year Britain's "reduced rate" for this category was 61 per cent of the full rate. When the January postal increases were announced, this crept up to 75 per cent of the full rate. And when the Post Office reduced these increases for the benefit of the book and magazine trade, the reduced rate actually rose to become 82 per cent of the full rate. No wonder Mr Deakins did not wish to be drawn on the subject.
Bookbuyer is pleased to see that Hamish Hamilton are to resurrect Raffles, the appealing Edwardian gentleman-crook invented by the late E. W. Horning. The author of Raffles Revisited, due to be published in March, is Barry Perowne, and in order that his version may be compared to the real thing, Hamish Hamilton are to reissue two of Hornung's original stories: Raffles: The Black Mash and Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman. each at £2.75. Readers of, Bookend may like to know that Chatto and Windus already have both titles available in their Landmark Library series, in one volume, at E1.50.
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