Consuming Interest
Permanent Penguins
By LESLIE ADRIAN PENGUIN'S Christmas carton scheme, Which I mentioned in this column when discussing presents, resulted in ,more Pen- guins being sold in December than in any month since they started publication. But much- used Penguin books (or any other paper-backs for that matter) quickly become dilapidated and sit in rather miserable dog-eared rows on the book shelves. For Penguins bought to read and keep, rather than to pass on, a few extra shillings spent on binding give them a per- manent place in a book colleckion which unbound paper-backs can never have. At an average cost (for book and binding) of under 7s. this is a real bargain considering the present price of books, when eyen a slim and ephemeral novel can cost as much as 15s.
The Kent Bookbinding Company (Market Street, Maidstone, Kent) bind Penguins Sand sole other paper-backs in a pleasant and sturdy plastic binding' which preserves the normal colour and design of .the original cover. The cost is 3s. a volume irrespective of size and format. They will , pay the postage on any order over £2. They also sell Penguin books already bound, the extra cost for binding decreasing from 2s. on a 2s. 6d. book, to 6d. on one costing 10s. Rogers Thgsaurus, for example, costs 6s. unbound and 7s. 3d. bound. Bound volumes of many of the more important titles are kept permanently in stock, but orders for books that have to be bound specially take two or three weeks to fill. Penguin scores are included in this scheme, but the Modern Painters series and the Pullin Picture Books require a cloth binding, .which adds 2s. 4d. to the published price of the book. At the moment there is a month's delay on these due to the Christmas rush. They also keep some of the more important titles in other paper- backs, including Pan, Arrow and Fontana Books.
Ascroft and Daw (head office: 83 Charing Cross Road, WC2) are the principal agents for a slightly different binding service. For 4s. 9d. a volume they will'get Penguins (and other books of a similar format) bound in most attractively designed cardboard covers with leather spines. There is a choice of twenty-four cover designs and the leather for the spines can be chosen from six different colours. Alternatively, for 6s. there is a strong linen binding (with eight colours to choose from). Unfortunately, deliveries of both are rather erratic and may take up to six weeks. Books for binding can be posted to Ascroft and Daw's head office or handed in tc) any of their branches in the London area.
For people who `do it yourself,' many book- sellers stock Bind-Your-Own book covers at Is, 6d., each of which will fit Penguins and other paper- backs of a similar size. I found the job simple and quick to do and certainly worth the trouble for old favourites which have lost their original covers, but the result is less elegant than a professional job, and you must letter the spine yourself. If a mass operation is planned, these covers can be bought in packs of fifty for 55s. or six for 7s. 6d. Even simpler is to use a loose reading cover for the book that 'is actually in use: Penguin's own plastic cover in red, green or blue, can be bought at most booksellers for 2s. 6d., and the Lambert Library Supply Co., Southbrook Terrace, Brad- ford, sells a rather more ambitious design, with a spine-window for the title, at 3s. 6d. post free.
One of the more abstract works of fiction, as we cannot but regard it, is the book of timetables published by London Transport for the Under- ground. It costs Is. and purports to say with great precision how the trains run. (The copy I bought last Saturday had on its cover 'Summer 1958,' but thebooking clerk who sold it to me said it was still in force.) Now this is, or ought to be, a useful thing to be guided by, especially in the late evening, when the trains, nowadays, are fewer and fewer. London Transport would be doing a helpful thing if it dared to display the timetables, at any rate for the non-rush hours, prominently. at the stations so that busy people could know what to expect—it is very tedious to have to be waiting on an Underground platform when one might have chosen another means of transport.
There is a point also about delays that has not, I think, been made. A delay is not announced to the public until some traffic controller decides to regard it as `serious'—which may be a matter of twenty minutes or more. Meanwhile, intending passengers are allowed to pay fares and pile up on the platforms innocently expecting the normal interval between trains. It should not be beyond the wit of London Transport to pass the word to booking offices down the line to warn people of even quite short interruptions in normal run- ning. After all, some of us have work to do, and rely on London Transport to help us to keep our appointments, and a delay that may double one's journey time can be quite serious, Cyril Ray writes : Recently, I have been trying a couple of Portuguese wines that are out of the usual rue. Grandjo is a sweet white wine, much lighter—perhaps 'thinner' is the word— than the luscious wines of Sauternes and Barsac. It is also much cheaper and, not being so full, is more of an all-purpose wine. It seems to me to be suitable for a mid-morning glass with a biscuit, as an aperitif (well chilled), or with fruit. It is said to have been a favourite of Edward VII's, and certainly was better known here in his time than it is now. As it is sold retail at only 7s. 9d., it deserves to make a comeback.
My other (no doubt belated) discovery among Portuguese wines is Lagosta, which is a vitzho 'verde—a 'green' wine : it has a sparkle that is quite pronounced, but not so much so as in champagne or wine made by the mithode cham- penoise. Because it has this prickle, or sparkle, it cannot be shipped in cask, but has to be bottled where it is grown, and so attracts a heavier rate of duty here and higher transport charges. Even so, th.e characteristic half-litre carafe, with a handle, in which it is sold, two-thirds the capacity of an ordinary wine bottle, should cost no more than I Is. retail. It would be foolish to pretend that Lagosta is a fine or a great wine, but it is a most agreeable one. It is light and not too acid, so that it is easy to digest, and its fizz gives it a tonic quality. A member of my own household, with a slight chill on the stomach, found it the only wine she could face and enjoy, and it proved a good pick-me-up. The white, in my opinion, is better than the rosé, and I should drink it as an aperitif; with fish; or just for fun, of a Sunday morning.
At about the prices I have mentioned, both these wines can be bought retail in London at the Knightsbridge Cellars, Kettner's wine shop in Old Compton Street, and at S. H. Day's in the City; in Manchester at Cowley and Richardson's; and in Edinburgh it Laurence Smith's.
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