Tanya McDonald

Moss Books

Drawn to a table of paperbacks, I step through the shop door and into a librarian’s nightmare. There are books everywhere: on tables, on windowsills, on the floor, the precarious stacks an obstacle course that would challenge Lara Croft. Although organized by section – history, gardening, science fiction – the uneven shelves are crammed, sometimes three deep. And yet, for all the chaos and dust and faint scent of mildew, I cannot resist pulling a title off a shelf to see what’s behind it.

newly-minted pound coin –
the gilt edge
of Burton’s Arabian Nights