Once again the Reading Oxfam bookshop comes up trumps. I went in looking for John Wyndham volumes and came out with these plus The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids. And as a bonus, H.D.'s Tribute to Freud. OK, they didn't have a single Patricia Highsmith (strange - or are they so good people snap them up quickly or simply hang on to them?) so I'll have to resort to Amazon - I could have sworn I had the first Ripley novel but I can't find it anywhere.

However, what really makes the Wyndhams such finds are the copies - the old Penguins from the early/mid-70s. I'm back in the Crosfields school library, the smell of polish on the wooden floors, days when 10 year-old boys judged books by their covers (and is this so bad when the covers as good as these?*). In fact, the covers were too good - they put the willies up me and so I never dared check them out. Not so much the pictures, more the reverse image engraving. And why did the mere title Chocky make me feel uneasy?

I see the copy of The Midwich Cuckoos comes from Chiltern Edge School, Chocky is inscribed in black biro 'Hugh Smith Christmas '74', and The Seeds of Time has been nibbled around the edges (cat? hamster?). At 2.49 per volume I reckon that's pretty good value - especially with all the added detail thrown in for free.

Will they be saying the same of Kindle downloads in 30 years time ...?

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* Cover design by Harry Willock it says on the back cover. (And United Kingdom 25p 5/-).