Thursday 24 December 2020

A Few New Arrivals and some early books

 About a week ago, my small order from Caliver Books arrived. It had taken about a month, mainly because they did not have all my order in stock and had to try to get it supplied by Nick Eyre - in the end, they gave up waiting for him and sent what they had available. This is basically a small reinforcement for my Russian Civil War collection





After that, I have dug out a few books that I have owned for 40 years or more. The theme that's been covered on several blogs is of books that inspired a life long love of toy soldiers. I no longer have all the earliest wargaming books I once owned, but I have managed to find a few interesting titles I hope.



First up is this ancient tome, printed during WW1 to raise money for the Red Cross. It belonged to a friend of my dads who had served in the British army throughout WW2 - he was at Dunkirk and was also in the Western Desert. It was a book IO always gravitated to whenever we visited him and his wife in Edinbrgh, and when he passed away, his wife let me have it


Here is part of the foreword - I thought it would be of interest in revealing the prevailing attitude towards the German enemy during the First World War....


The book is illustrated throughout with these beautiful reproduction prints of many iconic pieces of Victorian military art. Hopefully, the descriptions of each scene are legible when you expand the image,




The next book has an inscription in the front cover indicating it was given to my dad as a Christmas present in 1941, when he would have been 11 or 12 years old




Now one of my very first wargaming books - you can see from the state of the dust jacket its been well used over the years, if not well cared for!


Two more early wargaming books - probably acquired around 1978


A couple of the first Napoleonic uniform books I bought



I have had this book since the mid 70's. I joined a Military Book Club via an ad in Military Modelling - each month they sent out a brochure with twenty or thirty titles to choose from. The trick was, you had to reply DECLINING the book of the month, or they sent it to you as a matter of course! The intro deal was 3 books at 99p each or something like that - and this is one of the titles I chose.


This next  book will be a very familiar title to most wargamers. Again, a special deal in Military Modelling in the late 70's let me buy both volumes in paperback for the princely sum of £4.95! Unfortunately, I lent volume 1 to a mate here in NZ about twenty years ago but never got it back. Volume 1 was the more useful too, as it had the French line plus the Brits...oh well, c'est la vie, or la guerre!


Finally, this was another book of my dads that I loved as a kid and I am pleased I still have it in my book cupboard. Its a simple guide to heraldry and how it works. I love the quirky cartoon like illustrations!




That's all for tonight - I hope all readers and visitors have a great Christmas wherever in the world they are. I wont wish you a Happy New Year at this stage, as hopefully I will post again before the end of 2020.

24 comments:

  1. Keith a nice array of books and a particularly interesting observation about the Scottish soldier. I must be true that there are many of us who wish that they had kept hold of their very early wargame related books. Best Wishes.

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    1. Thanks Norm - I doubt I have read ANY of these cover to cover but they have certainly been much thumbed and referred to over the years!

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  2. Hooray for a package arriving from Caliver Books!

    I enjoyed seeing the books that influenced your early wargaming journey. I have several of these but mine were not acquired until later in my wargaming journey. I was, however, a member of the Military Book Club. Perhaps your missing Funcken will reappear some day?

    Merry Christmas, Keith!

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    1. Hooray indeed Jonathan!

      Unfortunately I doubt I will see that book again - and I wont be replacing it as its now some ridiculous price I am not prepared to pay - I would rather invest the money in more toy soldiers!

      Merry Christmas to yo too.

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  3. It's always interesting to see what books inspired us when young wargamers way back when. Sadly I have none of mine, lost or simply given away, but so long ago I can no longer remember.

    Have a great Xmas and lets hope we can have a better year in 2021!

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    1. A lot of my early books have disappeared over the years Steve - I think moving from the UK to NZ would have been the main cause. I used to have about 200 Military Modelling magazines from the 70's and 80's but they were "disposed of" at some point to make room in the garage for other crap - like a car perhaps! To be fair, I very rarely looked at any of them, but it was good to know they were there....

      Hope 2021 sees some light at the end of the Covid tunnel for you guys - seems like things are going backwards in the UK at present and we have some nervous people here worrying about the new variant and asking for our border controls to be tightened further...

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  4. Nice to see reinforcements and interesting to see your influential books, I've got a few of them, my Funken books are both in French but at least I have both of them!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain - yes, the missing Funcken book irritates me now and then but in all honesty, I now have more Napoleonic uniform reference books than I really need, so it has very little practical impact. Hope you have a great Christmas and that thing improve in 2021.

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  5. A splendid selection of books Keith...
    My Father also had a version of Britains Wonderful Fighting Forces... His was called Britains Modern Army... but the illustrations seem to be the same...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly - to be honest, I have barely read any of that WW2 book - 90% of it relates to the Navy and Airforce, which I have very little interest in - and the pictures of "modern" AFV's are pretty laughable - all those odd looking light and cruiser tanks that were built in the mid war but never actually saw service because they were rubbish! I have kept it for sentimental reasons really.

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  6. Some lovely stuff and I have a few of those books too. The illustration in your first book are the stuff of dreams just like my glorious battles book. The things which inspire us as youngsters. Looking forward to seeing those RCW figures up and running. I have a few more bits to pint up in 2021 as well.

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    1. Thanks Matt, I expect some of the books are pretty universal. I had some of the ones shown in other blogs - particularly the Airfix guides - but they are no longer in my possession. Hope you have a good Christmas and look forward to seeing your painting output and games in 2021!

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  7. Some very recognisable titles in there Keith. I remember those "decline or they will arrive" clubs. I think you had to do it by post too, from memory.

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    1. Cheers Lawrence - yes, exactly that - I have quite a few books I have no real interest in due to that little trick - fortunately, back in those days, my parents were stumping up the payments! They eventually moved on line (the clubs, not my parents) and I was in Doubleday here in NZ for a bit too.

      You must be up early if its 0757 here - are you rummaging through your stocking to see what Santa has left?!

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  8. That's quite a collection! I'd hate to think of the postage costs!

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    1. Thanks Ray...most of the books have either been bought years ago in the UK, or bought her in NZ. Postage would definitely be an issue if buying books from overseas! Keep well and have a good Christmas.

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  9. A most outstanding collection of books.

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    1. Thanks Mark...I may take a couple of shots of my entire "library" to include in my next post....hope you are having a great Christmas.

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  10. That's quite a collection. A lot of inspiration and information to feed a young mind.

    All the best for Christmas and the New Year.

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    1. Thanks ...your posts were the original inspiration of course, so it's kind of come full circle. Hope you have an enjoyable festive season too.

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  11. A nice collection there - some very important and useful books- MERRY CHRISTMAS and all the best for the NEW YEAR to you KEITH.

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    1. Thanks Kev...only ten minutes or so left of Christmas Day here now, I hope you have had a good one too!

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  12. Nice to get a parcel of toys before Christmas Keith. I am still waiting on mine...it has been a month now. These COVID mail times are so unpredictable.

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    1. Yes I know Mark - I held off on getting the Ebor GNW troops because the combination of Covid AND Christmas made me nervous - will do the order in the first week or two of Jan I think. I have another batch of figures en route from TAG but that order took three weeks to process - they were only sent about a week ago so will be interesting to see when they turn up.....

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