Trolley 712

Collected on Friday in the Kokoro Passage and returned to B&M. Not being the sturdy Wanzls used by other supermarkets, the flap of one of them was already starting to catch on the basket. A problem for the trolleyman at B&M. No pound coin recovered on this occasion.

One of the not-rocket planters still looking quite decorative, despite its exposed position in the passage.

Crossed over to the M&S food hall where I found that there were no broad beans to be had. Down to Waitrose where there were no broad beans to be had. But I did pick up 600g of cherries which did pretty well, although they did not last the afternoon out. Plus a Guardian, plus a TLS - having taken the precaution of checking the contents page to make sure that it was not too literary for me.

It being unpleasantly warm, I opted for the Screwfix underpass, taking in the house snapped above on the way. In its day it used to be completely covered in ivy and it is still doing pretty well, including a good display of wisteria earlier in the year.

Then in the passage leading to the underpass, a fine display of morning glory. The creamy white of the flowers looked really good against the bright but matt green of the leaves. Not sure how you can be bright and matt at the same time, but that is how it seemed to me. The snap above gives something of the idea, but fails to capture texture and colour of either flowers or leaves. Maybe you need to be a painter to do that. See reference 2 for further thoughts on the subject.

Home to inspect the TLS, where there were indeed some items of interest, although not to the point of actually buying anything, at least not yet.

So I could have 1,956 pages of commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses from CUP for £360. Presumably there are enough English speaking Ovid specialists and enough university libraries to make this valiant endeavour worthwhile. The Metamorphoses themselves, if you want them, are additional. Lengthy, if not anything like 1,956 printed pages.

The CUP website is a bit tedious - not quite as whizzy as Amazon - but when I finally get there I find I can do a multi-buy and the £360 comes down to £250 for the three volumes. TLS has been a little careless. But for me, the sort of thing that might be fun to own for a bit if one came across a set at a jumble sale for a tenner or so. Odder things have happened - like getting hold of a monster edition of Churchilliana. It lasted a few years before we needed the space. But I do remember that when he was visiting East Africa some time early in the 20th century, they put a naval cruiser at his disposal for B&B and allowed him to sit on the front of railway locomotives to take pot-shots at big animals when he went up-country.

Alternatively, a history of modern Serbia, up to 1941 by Marko Attila Hoare. Which looked interesting, Serbia being a place I know more or less nothing about, except that the Serbs seem to be quite a violent lot, but at 720 pages it is never going to get read, never mind the £65 price ticket. From Hurst, whoever they are. But I do now know that Serbia more or less ceased to exist as a country, as an entity, for the several centuries of Ottoman rule. To some extent at least, the Serbia we have now is an invention of romantic nationalists of the 19th century. A bit like Putin's Russia.

Or failing that, a history of relations between the UK and Russia in the nineteenth century - relations which started in the sixteenth century - by Barbara Emerson. 560 pages for a mere £35, also from Hurst. It seems that despite our being at a safe distance from one another and both having stuff to sell, these relations were mostly bad, infested with paranoia and suspicion on both sides. So nothing much changes. Maybe I will fall for this one: 560 pages is at least vaguely plausible.

In any event, for once I am getting my money's worth from the TLS.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/06/trolley-911.html. Note filing error: really No.711.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/06/class-1-protein.html.

Reference 3: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/. Independent publisher since 1969.

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