When Simon posted a picture of some lovely book finds recently it sparked a little Twitter discussion of the crime books of Beverley Nichols. Both Simon and I share a love of Nichols’ books (my guest appearance on his “Tea or Books?” podcast involved us exchanging views on him!) and I was prompted to post a picture of my editions of the crime novels. And then I thought it was a little while since I’d shared any images of books in my collection – hence this post, and lots of gratuitous shots of Beverley Nichols books! 😀

First up, here they are on the shelf where they normally sit (in front of my Mervyn Peakes):

And here they are all laid out on the spare room bed – it’s only when I actually haul my books off the shelves that I realise quite how many there are… 😦

Starting from the left (but we won’t stay in that order…) these are the gardening books:

Yes, there are two copies of “A Village in the Valley” – as I said when I posted about it here, there was an oddness in the edition my BFF J. presented me with and so I had to get a second one to read the missing bits. And yes, there are two copies of “Merry Hall“; I came across the one in the dustjacket in a charity shop for 99p or something and it came home with me!

What next? Beverley’s fiction, maybe:

“Crazy Pavements” was the first book of Beverley’s I read, back in 2012, and I loved his tone. I probably prefer his gardening books to his straight fiction, but anything he writes is usually fine by me! “Self” and “Revue” are still to be read!

Next up let’s have some general non-fiction:

Again, these are at present unread – but I have plenty of Beverley stockpiled for the Zombie Apocalypse, so that has to be good.

And then there’s his autobiographies:

Both of these are titles I’ve read – Simon and I discussed “The Sweet and Twenties” on the podcast, and then I posted my review; “Twenty-five” was a wonderful diversion back in 2013. Beverley on the subject of his own life is always entertaining!

He also wrote children’s books, which I have yet to read – I’m vaguely nervous in case I find them a bit twee, but here are the ones I own:

Plus I have a chunky biog of the man himself:

And there are some oddities:

The Monica Dickens-Beverley Nichols letters should be entertaining; “A Case of Human Bondage” was more problematic and caused me all sorts of mental angst. I’m still not sure where I stand on it!

And last, but definitely not least, here are the crime books – spines first!

And then their pretty covers:

So far, I’ve read “No Man’s Street“, “The Moonflower” and “Death to Slow Music” – and I did love them all. I’m kind of saving the last two as I don’t want to run out…

Phew. So that’s quite a lot of Beverley books. And looking through them I realise that massive thanks need to go to my BFF J. who has actually been the source of so many of these (and a first edition of “Laughter on the Stairs” which is coming my way at some point soon). She’s gifted me these over a number of birthdays or Christmases or just got copies for me, and is responsible for much of my Beverley collection – thank you J!

Well. Now I need to get this little lot back on the shelves; and relax safe in the knowledge that I still have many Beverley books for amusement and entertainment and perhaps a little provocation, when the modern world is just too much…