In Town

Today I went up to town for a few hours, strolling around and dropping in on various establishments, including what must surely be the poshest bookshop in the known universe (and I don't mean Hatchards, which, compared to this one, looks like Book R Us). I didn't find anything I wanted, but enjoyed overhearing a slow-motion conversation of quite outstanding circular fatuity between a very posh cove in desultory search of a book and the equally posh bookseller. I didn't stay to discover the outcome, as time was dragging on and I was rapidly losing the will to live. So I went on my way, and as I went on it I couldn't help but notice that the Christmas shopping frenzy was already under way, even in the bookshops (though of course not in the one I'd just visited, where frenzy in any form was hardly to be expected).
  You can see where all this is leading, can't you? Yes, to this year's must-have Christmas present / stocking filler, The Mother of Beauty. This book has, I was astonished to learn, turned up in an obscure small bookshop in Carmarthen – heaven knows how it could have got there. A copy has also turned up on AbeBooks, with an eye-watering mark-up. Remember, you can get it for a mere tenner on Amazon. Here's the link...