WInston Graham's Fiction
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:15 am
Hello David
First of all, to get your list right you need to remove Poldark's Cornwall and The Spanish Armadas (which are both non-fiction books) and one entry for The Little Walls (which you have listed twice). That will leave you with 42 books. Since they were independently published and also partially revised from their former incarnations, I personally would also give both Woman In The Mirror and Cameo their own places on the list, which would give you a definitive WG novels list of 44 titles.
Regarding short stories, there are 14 in The Japanese Girl and one each in the two books Winter's Crimes Volumes 6 (1975) and 19 (1987). Those 16 + The Horse Dealer makes a total of 17 stories in all. Not sure where your reference to 18 stories comes from.
Concerning books published under more than one title, a day or so ago I saw another German WG book for sale entitled Peggy. It was clear from the seller's blurb that this was the book more commonly known as Angell, Pearl and Little God. Judging by the publication date, I would guess that the German book called Jennifer is probably Woman In The Mirror, though I have no confirmation of this. Can anyone help on that one?
To answer some of your other questions: I first read Winston Graham in the late 60s/early 70s - the first one I remember reading is The Tumbled House. (That may or may not be right - it was a long time ago!) I know I was taken by what I read. Like many others, I also enjoyed the Poldark series on TV, which led me to those books. Over the years I read every WG I came across until eventually I reached the point where I'd read all of his readily-available work - and found all of it more or less consistently enjoyable too. Then, in 1997, I noticed in the front of an old copy of The Merciless Ladies a list of ten Winston Graham titles I'd never previously heard of. I wouldn't have thought any more about this, except that, shortly afterwards, and quite by chance, I came across one of these titles (Without Motive) on the shelves of my local second-hand bookshop, and this opened my eyes to the fact that, if I tried, I might be able to track down copies of all of these "missing" books, even though they'd all been out of print for more than fifty years. Not at that time being internet-savvy, what I did next was write to Mr Graham to ask him about these old books and his reply surprised me in two respects - first that he himself didn't think very much of any of them and second that he didn't even own copies of them all! But I chose to search for them anyway and, one by one, turned up copies of all nine (to go with the one I'd already found locally). How? By scouring the net. If you're like me you'll have very mixed feelings about the internet - after all, if you let it, it's quite capable of gobbling up large chunks of your life whilst giving back very little in return. All the same, when it comes to book-searching, the net is nigh-on the perfect tool. Having picked up Without Motive from my local bookshop, I could revisit that store every week for the rest of my life and never see another old Winston Graham. But net book-searching lets you browse the bookshops of the world, so giving you access to a huge quantity of out-of-print books for sale, and I must say that there is no book (or CD) - and this includes several very obscure titles - that I've looked for on the net and not eventually found (though it sometimes takes a while). As for sources, there are a great many. ABE and Alibris are both very good second-hand book source sites and there are lots of others too (just enter those names, or "book search" or similar into Google or other search engine). Thereafter, it's up to you to decide to what lengths you wish to go to track these books down, and also, of course, what sort of money you want to spend. That first book I came upon locally, at a fiver, was the cheapest of the ten I eventually bought. The most I paid was £50 for a copy, in a good cover, of Strangers Meeting. Most of the others went for between £20 and £30. Obviously, condition of the book itself is a big factor, as is the presence or absence of a dust jacket, as well as the jacket's condition. I have to say that luck plays a big part too, for you can find what appears to be the same book offered by two sellers at widely differing prices (for instance, I have seen My Turn Next, including a good dust jacket, at both £10 and £120). Since I wrote my previous post, a copy of The Giant's Chair has appeared on ABE, priced at $60 or about £35. Is it worth it? Each reader must decide for themselves. All I can say is that, until such time as they are reprinted (and I can't see that happening), these old books are bound to become more and more scarce and thus (probably) more and more expensive.
As for favourite authors, I have several. The one who's given me the most pleasure in recent times is Georges Simenon. The authors I admire most are George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins and Willa Cather, in that order. But life's too short to read all the good books there are, which is, I suppose, how it should be. Stick with it.
Jim50
24.2.04
Update 2013: Find a comprehensive annotated Winston Graham bibliography here:
http://winstongraham.yolasite.com
First of all, to get your list right you need to remove Poldark's Cornwall and The Spanish Armadas (which are both non-fiction books) and one entry for The Little Walls (which you have listed twice). That will leave you with 42 books. Since they were independently published and also partially revised from their former incarnations, I personally would also give both Woman In The Mirror and Cameo their own places on the list, which would give you a definitive WG novels list of 44 titles.
Regarding short stories, there are 14 in The Japanese Girl and one each in the two books Winter's Crimes Volumes 6 (1975) and 19 (1987). Those 16 + The Horse Dealer makes a total of 17 stories in all. Not sure where your reference to 18 stories comes from.
Concerning books published under more than one title, a day or so ago I saw another German WG book for sale entitled Peggy. It was clear from the seller's blurb that this was the book more commonly known as Angell, Pearl and Little God. Judging by the publication date, I would guess that the German book called Jennifer is probably Woman In The Mirror, though I have no confirmation of this. Can anyone help on that one?
To answer some of your other questions: I first read Winston Graham in the late 60s/early 70s - the first one I remember reading is The Tumbled House. (That may or may not be right - it was a long time ago!) I know I was taken by what I read. Like many others, I also enjoyed the Poldark series on TV, which led me to those books. Over the years I read every WG I came across until eventually I reached the point where I'd read all of his readily-available work - and found all of it more or less consistently enjoyable too. Then, in 1997, I noticed in the front of an old copy of The Merciless Ladies a list of ten Winston Graham titles I'd never previously heard of. I wouldn't have thought any more about this, except that, shortly afterwards, and quite by chance, I came across one of these titles (Without Motive) on the shelves of my local second-hand bookshop, and this opened my eyes to the fact that, if I tried, I might be able to track down copies of all of these "missing" books, even though they'd all been out of print for more than fifty years. Not at that time being internet-savvy, what I did next was write to Mr Graham to ask him about these old books and his reply surprised me in two respects - first that he himself didn't think very much of any of them and second that he didn't even own copies of them all! But I chose to search for them anyway and, one by one, turned up copies of all nine (to go with the one I'd already found locally). How? By scouring the net. If you're like me you'll have very mixed feelings about the internet - after all, if you let it, it's quite capable of gobbling up large chunks of your life whilst giving back very little in return. All the same, when it comes to book-searching, the net is nigh-on the perfect tool. Having picked up Without Motive from my local bookshop, I could revisit that store every week for the rest of my life and never see another old Winston Graham. But net book-searching lets you browse the bookshops of the world, so giving you access to a huge quantity of out-of-print books for sale, and I must say that there is no book (or CD) - and this includes several very obscure titles - that I've looked for on the net and not eventually found (though it sometimes takes a while). As for sources, there are a great many. ABE and Alibris are both very good second-hand book source sites and there are lots of others too (just enter those names, or "book search" or similar into Google or other search engine). Thereafter, it's up to you to decide to what lengths you wish to go to track these books down, and also, of course, what sort of money you want to spend. That first book I came upon locally, at a fiver, was the cheapest of the ten I eventually bought. The most I paid was £50 for a copy, in a good cover, of Strangers Meeting. Most of the others went for between £20 and £30. Obviously, condition of the book itself is a big factor, as is the presence or absence of a dust jacket, as well as the jacket's condition. I have to say that luck plays a big part too, for you can find what appears to be the same book offered by two sellers at widely differing prices (for instance, I have seen My Turn Next, including a good dust jacket, at both £10 and £120). Since I wrote my previous post, a copy of The Giant's Chair has appeared on ABE, priced at $60 or about £35. Is it worth it? Each reader must decide for themselves. All I can say is that, until such time as they are reprinted (and I can't see that happening), these old books are bound to become more and more scarce and thus (probably) more and more expensive.
As for favourite authors, I have several. The one who's given me the most pleasure in recent times is Georges Simenon. The authors I admire most are George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins and Willa Cather, in that order. But life's too short to read all the good books there are, which is, I suppose, how it should be. Stick with it.
Jim50
24.2.04
Update 2013: Find a comprehensive annotated Winston Graham bibliography here:
http://winstongraham.yolasite.com