Churchillian Victory

For some years now I've been trying to get hold of a matching six-volume hardback set of Winston Churchill's 'The Second World War'; the only specimen of this genre of writing, to my knowledge, since Julius Caesar's Latin commentaries in the first century BC. My local second hand bookshops, and others, not infrequently have sets which are not quite matching: volume V, for some reason, always seems to be the odd one out. Anyway, I've been reluctant to shell out £60-70 on a non-matching set. Imagine my excitement, therefore, as I marched up the stairs in the Oxfam Bookshop in Durham last week and found a complete, matching set apparently being used for decorative purposes in an alcove. I checked inside volume I for a price: nothing. I tried in volume VI, with a similar result. I continued to the first floor and the Classics section, where everything was hideously over-priced. Things were not boding well for the Churchill set.

On returning downstairs I made enquiries. 'The price will be in the first volume,' said the assistant. He accompanied me to the books, but nothing was there of course; nor was the price in the sixth. I was hoping I might get away with the six volumes for £60. Dating from around the 1950s, they were in superb condition. He plucked a figure out of the air. £40. 'Done,' I promptly replied.

When I got back to our rented holiday cottage, more surprises were in store. This was no ordinary set, but one owned by the former Vice-Chancellor of Durham University, Sir James Duff. Inside two volumes were press cuttings of his reviews for the Newcastle Journal and North Mail, and letters accompanying the review copies sent to him by the publisher, Cassell. Volume I was, according to the beautifully calligraphed inscription on the flyleaf, presented to him on the occasion of his attending Speech Day at Tynemouth High School on 14th February 1950. And on the flyleaf of volume 2 was an Oxfam price-tag: £59.99.